The "Zen Shakuhachi" Historical Evidence Research Web Pages

1637-1640: The Shimabara Uprising on Kyūshū,
     the National "Sects Inspection Bureau", and the
     Efficient Extinction of Catholic Christian Believers

踏 み 絵 - FUMI-E

1629:

The practice of fumi-e, 踏み絵 - the forced trampling of Christian images - is introduced and kept in constant national execution and effect turough the year 1858.

The religious authorities of the Tokugawa shōgunate requires suspected Christians to step on images of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary in order to prove that they are not members of that outlawed religion.

 

Fumi-e: Jesus Christ & the Virgin Mary



Painting of a 'fumi-e' inquisitional ceremony by Keiga Kawahara, 1786–1860?, a citizen of Nagasaki, created sometime during 1800-1829.

Source: National Library of the Netherlands. Link: geheugenvannederland.nl

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寺社奉行 - JISHA BUGYŌ

1635 - The Jisha bugyō, Magistrate of Temples and Shrines, is officially established as a permanent position.
Four Jisha bugyō, "temple & shrines magistrates", are appointed from among the fudai daimyō, and since now they take turns in the position for one-month intervals.

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島原 の 乱 - SHIMABARA no RAN

1637-38 - THE SHIMABARA REBELLION

1637: Christian farmers, warriors, rōnin (masterless samurai) and others revolt against the authorities on the Shimabara Peninsula in Kyūshū.
When the uprising was put down in 1638, tens of thousands had been killed. All surviving rebels, numbering in the thousands, were decapitated.
Christianity was now strictly outlawed in Japan and informers were encouraged.




'Shimabara ran-zu byōbu'
"Folding screen depicting the rebellion at Shimabara".
Source: Wikipedia.

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1639, July 5: The captain-major of two visiting Portuguese ships at Nagasaki is presented with a copy of a decree which orders the immediate and permanent cessation of all trade between the Portuguese and Japan.

1640, July: A portuguese vessel carrying a specially selected embassy reaches Nagasaki in one last attempt to persuade the shōgun to change his mind.
On August 1, the entire party is arrested and imprisoned.

1640, August 4: 61 of the prisoners are executed on "Martyr's Mount" - 13 native crew members are spared and sent back to the Portuguese colony Macao, to report what has happened.

     Source: C.R. Boxer, 1993, pp. 384-385.

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宗門改役 - SHŪMON ARATAME-YAKU
檀家制度 - DANKA SEIDO

In 1640, in direct consequence of the Shimabara Rebellion, the Tokugawa Bakufu orders the socalled Shūmon aratame-yaku, or "officers for examining the religious sects", to be set up.

From this time on, the major sects of Buddhism were made responsible for producing registers of religious affiliation of every Japanese household with one specific Buddhist temple.
The socalled Danka seidō, or "Danka System", in which Japanese households since the Heian Period, 794-1185, had voluntarily been supporting the temples financially, was now reshaped into a most effective instrument with which the government could monitor the population and - first of all - suppress and eliminate the Christian faith and its believers, on a mandatory basis.

Read more about the Danka seidō - and the very important socalled tera-uke 寺請, or "temple certificates", issued annually by the temples - on these pages:

Wikipedia: The Danka system

Even though the later komusō fraternity was, seemingly, to some extent officially recognized by the Tokugawa government in January, 1678, in some capacity as a "semi-religious brotherhood", the komusō "temples" did not play any role in administering and partaking professionally in the Danka System of the Edo Period at all.

Furthermore, the komusō are not known to have performed formal funeral and ancestor commemoration services, nor do the komusō temples appear to have had any cemeteries for the common population - nor themselves! - within their precincts. *
This possibly explains, at least in part, why it did not require much more than a few brush strokes for the new Meiji Government - in October, 1871 - to completely bring an end to the komusō tradition.

     * See f.i. Yamaguchi Masayoshi, 2005, p. 187.

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破切支丹 - HA KIRISHITAN

1642: The former warrior, loyal supporter of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and devoted Zen buddhist monk and writer Suzuki Shōsan completes his strongly anti-Christian essay Ha Kirishitan, "Crush Christianity".
Interestingly, Shōsan was an outspoken admirer of Fuke Zenji - see 1648, the Roankyō.

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1651: A 'rōnin' revolt led by Yūi Shōsetsu is put down by the shōgunate.

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1657-1658: An attempted revolt involving both 'rōnin' and Christians is discovered and the rioters eliminated.

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1661:

WANTED: Believers in the Christian Faith - Earn a Reward !!!

キリシタン 禁制 の 高札 - KIRISHITAN KINSEI no KŌSATSU

"Public Proclamation About the Prohibited Christian Faith"



Reward proclamation, public sign board



Reward proclamation, wording

1：
伴天連之訴人 (ばてれん之訴人)   銀三百枚
2：
いるまんの訴人 (入満の訴人)   銀弐百枚
3：
同宿弁宗門訴人   銀五拾枚


Japanese text about the promised rewards:

1: "A person who reports a Catholic Father (shall earn) 300 pieces of silver."

2: "A person who reports a non-ordained Christian monk (shall earn) 200 pieces of silver."

3: "A person who reports some one who speaks about the creed in the same place
= a lay believer (shall earn) 500 pieces of silver."

     Trsl. by Torsten Olafsson, 2018.
     Source: Fujii Joji, 2013, p. 69.

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1664: The shōgunate, or bakufu, orders every daimyō to establish in their domain an officer of religious investigation, i.e. either a magistrate of religion (shūmon bugyō) or magistrate of temples and shrines (jisha bugyō).

1665: Registries of religious affiliation are now being produced on a nationwide scale.

The registry's format is finally standardized in 1671 - the system of religious inspection and obligatory temple certification has now become completely consolidated by law and is carried out effectively, on a yearly basis, in all of Japan.

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1665: Registries of religious affiliation are now being produced on a nationwide scale.

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檀家制度 - DANKA SEIDO

THE DANKA SYSTEM of RELIGIOUS INSPECTION

1671: The registry's format is finally standardized. The system of religious inspection and obligatory temple certification has now become completely consolidated by law and is carried out effectively - and efficiently on a yearly basis, in all of Japan - with expectable exceptions, of course.

Read more on this local webpage: 1549 ... The Catholic Christian Century and the Temple Patron Household System,
- and here: Wikipedia: The Danka System