BY BARBARA O'BRIEN

Christianity was banned in Japan in 1614. This was about 65 years after it had been introduced to Japan. The last post told the story of the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki, a group of Franciscan priests and Japanese Catholics who were crucified in Nagasaki in 1597.  But that was just a preview. More executions followed, and after the ban Japanese officials went to extraordinary lengths to identify — and eliminate — all traces of Christianity in Japan. This purge of Christianity eventually extended to western hegemony in general, when nearly all foreigners were barred from entering Japan, and Japanese were barred from leaving it.

I mostly want to look at why this happened.  I sometimes hear it said that Christianity was suppressed to protect Buddhism. But, frankly, most of the warlords originally behind the suppression of Christianity were not known to give a hoo-haw about Buddhism. At times they were as merciless toward Buddhist sects as they were to the Jesuits and Franciscans. And as told in the last post, one powerful warlord, Oda Nobunaga, encouraged the Catholic missionaries because he hoped they would take the more powerful Buddhist institutions down a few pegs.  In truth, most of the leaders of 16th century Japan were less concerned with religious doctrines than they were about their own grip on power.

But now we move into the 17th century. The warlord who ordered the crufixions at Nagasaki, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, died in 1598, apparently of some disease. By 1600 control of Japan had passed to Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616).  Tokugawa Ieyasu was named Shogun in 1603.  (As explained in the last post, Japan did have emperors, but beginning in the late 12th century the real ruler of Japan was the Shogun, a military dictator.) Tokugawa Ieyasu and his successors — the Tokugawa shogunate — would govern Japan until 1862.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thereligioushistorynerd/2024/02/when-christianity-was-banned-in-japan/