Written and Unwritten Texts of the Kakure Kirishitan

Abstract

The term Kakure refers to a group of Japanese people who share a common history of persecution and discrimination. Even after the lifting of the ban on Christianity in 1873, they continued to refer to themselves by a host of names designed to distinguish them from others who had willingly rejoined the newly implanted Church: kotchi, motochō, furuchō, kyū-Kirishitan, and Kakure Kirishitan. Adherents of Buddhism and Shinto would refer to them pejoratively as hirakimon, itsukimon or gedō.¹ Contemporary scholars differ in their choice of which term is most appropriate. Among the choices are: senpuku (secret), hanare (separate), and Kakure (hidden). Even where Kakure is preferred, one scholar opts for writing the word in katakana (the syllabary used for foreign or empathic words) in order to emphasise the fact that this group of people is undergoing a rapid transformation both socially and economically. In view of these changes, even the term Kakure appears anachronistic, but it is used here since it is the term favoured by the adherents of the religion today.