#Christianity in Japan

[kaurwreck]

oooh I’m curious about your bsd religion hcs. I keep seeing you mention it but I don’t understand it well

Oh! Oh!! I love this topic, but I'm not totally prepared to infodump yet— my copy of The Dilemma of Faith in Modern Japanese Literature: Metaphors of Christianity doesn't arrive until tomorrow, I've bookmarked but not yet read Ryuunosuke Akutagawa's The Man From the West and it's sequel, and I'm still in the thick of a 400-page dissertation on Doppo Kunikida. In other words, I have several resources I want to dig into before I try to articulate anything substantial.

That said, and to further clarify the above, my headcanons for their religious inklings come from (1) the irl authors' relationships with religion and (2) Kunikida's expressed spirituality in Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam.

I've been jotting notes on which authors (or characters, re: Gin) were Christian or engaged with Christianity more than others, which I've summarized for my personal reference into a rough/informal/irreverent/snarky outline. I've copied and pasted the outline below, although it's mostly editorializing and the supporting documentation is scattered among my separate posts/research materials/group chats.

I'll follow up once I have a more substantive response ft. examples and citations for you!

Catholic (disrespectfully/either literally or incidentally satirizing it)

Verlaine

Gin

Catholic (by proxy/childhood exposure)

Chuuya

Rimbaud

Christian (by conversion)

Kunikida (Protestant, Calvinistic)

Verlaine (Roman Catholic)

Very Eastern Orthodox

Fyodor

Nikolai

Not Christian but Suicidally Depressed Enough to Be Obsessed with Concepts like Hell and Original Sin

Dazai

Akutagawa

Christian but Loves Blasphemy and Hates Organized Religion

Rimbaud

Kunikida

Harbors Disdain for Christianity as Expressed by Others/Generally Irreverent

Dazai

Akutagawa

Rimbaud

[janamonji]

'The Colors Within' and the Colors Without ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: Animation Is Film 2024

From the beginning of the Japanese animated feature film, “The Colors Within,” we’re entering a strange world and that’s not because the dialogue is in Japanese, but because it starts with a child praying to God. A young girl prays that she will learn to accept the things she cannot change. “The Colors Within” about the formation of a band seen through the eyes of Totsuko Higurashi (Sayu…

[kensatou]

j… jesus oppa ;____;

[bfoux]

The Church of Light in Japan. Designed by Tadao Ando, the same architect that designed the Modern in Ft. Worth. Beautiful.

[worldhistoryfacts]

Early contacts between Japan and the West were commemorated by Japanese artists in screen paintings. In this example, Kano Naizen depicted scenes associated with the “southern barbarians” arriving in Japan:

Zooming in, we can see the carrack that carried the Portuguese to Japan:

The mingling of Japanese and Portuguese merchants, with a focus on the animals that the merchants brought to Japan:

And, in the upper right corner, a temple where worshippers bow before an image of Jesus:

{Buy me a coffee} {WHF} {Medium} {Looking Through the Past}

[ammonitetestpatterns]

十字紋黒織部茶碗, cross kuro oribe chawan

[elitehanitje]

"The Bastard's back!" - PAC

[maetel26]

Co&Lu (Cocolulu) winter collection adverts.

Top spread: Egg Dec 2008 Middle spread: Egg Dec 2009 Bottom spread: Egg Dec 2011

[sergle]

lollll stevens insta post is so tone def too like uhh u can smell the privilege coming off this 🧍

ohhhh... I think I'm going to hurt him

[itmlyljlaaid]

[umseb]

"We wonder how our bee friends are doing at Buzzin' Corner… 🐝 🇯🇵" - march 31, 2024 📷 @.f1 / instagram

[doctorbunny]

Amane's birthday flower tweet

(tweet links here)

Happy Birthday to everyone born today. Today is also Amane Momose from #MILGRAM's birthday. Her birth flower is Passiflora caerulea (tokeisou/Blue Passion Flower). The name "Passion flower" [tl note: passion as in "the passion/suffering of Christ, not enthusiasm] was used by Christian missionaries, it comes from the stamen's resemblence to the Crucifixion of Christ, with the 10 petals representing 10 Apostles. The passion flower's hanakotoba are "Faith", "Sacred Love" as well as "Religious fervour". Just so you know, this is simply an annecdote about the flower, it's not directly related to Amane's origins. Hanatokoba is purely allegorical. Simply put, just because the blue passion flower has this kind of backstory and hanakotoba, it doesn't mean Amane's religion is the same. Just added this supplement in case this is the first time you've had a run in with the Hanakotoba Guy and found it hard to understand. [Note: 花言葉おじさん Hanakotoba ojisan aka Hanakotoba Guy/Old Man Hanakotoba/Mr Hanakotoba is Yamanaka's nickname for himself when he does these things, he also used the term in Mikoto's birthday tweet]

本日お誕生日の方おめでとうございます。 #ミルグラム では桃瀬遍の誕生日でもあります。 誕生花はトケイソウ。十字架にかけられたキリストに似た雄しべと10人の使徒に見える花弁から別名「受難の花」と呼ばれ、キリスト教の布教に利用されました。花言葉は『信仰』『聖なる愛』そして『宗教的熱情』。 ちなみにこの花に関してのエピソードなだけで、本人の出自とは直接関係ありません。花言葉はあくまで寓意です。 噛み砕いてわかりやすく言うと、トケイソウってお花にそういうエピソードと花言葉があるってだけでアマネの信教がそうだって話じゃないよってことね。花言葉おじさんと邂逅するのが初めてだとわかりづらいだろうなと思って補足。

[eddis-not-eeddis]

I keep seeing this thing where guys swear up and down that they want a good Christian girl, but then balk if that means she wants to be anything more than a wife and mother. Like, my guy, you do realize that there's a lot more to Christian women than being married or having babies? Yeah? What about a woman who works among the homeless, or runs a bible study, or volunteers to teach refugees a new language, or who takes part in the prison ministry, or who spends a lot of her spare time in another city street preaching? I see a lot of guys who claim they want "a girl who loves Jesus" but don't want anything to do with a woman who does more than just go to church and lives a life of active ministry outside of her home.

[memoryaqua]

"The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen

Illustrations by Tadasu Izawa & Shigemi Hijikata

Published by Golden Press, 1966

These images come from various second-hand sites like eBay and Amazon.

Image sources:

https://www.amazon.com/little-mermaid-H-C-Andersen/dp/B0007ERMZ0#immersive-view_1728273174680

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-little-mermaid-golden-press-1837029809

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/3d-hologram-golden-puppet-little-129415367

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/little-mermaid-hans-christian-1818130808

[worldhistoryfacts]

Even though Christianity was officially illegal, some Japanese Christians continued to practice their faith in hiding. They even created images for worship, cleverly disguised as non-Christian images. People especially liked to use the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion, Kannon, who often appeared with an infant. She could stand in for Mary and the baby Jesus:

{Buy me a coffee} {WHF} {Medium} {Looking Through the Past}

[black-is-no-colour]

Vogue Japan January 2023. All, Christian Dior Haute Couture by John Galliano, Spring 2007 collection. Photographer Hugo Comte, styled by Ally Macrae