OPPapers.com

Christianity In Japan

Christianity in Japan
Christianity as a whole idea began at the beginning of time. This entire world was founded on the basis of this concept. Through time it has tremendously expanded and has been passed down from generation to generation. As new lands were discovered and established, this notion of Christianity spread rapidly with it. As explorers traveled, they took this with them and began to incorporate it into these new cultures. Thus, we have the example of the country of Japan.
Christianity in Japan began many centuries ago. Europe had a major influence in this entire process of incorporating this new idea into the Japanese culture. It is evident as we look back through history that this idea was accepted and grew and multiplied through the years. It has had its ups and downs, its growth spurts and its trials, but nevertheless, it continued, and even prospered under these circumstances.
Trade was opened in Japan in the mid 1500's. This was a huge step for the Japanese culture because they hadn't wanted any other influence into their land from any other country before this time; only by force did it eventually occur. As a result of this force, these first few years of open trade was extremely limited. In 1542, the very first Europeans - who were from Portugal - landed in western Japan in Kyushu. This island of Kyushu desired to keep trade with Europe in order to receive military supplies, so they had to accept these missionaries to continue the trade. This worked for the Europeans, because they came for two main reasons: to trade weapons and military equipment, and to bring missionaries into this land. Due to these circumstances, a large number of people converted to Christianity and among those were ones who assisted in the ruling of the country.
In 1549, St. Francis Xavier led a group of missionaries into Japan. These missionaries were Roman Catholics from Spain. At this time, many Japanese were either Buddhist or Shinto. It is...