Beginning of Heaven and Earth: The Sacred Book of Japan's Hidden Christians (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780824818067)

In 1865 a French priest was visited by a small group of Japanese at his newly built church in Nagasaki. They were descendants of Japan's first Christians, the survivors of brutal religious persecution under the Tokugawa government. The Kakure Kirishitan, or "hidden Christians," had practiced their religion in secret for several hundred years. Sometime after their visit the priest received a copy of the Kakure bible, the Tenchi Hajimari no Koto, "Beginning of Heaven and Earth," an intriguing amalgam of Bible stories, Japanese fables, and Roman Catholic doctrine. Whelan offers a complete translation of this unique work accompanied by an illuminating commentary that provides the first theory of origin and evolution of the Tenchi.

Today, the few Kakure Kirishitan communities still in existence view the Tenchi as strange and flawed, expressing a distorted form of Christianity. It is, however, the only text produced by the Kakure Kirishitan that depicts their highly syncretistic tradition and provides a colorful window through which to examine the dynamics of religious acculturation.

Author: Christal Whelan
ISBN-10: 0824818067
ISBN-13: 9780824818067
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Language: English
Published: 09/01/1996
Pages: 152
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.82lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.38d