I have to say that there are still fanatical believers in Japan. Even though the Tokugawa shogunate's ban on religion meant that most of the believers had to go underground, they had not yet renounced their faith.

But the real deadliest blow is precisely for this reason.

During the lockdown, Catholics were brutally and bloodily suppressed, and the number of Catholics in Japan dropped dramatically. However, there are still some people who secretly believe in Catholicism, "and Kyushu, the main base of Catholicism, is the main concentration area." It was here that "the Shimabara Rebellion, which marked the last time Japanese Catholics were striving, broke out."

Since 1634, natural disasters have occurred in the Shimabara and Amakusa areas, resulting in the misery of the people. Under the brutal rule of the shogunate, the people, mainly Catholics, finally broke out in the Shimabara Rebellion, the largest "cult rebellion" in the Edo period.

(Although the textbooks call this uprising a "peasant uprising," the author feels that it is more appropriate to call it a "cult uprising.") Because its leaders and backbones were all believers, and they were all nobles and samurai" not ordinary peasants. There is also a definite religious purpose, which, no matter how you look at it, is not in line with the peasantry. ）

The leader of the Shimabara Rebellion, Amakusa Shiro, whose real name is Tokisada Masuda, and his father Yoshiji Masuda was a retainer of Konishii Naga. Later, Shizhen was succeeded to Amakusa Shibei and renamed Amakusa Tokishi. Amakusa has been brilliant since childhood, known as a prodigy, and has a handsome appearance. A scholar once said to Amakusa: "Your Excellency has a noble face, and you should have mastered the world, but it is a pity that you were born in the Tokugawa era and cannot achieve great things."

Amakusa accepted Catholicism and preached among the people the doctrine that "heaven and earth are of the same root, and all things are one, and there is no distinction between dignity and inferiority", and was regarded as "Tiantong" by the people.

In 1637, Amakusa Shiro led a rebellion of Shimabara and Amakusa's believers, known as the Shimabara Rebellion.

Most of the leaders of the Shimabara Rebellion were Ronin of the Western Army who escaped from the Osaka Winter and Summer Battles, and most of them were Catholics of the Western Army. After the defeat of the Western Army, most of the daimyo who stood on the wrong side were either confiscated or reduced. The boss can't keep it, let alone the younger brother, and many samurai have lost their jobs.

Some of them, after losing their lords, fled to places such as Shimabara and Amakusa. Among them, the more famous ones are the "Amakusa Five" of the Amakusa family and the Shiki family. They recruited ronins from all over the world and eventually elected Amakusa Shiro as the commander-in-chief.

Under the leadership of Amakusa Shiro, the rebels quickly occupied Hara Castle in the southern part of the Shimabara Peninsula and erected a cross on the castle with a banner painted with a cross and an icon. They announced that they would overthrow the shogunate, establish the "kingdom of heaven on earth", and establish a new government of the Catholic faith. According to statistics, more than 37,000 parishioners took part in the uprising, of whom more than 13,000 were combat-ready.

In December of the same year, the shogunate received news of the peasant uprisings of Shimahara and Amakusa successively, and hurriedly dispatched Itakura Shigemasa as the shogunate's poison envoy to Kyushu to lead the suppression of the rebels. After Itakura arrived in Kyushu, he "launched two attacks on the rebels", both of which ended in failure.

Therefore, the shogunate sent Matsudaira Nobutsuna to Kyushu to supervise the war. After receiving this news, Itakura felt that the shogunate did not trust him. On New Year's Day, before Matsudaira Nobutsuna arrived in Kyushu, Itakura launched a surprise attack on the Hara Castle rebel army. However, under the hard work of the Harashiro rebel army led by Amakusa Shiro, the Itakura army was defeated, and "the loss of more than 3,900 people" Itakura Shigemasa died in battle.

After Matsudaira Nobutsuna arrived in Kyushu, he used the defeat of Itakura as a lesson and adopted the tactics of encirclement, "trying to wait for the city to run out of food" and the rebel army automatically collapsed. At the same time, the shogunate army, who had nothing to do, actually asked the Dutch to help shell the original castle. But the Dutch didn't have much artillery either, and the attack was equally ineffective, and after some tossing, there was still no practical effect.

Don't look at the Dutch are also Catholics, but they are not polite at all.

Seeing this, everyone is not a little familiar. That's right" was almost the prelude to the Taiping Rebellion in China. At that time, "the European and American powers were still helping the Tartars, and they didn't think about any incense at all."

However, "due to the siege of the city, there was a shortage of food" and the combat effectiveness of the rebel army was greatly reduced. On February 28, 1638, the shogunate army launched a general attack on the rebel army with more than 100,000 troops. Amakusa Shiro and all his rebels were killed in battle. The peasant uprisings of Shimabara and Amakusa were declared unsuccessful.

After the end of the Shimabara Rebellion, the feudal domains of the shogunate were also severely punished, with the head of the Matsukura clan being sentenced to beheading, and the lord of the Amakusa domain, Terasawa Takaken, being demoted, and later committing suicide in Edo.

The defeat of the Shimabara Rebellion was the last time that Catholicism appeared on the stage of medieval Japanese history. The rebel army led by Shiro Amakusa, relying on fanatical faith, could resist the shogunate army of more than 100,000 men with a force of less than 15,000 men for nearly a year" shows the firmness of an army that has been brainwashed by religion.

Because of this, Catholicism became more hostile to the shogunate, and the crackdown was further intensified.

Since then, Bishop Jian has been in a state of decline, and his faith in Catholicism has gone completely underground "very little." Catholicism, which had been introduced to Japan since 1549, had almost disappeared in less than 90 years. It was not until the Meiji Restoration that Catholicism began to resurge.

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There are many reasons why Catholicism is hitting the streets in Japan, and when it comes to analysis, there are three main points, but in fact, they are all self-inflicted.

First, the monotheistic religion of Catholicism "has a strong exclusivity, and the opposition and contempt for Shintoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism in Japan that they have shown in the course of their missionary work are also intolerable to the Tokugawa rulers, who have respected themselves as the "kingdom of God" since ancient times and are deeply influenced by Confucianism.

In addition, Catholicism also opposes polygamy and concubinage in Japanese society, as well as abortion, seppuku, and human trafficking. These ethical ideas of Catholicism are directly and positively opposed to and conflicted with traditional Japanese ethics and morality, and the contradictions between the two are irreconcilable.

Second, the expansion of the scale of God's mission, the surge of believers, caused panic in the shogunate. In 1581, there were 150,000 believers in Japan. By the beginning of the 17th century, "the number of Catholics in Japan had swelled to 750,000,000," and Catholicism had spread throughout Japan. Missionaries organize believers into lectures and groups to carry out planned and organized missionary activities. This proselytizing act deeply disturbed the Tokugawa shogunate, which feared that these Catholics would be used by Toyotomi Hideyoshi's bereaved family, former retainers, and anti-Tokugawa forces to "organize riots."

Moreover, Catholicism gradually infiltrated the interior of the Tokugawa shogunate, forming a potential threat to the shogunate's rule. Catholicism continued to permeate all strata of Japanese society, and many local daimyos, lords, central officials, and close ministers of the Tokugawa clan became devout Catholics. In 1609, the dereliction of duty of the "Kishitan samurai" Okamoto Daihachi and the "Kishitan Daimyo" Arima Harunobu caused a high degree of alarm and shock in the Tokugawa shogunate. And many of the Kishitan daimyo and samurai were far more devotive to Catholicism than to the shogunate.

In addition, most of the daimyo and lords in western Japan were "basically the kind of people who were dissatisfied with the Tokugawa shogunate." They were either remnants or former ministers of the Toyotomi regime, or they were local emperors like Shimazu who had always been obedient to the central government.

Catholicism, on the other hand, has a strong cohesive force, like an invisible net that binds them together and forms a latent force. These potential forces, once erupted or exploited by the Catholic Church, were enough to shake the rule of the Tokugawa regime.

For this reason, in order to stabilize the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate, it was inevitable that corresponding measures should be taken to suppress and combat Catholicism.

Third, and important, is the point. That is, Catholicism, an alien Western religion, "is not as good as they advertise, nor is it just for the sake of faith." Otherwise, how could the Dutch help the shogunate and open fire on the Amakusa rebels.

These missionaries were the pioneers of aggression, and they were inextricably linked with the invading forces of European colonialism, which made them suspicious and fearful of the Japanese rulers. Although they adopted a peaceful missionary policy in Japan, it was entirely because Japan was relatively strong, and "they could not eat it for a while."

Catholicism has always been like this in those days, and if it encounters soft persimmons, it will be pinched directly, such as the unlucky Indians and Africans, as well as regions such as the Philippines and Vietnam. In the face of a strong force, "it is carried out in a more moderate way, such as infiltration and peaceful evolution, as in China, Japan, India, and other regions." Of course, "all the regions that use this policy have all suffered shameful failures without exception."

For example, the "St. Philippe Incident" in 1596 undoubtedly exposed the aggressive nature of Catholicism. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi's general, Masuda Nagamori, spoke with the captain of the ship about how the vast territory of Spain had been obtained, the captain replied: "First send missionaries to convert their people into believers, and then send troops to join forces with the believers and conquer the country." Immediately thereafter, Toyotomi Hideyoshi "began to ban Catholicism for the first time and carried out mass murder of Catholic missionaries and believers."

It is understandable that the later Tokugawa shogunate was the same, and that "in order to safeguard national security and national dignity and prevent Western colonial forces from using Catholicism to invade the east," they adopted an extremely cruel policy of prohibiting Christianity and cracking down on the extermination of Catholicism."

Of course, in the modern world, these concerns no longer exist, so Catholicism has redeveloped. But after so many years of suppression, they can no longer fork it.

Up to now, there are only a little more than 500,000 Catholic believers in Japan, not to mention that they cannot be compared with old sects such as Buddhism and Shintoism, and even some of the larger cults are not comparable.

And don't forget, the religious thinking of modern Japanese people is very casual, compared to Koreans, who also belong to East Asia, "completely different things (God knows how the brains of sticks grow, and among their Catholics, there are many fanatics.)" ）。 Therefore, the water of 500,000 is quite large, and there can be 50,000 devout believers, and the Holy See can thank God.