Hidden Christians of Nagasaki

E642407

The Hidden Christians of Nagasaki were Japanese Catholics who secretly maintained their faith and religious practices for centuries under severe persecution and bans on Christianity.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Hidden Christians of Nagasaki canonical 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Catholic community
persecuted minority
religious community
afterEvent went underground following the Shimabara Rebellion
alternativeName Hidden Christians
linked to: Kakure Kirishitan

Underground Christians of Japan
linked to: Kakure Kirishitan
causeOfEmergence ban on Christianity in Japan
persecution of Christians in Japan
country Japan
culturalHeritageStatus inspiration for UNESCO World Heritage Site "Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region"
denomination Roman Catholic Church
linked to: Roman Catholicism
distinctiveFeature maintenance of faith without clergy for centuries
syncretism with Japanese folk religion and Buddhism
use of disguised Christian images
documentedBy Catholic missionaries after Japan reopened in the 19th century
endTime late 19th century
faced execution
exile
forced apostasy
torture
heritageRegion Goto Islands
Ikitsuki Island
Sotome region
historicalPeriod Edo period
Tokugawa shogunate
early Meiji period
influenced Japanese literature about Christian persecution
Shusaku Endo's novel "Silence"
language Japanese
legalStatus persecuted under early Meiji government
prohibited religion under Tokugawa shogunate
locatedIn Nagasaki Prefecture
mainPractice baptism administered by lay believers
oral transmission of doctrine and prayers
recitation of orasho (prayers derived from Latin and Portuguese)
secret Mass-like gatherings without priests
veneration of Mary disguised as Kannon
nativeName Kakure Kirishitan
notableEvent Shimabara Rebellion
populationTrend declining in 20th and 21st centuries
practicedInSecret true
relatedTo Japanese Catholic Church
Kirishitan
Nagasaki Catholic martyrs
religion Christianity
startTime 17th century
transition many rejoined the Roman Catholic Church after legalization of Christianity in 1873

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Catholic community of Nagasaki knownAs Hidden Christians of Nagasaki