¹ Launay, A., Histoire Générale de la Société des Missions Etrangères, Vol. III (Paris, 1894), p. 202.Google Scholar

² Throughout most of the Meiji period Catholic missionaries in Japan were predominantly, if not exclusively, French. By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, Spanish Franciscans from the Philippines and Jesuits and Marianites of other nationalites began entering Japan.

³ For the role of the Société in French imperialism in Indochina and China, see Cady, John F., The Roots of French Imperialism in Eastern Asia (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1967).Google Scholar

⁴ See Cady, Roots of French Imperialism, p. 142 and chs XI to XV.Google Scholar

⁵ Launay, , La Sociétè des Missions Etrangères, p. 202.Google Scholar

⁶ Marnas, F., La Religion de Jésus Ressuscitée au Japon Dans La Seconde Moitié du XIXe Siècle (Paris, 1896), Vol. I, p. 98.Google Scholar

⁷ Launay, , La Société des Missions Etrangères, p. 203.Google Scholar

⁸ Bocher, A., Aventures d'un Missionnaire Français aux Iles Liou-Tcheou (Japon) 1844–46 (Paris, 1895), pp. 3–8.Google Scholar

⁹ Launay, , La Société des Missions Etrangères, p. 204.Google Scholar

¹⁰ See Bocher, , Aventures d'un Missionnaire FrançaisGoogle ScholarCordier, H., Les Français Aux Iles Lieou-K'ieuou (Paris, 1914)Google Scholar; Forcade, T., Le Premier Missionnaire Catholique au Japon au XIXe Siècle (Lyon, 1885);Google Scholar Launay, La Société des Missions Etrangères; Marnas, La Religion de Jésus au Japon; Piolet, J. B., La France au Dehors: Les Missions Catholiques Françaises au XIXe Siècle, Vol. III, Chine et Japon (Paris, 1902).Google Scholar

¹¹ Forcade to Libois, 12 August 1845, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, 1846 (Paris).Google Scholar The problem of translating Christian dogma, terms, psalms, and so on into Japanese was a particularly difficult one for all the pioneering missionaries to Japan. As Sir George Sansom wrote, ‘Most baffling among the linguistic obstacles were the problems of selecting suitable equivalents for such words as God, Spirit, Soul, Atonement, Grace, Conscience, and notably, Logos; for literal renderings often produced ludicrous results’. Sansom, G. B., The Western World and Japan (New York, 1950), p. 474.Google Scholar

¹² For material on the missionaries in the Ryukyus, see the works cited in footnote 10 and Cary, O., A History of Christianity in Japan: Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Missions (Tuttle reprint, Rutland, Vt., and Tokyo, 1976, original date of pulication, 1909), Ch. IX.Google Scholar

¹³ Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris, Correspondance Politique. Japon (hereafter CP), Vol. I, 16 05 1857, ‘Projet d'Instruction pour le Japon à M. le Baron Gros’.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris, Mémoires et Documents, Japon (hereafter M & D), Vol. I, ‘Extrait d'un Mémoire… de J. C. Delprat’, November 1857 and ‘Observations sur le Christianisme’, May 1857.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Cordier, H., Le Premier Traité de la France avec le Japon (Leiden, 1912), p. 280.Google Scholar

¹⁶ CP, Vol. I, Walewski to de Bellecourt, 8 June 1859.Google Scholar

¹⁷ CP, Vol. II, de Bellecourt to Walewski, 19 September 1859.Google Scholar

¹⁸ CP, Vol. II, de Bellecourt to Thouvenel, 24 January 1860.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Chaillet, J.-B., Monseigneur Petitjean (1829–1884) et la Résurrection Catholique du Japon au XIXe Siècle (Montceau, 1919), p. 81.Google Scholar

²⁰ Included as an appendix to CP, Vol. V, de Bellecourt to Thouvenel, 21 January 1862.Google Scholar

²¹ CP, Vol. V, de Bellecourt to Thouvenel, 19 February 1862.Google Scholar

²² M & D, Vol. I, Girard, ‘Mémoire Relatif au Rétablissement de la Religion Chrétienne au Japon’, 1862 (neither date nor month are given).Google Scholar

²³ In Chaillet, Monseigneur Petitjean, p. 84.Google Scholar

²⁴ In ibid., p. 85. Petitjean was not the only French missionary believing that war with Japan would have salutary effects for the christianization of the country. Both Girard and another missionary, Mounicou, expressed similar sentiments; see Archives of the Société des Missions Etrangères (Paris), Lettre Commune, 20 June 1863. At the time of the British expedition to Kagoshima, it was rumoured among the missionaries that Britain intended to annex the Ryukyus as a colony, a step which was to be welcomed, for the missionaries would then have‘all possible liberty for the exercise of their ministry among the natives’ (Lettre Commune, 20 June 1863).

²⁵ Cary, , History of Christianity in Japan, p. 281.Google Scholar

²⁶ The tenacity and devotion of these Kakure Kirishitan were amazing. During the whole period of sakoku they maintained the Christian faith in hiding, at great peril, and without the ministry of any priests. Christian teaching was handed down from father to son. Kakure means hidden or concealed, thus kakure kirishitan could be translated as crypto-christians.

²⁷ See Chaillet, , Monseigneur Petitjean, pp. 170ff.Google Scholar

²⁸ Marnas, , La Religion de Jésus au Japon, pp. 669–70.Google Scholar

²⁹ Ibid., p. 672.

³⁰ The missionaries expressed great disapproval of the lack of Christian militancy—and indeed at times of lack of Christian values and faith—on the part of the French diplomats, especially Roches and to a lesser extent his successor, Max Outrey: see Chaillet, , Monseigneur Petitjean, pp. 199–212;Google ScholarLaunay, , La Socité des Missions Strangères, pp. 484–7;Google ScholarMarnas, , La Religion de Jésus au Japon, pp. 669–74,Google ScholarPagès, L., La Persécution des Chrétiens au Japon et l'Ambassade Japonaise (Paris, 1873), pp. 1–20;Google Scholar and Piolet, La France au Dehors, pp. 450–2.Google Scholar In fact there is very little that the diplomats could have done, short of resorting to force, and that was excluded by Paris. France, as pointed out, was not paticularly interested in Japan; she had no colonial designs on the country and militarily had enough problems to cope with—in North Africa, Indochina, until recently in Mexico and indeed in Europe.

³¹ Roches to Petitjean, 8 08 1867, taken from Pagès, La Persécution des Chrétiens au Japon, pp. 8–9. Of course it must be added that by this time Roches had committed himself completely to the cause and political survival of the Bakufu and indeed had developed reasonably close relations with the last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu (Keiki). The Christian crisis was a source of considerable annoyance and embarrassment to him.

³² CP, Vol. XV, Roches to de Moustier, 9 September 1867.Google Scholar

³³ Roches, to Petitjean, , 09 (no date) 1867, in Pagès, La Persécution des Chrétiens au Japon, pp. 9–10.Google Scholar

³⁴ Petitjean to Roches, 12 October 1867, in ibid., pp. 12–14. The new British representative, Sir Hary Parkes, who rarly found agreemnt on any issue with Roches, nevertheless did so on this occasion: ‘M. Roces has even obtained the consent of the Gorojiu [Rōjū] to their release, but that the prisoners themelves and their foreign pastors who are greatly excited would almost prefer the horrors of martyrdom to this leniency’. Parkes to Stanley, 17 August 1867, copy given to Roches and sent to Ministry, CP, Vol. XV, Roches to de Moustier, 18 August 1867.

³⁵ Outrey repeated these arguments on numerous occasions; see Outrey to Ministry, CP, Vol. XVI, 7 July 1868, CP, Vol. XVIII, 11 February 1869, CP, Vol. XIX, 22 January and 21 February 1870. Outrey shared the conviction of many Westerners at the time that not only would religious freedom soon be granted in Japan, but indeed that the Japanese would embrace the religion. Outrey claimed that Christianity was intimately linked with the progress of civilization in Japan; see Outrey to Ministry, 4 June 1870.Google Scholar

³⁶ See Anesaki, M., History of Japanese Religion (London, 1930), pp. 334–9,Google Scholar and Sansom, , The Western World and Japan, pp. 468–70.Google Scholar

³⁷ When Iwakura paid his visit to the French Foreign Minister, Rémusat, he was presented with a petition for religious freedom signed by members of the Chamber of Deputies; M & D, Vol. II, ‘Mémoire relatif aux garanties de liberté religieuse pour le Christianisme à demander au gouvernment japonais à l'occasion du renouvellement de nos traités’, par les Députés de l'Assemblée Nationale, March 1873. Rémusat also argued with Iwakura in favour of granting religious freedom; M & D, Vol. II, ‘Compte rendu des Conférences entre le Ministre et Iwakura’, January 1873.

³⁸ CP, Vol. XXII, de Turenne to de Rémusat, 24 February 1873.Google Scholar

³⁹ Reference to flirtations with Christianity during the early Meiji period can be found in numerous works written about the period. Sansom tells us, for example, that ‘in 1873 members of the Japanese legation in Berlin inquired of Professor Gneist whether he thought that Japan should introduce Christianity as the state religion’. The Western World and Japan, p. 471.

⁴⁰ In 1863 a missionary expressed the view that ‘the iron arm which holds back the impulse of the masses towards the truth which we have brought to them’ was what was preventing conversions; Lettre Commune, 20 June 1863. In 1864, before the Kakure had been discovered, the missionaries exclaimed, ‘Give us freedom and we will convert by the thousand’; Lettre Commune, 25 June 1864.

⁴¹ In Chaillet, Monseigneur Pelitjean, p. 333. There is of course a slight ambiguity here in that the Chinese character for France (futsu) and the Buddha (butsu) is the same. Rather than adopting France, the samurai may have been renouncing his new faith and proclaiming his belief in his old faith. Needless to say, however, this was not the way the missionaries chose to interpret it.

⁴² See Piolet, , La France au Dehors, pp. 482–501.Google Scholar

⁴³ Marnas, F., Conférence sur le Japon, Faite à la Société de Géographie de Lyon (Lyon, 1891), pp. 47–8.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ See CP, Vol. XXIII, Broglie to Berthémy, 7 August 1873.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ See the Appendix on page 400.

⁴⁶ The material one is dealing with is fragmentary. The archives of the Société des Missions Etrangères are closed to the public. The information here is gathered from the ‘Lettres Communes’ these are yearly compilations which included reports from the various missions and extracts from the missionaries’ letters to Paris. I wish to express my gratitude to Frs Guennou and Prouvost for having given me permission to use the library of the Société, where I was able to consult these Lettres Communes which cannot be found elsewhere.

⁴⁷ Lettre Commune, 25 July 1867.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ The interesting thing is that a good many kakure refused to accept the ministry of the French missionaries, which was a source of considerable irritation to the missionaries. For example the kakure population of Amakusa proved particularly recalcitrant (Lettre Commune, 31 December 1876) and by 1884 at the village of Oe, out of a kakure population of 4,000, only 142 had accepted to join the Church (Lettre Commune, 31 December 1884).

⁴⁹ Lettre Commune, 31 December 1880. One should note that by 1909 the total Catholic population of Japan was 54,556. Of these 44,931 came from the Nagasaki area. If one compares this with the figures for 1885 one sees that conversion in the north increased by less than 50%, while in the south it nearly doubled. (The figures for 1909 are taken from Cary, History of Christianity in Japan, p. 371.)

⁵⁰ Lettre Commune, 20 June 1863.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Lettre Commune, 20 July 1865.Google Scholar

⁵² Lettre Commune, 31 December 1877.Google Scholar

⁵³ Ibid., see also Lettre Commune of 31 December 1880 where it is stressed that the important thing is not just to build a church, but to build a beautiful church.

⁵⁴ Lettres Communes, 1874 and 1884. According to Les Missions Catholiques (Lyon), ‘the Japanese of the interior are more gentle, more moral, better disposed than the inhabitants of the coast’ (18 September 1874).

⁵⁵ Lettre Commune, 31 December 1878.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Lettre Commune, 31 December 1882.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Lettre Commune, 31 December 1874.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Marin recorded his journey in a number of articles which appeared every week from 27 February to 18 September 1874 in Les Missions Catholiques.

⁵⁹ Lettre Commune, 31 December 1876.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Lettre Commune, 31 December 1878.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Lettre Commune, 31 December 1879.Google Scholar

⁶² Lettre Commune, 31 December 1880.

⁶³ Lettre Commune, 31 December 1881.

⁶⁴ Ibid.

⁶⁵ Lettre Commune, 31 December 1876.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Lettre Commune, 31 December 1880.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Lettre Commune, 31 December 1884.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Lettre Commune, 31 December 1881.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ The Marianites and the Jesuits provided the main Catholic education; cf. Cary, History of Christianity in Japan, ch. XIII.

⁷⁰ Lettre Commune, 25 July 1867.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Lettre Commune, 31 December 1877.Google Scholar

⁷² Lettre Commune, 31 December 1881.Google Scholar

⁷³ See, for example, praise of their work by the missionaries in Lettre Commune of 31 December 1885 and an article appearing in Les Missions Catholiques of 10 January 1879.

⁷⁴ Lettre Commune, 31 December 1879.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ The problems resulting from the conversions of eta are mentioned in Lettre Commune, 31 December 1885.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ The nuns ‘achieved great success in aiding the poor and the weak. Catholics… gained many friends among…members of the lower classes. These uneducated people had no real understanding of Christianity.’ In Kisimoto, H., Japanese Religion in the Meiji Era (Tokyo, 1968), pp. 211–12.Google Scholar On the converts coming mainly from the poor, see the Lettres Communes of 1881, 1882 and 1884.

⁷⁷ See Cary, , History of Christianity in Japan, p. 360.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ See, for example, Chaillet, Monseigneur Petitjean, p. 395.Google ScholarMarnas, f., La Religion de Jésus au Japon, pp. 479–89Google Scholar; and Piolet, f., La France au Dehors, p. 479.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ CP, Vol. XXXI, Sienkiewicz to Ministry, 20 October 1885.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ See, for example, Schwantes, R. S., ‘Christianity versus Science, a Conflict of Ideas in Meiji Japan’, Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 12 (1952).Google Scholar

⁸¹ Piolet, , La France au Dehors, pp. 482–500.Google Scholar

⁸² Ibid., p. 498.

⁸³ Kisimoto, , Japanese Religion in the Meiji Era, p. 212.Google Scholar