Abstract

GONZALEZ-BOLADO, Jaime. Jesuit Interventions in Japanese Politics: The Case of the Amakusa Rebellion (1589-1590). Estud. Asia Áfr. [online]. 2023, vol.58, n.1, pp.35-64.  Epub Mar 27, 2023. ISSN 2448-654X.  https://doi.org/10.24201/eaa.v58i1.2795.

This article studies the rebellion that took place in the Amakusa Islands as a paradigmatic example of how members of the Society of Jesus interfered in Japan’s internal political affairs at the end of the Momoyama period. The territorial decentralization prevailing in Japan at that time favored contact among the multiple feudal lords (daimyo), who assigned political and military power, and the missionaries, who sought the daimyos’ vital patronage and protection for their evangelical work. To assure these relations, the Jesuits sometimes intervened in internal issues of secular government, either materially by supplying weapons or resources to a daimyo or, more personally, by acting directly as counselors or intermediaries in armed conflicts such as the Amakusa rebellion.

Keywords : Sixteenth century; Japan; Jesuits; Amakusa; daimyo.