First Year of Enpo

The First Year of Enpo (1673) represents a critical juncture in the systematic eradication of Christianity in Japan, as recorded in the official diary of the Christian Residence in Edo. This year, the Tokugawa Shogunate's machinery of persecution, already refined over decades, operated with a chilling bureaucratic efficiency, targeting not only the remaining priests and lay believers but also the guards and servants within the Residence itself. The period is marked by the death of a long-term resident, the imprisonment of another for defiance, and a sweeping investigation triggered by a single discovered artifact, revealing a society where faith was a capital crime and trust had been entirely corroded by the state's reward system for informants.

Death and Daily Life in the Christian Residence

On November 9th of the First Year of Enpo, a resident named Bokui died of illness at six o'clock in the morning. His death was not a private matter but a state event: inspectors, assistant inspectors, and police officers from the Magistrate's Office attended, and his body was cremated at Muryoin Temple, receiving the posthumous Buddhist name Kogan Shoten Zenjomon. The Residence's other inhabitants, including Okada San'emon (the former Sebastian Rodrigues), were granted rations—San'emon received the ration of ten persons—and were kept under constant surveillance. San'emon himself was periodically commanded to write a disavowal of his religion, a task he undertook from January 20th to February 8th, and again from June 14th to July 24th, in the Study of the Mountain Villa, with guards released from other duties to attend him. This forced literary labor was a form of psychological torture, compelling the apostate priest to publicly renounce the faith he had once served.

Imprisonment and the Spread of Suspicion

On September 5th, Juan, another resident of the Christian Residence, was sent to gaol as a penalty for his 'perverse conduct.' The pronouncement was attended by a full complement of officers, including Rokuemon, Shozaemon, and Kawara Jingobe. The atmosphere of suspicion soon engulfed the Residence's staff. Kichijiro, San'emon's attendant who had followed him from Nagasaki, was also imprisoned due to his 'suspicious behavior.' A search of his pocket at the Enclosed Guardhouse revealed an amulet-case containing a Christian image depicting St. Paul, St. Peter, Xavier, and an angel. Under interrogation, Kichijiro, a fifty-four-year-old man from Goto, claimed he had found the image three years prior, dropped by a visiting attendant named Saizaburo. This explanation did little to quell the authorities' fears. The discovery led to the imprisonment of Hitotsubashi Matabe, a guard who had been on familiar terms with Kichijiro, on suspicion of Christian faith. The investigation expanded to include Matabe's associates, Kurozaemon and Shinbe, whose persons and clothing were searched without exception. The Lord Totominokami personally conducted the examinations, summoning San'emon himself to question whether he had tried to convert Kichijiro. San'emon denied this and was forced to put his hand-print on a paper testifying to his denial.

Torture and the System of Rewards

The regime's response to the discovery of the image was swift and brutal. On September 17th, Hitotsubashi Matabe was hung within the gaol, and from that time on, he was tortured several times. On October 18th, Matabe and his wife were tortured on the wooden horse. The investigation extended to the entire Residence: all tenements of the guards were closely searched, and even wives and children were told to undo their sashes and loincloths in front of the officers. A note of Christian words—'Father, Archbishop, Bishop, Pope'—was discovered among old scraps of paper in the dwelling of Sugiyama Shichirobe, though he was eventually released after explaining he had been told to memorize the names during a previous administration. To formalize the hunt, a notice board concerning informers of Christians was nailed to the main entrance of the Mountain Villa on November 24th. The announcement promised rewards of 300 pieces of silver for informing on a father, 200 for a brother or a retrovert, and 100 for a catechist or lay Christian, even if the informer himself was a catechist. This system of bounties, combined with the threat of severe punishment for those who sheltered believers, ensured that the entire community was complicit in the persecution. The First Year of Enpo thus stands as a testament to the thoroughness of the Tokugawa Shogunate's campaign to extinguish Christianity, reducing the once-fervent mission to a handful of broken individuals living under the shadow of constant betrayal and death.