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By Elisabete Ferreira
Two years before the commemoration of the 450th anniversary of the landing of Saint
Francis Xavier in Kagoshima, I thought it would be a good time to introduce this event to
all of you who live in this prefecture. One of the reasons for the importance of this
event is that the first Japanese to be Christianized, a man named Yajirio, was born in
Kagoshima. Another enterprising Kagoshiman, known by the name of Bernardo, went to Europe
about thirty years before Tensho Embassy. He first studied in a college, had an audience
with Pope Paul and Ignacio Loyola in Rome, and died in Portugal in the city of Coimbra in
1557.
Francis Xavier, the founder of the apostolic mission in Asia was born in Spain. He later went to France where he studied at the University of Paris and met Loyola, the founder of the Order of Jesus. He became a priest on the 24th day of June 1537, and on the 30th of September (St. Michael's Day) said his first mass in Rome at the cathedral of St. Pietro. After the approval of the company of Jesus (of which Xavier was one of the founders) by Pope Paul on the 27th of September 1540, Xavier sailed to Asia (Goa, Cochin, Ceylon, and Malacca).In Malacca he met the young Yajiro who would later accompany him to Japan.
On the 15th of August 1549, Xavier arrived in Kagoshima. Through a letter he wrote in 1548 to the Jesuit priests, we know that he got information from Portuguese "men with credit" (merchants) about some"big islands, not long ago discovered, which are called the islands of Japan." According to the opinion of these merchants, one could preach the gospel on these islands "because they are a people longing for knowledge."
One of the reasons Xavier came to Japan is that he received favorable news from several sources, including Yajiro who must have spoken enthusiastically about his land and its friendly people. In Kagoshima he was "welcomed by the people and most of all by the mayor (bugyo) himself...and all the time Xavier was there, which was almost a year, he received many favors from the mayor, " according to Fernao Mendes Pinto in Peregrinacao. Xavier visited many places in this prefecture. These places are currently being researched, and in the near future interested persons will be able to follow an itinerary of Xavier's travels.
Francis Xavier arrived in the port of Yamagawa on a Chinese vessel called Aban. There he changed boats and sailed onto Kagoshima City with his two companions from the Company of Jusus - Cosme de Torres (a priest) and Joao Fernandez (author of the first dictionary of Luso - Japanese and the first grammar textbook) - and Yajiro.
Xavier probably stayed in an area close to the port, because it was there that the family of Yajiro lived. In the city he visited several places to inform people about christianity, especially to representatives of Buddhist and Shinto organizations, including an old bonze of the Fukushoji Temple. Later, during the Meiji Era, many temples were destroyed under the orders of the Shimazu Clan. Today, only the main gate of the Fukushoji Temple remains. The rest has become a burial ground of the Shimazu family and the former Fukoshoji Temple leaders, as well as Christian cemetery of 53 Japanese who died during the Meiji Era.
On the 29th of September 1549, Xavier arrived in Ijuin where he had an audience with Lord Shimazu Takahisa in his castle in Ichiuji-jo. On the 5th of November he wrote a letter to Loyola, telling him his first impressions of Japan. Yasuhisa, who was later baptized. He then went on to Sendai, a port town .
On his way to Kyoto Xavier passed through Hakata, Yamaguchi, and finally the Imperial capital. In Kyoto as a papal envoy, he dressed himself accordingly and spoke about his mission in Japan. The Japanese gave importance to one's appearance. Since 1550, foreign costume had become fashionable among the nobility. Documents written by missionaries gave details of the way they dressed and the usage of the European hats worn by Otomo Sorin, Oda Nobunaga, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, among others.
In April 1551, Xavier returned to Yamaguchi where he talked with the daimyo Ouchi Yoshitaka. According to Frois' in Historia do Japao, Xavier went to his palace dressed as an ambassador and offered him many presents from the viccroy of India, D.Afonso de Noronba.
In August he proceeded to Funai (present day Oita), where he visited the local Shogun Otomo Sorin (1530-1587). Later he would embrace the Catholic faith along with his second wife Julia and daughter Quinta. (Otomo's second marriage was the first known case in the history of Japanese Christianity where the "Saint Paul's Privilege" was applied. Under the Saint Paul's Privilege, a Christian can get a divorce from a non-Catholic person and marry someone from the same faith.
In November 1551, Xavier left Japan on Duarte da Gama's boat to Malacca. On his way he visited Tanegashima Island.
Location where Xavier met Shimadzu Takahisa
When Xavier left for Goa, he left behind about five hundred neophyte Christians in Japan. A new era had begun in the empire of the rising sun. Later, this new era would bring painful consequences. Francis Xavier, however, did not live long enough to witness these results. He died on the third of December 1552 on Sanchao lsland near Canton. Xavier was later canonized along with Loyola on March third, 1622. The faith that Xavier brought to Japan still persists today.
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