Fumie Kawanabe

A was a likeness of Jesus or Mary onto which the religious authorities of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan required suspected Christians ( Kirishitan) to step, in order to demonstrate that they were not members of the outlawed religion, otherwise they would be tortured or killed.

History

The use of ''fumi-e'' began with the persecution of Christians in Nagasaki in 1629. Inhabitants of Nagasaki, whether a commoner, Buddhist monk or samurai, all were required to tread on the icons which were brought house to house. Their use was officially abandoned when ports opened to foreigners on 13 April 1856, but some remained in use until Christian teaching was placed under formal protection during the Meiji period. The objects were also known as ''e-ita'' or ''ita-e'', while the forced test was called ''e-fumi''.

The Japanese government used ''fumi-e'' to reveal practicing Christians and sympathizers. ''Fumi-e'' were pictures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. Government officials made suspected Christians trample on these pictures. People reluctant to step on the pictures were identified as Christians and were sent to Nagasaki. The policy of the Edo government was to turn them from their faith; however, if the Christians refused to change their religion, they were tortured. As many of them still refused to abandon the religion, they were killed by the government. Executions sometimes took place at Nagasaki's Mount Unzen, where some were boiled in the hot springs.

Execution for Christianity was unofficially abandoned by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1805.

Eighteenth-century Europe was aware enough of ''e-fumi'' for authors of fiction to mention it when alluding to Japan, as in Jonathan Swift's ''Gulliver's Travels'' (1726), Oliver Goldsmith's ''The Citizen of the World'' (1760), and Voltaire's ''Candide'' (1759). Allegations published in Europe the late 17th and early 18th century that Dutch traders at Dejima were required to undergo the ''fumi-e'' test are thought by modern scholars to be propaganda arising from the Anglo-Dutch Wars.

In modern Japanese literature, treading on the fumi-e is a pivotal plot element of the novel '' Silence'' by Shūsaku Endō.

Several secretly practicing Christianity did ''fumi-e'' and then maintained their beliefs secretly (Kakure Kirishitan); there were 20,000 secret Christians in Japan when Christianity was legalized again, down from 500,000 in Nagasaki during the height of Christian belief pre-''fumi-e''. University of Auckland professor Mark Mullins concluded that "In that sense, the 'fumi-e''policies were effective."

Interpretations

Many theologians have tried to contemplate the role of the ''fumi-e'' to Japanese Christians, some seeing the treading of the ''fumi-e'' as a sign of the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University professor Simon Hill stated that if all of the ''fumi-e'' participants had instead chosen to be defiant and died, Christianity would not have continued in Japan; he stated "It is only because some made an existential decision to trample on the ''fumi-e'', ... that Christianity in Japan was able to survive."

Form

''Fumi-e'' were usually cast from bronze, but others were made of painted stone and some were woodblock prints. There are relatively few surviving ''fumi-e'', as most were simply thrown away or recycled for other uses. Some examples were displayed by the Smithsonian in their 2007 exhibition "Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries."

See also

* Auto-da-fé
* Catholicism in Japan
* Holy Inquisition
* Martyrs of Japan

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fumi-E
History of Christianity in Japan
Anti-Christian sentiment in Asia
Anti-Catholicism
Edo period
Persecution of Christians
1629 establishments in Japan
1620s establishments in Japan
1856 disestablishments
Religious policy in Japan