To look at the churches of the Goto Islands—nearly as far down as you can get—especially from a Western standpoint, they’re unremarkable. Oh sure, the one there hiding in the forest or the other simple, nearly antiquated, and even editing these shots made me chuckle. This is supposed to be a little ‘zine for travel adventures and this seems hardly exciting. They’re churches. We’ve seen ten thousand.
But then you get into the history and they suddenly become alive as they claim their showrunner to be.
See, Christianity in Japan goes back to the late 1600s, with trade routes being opened up seemingly monthly, with Japan wanting to be part of the worldwide Age of Exploration.
But in 1614—a decade after Japan decided to close its doors to the outside world—Christianity (and other subsequent Western religions) became a crime… and one punishable by the most violent of deaths, as seen in Scorsese’s Silence, and more recently in Shogun. The practice of fumi-e, forcing one to renounce their religion, took hold of the country, and those brave enough to stay went into hiding.
Enter: The Goto Islands—far far away from the mainland, and soon to be the only island where foreigners were allowed to drop anchor, for no other reason than to keep (minimal) trade alive.
This ban would continue for nearly 200 years, and during that time, small hidden churches began to pop up in this chain of 140 islands.
It was a special side quest, to take ferry after ferry, cycling to and through valleys, up mountains when I could, trying to find these old hidden churches. Some visible, some not. But all meaningful when you have context.
[End]
