Kirishitan
Japanese Christians in Portuguese costume, 16th–17th century.
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| Founder | |
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| Portuguese | |
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| Japan | |
| Religions | |
| Christianity | |
| Scriptures | |
| The Bible | |
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| Japanese |
The Japanese term Kirishitan (吉利支丹, 切支丹, キリシタン, きりしたん?), from Portuguese cristão, referred to Roman Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used in Japanese texts as a historiographic term for Roman Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Modern Japanese has several ways of spelling Christian of which the most common are the noun form kirisuto-kyōto , and also kurisuchan . The Japanese spelling kirishitan is used primarily in Japanese texts for the early history of Roman Catholicism in Japan, or in relation to kakure kirishitan, Hidden Christians. However, English sources on histories of Japan generally use the term "Christian" without distinction.
Christian missionaries were known as bateren (from the Portuguese word padre, "father") or iruman (from the Portuguese irmão, "brother"). Both the transcriptions 切支丹 and 鬼利死丹 came into use during the Edo Period when Christianity was a forbidden religion. The Kanji used for the transcriptions have negative connotations. The first one could be read as "cut off support", and the second as "devils who profit from death".
Portuguese ships began arriving in Japan in 1543, with Catholic missionary activities in Japan beginning in earnest around 1549, mainly by Portuguese-sponsored Jesuits until Spanish-sponsored mendicant orders, such as the Franciscans and Dominicans, gained access to Japan. Of the 95 Jesuits who worked in Japan up to 1600, 57 were Portuguese, 20 were Spaniards and 18 Italian.Francis Xavier, Cosme de Torres (a Jesuit priest), and João Fernandes were the first to arrive to Kagoshima with hopes to bring Christianity and Catholicism to Japan. At its height, Japan is estimated to have had around 300,000 Christians. Catholicism was subsequently repressed in several parts of the country and ceased to exist publicly in the 17th century.
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