Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan (1597): The Nagasaki Crucifixions

The Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan were a group of Catholic missionaries and Japanese Christians crucified on a hill outside Nagasaki on 5 February 1597 on the orders of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It was the first mass execution of Christians in Japan and marked the beginning of more than two centuries of persecution. The martyrs were canonised in 1862 and are commemorated as Saint Paul Miki and Companions.

Background: Christianity under Hideyoshi

Catholic missionaries had worked in Japan since Francis Xavier arrived in 1549, and by the 1590s there were perhaps 200,000–300,000 Japanese Christians. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who unified Japan in the 1580s, at first tolerated the Jesuits, who were closely linked to the profitable Portuguese trade.

In July 1587, however, Hideyoshi issued an edict ordering the missionaries to leave Japan within twenty days. He was alarmed by the power of Christian lords in Kyushu, by reports of forced conversions and the destruction of temples, and by the Jesuits’ control of Nagasaki. The edict was not strictly enforced: most Jesuits stayed, working quietly.

From 1593 Spanish Franciscans arrived from Manila as envoys of the Spanish governor of the Philippines. Unlike the Jesuits, they preached openly in Kyoto and Osaka, built churches and hospitals, and won converts among the poor. Rivalry between the orders, and between Portuguese and Spanish interests, added to the tension.

The San Felipe incident

In October 1596 the Spanish galleon San Felipe, sailing from Manila to Acapulco with a rich cargo, was driven by storms onto the coast of Tosa in Shikoku. Hideyoshi’s officials confiscated the cargo. According to accounts that circulated afterwards, the ship’s pilot boasted that Spain’s empire grew by sending missionaries first and soldiers after them.

Whether these words were really spoken is uncertain, but the story reached Hideyoshi and confirmed his suspicions. In December 1596 he ordered the arrest of the Franciscans and their followers in Kyoto and Osaka. Several Jesuits were also caught up in the arrests, although Hideyoshi’s officials tried to limit the order to the Franciscans.

The march to Nagasaki

Twenty-four prisoners had part of their left ear cut off in Kyoto in January 1597 and were paraded through the streets of Kyoto, Osaka and Sakai. They were then forced to walk to Nagasaki, a journey of roughly 800 kilometres in midwinter that took about a month. Two Christians who had been caring for them on the way were arrested and added to the group, bringing the number to twenty-six.

The prisoners included the Spanish Franciscan Pedro Bautista, leader of the mission; the Mexican-born friar Philip of Jesus (Felipe de Jesús), who had been on the San Felipe; Gonsalo Garcia, born in Vasai in India; three Japanese Jesuits, Paul Miki, John Soan de Goto and James Kisai; and lay Christians such as catechists, a doctor and craftsmen. The youngest were three boys: Louis Ibaraki, aged twelve, Anthony of Nagasaki, thirteen, and Thomas Kozaki, fourteen.

The crucifixion

On the morning of 5 February 1597 the prisoners were taken to Nishizaka Hill, overlooking Nagasaki harbour. The execution was supervised by Terazawa Hazaburō, brother of the governor of Nagasaki. They were bound to crosses, which were raised in a row, and then killed with spears in the Japanese manner of crucifixion.

Contemporary Jesuit and Franciscan accounts describe the martyrs singing psalms and praying. Paul Miki is said to have preached to the crowd from his cross, declaring that he was Japanese and dying for his faith, and forgiving Hideyoshi and his executioners. A large crowd of Nagasaki Christians watched and afterwards collected relics from the bodies, which were left on the crosses for months.

Consequences and later persecution

Hideyoshi did not launch a nationwide persecution after 1597, and missionary work continued quietly. He died the following year. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, however, Christianity was banned throughout Japan in 1614, missionaries were expelled, and Japanese Christians were forced to renounce their faith or face death.

Thousands were executed over the following decades, including fifty-five people at Nagasaki in the Great Genna Martyrdom of 1622. After the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637–1638 the shogunate closed Japan to almost all foreign contact, and Christianity survived only among “hidden Christians” who practised in secret until the ban was lifted in 1873.

Legacy

The twenty-six were beatified by Pope Urban VIII in 1627 and canonised by Pope Pius IX on 8 June 1862, shortly before Japan reopened to Western missionaries. They were the first saints from Japan to be canonised. Their feast day is 6 February.

In 1962, on the centenary of the canonisation, the Twenty-Six Martyrs Monument, with bronze figures by the sculptor Funakoshi Yasutake, and a museum designed by Imai Kenji were opened at Nishizaka. Saint Philip of Jesus became the patron saint of Mexico City.

Timeline

• 1587, July: Hideyoshi issues his edict expelling missionaries.
• 1593: Spanish Franciscans arrive in Japan from Manila.
• 1596, October: The galleon San Felipe is wrecked in Tosa.
• 1596, December: Arrests of Franciscans and Japanese Christians in Kyoto and Osaka.
• 1597, January: The prisoners are mutilated and begin the march to Nagasaki.
• 1597, 5 February: Crucifixion of the twenty-six on Nishizaka Hill.
• 1627: Beatification by Pope Urban VIII.
• 1862, 8 June: Canonisation by Pope Pius IX.

Why it matters

The execution of the Twenty-Six Martyrs showed that Japan’s rulers now regarded Christianity as a political threat linked to European expansion. It foreshadowed the bans and persecutions of the seventeenth century and remains a central event in the history of Christianity in Asia, remembered by Catholics worldwide.