Christian Sorcerers on Trial - Annotated by Kate Wildman Nakai & Mark Teeuwen & Fumiko Miyazaki (Paperback)

About the Book

In 1829, six people were paraded through Osaka and crucified as devotees of the "pernicious creed" of Christianity. Christian Sorcerers on Trial offers annotated translations of a range of sources on this sensational event. It provides students and scholars alike with an extraordinarily rich picture of late Edo society.

Book Synopsis

In 1829, three women and three men were paraded through Osaka and crucified. Placards set up at the execution ground proclaimed their crime: they were devotees of the "pernicious creed" of Christianity. Middle-aged widows, the women made a living as mediums, healers, and fortune-tellers. Two of the men dabbled in divination; the third was a doctor who collected books in Chinese on Western learning and Christianity.

This was a startling development. No one in Japan had been identified and punished as a Christian for more than a century, and now, avowed devotees of the proscribed sect had appeared in the very heart of the realm. Just decades before the arrival of Perry's black ships and the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate, the incident reignited fears of Christians as evil sorcerers, plotting to undermine society and overthrow the country.

Christian Sorcerers on Trial offers annotated translations of a range of sources on this sensational event, from the 1827 arrest of the alleged Christians through the case's afterlife. The protagonists' testimonies relate with striking detail their life histories, practices, and motivations. The record of deliberations in Edo and communications between Osaka and Edo officials illuminate the operation of the Tokugawa system of criminal justice. Retellings of the incident show how the story was transmitted and received. Translated and put in context by Fumiko Miyazaki, Kate Wildman Nakai, and Mark Teeuwen, the sources provide students and scholars alike with an extraordinarily rich picture of late Edo social life, religious practices, and judicial procedures.

Review Quotes

Christian Sorcerers on Trial is a model of consummate scholarship and at the same time a gripping narrative which will be of great interest not just to students of Japanese religion and history, but to anyone curious about Japan in the decades immediately before its so-called "opening up" by the West . . . a fine example of what collaborative modern scholarship can do with complex and copious source material: highly recommended for specialists and non-specialists alike.-- "Asian Review of Books"

Christian Sorcerers on Trial offers a deep insight into the lives of Osaka's 19th century underclass.-- "All the Anime"

A fascinating study of many of the secrets of the Kirishitan sect, revealing surprising and little-known facts about their religious practices, as well as being an interesting exploration into the mindset and attitudes of the devotees themselves. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in Japanese religion, in Christianity, in Japanese history, law, or politics.-- "Contemporary Japan"

For students and scholars of late Edo Japan, the material is truly fascinating as it vividly exposes society's inner mechanisms and folk practices that other primary sources generally do not touch upon . . . highly recommended reading.-- "Japan Review"

This important book performs a number of functions: it tells a fascinating story, it reveals much of the life of men and women in Kyōto and Ōsaka in the mid-nineteenth century, and it is a mine of information on juridical procedure.-- "Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies"

Masterfully translated and deeply revealing, Christian Sorcerers on Trial is a powerful example of the way legal records can be used to illuminate the cultural and mental universe of an era. Certainly no one who reads it will ever think of Ōshio Heihachirō without recalling the story of Mitsugi, the extraordinary woman whose case he pursued so relentlessly.--Daniel Botsman, author of Punishment and Power in the Making of Modern Japan

Christian Sorcerers is a veritable gold mine for understanding the late Edo period. These translations reveal much about popular religion, the failure of the shogunate to eradicate the "pernicious" Kirishitan sect, the lingering influence of the Christian religion, and the legal procedures and punishments for dealing with religious deviancy. This volume is destined to become a standard resource in the field.--Mark R. Mullins, University of Auckland

This is a monumental study of Edo-period religious life, presenting the prosecution and crucifixion of the healer Toyoda Mitsugi who was charged with secretly practicing Christianity. Based on the most detailed testimonies ever compiled of the lives of popular religionists, their colorful clients, and the processes of their judicial interrogation, this work makes for truly fascinating reading.--Helen Hardacre, author of Shinto: A History

Christian Sorcerers on Trial is a fascinating, startling, and revealing introduction to and translation of rich primary texts from a little-known but important episode in Japanese religious and cultural history. Scholars of Japanese religion, Japanese history, and Christian history will benefit from it.--Elizabeth Morrison, Middlebury College

About the Author

Fumiko Miyazaki is professor emerita at Keisen University, Tokyo.

Kate Wildman Nakai is professor emerita at Sophia University, Tokyo.

Mark Teeuwen is professor of Japanese studies at the University of Oslo.

Miyazaki, Nakai, and Teeuwen previously collaborated (with Anne Walthall and John Breen) on a translation of another late Edo source: Lust, Commerce, and Corruption: An Account of What I Have Seen and Heard by an Edo Samurai (Columbia, 2014).