Meiji Restoration: The Role Of Christianity In Japan

Christianity, as a latecomer to Japan’s religious scene, has faced considerable difficulties and challenges in relation to pre-existing religious traditions, practices, and social expectations. Christianity was met by a lot of resistance from those wanting to maintain the social order of the time and also by many Japanese who may have been willing to embrace a new religion, but who were confused by the impression of Christianity that it did not deal with the salvation of ancestors. In order to flourish in Japan, Christianity had to adapt to answer this central issue and speak to the Japanese worldview, valuing community and the Ie above individualism. Churches and indigenous movements have done this in a number of ways, both in their teachings

Therefore it was banned in 1587. Kakure Kirishitan, or hidden Christians, faced public persecution or even death if they were discovered to be practicing. The ban was lifted as part of the Meiji Restoration, when Japan opened to foreign trading in 1853. Around this time a second wave of Christian missionaries came to Japan. Christianity was a convincing concept to many people for many reasons including the teachings themselves or even the possibility of more exposure to European influences, in an attempt to gain power and respect from Europe. Technological advances such as firearms were introduced by the missionaries also convinced daimyo to accept Chrsitianity. Despite Christianity’s initial success when it was first brought to Japan, it posed many challenges to the existing societal systems and religious beliefs. Because Christianity seemed to contradict the principles Tokugawa Iesu attempted to employ, it was seen as a threat to the implementation of the bakufu, Japanese nationalism and the hierarchy in Japanese society. One

Before we can understand the ways Christianity attempted this, we must understand the Japanese worldview and the ways traditional religions, prior to Christianity, informed this. ‘Folk religion’, or early Shinto in Japan, is a web of beliefs and rituals that goes back to worship of ancestors and respect for the spirits of the dead. This is a continual theme throughout Japanese society and has informed the Japanese worldview so much so that it has influenced Japanese interpretations of other religions, including Christianity. It is accepted that the ancestral cult is the main consideration of Shinto in Japan, as the ancestors are the founders and caregivers of the household. Ancestors being the central point of all forms of traditional religion in Japan formed the Japanese worldview that was particularly community oriented. Thus, individualistic Catholicism in its original form did not deal with ancestors at all and even banned worship of ancestors. Christianity, having no option of salvation for ancestors or ritual respect to them caused a somewhat existential crisis for Japanese people attempting to understand this as a religion, despite it seeming to separate the living and the dead for all of eternity. As Hitoshi Miyake described: "Only as they (new religions) accommodated themselves to folk religion and its implicit norms did the institutional religions find acceptance and begin to