![]() In fact, Sûden makes it clear in his Register of Foreign Affairs that, and I quote, “the evening of the 22 nd day of the 12 th moon of the 18 th year of the Keichô era, because (Tokugawa Ieyasu) gave me the order in the new palace of Edo, I wrote a text concerning the expulsion of Christian missionaries”. It appears to be without any clear logic it interweaves all kinds of notions, ideas, and learned citations from various sources it makes obscure allusions – one Japanese historian of the Taishô era referred to this text as “gibberish”! As far as I am concerned, I would say rather that it resembles a patchwork.ĤMoreover, I have never really understood why Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered Sûden to write this text so suddenly. Indeed, when we read it for the first time, we are first struck by its cryptic nature the text is not easy to understand. The Japanese version which is given at the end of this entry (for the original text is in Chinese) is that of the historian Ebisawa Arimichi who edited the text in the collection Nihon Shisô Taikei published by Iwanami Shoten Press 1 (see below, document 3).ĢThis important text is generally presented by historians as marking a watershed in Japanese history: this text was the starting‑point for the anti‑Christian policy of the Tokugawa shôgun (1603‑1867).ģThis text has intrigued me personally for a long time. The text can be found today in the Register of Foreign Affairs 『異国日記』written by Sûden, as well as in a number of anthologies of historical documents. This text from 1614 was written by the Zen monk Ishin Sûden 以心崇伝 (1569‑1633), at the behest of Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康 (1542‑1616). 1This searing indictment of the Christian religion and its followers appears in one of the most famous Japanese historical texts: “Statement on the Expulsion of the Padres” ( Bateren tsuihô no bun 「伴天連追放之文」).
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