A Samurai in the Vatican

 Last week a friend recommended a PBS video about someone I thought I knew a lot about.  But as it turns out, there’s more to this fellow than I knew. I’m going to call him a “Hero of the Faith”, but with a different perspective. If you have access to PBS, take the hour to watch “The Secrets of the Dead, A Samurai in the Vatican”, Season 19, episode 5."  

His name was Hasekura Tsunenaga, the year was 1613, and he was the first Japanese to travel more than half way around the world looking for Christianity. Well …

If only it were that simple.  

Actually, he was a disgraced Samurai.  His father had brought shame on his family for some technical error and was ordered to commit ‘seppuku’ or ritual suicide for his carelessness.  Now the son, Hasekura, with really no future as the whole family was shamed, was ordered by the Daimyo (think Governor) Masamune to go to Spain and check things out. 

Masamune himself, many years prior, had been sent to Northern Japan by the Shogun (the big guy over the whole country). There, he was ordered to establish the Shogun’s authority and start collecting taxes. Using conscripted labor, he built a big castle overlooking the town of Sendai, which coincidentally, is where Tony and I spent the better part of 25 years. 

The whole Christianity thing was prompted by the arrival of Jesuit missionaries, and there had been a lot of discussion concerning their motivations. That they were spreading the Gospel was obvious, but there seemed to be a political current as well.  Personally, Masamune seemed to have had leanings toward Christian faith, but I think most likely he was trying to better himself politically and possibly with a hopeful eye on becoming the next Shogun.  There were a number of Catholic missionaries in Japan and they were doing a successful work amongst the upper class Samurai, so it was Masamune's thought (perhaps), to send an emissary to Europe and increase his influence by being more current in world affairs. While there, they were also instructed to request more missionaries.  

So Hasegawa and an Italian Priest, who was a missionary and possibly had a few personal aspirations himself, set off for Spain. The ship was small, since this was the early 1600’s.  And since the world was big, the journey took years.  Finally they reached the Spanish peninsula, then over to the Vatican. Both the priest and Hasegawa were welcomed as honored emissaries, and eventually they started back for home.  But wait! While at the Vatican, it was reported that Hasekura embraced Christianity and was baptized.

They arrived home to Sendai after a 7-year journey, anchoring in the harbor in preparation for the big arrival the following morning. Legend has it that a friend of Hasegawa came aboard to report that things had changed since he had left. There was now a new Shogun in power and Christianity had been outlawed! Historians believe that the new Shogun (who sadly was not Masamune) had become nervous about the impact the Catholics were making on the Japanese.  It was not the religion they worried about but more the political power and the possibility of falling the way the Americas and other places had, who were becoming more Catholic and Spanish than those countries were ready for.

Anyway, the story ends badly…….. or does it?

The priest who had gone with Hasekura, instead of becoming a Bishop as he had dreamed, was dragged off and martyred with 26 other priests in Nagasaki, the city where Christianity had originally entered. There in Sendai, you can see a statue today dedicated to three local Catholic priests who had been staked out in knee deep water along the banks of the river and left there until they died of exposure. This happened in January when Sendai is as cold as it gets.  I often said a prayer of thanks when we drove by, glad that Japan is now much nicer to Christians.  

As for Hasekura, we only know that he “died in obscurity”.

That might be the end of the story, except for this interesting fact: Hasekura’s children, now grown and professing Christ as Savior, were all martyred. Did the faith of the father extend to his children? 

Almost 400 years after that time, Sendai awoke to the fact that one of their own had made a real difference in the history of the area! Hasekura had gone the distance, and paid the ultimate sacrifice. If you go to Sendai today, you’ll find an impressive museum and a full-sized replica of the original ship in which he travelled. Furthermore, if you walk out a ways from the Sendai train station, you’ll find a quaint clock which on the hour features a parade of figurines depicting Hasagawa and entourage wobbling along, carrying a gift to Rome.

I suppose only in Heaven will we know the real story of Hasekura Tsunenaga, a lowly disgraced Samurai. But we can look around today and see his influence on the lives of people. 

Think about who you’re influencing today!

Till next time, Marsha