Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum
Around 60 minutes north from
central Nagasaki City
Travel down the Nagasaki Bypass, leaving behind you the central area where the streetcars run. After passing through several tunnels into the outskirts of the city, you will come to Sunset Road. Right at the western edge of Japan, Nagasaki’s coastline seems to stretch on forever; the second longest in the country, it holds countless islands close by.
Shitsu, a tiny village in the mountains
Missionary work carried on in the secret depths
of the forest for 250 years
This tiny hut was a place of hiding
When Christianity was banned, its adherents fled to Sotome・Shitsu.
Visiting these places where they continued to spread their beliefs
while running from capture gives us a chance to contemplate these people.
KnowledgeSotome, a sanctuary for escaped Christians
In 1587 Toyotomi Hideyoshi, warlord ruler of Japan, issued an edict banning Christianity. Ten years later, twenty-six Christians became martyrs. The Edo shogunate issued further edicts banning Christianity in 1612 and 1614. The Christian-inspired Shimabara Rebellion in 1637 led to even greater persecution, as shogunate officials rigorously searched out believers. With towering cliffs connecting directly to the mountains, Sotome was a perfect place to hide.
Climbing a winding path from the village of Shitsu and then following a tiny undulating trail finally leads us to a tiny hut perched next to a marsh. This was the hiding place of Bastian, a baptized convert and apprentice of Father San Juan, a foreign missionary. Bastian continued his missionary work as he moved from one hiding place to another deep in the mountains of Sotome.
The efforts of the local people to preserve this place are aided by tourism that partially covers the required funds to maintain and manage the facility, which charges no admission fee given its difficult location deep in the mountains.
Experience these surroundings by taking the long walk to this hidden place.
Even by car it takes ten minutes to get to the entrance from the village
This tiny hut was a place of hiding
Bastian taught a Christian calendar featuring events from Christ’s life as rituals to observe through the year, believing this to be essential to maintain the religion. He left four prophecies giving hope to the hidden Christians, helping them maintain their belief by looking forward to the day when these dreams would come true.
Bastian continued his missionary work but was eventually given away by smoke from a fire to prepare his supper. After spending three years and three months in jail, he was executed at Nishizaka-no-oka (Nishizaka Hill), in the same way as the Twenty-Six Martyrs. Bastian’s prophecies kept alive by the hidden Christians finally bore fruit 250 years later, when their existence was finally discovered by foreign missionaries in Nagasaki in the 19th century.
The rays of light shining through the trees have a heavenly look
Site of Bastian’s Residence
Address: 1397-1 Shinmakino-machi, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture
