Abstract
In the Shimabara domain, evangelization was successful in the sixteenth century after the conversion of its feudal lord (daimyo), Arima Harunobu (1561?–1612), in 1580. However, from 1612 to 1615, the first arrests and executions led by Harunobu’s successor Arima Naozumi (1586–1641) and the authorities of Nagasaki shook the Christian community. After ten years of (relative) respite, Matsukura Shigemasa (1574–1630)—daimyo of the domain since 1616—launched another wave of repression, which aimed at undermining the religious organization of the villages by cutting their links with the clergy and subduing local lay figures. From 1625 to 1630, more than seventy devotees lost their lives, and virtually the entire population of Shimabara formally denied Christianity. These five years are well documented by missionary sources and local Japanese chronicles. Previous research has generally neglected these documents or tackled them separately. This paper argues that their comparative examination enables us to study, from a micro perspective, the logic of repression, the balance of power in the villages, the ambivalent attitude of the Christians toward secrecy, and the apostolate of the remnant missionaries. In other words, these testimonies allow us to reassess the experience of the Christian communities under the ban from multiple points of view, a few years before the revolt of Shimabara-Amakusa (1637–38).