US EditionHidden Christian Faith in Rural Japan Nears Disappearance
- On April 27, 2025, Masatsugu Tanimoto, a 68-year-old agricultural worker and among the small number of Hidden Christians still living on Ikitsuki Island in Nagasaki, revealed a religious scroll that had been secretly venerated in his home.
- Hidden Christianity developed as a secret faith during the 1614 ban and brutal persecution by shoguns, forcing believers to hide rituals and disguise religious icons as Buddhist objects.
- Currently, only two families on Ikitsuki continue the centuries-old rituals of Hidden Christians, including the Latin chant known as Orasho, which they now recite only a handful of times annually as the community shrinks and younger members move away.
- Masashi Funabara, a retired town official, said most nearby groups disbanded over two decades, and Tanimoto stated, "At this point, I'm afraid we are going to be the last ones," highlighting extinction risks despite efforts to preserve tradition.
- Experts agree Hidden Christianity faces inevitable extinction due to social changes and lack of religious leaders, though some hope the faith will continue within families at least in memory and practice.
58 Articles
58 Articles
'A huge loss.' In remote Nagasaki islands, a rare version of Christianity heads toward extinction (copy)
On the rural islands of Nagasaki a handful of believers practice a version of Christianity that has direct links to a time of samurai, shoguns and martyred missionaries and believers. After emerging from hiding in 1865, following centuries of violent…
Associated Press News
'A huge loss.' In remote Nagasaki islands, a rare version of Christianity heads toward extinction
On the rural islands of Nagasaki a handful of believers practice a version of Christianity that has direct links to a time of samurai, shoguns and martyred missionaries and believers.
The religion of the Christians hidden from Japan once disappeared with the elderly. In the new groups, two families were left on the island of Ikittsuki. The young people left the city and left behind a 400-year-old faith. The secret Christians combined icons with Buddhist symbols. The faith was preserved in the 16th century without priests or churches. They built the strangers for hundreds of years, disappeared in a generation. The children of …
In Japan, kimono is not just a traditional garment: it also communicates. Single women often wear kimonos with long sleeves, which symbolize youth and availability for marriage. Instead, married women wear shorter sleeves, as a way of showing that they have already formed a home. This detail, which can go unnoticed, tells a lot about Japanese culture, where visual language and symbolism remain part of everyday life. With information from Majo Ti…
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