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But facts are opposed to
that view. Within less than three months of the Taiko's death, the
Tokugawa chief had his first interview with a Christian priest. The
man was a Franciscan, by name Jerome de Jesus. He had been a member
of the fictitious embassy from Manila, and his story illustrates the
zeal and courage that inspired the Christian fathers in those days.
"Barely escaping the doom of crucifixion which overtook his
companions, he had been deported from Japan to Manila at a time when
death seem to be the certain penalty of remaining. But no sooner had
he been landed in Manila than he took passage in a Chinese junk, and,
returning to Nagasaki, made his way secretly from the far south of
Japan to the province of Kii. There arrested, he was brought into the
presence of Ieyasu, and his own record of what ensued is given in a
letter subsequently sent to Manila:
"'When the Prince saw me he asked how I managed to escape the previous
persecution. I answered him that at that date God had delivered me in
order that I might go to Manila and bring back new colleagues from
there--preachers of the divine law--and that I had returned from
Manila to encourage the Christians, cherishing the desire to die on
the cross in order to go to enjoy eternal glory like my former
colleagues. On hearing these words the Emperor began to smile,
whether in his quality of a pagan of the sect of Shaka which teaches
that there is no future life, or whether from the thought that I was
frightened at having to be put to death. Then, looking at me kindly,
he said, "Be no longer afraid and no longer conceal yourself and no
longer change your habit, for I wish you well; and as for the
Christians who every year pass within sight of Kwanto where my
domains are, when they go to Mexico with their ships, I have a keen
desire for them to visit the harbours of this island, to refresh
themselves there, and to take what they wish, to trade with my
vassals, and to teach them how to develop silver mines; and that my
intentions may be accomplished before my death, I wish you to
indicate to me the means to take to realize them."
"'I answered that it was necessary that Spanish pilots should take the
soundings of his harbours, so that ships might not be lost in future
as the San Felipe had been, and that he should solicit this service
from the governor of the Philippines. The Prince approved of my
advice, and accordingly he has sent a Japanese gentleman, a native of
Sakai, the bearer of this message.... It is essential to oppose no
obstacle to the complete liberty offered by the Emperor to the
Spaniards and to our holy order, for the preaching of the holy
gospel. ... The same Prince (who is about to visit the Kwanto)
invites me to accompany him to make choice of a house, and to visit
the harbour which he promises to open to us; his desires in this
respect are keener than I can express.'"*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
Subsequent events confirm the accuracy of the above story. Father
Jerome was allowed to build the first Christian church in Yedo and to
officiate there. Moreover, Ieyasu sent "three embassies in succession
to the Philippines, proposing reciprocal freedom of commerce,
offering to open ports in the Kwanto, and asking for competent naval
architects." These architects never came, and the trade that resulted
from the Tokugawa chief's overtures was paltry in comparison with the
number of friars that accompanied it to Japan. It has been suggested
that Ieyasu designed these Spanish monks to serve as a counterpoise
to the influence of the Jesuits. For he must have known that the
Franciscans opened their mission in Yedo by "declaiming with violence
against the fathers of the Company of Jesus," and he must have
understood that the Spanish monks assumed towards the Jesuits in
Japan the same intolerent and abusive tone that the Jesuits
themselves had previously assumed towards Buddhism.
ENGRAVING: ANJIN-ZUKA, NEAR YOKOSUKA, THE TOMB OF WILL ADAMS
WILL ADAMS
At about this time a Dutch merchant ship named the Liefde arrived in
Japan. In 1598, a squadron of five ships sailed from Holland to
exploit the sources of Portuguese commerce in the Orient, and of the
five vessels only one, the Liefde, was ever heard of again. She
reached Japan in the spring of 1600, with only four and twenty
survivors of her original crew, numbering 110. Towed into the harbour
of Funai, she was visited by Jesuits, who, on discovering her
nationality, denounced her to the local authorities as a pirate. On
board the Liefde, serving in the capacity of pilot major was an
Englishman, Will Adams, of Gillingham in Kent. Ieyasu summoned him to
Osaka, and between the rough English sailor and the Tokugawa chief
there commenced a curiously friendly intercourse which was not
interrupted until the death of Adams, twenty years later.
"The Englishman became master-shipbuilder to the Yedo Government; was
employed as diplomatic agent when other traders from his own country
and from Holland arrived in Japan, received in perpetual gift a
substantial estate, and from first to last possessed the implicit
confidence of the shogun. Ieyasu quickly discerned the man's honesty;
perceived that whatever benefits foreign commerce might confer would
be increased by encouraging competition among the foreigners, and
realized that English and Dutch trade presented the wholesome feature
of complete dissociation from religious propagandism. On the other
hand, he showed no intolerance to either Spaniards or Portuguese. He
issued (1601) two official patents sanctioning the residence of the
fathers in Kyoto, Osaka, and Nagasaki; he employed Father Rodriguez
as interpreter at the Court in Yedo, and, in 1603 he gave munificent
succour to the Jesuits who were reduced to dire straits owing to the
capture of the great ship from Macao by the Dutch and the consequent
loss of several years' supplies for the mission in Japan."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
ULTIMATE ATTITUDE OF IEYASU TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY AND FOREIGN
INTERCOURSE
From what has been written above it will have been evident that each
of Japan's great trio of sixteenth century statesmen--Nobunaga,
Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu--adopted originally a tolerant demeanour
towards Christianity, and an emphatically favourable attitude towards
foreign commerce. The causes of Hideyoshi's change of mood are
tolerably clear, but it is not possible to analyse the case of Ieyasu
with certainty. That the Tokugawa baron strongly patronized Buddhism
might be regarded as a sufficient explanation of his ultimate
hostility to the foreign faith, but cannot be reconciled with his
amicable attitude at the outset. The more credible explanation is
that he was guided by intelligence obtained direct from Europe. He
sent thither at the end of the sixteenth century an emissary whose
instructions were to observe closely the social and political
conditions in the home of Christianity. The better to accomplish his
purpose this envoy embraced the Christian faith, and was thus enabled
to carry on his observations from within as well as from without.
It may be easily conceived that the state of affairs in Europe at
that time, when recounted to Ieyasu, could scarcely fail to shock and
astonish the ruler of a country where freedom of conscience may be
said to have always existed. The Inquisition and the stake; wholesale
aggressions in the name of the Cross; a head of the Church whose
authority extended to confiscation of the realms of heretical
sovereigns; religious wars, and profound fanaticism--these were the
elements of the story told to Ieyasu by his returned envoy. The
details could not fail to produce an evil impression. Already his own
observation had disclosed to the Tokugawa chief abundant evidence of
the spirit of strife engendered by Christian dogma in those times. No
sooner had the Franciscans and the Dominicans arrived in Japan than a
fierce quarrel broke out between them and the Jesuits--a quarrel
which even community of suffering could not compose. "Not less
repellent was an attempt on the part of the Spaniards to dictate to
Ieyasu the expulsion of all Hollanders from Japan, and an attempt on
the part of the Jesuits to dictate the expulsion of the Spaniards.
The former proposal, couched almost in the form of a demand, was
twice formulated, and accompanied on the second occasion by a
scarcely less insulting offer, namely, that Spanish men-of-war would
be sent to Japan to burn all Dutch ships found in the ports of the
empire. If in the face of proposals so contumelious of his authority
Ieyasu preserved a calm and dignified mein, merely replying that his
country was open to all comers, and that, if other nations had
quarrels among themselves, they must not take Japan for
battle-ground, it is nevertheless unimaginable that he did not
strongly resent such interference with his own independent foreign
policy, and that he did not interpret it as foreshadowing a
disturbance of the realm's peace by sectarian quarrels among
Christians."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
The repellent aspects under which Christianity thus presented itself
to Ieyasu were supplemented by an act of fraud and forgery
perpetrated in the interest of a Christian feudatory by a trusted
official, himself a Christian. This experience persuaded the Tokugawa
ruler that it was unsafe to employ Christians at his Court. He not
only dismissed all those so employed, but also banished them from
Yedo and forbade any feudal chief to harbour them. Another incident,
not without influence, was connected with the survey of the Japanese
coast by a Spanish mariner and a Franciscan friar. An envoy from New
Spain (Mexico) had obtained permission for this survey, but "when the
mariner (Sebastian) and the friar (Sotelo) hastened to carry out the
project, Ieyasu asked Will Adams to explain this display of industry.
The Englishman replied that such a proceeding would be regarded in
Europe as an act of hostility, especially on the part of the
Spaniards or Portuguese, whose aggressions were notorious.
that view. Within less than three months of the Taiko's death, the
Tokugawa chief had his first interview with a Christian priest. The
man was a Franciscan, by name Jerome de Jesus. He had been a member
of the fictitious embassy from Manila, and his story illustrates the
zeal and courage that inspired the Christian fathers in those days.
"Barely escaping the doom of crucifixion which overtook his
companions, he had been deported from Japan to Manila at a time when
death seem to be the certain penalty of remaining. But no sooner had
he been landed in Manila than he took passage in a Chinese junk, and,
returning to Nagasaki, made his way secretly from the far south of
Japan to the province of Kii. There arrested, he was brought into the
presence of Ieyasu, and his own record of what ensued is given in a
letter subsequently sent to Manila:
"'When the Prince saw me he asked how I managed to escape the previous
persecution. I answered him that at that date God had delivered me in
order that I might go to Manila and bring back new colleagues from
there--preachers of the divine law--and that I had returned from
Manila to encourage the Christians, cherishing the desire to die on
the cross in order to go to enjoy eternal glory like my former
colleagues. On hearing these words the Emperor began to smile,
whether in his quality of a pagan of the sect of Shaka which teaches
that there is no future life, or whether from the thought that I was
frightened at having to be put to death. Then, looking at me kindly,
he said, "Be no longer afraid and no longer conceal yourself and no
longer change your habit, for I wish you well; and as for the
Christians who every year pass within sight of Kwanto where my
domains are, when they go to Mexico with their ships, I have a keen
desire for them to visit the harbours of this island, to refresh
themselves there, and to take what they wish, to trade with my
vassals, and to teach them how to develop silver mines; and that my
intentions may be accomplished before my death, I wish you to
indicate to me the means to take to realize them."
"'I answered that it was necessary that Spanish pilots should take the
soundings of his harbours, so that ships might not be lost in future
as the San Felipe had been, and that he should solicit this service
from the governor of the Philippines. The Prince approved of my
advice, and accordingly he has sent a Japanese gentleman, a native of
Sakai, the bearer of this message.... It is essential to oppose no
obstacle to the complete liberty offered by the Emperor to the
Spaniards and to our holy order, for the preaching of the holy
gospel. ... The same Prince (who is about to visit the Kwanto)
invites me to accompany him to make choice of a house, and to visit
the harbour which he promises to open to us; his desires in this
respect are keener than I can express.'"*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
Subsequent events confirm the accuracy of the above story. Father
Jerome was allowed to build the first Christian church in Yedo and to
officiate there. Moreover, Ieyasu sent "three embassies in succession
to the Philippines, proposing reciprocal freedom of commerce,
offering to open ports in the Kwanto, and asking for competent naval
architects." These architects never came, and the trade that resulted
from the Tokugawa chief's overtures was paltry in comparison with the
number of friars that accompanied it to Japan. It has been suggested
that Ieyasu designed these Spanish monks to serve as a counterpoise
to the influence of the Jesuits. For he must have known that the
Franciscans opened their mission in Yedo by "declaiming with violence
against the fathers of the Company of Jesus," and he must have
understood that the Spanish monks assumed towards the Jesuits in
Japan the same intolerent and abusive tone that the Jesuits
themselves had previously assumed towards Buddhism.
ENGRAVING: ANJIN-ZUKA, NEAR YOKOSUKA, THE TOMB OF WILL ADAMS
WILL ADAMS
At about this time a Dutch merchant ship named the Liefde arrived in
Japan. In 1598, a squadron of five ships sailed from Holland to
exploit the sources of Portuguese commerce in the Orient, and of the
five vessels only one, the Liefde, was ever heard of again. She
reached Japan in the spring of 1600, with only four and twenty
survivors of her original crew, numbering 110. Towed into the harbour
of Funai, she was visited by Jesuits, who, on discovering her
nationality, denounced her to the local authorities as a pirate. On
board the Liefde, serving in the capacity of pilot major was an
Englishman, Will Adams, of Gillingham in Kent. Ieyasu summoned him to
Osaka, and between the rough English sailor and the Tokugawa chief
there commenced a curiously friendly intercourse which was not
interrupted until the death of Adams, twenty years later.
"The Englishman became master-shipbuilder to the Yedo Government; was
employed as diplomatic agent when other traders from his own country
and from Holland arrived in Japan, received in perpetual gift a
substantial estate, and from first to last possessed the implicit
confidence of the shogun. Ieyasu quickly discerned the man's honesty;
perceived that whatever benefits foreign commerce might confer would
be increased by encouraging competition among the foreigners, and
realized that English and Dutch trade presented the wholesome feature
of complete dissociation from religious propagandism. On the other
hand, he showed no intolerance to either Spaniards or Portuguese. He
issued (1601) two official patents sanctioning the residence of the
fathers in Kyoto, Osaka, and Nagasaki; he employed Father Rodriguez
as interpreter at the Court in Yedo, and, in 1603 he gave munificent
succour to the Jesuits who were reduced to dire straits owing to the
capture of the great ship from Macao by the Dutch and the consequent
loss of several years' supplies for the mission in Japan."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
ULTIMATE ATTITUDE OF IEYASU TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY AND FOREIGN
INTERCOURSE
From what has been written above it will have been evident that each
of Japan's great trio of sixteenth century statesmen--Nobunaga,
Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu--adopted originally a tolerant demeanour
towards Christianity, and an emphatically favourable attitude towards
foreign commerce. The causes of Hideyoshi's change of mood are
tolerably clear, but it is not possible to analyse the case of Ieyasu
with certainty. That the Tokugawa baron strongly patronized Buddhism
might be regarded as a sufficient explanation of his ultimate
hostility to the foreign faith, but cannot be reconciled with his
amicable attitude at the outset. The more credible explanation is
that he was guided by intelligence obtained direct from Europe. He
sent thither at the end of the sixteenth century an emissary whose
instructions were to observe closely the social and political
conditions in the home of Christianity. The better to accomplish his
purpose this envoy embraced the Christian faith, and was thus enabled
to carry on his observations from within as well as from without.
It may be easily conceived that the state of affairs in Europe at
that time, when recounted to Ieyasu, could scarcely fail to shock and
astonish the ruler of a country where freedom of conscience may be
said to have always existed. The Inquisition and the stake; wholesale
aggressions in the name of the Cross; a head of the Church whose
authority extended to confiscation of the realms of heretical
sovereigns; religious wars, and profound fanaticism--these were the
elements of the story told to Ieyasu by his returned envoy. The
details could not fail to produce an evil impression. Already his own
observation had disclosed to the Tokugawa chief abundant evidence of
the spirit of strife engendered by Christian dogma in those times. No
sooner had the Franciscans and the Dominicans arrived in Japan than a
fierce quarrel broke out between them and the Jesuits--a quarrel
which even community of suffering could not compose. "Not less
repellent was an attempt on the part of the Spaniards to dictate to
Ieyasu the expulsion of all Hollanders from Japan, and an attempt on
the part of the Jesuits to dictate the expulsion of the Spaniards.
The former proposal, couched almost in the form of a demand, was
twice formulated, and accompanied on the second occasion by a
scarcely less insulting offer, namely, that Spanish men-of-war would
be sent to Japan to burn all Dutch ships found in the ports of the
empire. If in the face of proposals so contumelious of his authority
Ieyasu preserved a calm and dignified mein, merely replying that his
country was open to all comers, and that, if other nations had
quarrels among themselves, they must not take Japan for
battle-ground, it is nevertheless unimaginable that he did not
strongly resent such interference with his own independent foreign
policy, and that he did not interpret it as foreshadowing a
disturbance of the realm's peace by sectarian quarrels among
Christians."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
The repellent aspects under which Christianity thus presented itself
to Ieyasu were supplemented by an act of fraud and forgery
perpetrated in the interest of a Christian feudatory by a trusted
official, himself a Christian. This experience persuaded the Tokugawa
ruler that it was unsafe to employ Christians at his Court. He not
only dismissed all those so employed, but also banished them from
Yedo and forbade any feudal chief to harbour them. Another incident,
not without influence, was connected with the survey of the Japanese
coast by a Spanish mariner and a Franciscan friar. An envoy from New
Spain (Mexico) had obtained permission for this survey, but "when the
mariner (Sebastian) and the friar (Sotelo) hastened to carry out the
project, Ieyasu asked Will Adams to explain this display of industry.
The Englishman replied that such a proceeding would be regarded in
Europe as an act of hostility, especially on the part of the
Spaniards or Portuguese, whose aggressions were notorious.
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