Everything about Kakure Kirishitan totally explained
is a modern term for a member of the
Japanese
Roman Catholic Church that went underground after the
Shimabara Rebellion in the
1630s.
History
Kakure
Kirishitans are called the "hidden" Christians because they continued to practice Christianity in secret. They worshipped in
secret rooms in private homes. As time went on, the figures of the
saints and the
Virgin Mary were transformed into figurines that looked like the traditional statues of the
Buddha and
Shinto gods and goddesses. The prayers were adapted to sound like Buddhist and Shinto prayers, yet retained many untranslated words from
Latin,
Portuguese and
Spanish. The
Bible was passed down orally, due to fears of printed works being confiscated by authorities. Because of the expulsion of the Catholic clergy in the
17th century, the Kakure Christian community relied on lay leaders to lead the services.
In some cases, the communities drifted away from Christian teachings. They lost the meaning of the prayers and their religion became a version of the
cult of ancestors, in which the ancestors happened to be their
Christian martyrs.
Many secret Christians, some of whom had adopted these new ways of practicing Christianity, came out of hiding when religious freedom was
re-established in the mid-19th century and rejoined the Roman Catholic Church after renouncing their unorthodox,
syncretic practices. However, there were those who decided not to rejoin. They are known as the
Hanare Kirishitan (separated Christians).
There is some debate on whether or not Kakure Kirishitans still exist, even now practicing the ancestral rituals in secret. The fear of detection is integrated into the culture of this sect. Even some of those that have come out of hiding still maintain shrines that don't have any markings of Christianity, such as crosses or images of the Virgin Mary or Jesus.
Shusaku Endo's acclaimed novel "
Silence" draws from the oral history of the local Kirishitan communities pertaining to the time of the suppression of the Church.
Noted Japanese composer
Yasuhide Ito has written a well-known work for
symphonic band, called
Gloriosa, that was inspired by the music of the Kakure Kirishitans.
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