Research Highlights

I specialize in the history of Christianity in Japan. I am mainly studying early modern missionary strategies of the Jesuits, the Catholic Order to which missionary Francis Xavier belonged, which traditionally emphasized the concept of "adaptation" (accomodatio) in its missionary policy. There are two directions of adaptation. The first is for the missionary to adapt himself to the cultural and social elements of the mission field. This type of adaptation includes learning the local language of the people he is trying to reach. The second type concerns how to preach Christianity. There are two different ways of doing this. One way is to refrain from preaching the whole doctrine and to selectively preach only certain elements. The other is to transform those elements of Christianity that are doctrinally transformable.

The Jesuits went on to spread the Gospel in new mission fields around the world, but I am particularly interested in how the Jesuits proselytized in East Asia in relation to local religions and beliefs. According to Christian logic, Japanese religions and beliefs are idolatrous and inherently unacceptable. In India and Southeast Asia, European principles of idolatry apply, but we see that in Japan, they are relaxed. Specifically, they actively abstain from the application of Christian law. Thus, the Japanese Christians were conditionally allowed to engage in idolatry. The reverence for the Christian God comes back to the debate about the extent to which idolatry in Japan can be tolerated. Manual de confesores y penitentes, an enormously influential work written by Xavier's maternal great-uncle Martín de Azpilcueta and first published in Portuguese in Coimbra, went through numerous editions and was used as a guide to the conscience and the sacrament of penance. In it, the question of ethics is addressed separately, using the Ten Commandments as the basis that defines Christian ethics concerning God. We see the book used in Japanese missionary work, but problems in Japan often deviate from it, so these problems are discussed as unique to Japan.

However, there is another missionary area that is even more troublesome than Japan —China. The Jesuits recognized Buddhism and Shinto as the predominant religions in Japan. Buddhism certainly existed in China, but what was more problematic was how to understand Confucianism. In other words, Confucianism was a point of contention as to how it should be adapted. Confucianism has a systematic aspect of ancestor worship. If Confucianism, something so inherent to the cultural and social fabric of China and the study of many intellectuals, was rejected, missionary work in China would be near impossible. The Chinese Rites controversy is really an extension of the Japanese problem. In this way, I am attempting to see the contexts of India, Japan, and China and the problem of honoring the Christian God as a single line of inquiry.

(2020/12/21)