Twelfth Year of Kanbun

The Twelfth Year of Kanbun (1672) is the Japanese era year in which the novel's appendix, a diary of an officer at the Christian Residence in Edo, records the final documented state of the apostate priest Okada San'emon (formerly Sebastian Rodrigues) and the administrative apparatus that confined him. This year marks the last point at which Rodrigues's life is recorded in any detail before his death in the Ninth Year of Enpo (1681), and it provides the most concrete picture of the institutionalized surveillance, ration system, and family network that surrounded him after his apostasy.

Ration Allowances and the Residence's Population

In the Twelfth Year of Kanbun, Okada San'emon was granted the ration of ten persons, a substantial allowance that reflected his status as the most prominent inmate of the Christian Residence. Other residents received smaller rations: Bokui, Juan, Nanho, and Jikan each received the ration of seven persons. The diary entry, submitted to Totominokami on 17th June, lists these allowances as part of the routine administration of the facility, which housed not only apostate priests but also their relatives and servants.

Relatives and Visitors

The appendix includes a detailed list of six individuals connected to San'emon's wife, submitted to Totominokami on the same date. Seibe, aged fifty, was a cousin to San'emon's wife and worked as a ship's carpenter in Fukagawa. Gen'emon, aged fifty-five, was also a cousin to the same woman and served as a servant to Doi Oinokami. Sannojo, a nephew to San'emon's wife, lived with Seibe. Shokuro, aged thirty, another nephew, worked as a laborer at Esashi-cho. Adachi Gonzaburo was reported to be an apprentice to Bokui, the handicraftsman, and had been present during the time of Hojo's management. Jin'emon, an uncle to Juan's daughter, lived in Kawagoe and had visited once during Hojo's management; he came again to see Juan on 26th April of the Year of the Rat. This list demonstrates that the Christian Residence functioned as a semi-permanent settlement where family ties were maintained under official scrutiny.

Administrative Framework and Significance

The diary entry for the Twelfth Year of Kanbun is the first in a series of appendix records that track Rodrigues's life until his death. It establishes the baseline conditions of his confinement: a fixed ration, a network of relatives who could visit, and a bureaucratic system that recorded every detail. The year also precedes the major events of the later appendix entries, such as the writing of a disavowal of his religion in the Second Year of Enpo and the discovery of a Christian image on Kichijiro in the Fourth Year of Enpo. The Twelfth Year of Kanbun thus serves as the documentary anchor for the final phase of Rodrigues's life, showing that even after his apostasy he remained under constant observation, supported by the state's resources but never trusted, and that his existence had become a matter of routine administrative record rather than dramatic persecution.