Sakoku

 

Sakoku was the Japanese policy of shutting out foreign influence beginning in 1636.  The Tokugawa shogun (Emperors were divine figureheads; Shoguns were warriors who ran the government.) grew fearful of Christianity and was intent on control of all foreign trade.  Portuguese and Spanish traders arrived in the mid 1500s and brought Jesuit missionaries and began missions in the southern island of Kyushu.  But Shinto religion controls all Japanese life. The Nipponese became alarmed when these traders tied their faith to their commerce.  Protestant English and Dutch traders reinforced this perception by accusing the Spanish and Portuguese missionaries of spreading religion systematically, as part of a  policy of cultural domination. Worse, the empress had heard of their roughshod treatment of natives in the Americas and feared Japan might be in for the same.  The Dutch and English were generally seen by the Japanese to be able to somewhat  separate religion and trade. The Dutch, eager to take over the business, had no problems reinforcing this view. The direct trigger which is said to have spurred the imposition of sakoku was the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637–38, an uprising of 40,000 mostly Christian peasants. In the aftermath, the shogunate accused missionaries of instigating the rebellion and expelled them from the country. They strictly banned Christianity on penalty of death. The remaining Christians, mostly in Nagasaki, formed underground communities and came to be called Kakure Kirishitan.

            But there were other reasons for the closure.  Rivals of the shogun had used trade to enhance their power.  Much of this trade and cultural exchange took place in the generation prior to 1636.   Political fears resulted in closing down trade to selected ports for China (Nagasaki) and Korea (Ryukyu islands).  All contact with the outside world became strictly regulated by the shogunate, or by the domains (Tsushima, Matsumae, and Satsuma) assigned to the task. That meant strict tax control too.  Dutch traders were permitted to continue commerce only by agreeing not to engage in missionary activities. So how did the Japanese keep abreast of European developments in weapons and the like?  They learned Dutch and studied Dutch books which became a lively enterprise. 

            220 years of isolation were ended when Admiral Perry and his “black boats” sailed into Tokyo harbor, 1853, and set down treaty demands on the Japanese government. Among these was the safe return without fear of life of 17 Japanese seamen who were shipwrecked in international waters and rescued by Americans.  USA had experiences with this.  Years prior, a Japanese errant sailor, Sam Patch, had begged not to be sent back to Japan because death awaited any who traveled abroad.  Sam got to stay in America.  How did USA get involved in Japanese trade and why did they want the country open?  American ships had slyly sailed under the Dutch flag into Nagasaki to do trade, found good markets and wanted to make deals.

             Today, the Christian percentage of the population (1%) in Japan remains far lower than in other East Asian countries such as China (5%), Vietnam (7%), South Korea (29%) and the Philippines (over 90%). Yet out of that minority, one of the most influential Christian novelists arose. Shusaku Endo grew up Christian and bullied by other Japanese kids before the Second World War.  After the war he became a foreign exchange student who was persecuted in France for his race. Out of this experience, he began to identify with Jesus whose life was one of rejection too. For Jesus was rejected by neighbors and countrymen, his family questioned his sanity, and a friend betrayed him. Throughout his ministry, Jesus reached out to the poor and rejected ones.  This new insight hit Endo with the force of a revelation.  He’d dreamed of a home where one could live triumphantly, a Christian without disgrace. Instead, God is a Good Shepherd who prefers to leave the 99 to search the one lost.  God prefers the prayers of a lowly publican to a Pharisee. God, the Suffering Servant, Christ, seeks out the nobodies.  We matter infinitely to Him; are called to reflect Him.  In Silence, Endo tells the story of a bound Portuguese missionary as samurais tried to get him to renounce his faith. “He had come to this country to lay down his life for other men, but instead of that, Japanese Christians were laying down their lives one by one for him.” Endo’s novels have become widely read throughout the East giving courage to millions of persecuted Christians.

            What still holds Christianity back in Japan?  The country prides itself as being modern, secular, conformist and unaccepting of outsiders.  (A Japanese exchange student described Shintos as backslidden Methodists who sleep through the service.) But Japanese Christians want the Real Thing.  They desire to be different with worships and akin to Americans-- very ‘apart’ from the usual Buddhism and Shintoism of their culture.