Sakitsu Church is a Catholic church in Amakusa, Kumamoto, Japan. It was first constructed in 1888 but it was renovated and moved to its current location in 1934. It was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2018 along with the rest of Sakitsu village. It forms part of the ''

Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region ( ja, 長崎と天草地方の潜伏キリシタン関連遺産) is a group of twelve sites in Nagasaki Prefecture and Kumamoto Prefecture relating to the history of Christianity in Japan. The Nagasaki ...

'' World Heritage Site and is the World Heritage Site's only location outside of Nagasaki Prefecture.

History

In 1569 the small fishing village of Sakitsu was visited by Portuguese missionary Luis de Almeida. In 1596 when Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned Christianity in Japan much of the local population had already been converted to the Catholic Church. Despite the ban many residents of Sakitsu continued practicing their faith in secret. During the sixteenth century many of Sakitsu's residence started using everyday household items for Christian worship instead of Christian devotional objects during the 16th century Sakitsu became the center of

Hidden Christians ''Kakure kirishitan'' () is a modern term for a member of the Catholic Church in Japan that went underground at the start of the Edo period in the early 17th century due to Christianity's repression by the Tokugawa shogunate. History Origin ...

in Amakusa. The first church in Sakitsu opened in 1888 but the church was renovated and moved to its current location in 1934. French missionary, Augustin Halbout funded the renovation and purchased the premises of the former village head man as land for the new church. In 2018 it was inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage Site as part of the '' Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki.'' Both Sakitsu Church and the surrounding village of Sakitsu were inscribed due to preserving a distinctive religious tradition nurtured by

Architecture

Sakitsu Church was built with a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

design. The design was done by Tetsukawa Yosuke and it was constructed using wood and concrete. High steeples jut from the church's roof and its interior has tatami flooring. The alter of the church was placed at the former site of a ''

fumi-e 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, other ...

'' (a picture of a Christian figure to be stepped upon by suspected Christians).

References

{{reflist 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Japan Roman Catholic churches completed in 1934 World Heritage Sites in Japan Religious buildings and structures in Kumamoto Prefecture Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region