Chapter IV: Government of Taikosama (2)

At an interview with Taikosama these Franciscans asked to see his palace. “With all my heart, provided you do not preach in my states.” The religious, being resolved not to obey him, gave no promise, but made a low reverence. Shortly after, the governor of Miako sent to the Jesuit fathers to tell them to go on with their work of piety, but with privacy and prudence. In consequence of this they hired a house and met privately, none appearing in public except two. “But the fathers of St. Francis thought not themselves obliged to such condescendence. Their ardent zeal made them believe that such deference to the order of the sovereign was contrary to the liberty of the Gospel, and that they ought to preach the faith despite of all laws to the contrary.” They went to Taikosama and asked for some place away from secular people to build a little house for their own private convenience. He did not carry his edict into execution against them, but referred them to the governor of Miako, who assigned “them a very sweet seat without the walls of Miako, commanding that they should neither preach nor hold assemblies of Christians, according to Taikosama’s orders. But the fathers, without regard to either the governor’s advice or Taikosama’s orders, built immediately both a church and a convent with a wall about it. Even the wise and more prudent among the Christians advised them to be seriously careful of what they were doing. The governor, hearing of it, sent and requested them to shut up their church.” He was obliged to inform Taikosama, saying, “He feared that these religious, who call themselves embassadors from the Philippines, intend to preach like the rest.” “They won’t,” replied he, in a passion, “if they be wise; for if they do, I’ll teach them to laugh at me.”

These Franciscans, thinking they were most successful, wrote to Manila for others to come over to assist them. They opened a church at Osaka, and designed to erect a third at Nagasaki. To this end they desired the governor would obtain leave of Taikosama for two sick to change air. The governor said in case of health they were free to go where they pleased. Upon this two went to Nagasaki, and began to say mass and preach publicly without any regard to the Emperor’s mandates.

The Jesuits were much surprised that these Franciscan fathers should fix a residence in their jurisdiction without their consent; while the lieutenant-governor, having received strict orders not to permit any service in the town, was in doubts what to do. He referred to the governor, and he, being alarmed for himself, ordered a note to be taken of every one who disobeyed the law, but said he would apply for further instructions to Taikosama himself. Hearing from Miako that these men had asked and received permission to go to Nagasaki on the plea of sickness only, he ordered them out of his jurisdiction, which seems to be a very lenient course of treatment, considering the trouble that had already arisen out of this preaching.

The success of Konishi (Don Austin) in Corea seems at first to have operated in his favor. Taikosama was delighted; but as soon as this first feeling was over, alarm at thinking he was a Christian, and as such could command the services of a very large body of his countrymen at a word from the Jesuit priests, seems to have been the most prominent feeling in his mind. He knew by experience that the Buddhist priests had been able to keep the armies of Nobu nanga at bay for several years. He therefore dissembled, and in the meantime he recalled Justo to court, and gave him a large pension.

At this time, however, another circumstance occurred which occupied his mind for a time. Hidetsoongu, his nephew, had been acknowledged as heir, and power was delegated to him as regent while Taiko should be away in Corea. Of this young man a somewhat extraordinary account is given in the Jesuit letters. In 1587, when Taiko chose to make a great show of favor to the Roman Catholics and the missionaries, the fathers were taken up continually with preaching, baptizing and instructing such of the principal lords as desired earnestly this sacrament, among whom was Taiko’s own nephew, and presumptive heir to the crown.

“Hidetsoongu was a young man of three-and-thirty years of age, endowed with all the qualifications that can be desired in a young prince. He had a quick and penetrating wit, an excellent judgment, and withal a most courteous and obliging behavior. He was wise, prudent and discreet. He abhorred the vices of his country and loved learning, and took pleasure in it. For this reason he was delighted in the company of the fathers, and knowing that our religion set value on virtue and good manners, he took a particular affection to it.

“But all these good qualities were quite obscured by a strange and most inhuman vice. He took a strange kind of pleasure and diversion in killing men, insomuch that when any one was condemned to die, he chose to be executioner himself. He walled in a place near his palace, and set in the middle a sort of table for the criminal to lie on till he hewed him to pieces. Sometimes, also, he took them standing, and split them in two. But his greatest satisfaction was to cut them off limb by limb, which he did as exactly as one can take off the leg or wing of a fowl. Sometimes, also, he set them up for a mark, and shot at them with pistols and arrows. But what is most horrid of all, he used to rip up women with child to see how the infants lay in their mother’s womb. Father Froes, who had seen and conversed with him, describes him as you have seen.” This account is corroborated by native history.

For many years Hidetsoongu had been looked upon as his uncle’s heir. He had three children; but about this time one of Taiko’s wives had a son, who was thought by many to be supposititious. “Be it as it will,” write the fathers, “he made great rejoicing for it all over Japan, and insisted on his nephew adopting the child as his son.”

The consequence was that uncle and nephew became jealous and distrustful each of the other. In the “History of the Church” a full account is given of their meetings in Miako. “Taikosama sent to his nephew to say he would invest him with full power. Hidetsoongu prepared a magnificent feast. The day was settled, but the uncle was afraid to trust himself within the palace of Juraku, where the nephew was waiting for him. At last he was persuaded to go, and went with great magnificence in a triumphal chariot (a closed box) all laid with gold, drawn by two large oxen with gilt horns. The procession lasted from morning till two in the afternoon. All this time Taiko minded more the security of his own person than all the entertainments. He placed guards all about his apartments, and advised his nephew to lodge in another palace. The nobility generally believed that Hidetsoongu would never let slip so fair an opportunity of avenging the injuries he had received, and therefore every one took care of himself. But no attempt was made on Taiko’s life. Appearances were kept up for some days; but the nephew, disgusted with his uncle’s treatment, secretly began to make the preparations which had been expected of him long before.” But he was betrayed by the first of the nobles to whom he applied--probably Mowori (known as Choshiu), who gave Taiko information. In no long time Taiko brought the matter to a point by asking explicit answers to plain questions, and in the meantime collected troops about Miako. When he thought he was safe, he sent to his nephew and ordered him off instanter to his father’s territory. He was then ordered to enter the monastery of Koga, used as a retreat by exiled nobles. He marched, accordingly, all night. The prisoner was treated as badly as possible; and in August, 1795, an order came from his uncle that he and his servants should rip themselves up. Hidetsoongu paid the last attention one friend can pay to another in Japan, and cut their heads off after they had stabbed themselves. He himself repeatedly stabbed himself, and one of his esquires took his master’s saber and cut off his head, and then stabbing himself, fell on his body. Father Froes seems to have been on the spot at the time.

Taikosama, in the whole of this affair, showed a spirit of extreme cruelty and vindictiveness. He, not satisfied with the life of his nephew, put to death all his friends, and then, collecting his family, sent his wives and children, the eldest five years of age, his own grand nephews and nieces, to execution; with savage atrocity sending for his nephew’s head that it might be shown to them at the scaffold. They were all beheaded to the number of thirty-one ladies and three children, and their bodies thrown into a hole in Sanjio Street, over which a sort of erection or tomb was built, and on it the inscription, Tchikushozuka, “The tomb of bitches,” which remains to this day. A temple has been built close by, and is named Tchikushozuka no dera.

Taikosama had long set his heart upon the hope of prevailing upon the Emperor of China to send an embassy to Japan, and, to his own surprise, his ambition was gratified. Don Austin, according to Jesuit accounts, by working upon the fears of the officers of the Celestial court, induced them to send two men to Corea, who were ordered to pass over into Japan. Taikosama made preparations to receive this embassy with great magnificence, but in the end treated the envoys with marked insolence and rudeness.

In August of 1596 a comet was visible for fifteen days in Japan, and on the 30th of the same month a frightful earthquake is recorded to have occurred. By this the greater part of the buildings recently erected at great expense at Osaka and Fusimi were completely demolished. Recurring at midnight of the 1st of September with awful violence, all the magnificent buildings raised by the Taiko were in a moment thrown down--two lofty eight-storied buildings, visited by the fathers, being destroyed. Stones, each of which had required the united efforts of 1,500 men to put in their places, were hurled out. The heavy roofs of temples and buildings, subsiding _en masse_, buried many under them, and, as usual in Japan, the fires which arose carried death to those buried under the wood. The occasion is used by one of the fathers, in his letter, to indulge in a sneer against the Buddhist priesthood. In doing so, he gives some insight into the tenets inculcated in their sermons by these Buddhist priests. “He was preaching on the evening prior to the earthquake with such a torrent of eloquence as to bear all before him, and the main drift of his discourse was the mercy and bounty of his god toward his clients, particularly at the hour of death. He enlarged upon his charity to mankind, showing that he would have all men to be saved, without distinction or exception of persons, exhorting them to cast themselves on his mercy. So soon as he had made an end of speaking, the people cried out with a general voice, ‘Our god, be merciful to us!’ But Amida was probably asleep, for that very night the temple fell to the ground, the idol was broken, and the preacher narrowly escaped with his life.” By this convulsion the immense copper figure of Buddha at Miako was broken. The Jesuit accounts state that seventy women about the palace at Fusimi were killed, the Taiko himself narrowly escaping to a mountain top, where he dwelt in a reed hut, for fear of being swallowed up in the chasms of the earth. Saccay, the richest and most voluptuous city of Japan, suffered, at the same time, greatly from one of those fearful incursions of the sea consequent upon a temporary depression or bending downward of the crust of the earth.

In the meanwhile Taikosama’s passion began to cool, and the fathers “had grounds to hope that religion would be re-established, as he was rather pleased at their obeying his edict, and keeping quiet in deference to his wishes.” He still took pleasure in occasionally receiving the bishop, and winked at the fathers remaining in the capital. But when everything was again promising of fair wind, another storm arose, and again the origin is attributed by the Jesuits, not to the Japanese, but to the same Franciscan fathers who had recently arrived from Manila. The Jesuits’ letters say, “The Recollects of the regular observance of St. Francis, who were lately settled at Miako, being now conversant in the language of the country, began to preach publicly in the churches, to hear confessions and baptize the infidels, without any regard to the Emperor’s orders. Had religion been on the same footing as heretofore, the zeal and labor of these holy men would have wrought wonders, but the design was so ill-concerted at this juncture, that, instead of reaping any advantage by it, as was expected, it drew a bloody persecution both upon themselves and the other Christians. For being newly established in Japan, little acquainted with the genius of the people, and less with Taikosama’s designs, they gave full scope to their zeal without regard to the Emperor’s threats, or even to the advice of their friends, who counseled them all along to act in concert with the other religious, who by their prudence and wise conduct had counted so many thousands of souls in this mission. But nothing was able to stop this torrent of zeal. Designing well, they believed themselves obliged to overlook all human respects, and this persuasion made them jealous of friends’ advice as savoring of jealousy and envy. The Christians, not at all satisfied with their conduct, begged of them to moderate their zeal; but being men that undervalued their lives, and in a persuasion that the Emperor would never offer any rudeness to persons of their character that bore the name of embassadors from one of the greatest monarchs of the world, they continued their functions with new fervor and zeal. The natives said, ‘These men neither regard our counsel nor the Emperor’s orders, but one day they’ll repent it.’”

But still, notwithstanding these infractions of the recently published edict, there was no ill-will shown to these men. Four new governors of state had been appointed. These governors, hearing of the friars’ rashness, sent to them privately to admonish them of their danger, telling them that if it came to Taiko’s ears he would certainly put them all to death. This information only added new life and vigor to their zeal, so desirous were they of suffering martyrdom for Christ. The viceroy sent for two of these friars to the palace, and reprimanded them severely for slighting the Emperor’s desires. This notwithstanding, they went on with their functions. The superior of the Jesuits, F. Organtin, hearing of those complaints by the governor, as well as the Christians and heathens, sent to Friar Baptist to lay before him the danger himself and his family, as well as the whole Church of Japan, was in if he did not (so far as reason, conscience and zeal of God’s glory would permit) study to give the governor satisfaction, and yield a little to the times. “I do not find,” says the writer, “what answer was given, but this is certain, they both preached and administered the sacraments after that more publicly than before.”

These men, under the quality of embassadors, had come to the country, and under the same name were remaining in Japan to insult the supreme power, and to irritate the government into taking the only means in its power of supporting its own dignity; viz., putting them out of the way. “Guenifoin” (probably Kio no kami, or governor of Miako), “who had all along favored the Christians, foreseeing the ill-consequences of this refractory humor, suspended still the execution of his threats, and did not so much as hint at it either to the court. However, the business was discovered at last, and the friars were betrayed by their friend Faranda, the person who invited them over from the Philippines.” They intrigued with this man, who seems to have used his knowledge of the Spanish language and his acquaintance with the Roman fathers of the Church for his own advancement. “At first they had some difficulty in accepting his invitation (in the name of Taikosama) to visit Japan, as contrary to the decree of Gregory XIII. forbidding all priests (the Society excepted) to preach in Japan. All the able men whom they consulted agreed that embassadors were not included in this decree; and Sextus Quintus having given leave to the religious of St. Francis to preach the Gospel through the East Indies, the islands of Japan fell in course as part of the whole.”

The conduct of these men would in any country have exposed them to the notice of the government. There is little need for drawing into the question of the treatment of these embassadorial fathers the conduct of the captain of a rich Spanish galleon wrecked upon the southern coast of Sikok. This man lost his ship, and the treasures were seized by Taikosama. “Upon being examined, he pointed out on a map the territories belonging to the King of Spain, and added that the way in which he obtained such extensive possessions was by first sending missionaries; and so soon as they had gained a sufficient number of proselytes, the King followed with his troops, and, joining the new converts, made a conquest of the kingdoms.”

Upon the conduct of these Franciscan fathers being brought to the notice of Taikosama, he at once ordered them to be executed. At first the Jesuits thought that all Christians were included in this order; but the Giboo no sho wrote to Nagasaki to the governor, in the name of Taikosama, to see that no affront was offered to the Jesuits, whom he was pleased to have reside there on condition that they did not preach, or baptize, or hold assemblies.

The Father Provincial of the Jesuits, considering this condition opposed to the law of God, resolved to take no notice of it, but wrote to those under him to extend the empire of Christ, but still by such ways and means as might not give the Emperor cause of complaint. These five Franciscans were sent down from Miako to Nagasaki to be there executed, under the following sentence:

“Seeing that these men have come from the Philippine Islands in the quality of embassadors, yet have continued residing at Miako to spread the Christian law, which I some years ago prohibited, I command that all of them, together with those Japanese who have enrolled themselves under this law, be arrested, and let the whole twenty-four undergo the punishment of the cross at Nagasaki. And once more I prohibit the foresaid doctrine in time to come. Let all know this, and, further, that it be carried into execution. But if any one will not obey my edict, he, with all his family, shall be punished.”

The punishment of the cross is inflicted by tying the criminal to a cross and transfixing the lungs and heart with two sharp spears. The twenty-four were thus executed at Nagasaki on February 5, 1597. The religious of St. Francis, together with the three Jesuits, were all placed in the Catalogue of Saints by Urban VIII., in the year 1627.

These men were punished by the Taiko not on account of their religion, but as contumelious persons, defying his laws. He appreciated the benefits of foreign trade, he valued the presents brought to him, and he admired the learning of the Jesuits; but he now saw a new doctrine being adopted by his subjects which would tolerate no other near it. The followers of this doctrine were becoming a great political power in the state, and more particularly in Simo or Kiusiu. Several of his principal military officers adhered to this new sect. Some of the highest nobles in the land had, according to the accounts of the Jesuits, favored it. The bishop, to whom no doubt extraordinary external reverence would be shown by the Roman Catholics, was an occasional visitor at Taikosama’s court. F. Rodriguez was apparently in constant attendance as interpreter. The desire to continue to participate in the advantages of foreign trade was being counterbalanced by the probable dangers of the ascendency of such a power in the state, and Taikosama was becoming alarmed. There was a strong party opposed to the Roman Catholics--those who had been expelled from their lands, or who had been obliged to conform to retain them; those who were envious or jealous of the rise of such men as Konishi from a comparatively low position to a high military command; the priests, whose flocks were being withdrawn, and their incomes thereby diminished; and all that numerous class whose interests are on the side of things remaining as they are--all these were pressing that something should be done to overthrow the political structure which these foreigners were attempting to raise.

During the life of Taikosama these men, with their native associates, were the only sufferers for disobedience to his edict.

While Taikosama seemed every day becoming more timid and afraid of what steps might be taken by the Christian party, an embassy arrived from Manila, to whose demand he replied that “he put to death the Franciscans because they preached the Christian religion in his empire contrary to his express command.” But he did not pursue his harsh measures any further. He wished to get rid of such disturbers of the empire; and “hearing that Spain and Portugal were now under one prince, he became jealous to the last degree that the Jesuits of these two nations concerted together, under the color of religion, to bring Japan under the same yoke.” He determined, therefore, while all the Christian princes were in Corea, to send away by ship all the foreign priests. But still he allowed a few to remain in Nagasaki, on condition that they did not stir out of town, nor preach.

He ordered Terasawa, governor of Nagasaki, to assemble all the Jesuits and ship them off by the first convenience to China. This, in truth, seems to have been the only resource left to him if he wished to retain the government of the country, or to preserve it from once more undergoing all the horrors of a civil war. If he had heard of the doings of Philip II. in the Netherlands during the few years since the first arrival of these foreign priests in Japan, he might have learned lessons of more decided measures for refractory subjects, and have carried out his wishes in ridding Japan of them by a more summary method of persecution.

During the summer of 1598 Taikosama was attacked by dysentery, and was so ill that his life was despaired of. His son (real or supposed) was then about six years of age. He saw that, in all probability, the power, after leaving his own hands, would fall into those of Iyeyas, now ruler of the eight provinces around Yedo. He therefore determined to strike up a family alliance between his son and the granddaughter of Iyeyas, thinking he would thereby induce the latter to throw his whole weight into the scale on behalf of his own grandchild and her husband, and that thus the power would descend to his own family. The marriage was immediately celebrated; and Iyeyas swore that he would turn the government over to Taiko’s son so soon as he was able to rule by himself. Still further to strengthen the party of his son, he appointed five governors of the country (as Gotairo), and four others, to be about the boy, with instructions to obey Iyeyas, to acknowledge his son as sovereign so soon as he came of age, to continue all the lords in their places as he had appointed, and to oppose all innovations on the laws now established. To strengthen the position of his son still further, he appointed boards of officers, Tchiuro and Goboonyo, or five rulers.

On his deathbed, such little animosity as he may have had toward the foreign priests seems to have been mitigated, as he sent for, or allowed, Father Rodriguez to visit him, when he thanked the father for the trouble he had taken in visiting him in health as well as in sickness.

A temporary amendment enabled him to rouse himself, when his chief thoughts ran upon strengthening the citadel of Osaka, where 17,000 houses were pulled down to build the wall, which was a league in circuit. He only survived a few days, dying upon September 15, 1598; all his nobility, according to the fathers, “being much better pleased to see him on the list of dead gods than in the land of living men.”