Women Religious Leaders in Japan's Christian Century, 1549-1650

421 Pages·2009·14.85 MB·English

by  Haruko Nawata Ward

WOMEN RELIGIOUS LEADERS IN JAPAN’S
CHRISTIAN CENTURY, 1549-1650
Women and Gender in the
Early Modem World
Series Editors: A Hyson Poska and A bby Zanger
In the past decade, the study of women and gender has offered some of the
most vital and innovative challenges to scholarship on the early modern period.
Ashgate’s new series of interdisciplinary and comparative studies, ‘Women and
Gender in the Early Modem World’, takes up this challenge, reaching beyond
geographical limitations to explore the experiences of early modem women and
the nature of gender in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Submissions of
single-author studies and edited collections will be considered.
Titles in this series include:
Ottoman Women Builders
The Architectural Patronage of Hadice Turhan Sultan
Lucienne Thys-Senocak
Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Society
Finland and the Wider European Experience
Raisa Maria Toivo
Gender, Race and Religion in the Colonization of the Americas
Edited by Nora E. Jaffary
Midwifery, Obstetrics and the Rise o f Gynaecology’
The Uses of a Sixteenth-Century Compendium
Helen King
Shamanism, Catholicism and Gender Relations in Colonial Philippines. 1521-1685
Carolyn Brewer
Women Religious Leaders in
Japan’s Christian Century, 1549-1650
HARUKO NAWATA WARD
Columbia Theological Seminary. USA
ASHGATE
€“■ Haruko Nawata Ward 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
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recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Haruko Nawata Ward has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Ward, Haruko Nawata
Women religious leaders in Japan's Christian century, 1549-1650. - (Women and
gender in the early modem world)
1. Women - Religious life - Japan - History 2. Women in Christianity - Japan - History
3. Monastic and religious life of women - Japan 4. Japan - Church history 5. Japan
- Civilization - Christian influences 6. Japan - Religion - To 1600
1. Title
275.2’0082
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ward, Haruko Nawata.
Women religious leaders in Japan's Christian century, 1549-1650 / by Haruko Nawata
Ward,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-6478-9 (alk. paper)
1. Women in Christianity—Japan—History. 2. Japan—Church history—To 1868.
I. Title.
BV639.W7W27 2009
275.2’06082—dc22
2008046181
ISBN-13: 9780754664789
Mixed Sources
Product group from well-managed
forests and other controlled sources Printed and bound in Great Britain by
FSC w0w19w9.6f sFco.orersgt SCteewrta nrdos.h SipA C-CouOnCci-l1565 MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin. Cornwall.
Frontispiece Screen (six-fold): Nanban byöbu, School of Kanô Mitsunobu.

Contents
List of Illustrations /v
Acknowledgments xi
List of Abbreviations v/v
1 Introduction I
PARTI: NUNS
Preface to Part 1 35
2 Hibiya Monica (c. 1549-c. 1577): Virgem of Sakai 37
3 Naitö Julia (c. 1566-28 March 1627): Superiora 61
4 The Beatas of Manila ( 1615-1656): Visionaries 83
Epilogue to Part 1 105
PART 2: WITCHES
Preface to Part 2 109
5 Ötomo-Nata Jezebel (d. 15 February 1587): Priestess of Hachiman 111
6 Marriage and Divorce in Catholic Japan: Ötomo Sörin and his
Marital Conflict 127
7 Jezebel the Witch 145
8 Jezebel versus the Church ( 1577-1587) 169
Epilogue to Part 2 191
PART 3: WOMEN CATECHISTS
Preface to Part 3 195
9 Hosokawa Tama Gracia ( 1563-25 August 1600): Scholar-Teacher 199
viii Women Religious Leaders in Japans Christian Century, 1549-1650
10 The Women Catechists 221
11 Tama Gracia in the Network of Women Against Abuse 245
12 Releasing Kirishitan Women Apostles from Captivity 273
Epilogue to Part 3 291
PART 4: SISTERS
Preface to Part 4 295
13 Justa of Nagasaki and the Sisters of the Misericòrdia 297
14 Elder Women of the Marian Confrarias 335
Epilogue to Part 4 349
15 Conclusion 351
Glossary' 355
Bibliography 359
Index 3S3
Illustrations
Frontispiece Screen (six-fold): Nanban byôbu, School of Kanö
Mitsunobu. Photo, by permission, from Nanban
Bunkakan, Osaka. v
1.1 A girl looks out to see the Portuguese priests and merchants.
Screen (six-fold): Nanban byôbu (detail). School of Kanö
Mitsunobu. Photo, by permission, from Nanban Bunkakan, Osaka. 3
2.1 A woman comes out from a merchant house. Screen (six-fold):
Nanban byôbu (detail). School of Kanö Mitsunobu.
Photo, by permission, from Nanban Bunkakan, Osaka. 36
3.1 Beginning pages of Part 3, “On Christianity,” in Fabian Fucan,
Myòtei mondò ( 1605). Reproduced, by permission, from
Jingü Bunko, Ise. 65
3.2 A nun walking on the street in the company of the Jesuits.
Screen (six-panel): Southern Barbarians in Japan. Photo, by
permission, from Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C., Purchase, F 1965.22 (detail). 76
3.3 A nun with a Jesuit in front of a Jesuit church. Screen (six-panel):
Nanbanjin raichö no zu (detail). Photo, by permission, from
Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture, Nagasaki. 77
7.1 A Kumano bikuni preaching with a picture scroll showing the
blood lake. Screen (two-panel): A festival at the Sumiyoshi Shrine.
Photo, by permission, from Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C., Gift of Charles Lang Freer,
F 1900.25 (detail). 150
9.1 A Kirishitan woman at prayer in the church. Screen (six-fold):
Nanban byôbu (detail). School of Kanö Mitsunobu. Photo, by
permission, from Nanban Bunkakan, Osaka. 201
10.1 Women coming in and out of Kyoto Nanbanji Church (Our Lady
of the Assumption) (c. 1576). Painted fan, Kanö Motohide. Photo,
courtesy of Kobe City Museum. 227
x Women Religious Leaders in Japan s Christian Centuiy, 1549-1650
11.1 A page showing Matthew 16:24 in Latin, in Kontemutsusu
munjiy published by Harada Antonio in 1610. Reprinted from
Kirishitan bamhü (Tokyo: Yagi Shoten, 1976), voi. 1, by
permission from Tenri Central Library. 269
14.1 Blessed Lucia de Freitas, burnt at the stake next to Jesuit Father
Carlo Spinola. Painting: Martyrs in Nagasaki in 1622 (detail).
School of Giovanni Cola. Photo, by permission from
Church of Santissimo Nome di Gesù all’Argentina, Rome. 347
14.2 Kirishitan women, men and children, waiting for execution.
Painting: Martyrs in Nagasaki in 1622 (detail). School of
Giovanni Cola. Reproduced, by permission from
Church of Santissimo Nome di Gesù all’Argentina, Rome. 348