The formulation of the antichristian discourse in Japan during the 16th-17th centuries

Abstract

Few decades after the first Christian missionaries stepped into Japan, the Japanese leaders who promoted the unification of the archipelago and helped to build a new government throughout the second half of the 16^thcentury issued antichristian edicts, first expelling the missionaries (1587) and then banning Christianity from Japan (1614). These edicts carry in their content the reasons why the leaders in Japan thought the missionaries were suspicious and decided to outlaw Christianity. This article analyses these edicts and proposes an analysis for the use of the concept shinkoku – which was translated by the Jesuit missionary Luis de Fróis as “land of Cami” – by this new government, stablished after the unification was completed by the end of the 16^th century.