A research team from Japan discovered a letter from 17th-century Japanese Catholics to Pope Paul V, making it the first artifact of its kind found outside the Vatican.
The discovery of the scroll in Florence, Italy, is part of an on-site study programme titled Vatican & Japan: The 100-Year Project organised by the Kadokawa Culture Promotion Foundation and sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture, the Asahi Shimbun reported on November 21.
The project, supported by various Japanese companies, focuses on the diplomatic relationship between the Vatican and Japan that “wishes to contribute to furthering this friendship over the next 100 years.”
Shinzo Kawamura, a professor of history at Sophia University in Tokyo, and lead researcher of the project said, “The one in Florence is very likely the original letter,” the Asahi Shimbun reported.
The letters sent between 1620 and 1621 are appreciative notes in response to Pope Paul V’s letter of encouragement to Japanese Catholic converts who faced persecution from feudal authorities during the early Edo Period [1603-1867]
He also added that “multiple copies were apparently made in an attempt to defend the Society of Jesus, which was then blamed for not having prevented a religious ban, against a range of critics.”
The letters sent between 1620 and 1621 are appreciative notes in response to Pope Paul V’s letter of encouragement to Japanese Catholic converts who faced persecution from feudal authorities during the early Edo Period [1603-1867].
Researchers found the scroll with the word “first” written in Latin on its back in the library of a Dominican convent belonging to a church in Florence.
Two other scrolls with the words “second” and “third”, sent from the Tohoku region which were discovered earlier, are now housed in the Vatican Apostolic Library.
The research team also found that the contents of the letter were the same as the copies of two replies from the Tohoku region that are stored at the Vatican.
The letters also include the name of Goto Juan [1578 to 1623], who converted to Christianity as a retainer of famed warlord, Date Masamune [1567 to 1636], among others.
Researchers say that apart from the Tohoku region, similar notes were delivered from five areas across Japan including what is now Nagasaki Prefecture as well as the current-day Kinki regions.
The research team also found that the contents of the letter were the same as the copies of two replies from the Tohoku region that are stored at the Vatican
Church records say that Catholicism came to Japan after Portuguese explorers established a sea route to Asia in 1498. It is believed that Portuguese missionaries brought the faith to Japan in the 1540s.
Jesuit missionary, St. Francis Xavier and other Jesuits, were among the first missionaries to land and evangelise in Japan.
Several feudal lords and their subjects converted and the faith continued to flourish in the late 16th century before facing extreme hostility from Japan’s military rulers.
During the rule of the daimyo, Toyotomi Hideyoshi [1585 to 1598], an order was issued to expel all Catholic missionaries and some 137 churches were destroyed during the process.
The worst case of persecution occurred in 1597 when the Japanese feudal lords executed 26 Catholics including six Franciscan friars by crucifixion in Nagasaki.
In 1865, the Church opened the Minor Basilica of the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs of Japan to honour the sacrifices of the martyred Christians.
The persecution of Christians intensified during the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate [1603 to 1868], resulting in brutalities and the suppression of Christianity.
The ban was lifted in 1853 but evangelisation was forbidden.
In 1873, the Meiji government finally lifted the ban due to pressure from Western nations.
As of 2019, Japan had 540,496 Catholics in 16 dioceses. UCAN
