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In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians: A Story of Suppression, Secrecy and Survival by John Dougill
tulipcyborg's review against another edition
2.0
This seems to be meant as a travelogue/history/religious studies book but it's mediocre at best for all efforts. If the whole book had the in-depth descriptions and conversations with locals present in the final chapter, this would've been a great travelogue. But most of the book is dry, devoid of descriptive details and the author's reflections are cheesy. As far as the religious studies content, some of the author's determinations about Japan's religious practices are boiled down so much they are useless at best and offensive at worst. The history is interesting but presented non-chronologically and lacks the academic rigor I was hoping for. There is also the issue that some details are maddeningly left out for no apparent reason while other mundane details are repeated. For all these reasons, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone that hadn't already studied Japanese culture and religion.
darkstar_pl's review against another edition
4.0
Autor opowiada w sposób interesujący, a lektura pozwoliła mi trochę uzupełnić wiedzę wyniesioną z historii przedstawionych w [b:Milczenie|33868472|Milczenie|Shūsaku Endō|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1484577961s/33868472.jpg|1796157] oraz [b:Tysiąc jesieni Jacoba de Zoeta|18517446|Tysiąc jesieni Jacoba de Zoeta|David Mitchell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1379526668s/18517446.jpg|7405757]. Wraz z autorem podróżujemy w czasie i przestrzeni, bo porusza się on od początków chrześcijaństwa w Japonii aż do czasów współczesnych i robi to chronologicznie, jednocześnie odwiedzając miejsca, w których rozgrywały się kolejne wydarzenia. Dla mnie to bardzo przystępna forma, która z łatwością pozwala śledzić historię chrześcijaństwa na tych terenach.
frooblie's review against another edition
3.0
I was disappointed that the book didn't describe the Hidden Christians' beliefs and practices until just before the end. Much of the book was devoted to describing the Jesuits' arrivals and departures and the atrocities that the Japanese believers had to endure because of their faith, but without an understanding of what that faith was and why believers were so devoted to it, I find it hard to understand how any of that history happened.
I also found the mixture of travelogue and more formal, academic history styles to be jarring. I'd get into the history of who was where, and then the author's voice would interject and talk about being on a boat from wherever to somewhere else. It wasn't bad, just awkwardly done.
I also found the mixture of travelogue and more formal, academic history styles to be jarring. I'd get into the history of who was where, and then the author's voice would interject and talk about being on a boat from wherever to somewhere else. It wasn't bad, just awkwardly done.
peterseanesq's review
4.0
My Amazon Review -
http://www.amazon.com/review/R59Q3P9WDY9IF/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
http://www.amazon.com/review/R59Q3P9WDY9IF/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
janhicks's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. Professor Dougill's writing style feels like a conversation rather than a lecture. The book was easy to read and a good popular history clearly backed up with academic research and oral testimony from local people. My kind of historian! The author's personal insights were interesting, particularly on comparisons between religions. The tone was non-judgemental, questioning rather than didactic, and I thought that the travelogue style suited the story well, visiting the locations where the story unfurled, talking to local people, trying to find the remains of sites, seeing modern day memorials to the West's attempts to convert Japan to a different religion.
The preface made a good comparison between Pauline missionary activity at the start of the Christian church and missionary activity in Japan in 16th cent. I was taken with the parallels the author drew between the two eras, especially his perspective on the offer of equality through spirituality to the dispossessed and downtrodden, and the threat perceived by the ruling classes in both the Roman empire and Shogunate Japan. The idea that the lack of a figure like Constantine in Japan meant eradication of the faith was easier was an interesting one.
Professor Dougill also provides a useful timeline and breakdown of Japanese eras at the beginning, which helped put the story into a historical and political context.
I especially liked the context of what was going on in Japan politically - how the arrival of the Portuguese Jesuits was seized on by the shogun and daimyos as an opportunity to increase trade, and how the Jesuits used the offer of trade to make converts. The subsequent persecution under the Hideyoshi and Tokugawa regimes was also set within the context of political power and the shoguns' desire to maintain absolute power over a unified Japan, leading ultimately to the policy of isolationism.
There were some interesting thoughts on the feminine qualities of Japanese religion and culture (the sanctification of the mother, the adoption of the Virgin Mary as another version of Kannon), allied with social character of Japan (infantilisation of Japanese men, kawaii culture), with a link made to the nature of the Hidden Christian sub-religion and why the Virgin Mary became the focus of worship, not God or Christ.
I read the book to learn more about a curious aspect of Japan's history. I learnt a lot about those early years of trade with the Portuguese and why they were the dominant Western influence on Japan at that time (the loan words for bread and trousers, パン and ズボン, have Portuguese origins, and two cakes I've had in Japan are Portuguese), plus one reason behind why Tokugawa Ieyasu decided to close Japan off to the rest of the world. As someone with a vague interest in spirituality and why some people feel the need to connect with a higher power or powers, but who lacks in depth knowledge, I found the discussion of the different religions in Japan helpful in understanding how Buddhism and Shinto co-exist without apparently dominating Japanese society in the way Judaism, Christianity and Islam do their cultures/societies. The Japanese ability to assimilate different belief systems is very different to Western Christianity! I even learnt a little about the character of some Japanese through Professor Dougill's encounters with people on Kyushu and the surrounding islands where Christianity took its own peculiar hold.
Over all, I thought the book was an accessible way to understand Japanese history quickly. To my shame, my copy of Jansen's modern history of Japan is still unread on my bookshelves. The story of Japan's Hidden Christians, I expect, won't be covered in that book anyway. It's sad to think of the traditions dying out, after 400 years of upholding the way of life of those who were persecuted for their faith. As happens often in our global, capitalist, connected times, tradition is losing its relevance and the current generations are losing interest in the beliefs of their parents and grandparents. They are creating their own way of living that carries them through daily life. John Dougill wrote a good book that documents the history of this faith and the families that carried it across centuries just in time before it could disappear completely.
The preface made a good comparison between Pauline missionary activity at the start of the Christian church and missionary activity in Japan in 16th cent. I was taken with the parallels the author drew between the two eras, especially his perspective on the offer of equality through spirituality to the dispossessed and downtrodden, and the threat perceived by the ruling classes in both the Roman empire and Shogunate Japan. The idea that the lack of a figure like Constantine in Japan meant eradication of the faith was easier was an interesting one.
Professor Dougill also provides a useful timeline and breakdown of Japanese eras at the beginning, which helped put the story into a historical and political context.
I especially liked the context of what was going on in Japan politically - how the arrival of the Portuguese Jesuits was seized on by the shogun and daimyos as an opportunity to increase trade, and how the Jesuits used the offer of trade to make converts. The subsequent persecution under the Hideyoshi and Tokugawa regimes was also set within the context of political power and the shoguns' desire to maintain absolute power over a unified Japan, leading ultimately to the policy of isolationism.
There were some interesting thoughts on the feminine qualities of Japanese religion and culture (the sanctification of the mother, the adoption of the Virgin Mary as another version of Kannon), allied with social character of Japan (infantilisation of Japanese men, kawaii culture), with a link made to the nature of the Hidden Christian sub-religion and why the Virgin Mary became the focus of worship, not God or Christ.
I read the book to learn more about a curious aspect of Japan's history. I learnt a lot about those early years of trade with the Portuguese and why they were the dominant Western influence on Japan at that time (the loan words for bread and trousers, パン and ズボン, have Portuguese origins, and two cakes I've had in Japan are Portuguese), plus one reason behind why Tokugawa Ieyasu decided to close Japan off to the rest of the world. As someone with a vague interest in spirituality and why some people feel the need to connect with a higher power or powers, but who lacks in depth knowledge, I found the discussion of the different religions in Japan helpful in understanding how Buddhism and Shinto co-exist without apparently dominating Japanese society in the way Judaism, Christianity and Islam do their cultures/societies. The Japanese ability to assimilate different belief systems is very different to Western Christianity! I even learnt a little about the character of some Japanese through Professor Dougill's encounters with people on Kyushu and the surrounding islands where Christianity took its own peculiar hold.
Over all, I thought the book was an accessible way to understand Japanese history quickly. To my shame, my copy of Jansen's modern history of Japan is still unread on my bookshelves. The story of Japan's Hidden Christians, I expect, won't be covered in that book anyway. It's sad to think of the traditions dying out, after 400 years of upholding the way of life of those who were persecuted for their faith. As happens often in our global, capitalist, connected times, tradition is losing its relevance and the current generations are losing interest in the beliefs of their parents and grandparents. They are creating their own way of living that carries them through daily life. John Dougill wrote a good book that documents the history of this faith and the families that carried it across centuries just in time before it could disappear completely.
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