Nanban-ji (南蛮寺, also pronounced ''Nanbandera'') is a name applied to spaces or structures used by Christian missionaries and Japanese Christian converts in the early

history of the Catholic Church in Japan Christian missionaries arrived with Francis Xavier and the Jesuits in the 1540s and briefly flourished, with over 100,000 converts, including many ''daimyōs'' in Kyushu. It soon met resistance from the highest office holders of Japan. Emperor Ōgi ...

. Whether converted from existing temples or built for purpose as churches and centers for Christian education, buildings known as Nanban-ji (temple of/for the southern barbarians) were present in

Kyōto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

Hirado is a city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. The part historically named Hirado is located on Hirado Island. With recent mergers, the city's boundaries have expanded, and Hirado now occupies parts of the main island of Kyushu. The component ...

Azuchi was a town located in Gamō District, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 12,217 and a density of 502.76 persons per km². The total area was 24.30 km². On March 21, 2010, Azuchi was merged into th ...

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

Kanazawa is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Overview Cityscape File:もてな ...

, Sunpu, and

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

. Using the term ''Deus'' for God, the temples were also called and . Structures known as Nanban-ji were destroyed from Toyotomi Hideyoshi's 1588 edict against Christians in Japan, with some fragments of construction remaining and eventually being deposited in museums. There are also depictions in contemporary art, and in the narratives of missionaries such as

Luís Fróis Luís Fróis (1532 – 8 July 1597) was a Portuguese missionary who worked in Asia during the second half of the 16th century. While in Japan in 1582, he witnessed the attack on Honnō-ji, a Buddhist temple that ended in the death of Oda Nobuna ...

References

{{Reflist History of Christianity in Japan History of Catholicism in Asia Catholic Church in Japan

See also

References