More history

I went to Yokohama today and visited Chinatown...one of the world's largest...to see if I could find some tasty food. (I did, but it cost 2500yen...about $24...and there was no fortune cookie.) Anyway, I picked up a map with a brief history of the area. The named was changed to Chinatown in 1955...before that the Japanese called it Nankin-machi which means Nanjing town. :)

I have been doing some more reading of Japanese history. Remember how some of the first Christians were Catholic priests? Remember how there was a law passed to expel all Christians? There was a Protestant man from Britain named William Adams who found favor with the Shogun named Tokugawa Ieyasu. Actually, Ieyasu wouldn't let him leave...so he was forced to live and advise him, but he received benefits and prospered (much like Joseph in the bible).

From Wikipedia:

Adams, a Protestant, was seen as a rival by the Portuguese and other Catholic religious orders in Japan. When he and his crew arrived on the Liefde, the Jesuits settled in Nagasaki became very anxious as they had informed the Japanese, inaccurately in fact, but not necessarily in their belief, that all Europe was united under a single, undisputed church. Because of the fear that Adams would shed light on the truth, the Jesuits conspired against him, asking forcefully for his crucifixion at first, then having him imprisoned when Ieyasu refused to kill Adams for no reason.

...

Ieyasu, influenced by Adams' counsels and social trouble caused by the numerous Catholic converts, expelled the Jesuits from Japan in 1614 and demanded the Japanese Catholics abandon their faith.

This account is interesting. Because after that, Adams was still allowed to stay...and he was a Christian (supposedly). I'd like to read more about that.

There are different accounts, but could it be that the division of the church at that time was one of the contributing factors of the closing of Japan?

--David