A Japanese Relation printed in Mexico

JAPAN. MEXICO. Morejón, Pedro (c.1562–1639)

Relacion de la persecucion que uvo en la Yglesia de Iapon y de los insignes martyres, que gloriosamente dieron su vida en defensa de n[ost]ra santa Fé, el año de 1614 y 615. [with, as issued] Relacion del Martyrio de quarenta y cinco christianos que padecieron por nuestra santa Fe en las tierras de Arima en Noviembre de 1614.

Mexico: Por Ioan Ruyz, 1616.

Price: $30,000.00

Quarto: 19.7 x 14.5 cm. [8], 103, 96 pp. Collation: *4, A-N4, Aa-Mm4. Two parts in one volume each with its own pagination, with a drophead title for the second part.

ONE OF TWO MEXICAN EDITIONS, both printed by Juan Ruiz in 1616.

Bound in contemporary limp vellum, with two of four ties preserved. Title-page with woodcut Jesuit device; woodcut headpieces and initials. An attractive, unsophisticated copy with broad margins in its original binding. Light stain on title and following two leaves. Early paper repair at outer margin of title page (removing an inscription), mild damp-staining to the text, some small marginal tears, occasional blemishes. Quire C and leaf E4 working loose, clean tear to lower margin of E1 not entering the text, G3-4 with irregular blank corner.

One of two Mexican editions (priority undetermined) of this dramatic account, based on eyewitness reports, of the persecution of missionaries and Japanese Christians (Kirishitan) in Japan in 1613 and 1614. These renewed persecutions were occasioned by fear among the Japanese that the Christian mission was no more than a front for an attempted conquest of Japan by European powers. The book is in two parts. The first concerns events up to the ban and expulsion of the Jesuits from Japan. The second includes additional accounts of martyrdoms, descriptions of miracles related to the martyrs, and a detailed account of the war between the Tokugawa Shogun and the heir to the house of Toyotomi. Throughout his work, Morejón relates in detail the arrest, torture, and execution of Christians who refused to renounce their faith, episodes meant to appeal to all persecuted Christians and to inspire missionary fervor.

“Early in 1614 imperial edicts were issued claiming that the missionaries were a threat to national security, and ordering their banishment and the abjuration of the Christian faith by their neophytes. This marked the end of the formal structure of the Christian church in Japan and, although some priests secretly remained and others covertly entered Japan, the mission never recovered from the blow. After years of sustained persecution, the Christian religion was all but extinguished in Japan by 1640.”(Laures) After this point, the Dutch were the only Europeans allowed to trade with Japan.

The author, the Spanish Jesuit Pedro Morejón (c.1562–1639), had a long career in Asia. He first departed for Japan in 1586 with the Japanese embassy from Salamanca, arriving in 1590 and beginning work at Shimo. He took his final vows in Nagasaki on 4 June 1601 and was soon appointed superior in Miyako. From 1602 he served as vice-superior of the Kami region and, from 1604 to 25 December 1613, as rector of Miyako and vicar-general of the bishop there.

When missionaries were expelled in 1614, Morejón was chosen as provincial procurator, left Japan for Manila, and by 1 January 1616 was in Acapulco. He later returned to Asia, reaching Macau in 1625, visiting Siam in 1626, and serving as rector of the Macau college (1627–1631 and again 1631–1632, with a brief stay in Manila in 1630). He died in Macau on 11 December 1639.

In his dedicatory epistle to the Viceroy of New Spain, written while in Mexico during his journey back to Europe, Morejón explains why he had chosen to publish his account. “Having arrived in this New Spain from the Kingdom of Japan, travelling to Spain and Rome on behalf of that Province of our Society of Jesus, I showed the Provincial Father and other important Fathers of this Province a handwritten account I had brought, detailing the great persecution that this new Church (i.e. in Japan) has suffered in recent years, and the invincible valor and constancy with which many Japanese Christians gave their lives for our holy Catholic faith. This account I obtained from the authentic report prepared by the Ordinary of that Bishopric, along with accounts of other edifying events that occurred at that time.”(p. [7]-[8])

The fact that two editions were published there in the same year (both by Juan Ruiz) is understandable. The Jesuits in New Spain were always eager for news of their confreres in the Asian mission, but there was also much broader societal interest in such reports, since the Viceroyalty of New Spain extended to the Philippines.

It is puzzling that Sommervogel records a 1615 Rome edition of Morejón’s report, of which no copy can now be traced. “[A]n earlier version, also in Spanish, seems to have been published at Rome in 1615. Interestingly, however, the Mexican edition has a dedication by Morejón to the Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), dated May 12, 1616 and addressed from the Jesuit College in Mexico. It is conceivable that the Rome edition was based on reports he had sent directly to the headquarters of the Society of Jesus in Rome, while the Mexican edition was based on similar reports carried personally by Morejón on his way back to Europe via the usual Spanish route across the Pacific and through Mexico.”(Laures)

The Relation from Japan:

The opening chapters of Morejón’s Relation explain the causes and first outbreaks of the persecution. Morejón traces hostility back to Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s 1587 edict banishing the missionaries, and to the resentment of Buddhist clergy and regional lords who feared losing authority as Christianity grew. He recounts how this resentment crystallized under the Tokugawa shogunate, leading to the nationwide edict of 1614 that ordered churches destroyed and missionaries expelled.

The narrative then turns to the domain of Arima, where Christianity had flourished under Arima Harunobu (Juan), a Christian daimyō. After Harunobu’s execution in 1612, his son Arima Naozumi (Miguel) apostatized under shogunal pressure and began enforcing persecution.

From Arima the work moves to Miyako (Kyoto), Osaka, and Fushimi, where Christians were publicly humiliated, expelled, and imprisoned. Some were forced to witness the destruction of churches and sacred images, and many endured long periods of imprisonment with unwavering faith. Women prisoners are said to have disfigured their own faces to protect their modesty from guards — a striking example of resolve and courage.

A central chapter narrates the banishment of Takayama Ukon (Dom Justo) and other Christian lords. Their lands were confiscated, yet they departed joyfully, accompanied by Jesuit priests, brothers, and seminarians, embarking for Macao or the Philippines.

Subsequent chapters record persecutions in Bungo, Hakata, Akizuki, and Hiroshima, including further arrests, floggings, and executions. Morejón notes how entire communities sometimes chose death together rather than apostasy.

The sections on Nagasaki are among the most dramatic. Morejón describes the tearing down of churches, the desecration of Christian symbols, and the formal expulsion of the Jesuits. Even efforts by Portuguese merchants to secure permission for a single church to remain failed. Christians, anticipating martyrdom, publicly prepared themselves, but the authorities instead staged displays to frighten them, which only strengthened their resolve.

The final chapters of the first part follow the missionaries and exiled Christians after their departure from Japan. Morejón recounts their reception at Macao and Manila, where they were greeted with processions, cannon salutes, and honors from civic and ecclesiastical authorities. The narrative concludes with the death of Takayama Ukon in Manila, presented as a holy and exemplary end that brings the work to a close on a note of triumph and spiritual encouragement.

In the second part of the book, Morejón details the execution of 45 Japanese Christians at Kuchinotsu, Arima in November 1614, providing individual accounts of the people executed, among whom were a number of people for powerful and noble families. There were additional persecutions and martyrdoms in Nagasaki, and Morejón relates the tortures endured by Christians before their execution. Pedro Hashimoto Ichizaemon was beaten, stripped naked, tied, hung, with a heavy stone placed on his back, had his fingers and toes cut off, and had the sign of the Cross branded on his forehead with burning iron. (41-42)

There is a vivid account of a miracle following the execution of Domingo Yenami. Yenami was tortured and beheaded, and Morejón writes that “one of the captains noted that, after it had been cut off, his head turned toward the body, lifting its eyes to Heaven. As if, with that sight, it accompanied his holy soul as it rose there, and the Captain marveled at it.” (62)

The final section describes the political turmoil in Japan caused by the conflict between the Tokugawa shogunate and Toyotomi Hideyori, heir to the Toyotomi house. Morejón recounts that in 1614 Toyotomi Hideyori had completed an extraordinary temple, with a large Buddha, a very large bell, and 3,000 bronzes. A festival had been planned to open the temple and the Shogun planned to attack Toyotomi during the festival on the pretext that the bell’s inscription was offensive. Morejón details various battles, including orders by Toyotomi that all the villages, temples, and houses within three or four leagues around be burned, so that his enemies might find no shelter. He also wished to burn Sakai, near Osaka, but did not because it was such a celebrated city in Japan. Facing the overwhelming strength of the Shogun, Toyotomi fortified Osaka Castle, where he remained with his mother and their supporters.

Morejón’s account concludes before the end of the conflict, and he presciently observes that in Japan wars do not cease until one of the parties is destroyed. His assessment proved accurate: after the collapse of the truce, the Shogun renewed his attack and Osaka Castle fell in 1615. Toyotomi Hideyori and his mother committed suicide, and his young son was executed. The Tokugawa would go on to rule a unified Japan for more than 250 years. (89-96).

Cordier, Japonica, 285-286; Medina, La Imprenta en Mexico, 302; Palau 181463-4; Streit V, p. 409; Sommervogel, V., col. 1308. Laures, Kirishitan Bunko database, JL-1616-KB4-320-204a