The Kakure Kirishitan of Japan: A Study of Their Development, Beliefs and Rituals to the Present Day

This is the first major study in English of the Japanese ‘hidden’ Christians and the development of the faith and rituals from the sixteenth century to the present day. The Kakure Kirishitan are the descendants of the communities who maintained the Christian faith in Japan as an underground church during the time of persecution, and then chose to remain separate from the Catholic Church when religious toleration was granted in 1873. The island of Ikitsuku, where the most active Kakure are to be found, was an important centre of early Christianity, and its Kakure communities came into being when differences were perceived between the beliefs and practices they had preserved and orthodox Catholic teaching. Kakure worship consists of prayer and the eating of a communal meal. The prayers tend to be offered for worldly benefits, while the communal meal has close links to the Catholic Mass, but has also absorbed Shinto ceremonies involving feasting that were originally added as camouflage for Christian gatherings. The Kakure faith shares with Japanese religion a polytheistic and pluralistic nature, yet maintains a unique identity in which recognisable Christian elements are to be found. This study will have wide interdisciplinary value, including students of comparative religions, Japanese history and the history of Japanese literature, theology and the social history of Japan.