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Kakure Kirishitan (Japanese: 隠れキリシタン, lit. 'hidden Christians') is a modern term for a member of the Catholic Church in Japan who went underground at the start of the Edo period in the early 17th century (lifted in 1873) due to Christianity's repression by the Tokugawa shogunate (April 1638). [1] [2] [3]
Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region (Japanese: 長崎と天草地方の潜伏キリシタン関連遺産) is a group of twelve sites in Nagasaki Prefecture and Kumamoto Prefecture relating to the history of Christianity in Japan.
The church was first constructed in 1918 after the ban on Christianity was lifted. It is often considered one of the finest wooden churches in Japan. It was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2018 along with Egami Village as part of the "Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region".
The Japanese word kirishitan キリシタン is used primarily in Japanese texts for the early history of Roman Catholicism in Japan, or in relation to Kakure Kirishitan, hidden Christians. However, English sources on histories of Japan generally use the term "Christian" without distinction.
Even then Christianity was forbidden still for the locals, those rediscovered Kakure Kirishitan (Hidden Christians) were persecuted by the then central governments respectively. Between 1869 and 1873, over 3,600 villagers were banished to exile by the newly installed government .
The existence of Christians within the Urakami area resulted the Japanese government to launch a crackdown in order to implement the ban. On September 1, 1790, the first persecution began in Urakami; hidden Christians were discovered and arrested, though there were no deaths.
After the Tokugawa shogunate banned Christianity in 1614, it ceased to exist publicly. Many Catholics went underground, becoming hidden Christians (隠れキリシタン, kakure kirishitan), while others lost their lives. Only after the Meiji Restoration was Christianity re-established in Japan.
These christians were mostly immigrants from Nakadōri Island and Sotome who were evading persecution. [1] [2] After 1873 when the ban on Christianity was lifted construction of a church soon began. The island's first church was a wooden church that was built at the house of the local christian leader, Domingo Mori. [3]