Of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Contribution To The Spread Of Christianity

During the 15th century, the spread of the religion christianity began its spread across the world. It wasn't until 1547 that christianity would reach japan. Christianity in Japan spread in various phases, just like the other parts of the world were. The conversion to christianity began with the help of Francis Xavier. The development of christianity began with the christian missionaries that entered the nation of japan, later the missionaries tried to convert the japanese people to christianity using the school/ education systems, then develop churches. The military leader, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was not on board with the idea of christianity and ordered the crucifixion of christians out of anger, leading up to the isolationism of japan from europe.

Later, Christianity was prohibited because the rulers started seeing christianity as a threat to their authority. In 1587, the military leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi decreed that all christians were to renounce their faith or face the consequences. At first his actions were seen just as threats which caused him to become angry and lead to his order of the execution of 26 christians that consisted of both europeans and japanese people. Following in Hideyoshi’s footsteps, his successor Tokugawa Ieyasu continued on with the persecution towards christians in 1612 and enforced edicts hoping to eliminate all aspects of christianity from Japan. He proposed an e-fumi system that tested japanese citizens to perform an act that was seen as sacrilegious. Doing so was an effective way to discover who was Christian. Tokugawa Iemitsu, grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu would declare a series of orders forbidding japanese citizens or ships to leave the nation without consent from the government, there was a penalty of death for this. The belief that christianity brought a threat to Japan was the Shimabara rebellion of 1639. Due to a majority of the people being christian observers, this was seen as a christian rebellion and not an internal problem with the

The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States and Japan at Edo on July 28, 1858 was a result because if this. Following it, foreign religious missions were allowed to enter in the country, which later brought back christianity into japan. This time it wasn’t only the catholic side of christianity that entered into japan, but protestant and orthodox missionaries also came to Japan. In 1868, the Meiji regime was restored in Japan. During this time, the Christian were not able to become publicly till 1873. Later the Meiji era came to an end in 1912. The Meiji regime was the japanese society moving from being isolated to its modern form.

Ivan Kasatkin alias Nikolai, a Russian missionary, arrived in Japan in June of 1861 after the country came out of its isolation. Nikolai worked with the Russian embassy because christianity was still illegal and operated secretly until 1873 when Christianity was legalized by the government. In 1970, Ivan Kasatkin alias Nikolai founded the first Orthodox Church in Japan. The Orthodox church was