Research Article
BibTex RIS Cite

Japan’s Hidden Christians- Kakure Kirishitans and “Buddhist Bible”

Year 2024, , 409 - 427, 15.06.2024
https://doi.org/10.18505/cuid.1433534

Abstract

It is generally accepted that East Asian societies have adopted a more flexible and syncretic approach to foreign religions than other societies in history. The communities in this region have generally transformed newly arrived religions to their own identities using soft power and adapted them to their own identity. The arrival of Buddhism to China, then to Japan, and the subsequent incorporation of the color of these cultures is an example of this flexible and syncrectic approach. In addition, the emergence of theories and practices aimed at the simultaneous application of Confucianist, Taoist and Buddhist religious traditions in China is another example. Similarly, the centuries-long coexistence of Shintoism and Buddhism in Japan, and the acceptance of Shinto kami and Buddhist Buddhas and bodhisattvas as the same supreme beings, are also primary examples encountered in the same context. However, there are also exceptions of this flexible and syncrectic approach to foreign religions. One of these exceptions is the approach and policies towards the foreign religion Christianity during the Tokugawa shogunate. The shogunate's aggressive policies, which gradually hardened and expanded in scope against Christian teaching and local and foreign Christians, led to the emergence of the phenomenon of "underground religion" or "hidden faith" which is rarely encountered in Japanese history. The shogunate's harsh policies and bans on Christianity forced Japanese Christians to live by hiding their faith, and Japanese Christians continued to exist for two and a half centuries until the end of the Tokugawa shogunate by keeping their faith secret. By the end of the Tokugawa period, the state policy towards Christianity changed, missionary movements were allowed, and Christian churches came to Japan again. But a group of Japanese Christians, who continued their faith in secret for two and a half centuries, refused to join Christian churches and formed the Kakure Kirishitan community, which has continued to exist as a separate group to this day. As an example of the tendency of Japanese society and culture to adapt and transform foreign and new elements it encounters, the Kakure Kirishitan community and its sacred texts Tenchi are the main subject of this study. The main source of the study is Tenchi, the sacred text of the Kakure Kirishitan community, which can also be called the Buddhist Bible. The main claim is that the basic factor that enabled the Kakure Kirishitan community to continue its existence in the face of the policy of prohibition and oppression towards Christianity is the adaptation tendency that exists in Japanese society and culture and that Tenchi, which is is based on the combination of certain elements from Japanese religions and traditions, primarily Buddhism, with Christian teachings, is a product of this adaptation tendency. In short, the policy of prohibition and oppression applied to a religion in a way that is contrary to the general identity and culture of Japanese society has created the Kakure Kirishitan community, as a rare example of underground religious community in Japanese history. And ironically, this community has been able to continue its existence thanks to this flexible and eclectic tendency found in Japanese identity and culture.

References

  • Aizan, Yamaji. Essays on the Modern Japanese Church: Christianity in Meiji Japan. çev. Graham Squires. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies The University of Michigan, 1999.
  • Deveci, Hülya. ““Japonya Hristiyan bir Ülke Olacak mı?” Rus-Japon Savaşı Sürecinin The Japan Evangelist, Kirisutokyō Sekai, Shinjin, Rikugō Zasshi Dergilerine Yansımaları (1902-1909)”. Tarih İncelemeleri Dergisi XXXVIII- 2 (2023), 523-556.
  • Dōgen. Dōgen’s Pure Standarts for the Zen Community A Translation of the Eihei Shingi. çev.Taigen Daniel Leighton ve Shohaku Okumura. New York: State University of New York Press, 1996.
  • Eisai. “A Treatise on Letting Zen Flourish”. çev.Gishin Tokiwa. Zen Texts. USA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2005.
  • Elison, George. Deus Destroyed, The Image of Christianity in Early Modern Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.
  • Esenbel, Selçuk. “Japonya’da Hristiyanlığın Tarihi, Kabul ve Katliam”. Haçlı Seferleri ve XI. Asırdan Günümüze Haçlı Ruhu Semineri, İstanbul: Edebiyat Fakültesi Basımevi, 1998, 132-144.
  • Fumio, Tamamuro , “The Development of the Temple-Parishioner System”, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 36/1 (2009), 11-26.
  • Harrington, Ann M. “The Kakure Kirishitan and Their Place in Japan’s Religious Tradition”. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 7/4 (December, 1980), 318-336.
  • Higashibaba, Ikuo. Christianity in Early Modern Japan: Kirishitan Belief and Practice. Leiden: Brill, 2001.
  • Higashibaba, Ikuo. Christianity in Early Modern Japan: Kirishitan Belief and Practice. Leiden:Brill, 2001.
  • Hur, Nam-lin. Death and Social Order in Tokugawa Japan Buddhism, Anti-Christianity, and the Danka System. Cambrididge: Harward University Press, 2007.
  • Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary: Nichi-Ei Bukkyo Jiten日英佛敎辭典. Tokyo: Kenkyusha Printing Co., 1965.
  • Kawamura, Leslie S. “Bodhisattva(s)”. Encyclopedia of Buddhism. ed. Robert E. Buswell. 1/58-60. USA:Macmillan Reference, 2004.
  • Keizan. Zen Master Keizan’s Monastic Regulations. çev.Ichimura Shohei. U.S.A.:North American Institute of Zen and Buddhist Studies, 1994.
  • Kuşculu, Ayhan, “Japonya’da Hrıstiyan Misyoner Hareketleri (1542-1587)”. Bilimname XIII, (2007/2), 139-151.
  • Kutsal Kitap: Tevrat, Zebur, İncil. İstanbul: Kitabı Mukaddes Şirketi-Yeni Yaşam Yayınları, 2013.
  • Miyazaki, Kentarō. “Hidden Christians in Contemporary Nagasaki”. Translated by Brian Burke-Gaffney, Crossroads: A Journal of Nagasaki History and Culture 1 (1993), 35-47
  • Miyazaki, Kentarō. “Roman Catholic Mission in Pre-Modern Japan”. Handbook of Christianity in Japan, ed. Mark R. Mullins.Leiden: Brill, 2003.
  • Miyazaki, Kentarō. “The Kakure Kirishitan Tradition”. Handbook of Christianity in Japan. ed. Mark R. Mullins (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 19-34.
  • Mullins, Mark R. (ed.) Handbook of Christianity in Japan. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
  • Mullins, Mark R. Christianity Made in Japan, A Study of Indigenous Movements. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998.
  • Nasco, Peter. “Secrecy and the Transmission of Tradition Issues in the Study of the “Underground” Christians”. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 20/1 (1993), 3-29.
  • Shin, Junhyoung Michael. “Avalokitesvara’s Manifestation as the Virgin Mary: The Jesuit Adaptation and the Visual Conflationin Japanese Catholicism after 1914”. Church History 80/1 (March, 2011), 1-39.
  • Susuz Aygül, Merve. Orta Çağ Sōtō Zen Budizminde Manastır Hayatı ve Dindarlık. İstanbul:Marmara Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Doktora Tezi, 2021.
  • Tengu”. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism. ed.Helen J. Baroni. 340=341. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2002.
  • The Beginning Heaven and Earth: The Sacred Book of Japan’s Hidden Christians. çev. Christal Whelan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996.
  • The Brahmā’s Net Sutra. çev.Charles Muller ve Kenneth K. Tanaka. USA: BDK America, 2017.
  • The Lotus Sutra, çev. Burton Watson. New York: Colombia University Press, 1993.
  • The Vimalakirti Sutra. çev. John McRae. USA: Numata Center of Buddhist Translation and Research, 2004.
  • Thelle, Notto R.”The Christian encounter with Japanese Buddhism”. Handbook of Christianity in Japan. ed. Mark R. Mullins (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 227-248.
  • Tinsley, Elizabeth. “Kūkai and The Development of Shingon Buddhism”. Esoteric Buddhism and Tantras in East Asia. ed.Charles Orzech vd. 691-708. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
  • Turnbull, Stephen “Mass or Maturi?: The Oyashiki-Sama Ceremony on Ikitsuki “, Monumenta Nipponica 50/2 (Summer, 1995), 171-188.
  • Turnbull, Stephen. “Acculturation among the Kakure Kirishitan: Some Conclusions from the Tenchi Hajimari no Koto”. Japan and Christianity Impacts and Responses. ed. John Breen ve Mark Williams, (London:Palgrave Macmillan, 1996), 63-74.
  • Turnbull, Stephen. The Kakure Kirishitan of Japan A Study of Their Development, Beliefs and Rituals to the Present Day. Surrey:Japan Library, 1998.
  • Whelan, Christal. “Religion Concealed. The Kakure Kirishitan on Narushima”. Monumenta Nipponica 47/3 (Autumn, 1992), 369-387.
  • Whelan, Christal. “Written and Unwritten Texts of the Kakure Kirishitan”. Japan and Christianity Impacts and Responses. ed. John Breen ve Mark Williams. (London:Palgrave Macmillan, 1996), 122-137.
  • Yoshiya, Abe. “From Prohibition to Toleration: Japanese Government Views regarding Christianity, 1854-73”. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 5/2-3 (June-September, 1978), 107-138.

Japonya’nın Gizli Hristiyanları: Kakure Kirishitan Cemaati ve “Budist Kitabı Mukaddes”

Year 2024, , 409 - 427, 15.06.2024
https://doi.org/10.18505/cuid.1433534

Abstract

Uzak doğu toplumlarının tarihinde yabancı dinlere karşı diğer toplumların tarihine nazaran daha esnek ve senkretik bir yaklaşım benimsenmiş olduğu kabul edilir. Bu coğrafyadaki topluluklar yeni gelen dinleri genellikle yumuşak güç kullanarak dönüştürüp kendi benliğine uygun hale getirmiştir. Budizm’in Çin’e, ardından Japonya’ya gelişi ve sonrasında bu toplulukların rengine boyanması bu esnek ve senkretik yaklaşımın birçok örneğinden biridir. Ayrıca Çin’de Konfüçyanist, Taoist ve Budist dini geleneklerinin üçünün bir arada uygulanmasına yönelik teori ve pratiklerin ortaya çıkmış olması da bu yaklaşımın göstergesidir. Aynı şekilde Japonya’da yüzyıllar boyunca Şintoizm ve Budizmin birlikte uygulanması, Şinto kamileri ile Budist Buddha ve bodhisatvalarının aynı yüce varlıklar olarak kabul edilmesi de aynı bağlamda karşılaşılan birincil örneklerdendir. Fakat yabancı dinlere yönelik bu esnek ve senkretik yaklaşımın istisnaları da yok değildir. Bu istisnalardan biri Tokugava shoğunluğu döneminde ‘yabancı din’ Hristiyanlığa yönelik yaklaşım ve politikalar sonucunda ortaya çıkmıştır. Shoğunluğun Hristiyanlık öğretisine ve yerli ve yabancı Hristiyanlara karşı peyderpey sertleşen ve kapsamı genişleyen agresif politikaları Japon tarihinde örneğine az rastlanılan ‘yer altına inmiş din’, ‘gizlenen cemaat’ olgusunu ortaya çıkarmıştır. Shoğunluğun Hristiyanlığa yönelik sert politikaları ve yasakları Japon Hristiyanlarını inançlarını gizleyerek yaşamaya itmiş ve Japon Hristiyanlar Tokugava şoğunluğu sonuna değin iki buçuk asır boyunca inançlarını saklayarak varlıklarını devam ettirmiştir. Tokugava döneminin sonlanmasıyla birlikte Hristiyanlığa yönelik devlet politikası değişip misyon hareketlerine izin verilmesinin ardından Hristiyan kiliseleri Japonya’ya tekrardan gelmiş, fakat iki buçuk asır boyunca inançlarını gizli olarak devam ettiren Japon Hristiyanlarından bir grup Hristiyan kiliseleri ile birleşmeyi reddetmiş ve ayrı bir cemaat olarak günümüze değin varlığını devam ettiren Kakure Kirishitan cemaatini oluşturmuştur. Japon toplum ve kültürünün temel özelliklerinden biri olan karşılaştığı ‘yabancı’ ve yeni unsurları adapta etme-uyarlama-dönüştürme eğiliminin bir örneği olarak Kakure Kirishitan cemaati ve kutsal metinleri Tenchi bu çalışmanın ana konusunu oluşturmaktadır. Çalışmanın temel kaynağı ‘Budist Kitab-ı Mukaddes’ olarak da isimlendirilebilecek olan Kakure Kirishitan cemaatinin kutsal metni Tenchi’dir. Temel iddiası ise Kakure Kirishitan cemaatinin Hristiyanlığa yönelik sert ve acımasız devlet politikaları karşısında varlığını devam ettirebilmesini mümkün kılan temel etkenin Japon kimlik ve kültüründe var olan uyarlama eğilimi olduğu ve Kakure Kirishitan cemaatinin kutsal metni olarak kabul edilen Tenchi’nin de Budizm başta olmak üzere Japon din ve geleneklerinden belirli öğelerin Hristiyanlık öğretileriyle birleştirilerek temelde -zorunluluk arz eden şart ve koşullar yadsınmamak kaydıyla- bu uyarlama eğiliminin sonucu olarak ortaya çıktığıdır. Sonuç olarak Japon toplum ve kültürünün genel kimlik ve davranış tarzına ters bir şekilde dine yönelik uygulanan yasak ve baskı politikası Japon tarihinde örneğine az rastlanan yer altına inmiş din-cemaat olarak Kakure Kirishitan cemaatini ortaya çıkarmış ve ironik bir şekilde bu cemaat varlığını temelde Japon kimlik ve kültüründe bulunan bu esnek ve senkretik eğilim sayesinde devam ettirebilmiştir.

References

  • Aizan, Yamaji. Essays on the Modern Japanese Church: Christianity in Meiji Japan. çev. Graham Squires. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies The University of Michigan, 1999.
  • Deveci, Hülya. ““Japonya Hristiyan bir Ülke Olacak mı?” Rus-Japon Savaşı Sürecinin The Japan Evangelist, Kirisutokyō Sekai, Shinjin, Rikugō Zasshi Dergilerine Yansımaları (1902-1909)”. Tarih İncelemeleri Dergisi XXXVIII- 2 (2023), 523-556.
  • Dōgen. Dōgen’s Pure Standarts for the Zen Community A Translation of the Eihei Shingi. çev.Taigen Daniel Leighton ve Shohaku Okumura. New York: State University of New York Press, 1996.
  • Eisai. “A Treatise on Letting Zen Flourish”. çev.Gishin Tokiwa. Zen Texts. USA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2005.
  • Elison, George. Deus Destroyed, The Image of Christianity in Early Modern Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.
  • Esenbel, Selçuk. “Japonya’da Hristiyanlığın Tarihi, Kabul ve Katliam”. Haçlı Seferleri ve XI. Asırdan Günümüze Haçlı Ruhu Semineri, İstanbul: Edebiyat Fakültesi Basımevi, 1998, 132-144.
  • Fumio, Tamamuro , “The Development of the Temple-Parishioner System”, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 36/1 (2009), 11-26.
  • Harrington, Ann M. “The Kakure Kirishitan and Their Place in Japan’s Religious Tradition”. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 7/4 (December, 1980), 318-336.
  • Higashibaba, Ikuo. Christianity in Early Modern Japan: Kirishitan Belief and Practice. Leiden: Brill, 2001.
  • Higashibaba, Ikuo. Christianity in Early Modern Japan: Kirishitan Belief and Practice. Leiden:Brill, 2001.
  • Hur, Nam-lin. Death and Social Order in Tokugawa Japan Buddhism, Anti-Christianity, and the Danka System. Cambrididge: Harward University Press, 2007.
  • Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary: Nichi-Ei Bukkyo Jiten日英佛敎辭典. Tokyo: Kenkyusha Printing Co., 1965.
  • Kawamura, Leslie S. “Bodhisattva(s)”. Encyclopedia of Buddhism. ed. Robert E. Buswell. 1/58-60. USA:Macmillan Reference, 2004.
  • Keizan. Zen Master Keizan’s Monastic Regulations. çev.Ichimura Shohei. U.S.A.:North American Institute of Zen and Buddhist Studies, 1994.
  • Kuşculu, Ayhan, “Japonya’da Hrıstiyan Misyoner Hareketleri (1542-1587)”. Bilimname XIII, (2007/2), 139-151.
  • Kutsal Kitap: Tevrat, Zebur, İncil. İstanbul: Kitabı Mukaddes Şirketi-Yeni Yaşam Yayınları, 2013.
  • Miyazaki, Kentarō. “Hidden Christians in Contemporary Nagasaki”. Translated by Brian Burke-Gaffney, Crossroads: A Journal of Nagasaki History and Culture 1 (1993), 35-47
  • Miyazaki, Kentarō. “Roman Catholic Mission in Pre-Modern Japan”. Handbook of Christianity in Japan, ed. Mark R. Mullins.Leiden: Brill, 2003.
  • Miyazaki, Kentarō. “The Kakure Kirishitan Tradition”. Handbook of Christianity in Japan. ed. Mark R. Mullins (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 19-34.
  • Mullins, Mark R. (ed.) Handbook of Christianity in Japan. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
  • Mullins, Mark R. Christianity Made in Japan, A Study of Indigenous Movements. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998.
  • Nasco, Peter. “Secrecy and the Transmission of Tradition Issues in the Study of the “Underground” Christians”. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 20/1 (1993), 3-29.
  • Shin, Junhyoung Michael. “Avalokitesvara’s Manifestation as the Virgin Mary: The Jesuit Adaptation and the Visual Conflationin Japanese Catholicism after 1914”. Church History 80/1 (March, 2011), 1-39.
  • Susuz Aygül, Merve. Orta Çağ Sōtō Zen Budizminde Manastır Hayatı ve Dindarlık. İstanbul:Marmara Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Doktora Tezi, 2021.
  • Tengu”. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism. ed.Helen J. Baroni. 340=341. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2002.
  • The Beginning Heaven and Earth: The Sacred Book of Japan’s Hidden Christians. çev. Christal Whelan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996.
  • The Brahmā’s Net Sutra. çev.Charles Muller ve Kenneth K. Tanaka. USA: BDK America, 2017.
  • The Lotus Sutra, çev. Burton Watson. New York: Colombia University Press, 1993.
  • The Vimalakirti Sutra. çev. John McRae. USA: Numata Center of Buddhist Translation and Research, 2004.
  • Thelle, Notto R.”The Christian encounter with Japanese Buddhism”. Handbook of Christianity in Japan. ed. Mark R. Mullins (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 227-248.
  • Tinsley, Elizabeth. “Kūkai and The Development of Shingon Buddhism”. Esoteric Buddhism and Tantras in East Asia. ed.Charles Orzech vd. 691-708. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
  • Turnbull, Stephen “Mass or Maturi?: The Oyashiki-Sama Ceremony on Ikitsuki “, Monumenta Nipponica 50/2 (Summer, 1995), 171-188.
  • Turnbull, Stephen. “Acculturation among the Kakure Kirishitan: Some Conclusions from the Tenchi Hajimari no Koto”. Japan and Christianity Impacts and Responses. ed. John Breen ve Mark Williams, (London:Palgrave Macmillan, 1996), 63-74.
  • Turnbull, Stephen. The Kakure Kirishitan of Japan A Study of Their Development, Beliefs and Rituals to the Present Day. Surrey:Japan Library, 1998.
  • Whelan, Christal. “Religion Concealed. The Kakure Kirishitan on Narushima”. Monumenta Nipponica 47/3 (Autumn, 1992), 369-387.
  • Whelan, Christal. “Written and Unwritten Texts of the Kakure Kirishitan”. Japan and Christianity Impacts and Responses. ed. John Breen ve Mark Williams. (London:Palgrave Macmillan, 1996), 122-137.
  • Yoshiya, Abe. “From Prohibition to Toleration: Japanese Government Views regarding Christianity, 1854-73”. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 5/2-3 (June-September, 1978), 107-138.
There are 37 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language Turkish
Subjects History of Religion
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Merve Susuz Aygül 0000-0001-8880-9258

Early Pub Date June 14, 2024
Publication Date June 15, 2024
Submission Date February 7, 2024
Acceptance Date April 29, 2024
Published in Issue Year 2024

Cite

ISNAD Susuz Aygül, Merve. “Japonya’nın Gizli Hristiyanları: Kakure Kirishitan Cemaati Ve ‘Budist Kitabı Mukaddes’”. Cumhuriyet İlahiyat Dergisi 28/1 (June 2024), 409-427. https://doi.org/10.18505/cuid.1433534.

Cumhuriyet İlahiyat Dergisi Creative Commons Atıf-GayriTicari 4.0 Uluslararası Lisansı (CC BY NC) ile lisanslanmıştır.