The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 4: Early Modern Japan
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THE VICISSITUDES OF BUNGO 335
converted, a Christian bloc seemed to be coming into existence in the
"Shimo" mission area. Although Arima Harunobu's motives for con-
version appear questionable, in his long subsequent career
as
a daimyo
he proved a staunch supporter of Christianity. Under his patronage,
Takaku developed into a solidly Christian region, one where the prac-
tice of the Christian faith continued, resisting extinction to the utter-
most, even after being driven underground by the general persecution
pursued in earnest by the Tokugawa regime after 1614. No wonder
that in 1637 and 1638, Arima and Amakusa became the scene of the
so-called Shimabara Rebellion, a peasant uprising heavily colored with
the tones of
a
millenarian Christianity.
THE VICISSITUDES OF BUNGO
Meanwhile, how did the cause of
the
missionaries fare in Bungo, their
other major area of activity in Kyushu? For all of Otomo Sorin's
constant show of favor to the Jesuits, they were not held in high regard
in his domain. As many as two thousand of the populace may have
been baptized as early as the 1550s, but for
a
long time the upper levels
of society remained barren ground for the seed of Christianity. In
almost a quarter-century from Xavier's visit to Bungo's provincial
capital, Funai, the Jesuits managed to convert no more than one mem-
ber of its nobility, a man they had cured of a disease. Apparently, their
works of charity among the distressed and downtrodden, such as the
leper ward of their hospital in Funai, had if anything put them in
disrepute among the upper crust - "a great impediment," Padre Fran-
cisco Cabral noted dyspeptically, "to the growth of Christianity."
44
The missionaries' prospects changed markedly for the better only
after Sorin's second son, the fourteen-year-old Chikaie, was baptized
at Christmastime 1575 at the behest of his father, taking the name
Sebastiao. A number of young samurai followed Chikaie's example,
and the Christian religion began to gain esteem in Bungo. But greater
things were yet to come. In 1578, Sorin himself
was
converted.
Curiously enough, a marital problem and an extramarital affair
formed the direct background of Sorin's decision to become Christian.
The wife he had taken in 1550, with whom he had three sons and five
daughters, was a passionate adherent of Shinto and Buddhism and no
friend of Christianity, as perhaps befitted a daughter of the grand
44 Padre Francisco Cabral SJ to General SJ, Kuchinotsu, September 9, 1576, cited in Schutte,
Valignanos
Missionsgrundsdtze,
vol. I, pt. I, pp. 288-9.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
336 CHRISTIANITY AND THE DAIMYO
priest (daiguji) of the Nada Hachiman Shrine, one of the two most
important Shinto sanctuaries in Bungo. Naturally, she was loathed by
the Jesuits, who painted her in the most garish colors in their writings.
Depicting her as a malicious and relentless opponent of all their pious
designs, they made sure that they perpetuated her image as that of a
righteous ruler's perverse consort: The only name by which she is
known in history is the highly descriptive nickname they used every
time they referred to her in their propaganda, "Jezebel."
According to Frois, by the beginning of 1578 this virago had driven
her husband ill with her violent temper. Hence Sorin sought consola-
tion from a noblewoman who served "Queen Jezebel" as her chief
lady-in-waiting. We are assured that it was not this court lady's
comeliness - "which she did not have, for she was already a woman of
forty" - that attracted the ailing "king of Bungo" but, rather, her
spiritual qualities, the dedication with which she nursed him on his
sickbed, and her excellent sense of
how
to manage a household; more-
over, she was already related to him by marriage, as her daughter was
the wife of Sorin's son Sebastiao. In any event, Sorin abandoned the
termagant "Jezebel," left his residential castle in Usuki for a seaside
villa in a nearby spot called Gomiura, and one night ordered the lady
"to be taken secretly from the palace [to Gomiura], where he kept her
as his wife."
Removed from "Jezebel's" poisonous influence, the two could
freely hear Christian instruction. First the lady was converted, receiv-
ing the name Julia in baptism. (At the same time her daughter was
baptized, taking the name Cointa.) Then Sorin quit the practice of
Zen meditation, was tutored on the prerequisites and the obligations
of a Christian marriage, accepted the truth of Christianity, and was
baptized on August 28,1578, with the name Francisco. The two could
now properly be admitted to the sacrament of matrimony; "Jezebel"
was no impediment, as she was an unregenerate pagan.
Frois,
who was at the time in question the superior of the mission
area of Bungo, tells this astonishing story demurely.
45
He has every
intention of justifying Sorin. Even this tendentious chronicler refers,
however, to the great scandal that was aroused by Sorin's actions
among "Jezebel's" relatives and party takers; and some of these, such
as her brother Tawara Chikakata, the head of the Tawara family (one
of the three principal cadet branches of the house of Otomo), ranked
45 Frois, Historia, pt. 2, chaps. 2 and 3, Wicki, vol. 3, pp. 12-28; Matsuda and Kawasaki,
trans.,
Furoisu
Nihonshi, vol. 7, 128-55; quotations from p. 13 and p. 129, respectively.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE VICISSITUDES OF BUNGO 337
among the highest grandees of the Bungo realm. This sort of affair was
the stuff of legend. Looking at it and other real or imagined scandals
from their own perspective, the Japanese chroniclers of the Edo period
saw grounds to depict Otomo Sorin as a selfwilled tyrant and a de-
graded, crapulent lecher.
The Jesuits, however, heroized their "good King Francisco of
Bungo" as the ideal ruler. To them, his conversion was a triumph, one
that
was
celebrated throughout their establishments in Portuguese Asia
with high masses, edifying sermons, and solemn processions. In
Cochin, for instance, it was the subject of
a
festive dramatic representa-
tion that aroused feelings of "gratification, exultation, and devotion." It
was there that Matteo Ricci, a young missionary on his way to the
memorable palaces of China, wrote that he and his friends
all
were filled
with the hope that with Sorin's baptism, "not only all his kingdoms,
which number
five
or
six,
will
be
converted, but
all
of Japan."
46
As
far
as
these optimists were concerned, this was a reasonable expectation. For
all they knew, "King Francisco" was still at the zenith of his power,
prepotent in Kyushu, one of the mightiest rulers in Japan. They were
unaware that their triumph was but the prelude to a disaster.
At the beginning of the year 1578 (the time of Sorin's break with
"Jezebel"), a grave new strategic threat developed on the southeastern
flank of the Otomo realm. This threat was the rise of the house of
Shimazu, which had been plagued for a century by tumults among its
own collaterals, nominal vassals, and the refractory
kokujin
of Satsuma
and Osumi. By the middle of the 1570s, the Shimazu had managed to
subject the barons of those two provinces to fealty. Under the leader-
ship of the consolidator of
the
authority of his house, Yoshihisa
(1533—
1611,
r. 1566-87 as daimyo), they then embarked on an ambitious
program of expansion that was to transform the entire political com-
plexion of Kyushu.
The first external target of
the
Shimazu was their old enemy, the Ito
family of Hyuga, which had gained preeminence in that province
during their time of
troubles.
By January 1578, the armies of Shimazu
Yoshihisa and his brother Yoshihiro (1535-1619) had conclusively de-
feated the levies of the Ito, forcing the young head of that house,
Yoshikata (1567-98), to flee Hyuga and seek the assistance of his
maternal relatives, the Otomo. Sorin had retired as daimyo in 1576,
46 Padre Manoel Teixeira SJ to General SJ, dated Cochym, January 30, 1580, Documenta Indica
XI (1577-80), ed. Josef Wicki SJ, in Monumenia Historica Societatis lesu, vol. 103 (1970), no.
no,
p. 802; Padre Matteo Ricci SJ to Padre Martino de Fornari SJ, dated Coccino, January
30,
1580, ibid., no. 118, p. 847.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
338 CHRISTIANITY AND THE DAIMYO
passing on the rulership of his great domain to his eldest son,
Yoshimune (1558-1605). But the Otomo were more than willing to
help the Ito. Rising to the challenge of
the
Shimazu, they decided on a
massive intervention. A new daimyo eager to prove
himself,
Yoshi-
mune in the late spring of 1578 sent into Hyuga an army variously
estimated as forty thousand or sixty thousand strong.
To intervene in this way was not a wise decision. For one thing,
committing such a large force to the south laid bare the Otomo
realm's western frontiers, which could never be considered safe from
Ryuzoji Takanobu's grasping reach. For another, it also exposed the
north, if not to the risk of being invaded again by the Mori (who had
their hands full at the time trying to fight off Oda Nobunaga), then
to the danger of destructive forays by lesser names among the inde-
pendent barons and disaffected vassals of that area, such as Akizuki
Tanezane (1545-96) of Chikuzen and Tsukushi Hirokado (1556-
1623) of Chikugo.
At the start, however, the Otomo campaign in Hyuga went well.
Between the Bungo border and the Mimikawa, a river that flows into
the Hyuga Sea about one-third of the way down the long coastline of
the invaded province, the only adherent of the Shimazu to put up
serious opposition to the Otomo was Tsuchimochi Chikanari, the lord
of Matsuo Castle in what is now the city of Nobeoka. On May 16,
1578,
Matsuo Castle fell; Chikanari, who was captured alive, was
forced to disembowel
himself.
To make certain that everyone under-
stood that the Tsuchimochi territory had new masters, Sorin and
Yoshimune "ordered that the monasteries and temples of
the camis
and
fotoques
located there should be burned and laid waste; and so it was
being done" when Sorin himself - a Christian, it will be recalled, only
since August (Yoshimune would not submit to baptism until 1587) -
decided in October of that year to move to that territory and build
there a model Christian community.
47
Accompanied by his wife Julia, by the Japan Superior of the Jesuits
Padre Francisco Cabral, and by three hundred Christian samurai,
Sorin settled his new residence at Mushika (now part of the city of
Nobeoka). His plan was to found here a city that would be "ruled with
new laws and institutions, different from those of Japan." This city
would be the center of a province transformed into Utopia: "So that
the natives of Fiunga [Hyuga] could form a more perfect union" with
47 Frois, Historia, pt. 2, chap. 2, Wicki, vol. 3, pp. 18-19, 38-40; Matsuda and Kawasaki,
trans.,
Furoisu
Nihonshi, vol. 7, pp. 135-6, 168, 170.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE VICISSITUDES OF BUNGO 339
Sorin and his people, "they would all have to become Christians and
live with each other in brotherly love and concord." This may appear
to be a more radically formulated policy than that of the other "Chris-
tian daimyo," but the methods used to attain the goal of Christian
unity were to be the same.
To ensure that the new conquest of the Otomo would indeed be
"ruled and governed according to the laws and customs of Europe,"
the "good King Francisco," encouraged by the missionaries, sought to
make a clean sweep of the places of worship and the sacred images of
Japanese religion in Hyuga. In Bungo, too, Sorin ordered Shinto
shrines and Buddhist temples to be destroyed. But Hyuga seems to
have been a special case. The Christian neophyte Sorin and his Jesuit
mentors felt the need to be especially zealous and demonstrative in
their work of demolition there, "because of the extraordinary venera-
tion enjoyed by the
camis
and the cult of the
fotoques
in that land."
Throughout the territory occupied by the Otomo, those Buddhist
priests who had not fled to other parts but had chosen to stay (al-
though left "without their old benefices and reputation") had good
reason to go about "downcast and disconsolate, their temples and their
dwellings demolished, and their idols pulled down." But Sorin's "holy
enterprise"
(santo exercicio)
was brought to an abrupt end by an event
that was unforeseen by the missionaries as totally as it was unexpected
by the Otomo. Instead of conquering all Hyuga as they planned, the
Otomo suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Shimazu. Before
the year 1578 was out, Sorin and his entourage of Jesuits had to flee
Mushika, as whatever was left of the Otomo armies streamed back to
Bungo in disorder.
The plural must be used in speaking of the "Otomo armies," as it is
clear that one is discussing uncoordinated troop units led onward by
constantly bickering rival captains, rather than an integrated body of
men under the firm command of
a
single general in
chief.
It is remark-
able that neither the daimyo Yoshimune - who lingered on in Notsu,
no more than twelve kilometers (about 7.5 miles) from his home base
of Usuki, instead of proceeding to the front - nor the "good King
Francisco," who busied himself about his never-never
civitas
Dei in
Mushika, was with those troops as they closed with the enemy. In-
stead, the man who presided over their march to the shambles was
"Jezebel's" brother Tawara Chikakata, whom Western and Japanese
sources with rare unanimity call an incompetent at the art of war and a
coward. And yet, not having encountered much opposition along the
way, the Otomo forces were full of confidence (and off their guard) as
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
34° CHRISTIANITY AND THE DAIMYO
they debouched into the open ground of the river Omarugawa, the
dividing line between northern and southern Hyuga.
There their progress was blocked by the fortress called Takajo (lo-
cated in what is now Kijo-cho, Miyazaki Prefecture). An assault on the
castle failed, due largely to the lack of unity and order among the
captains of the attackers; they then agreed to settle down to a siege.
Unfortunately for them and their soldiers, they neglected to take the
elementary precaution of securing their flanks and rear. The while,
unscouted and unrecognized by Bungo's captains, two strong forma-
tions of Shimazu troops, led by the daimyo Yoshihisa's brothers
Yoshihiro and Iehisa (d. 1587), advanced to the relief of Takajo.
On December 10, 1578 (Tensho 6.11.12), Yoshihiro's and Iehisa's
pincers closed about the hapless forces of the Otomo. Twenty thou-
sand of Sorin's and Yoshimune's men are usually said to have perished
in the ensuing slaughter. That figure may be exaggerated, as the num-
ber of the common soldiers
(zohyo)
who lost their lives could only be
estimated. It is known, however, that as many as three thousand men-
at-arms (that is, heavy-armed and mounted samurai,
hitakabuto)
were
either slain on this battleground or drowned in the eddies of the
torrential Mimikawa River as they sought to escape. Among those who
suffered death were a dozen top-ranking captains, but their general
Tawara Chikakata, who was reported killed, had in fact managed to
run away; he would reappear in Bungo more than a month after his
defeat. The fearsome magnitude of the rout that overcame the "seven-
province host of the Otomo" and the great and terrible extent of its
killing ground may be surmised by considering that although the
encounter began at Takajo on the Omarugawa, the running action
continued as far as the Mimikawa, which flows some twenty-five kilo-
meters (15.5 miles) to the north. Hence this great combat is known in
history as the battle of Mimikawa.
The missionaries sought to find a meaning for the disaster that had
befallen their patron "King Francisco" and his cause in the "lofty and
mysterious judgments" of God. Luis Frois, for one, evidently thought
that he had an insight into those
judgments.
As
far
as
he
was
concerned,
the chief cause of that disaster
was
God's desire to "punish the people
of
Bungo" for their sins, which "had accumulated to an extent that God
could no longer choose to ignore."
48
Using
a
diametrically opposite line
48 Ibid., chap. 10, pp. 70-1 and p. 220, respectively. This chapter is a fine illustration of the
dramatic bravura of the Counter-Reformation historian Frois. The passionate tirade on the
faults of Bungo's captains is followed up by a truly magnificent, venomous indictment of
Tawara Chikakata.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE VICISSITUDES OF BUNGO 341
of reasoning, the "pagan" survivors of Mimikawa reached a similar-
sounding conclusion regarding the main cause of their downfall. They,
too,
blamed the Christian God. Unlike the Jesuits, however, they
heaped obloquy on his adherents. Prominent among those who blamed
the Jesuits for all of Bungo's woes was the revenant Tawara Chikakata,
but he was joined by many other peers of the dominions of
the
Otomo.
The concerns and sentiments of those traditionalists are expressed most
eloquently in the remonstrance that Sorin's great vassal Tachibana
Dosetsu (i5i3?-85) addressed to a group of elders of the Otomo realm
on Tensho
8.2.16
(March 1, 1580).
49
As the keeper of Tachibana Castle in Chikuzen (located in what is
now Shingu-machi, immediately to the northeast of present-day
Fukuoka), Dosetsu was the guardian of that realm's northwestern
reaches: His fortress was the cornerstone of the entire Otomo position
in the perimeter that extended from Higo through Chikuzen into
Buzen. Accordingly, Dosetsu had to bear the full brunt of the conse-
quences of the defeat in Hyuga, as the news of Mimikawa brought on a
wave of defections from the ranks of Otomo vassals in that wide area.
The perimeter crumbled.
There was no doubt that Sorin's infatuation with Christianity at the
expense of the traditional religious beliefs, practices, and institutions
of the warrior class had exacerbated the retainers' disaffection from
the Otomo. Hence Dosetsu sounds particularly alarmed when he la-
ments what he cannot comprehend, namely, the abandonment of
cus-
toms that had prevailed among Otomo samurai from time immemo-
rial:
"to pray for the gods' and the Buddhas' protection, to stand on
what is right and proper, and then to take up bow and arrow." Instead,
according to Dosetsu, what had been going on in Bungo was some-
thing unheard-of in previous generations: "young and old, men and
women made willy-nilly into [adherents of] something that's supposed
to be an Indian sect or whatever
[Tenjiku-shu to
yaran];
temples and
shrines destroyed; [images of] the Buddhas and the gods either cast
into the river or turned into firewood." To one who believed in the
article of faith, "Japan is the Land of the Gods," as firmly as did
Tachibana Dosetsu, it was apparent that the impious excesses that had
been latterly committed in the Otomo domain in the name of the
49 The remonstrance, addressed to Shiga Ise Nyudo Doki, Ichimada Hydbu Nyudo Sokei, and
eleven others, can be found in Takita Manabu, ed., Otomo shityo, vol. 2 (Oita: Kin'yodo
shoten, 1938), no. 89, pp. 56-66. For a synopsis of Tachibana Dosetsu's career in the service
of the Otomo, see Toyama Mikio, Otomo Sorin, vol. 172 of Jimbutsu
sosho
(Tokyo: Yoshikawa
kdbunkan, 1975), pp. 60-3.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
342 CHRISTIANITY AND THE DAIMYO
foreign faith - of Christianity - invited punishment from the Buddhas
and the gods.
For all that, Tachibana Dosetsu remained loyal to the Otomo. That
was not the case, however, with the majority of the provincial gentry
of
Chikuzen, Chikugo, and Higo, to whom the news of the Mimikawa
debacle was a clear signal to cast off their allegiance - an imposed,
unwelcome, and always tenuous loyalty - to the Otomo. Some sought
a new alliance with the Shimazu; others looked to Ryuzoji Takanobu
for protection. Serious disturbances afflicted the very core of the do-
main: In Bungo
itself,
there was dissatisfaction with Yoshimune's lead-
ership, discord within the ruling house, and discontent among close
vassals of the Otomo.
Yet the crisis passed. The Otomo survived Mimikawa's immediate
aftermath, because the victors did not press home their advantage. In
1580,
the Shimazu made peace with the Otomo, ostensibly as a result
of the intercession of the most powerful and the most prestigious
authorities of Kyoto, the hegemon Oda Nobunaga joined by the
former imperial regent
(kampaku)
and future grand chancellor of state
(daijo
daijiri),
Konoe Sakihisa (1536-1612).
50
In actuality - and quite
paradoxically - it was Ryuzoji Takanobu's expansionist ambitions
that, for the time being, removed the threat of destruction from the
lords of
Bungo.
Takanobu rushed to fill the power vacuum created in
Higo by the weakening of Otomo influence. By the middle of 1581,
Ryuzoji had established a strong forward position in that province,
thereby threatening Satsuma, the home of the Shimazu. Faced by the
need to protect their northwestern flank, the Shimazu diverted their
attention from Bungo. Inexorably, the Ryuzoji and the Shimazu
headed for a showdown, one that would end with Ryuzoji Takanobu's
defeat and death in 1584.
The respite granted the Otomo by this shifting of the fronts in
Kyushu brought on a kind of Indian summer for the Jesuits in Bungo.
But they failed to perceive that the Shimazu had vouchsafed "King
Francisco" and his realm not a reprieve but only a temporary stay of
execution. Valignano, who stayed in Bungo from September 1580 to
March 1581 and then again in October 1581, found "happiness and
consolation" in what he had accomplished there on his first visit;
50 Nobunaga to Konoe (Sakihisa), dated [Tensho 8].8.12, in Okuno Takahiro, Oda Nobunaga
monjo
no kenkyu, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kobunkan, 1973), no. 885, pp. 519-20;
Nobunaga to Shimazu Shuri no Diabu (Yoshihisa), same date, and Konoe Sakihisa to Shimazu
Hyogo no Kami (Yoshihiro), dated [Tensho 8].9.19, ibid., no. 886, pp. 520-2. Konoe
Sakihisa, who had been kampaku from 1554 to 1569, was to be appointed daijo daijin in 1582.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE END OF RYUZOJI TAKANOBU 343
hence he was cured, he stated, of his previous pessimism regarding the
future of the Christian mission in Japan.
As late as December
1581,
when the
visitator
and the padres of the
Shimo area met in Nagasaki for a lengthy consultation on the ques-
tions that most affected their Japanese enterprise, they thought that all
in all, Bungo was "the most secure kingdom" they knew in Japan.
"Strong, belonging to one king only, and situated in the midst of other
kingdoms belonging to the same king," the Otomo realm contrasted
favorably with the Shimo and Miyako regions, "which are turned
topsy-turvy every day and are kept perturbed by wars."
51
Hence the
major formative institutions of the Society of Jesus in Japan were
located in Bungo. A novitiate was formally opened in Usuki at Christ-
mas 1580, with twelve candidate members of the Jesuit order (six of
them Portuguese and six Japanese) starting on a period of probation
that was prescribed to last at least one full year and, if
possible,
two. A
Jesuit "college of studies," which was located in Funai, also began
operations in the latter part of the year 1580. But these institutions
were not destined to enjoy a long life: Both had to be closed in Decem-
ber 1586. Late that month, apprentice Jesuits and their professed
masters, budding Latinists and aspiring Japanologists, all were forced
to flee the domain of the Otomo and seek other and mightier patrons'
protection from the Shimazu armies that flooded over Bungo and
visited the last corners of that province with destruction.
THE END OF RYtJZOJI TAKANOBU
It is another irony of history that this disaster suffered by "King
Francisco" and his house should have had as its direct antecedent a
famous victory celebrated by another "Christian daimyo" and great
friend of the Jesuits, Dom Protasio Arima. Desperate to ward off
Ryuzoji Takanobu, who continued to foment rebellion among his vas-
sals and to whittle away his territory, Arima in 1582 turned for assis-
tance to the Shimazu. It was high time, because by then the house of
Arima - so prominent in Hizen once - had little left in its possession
beyond a paltry coastal strip of the Shimabara peninsula. Seizing the
opportunity to outflank Ryuzoji, the Shimazu agreed to help. In De-
cember 1582, they sent an expeditionary force across the Yatsushiro
Sea and Shimabara Bay to Arima.
51 Japan Consultation, Question 8: "Whether it is good to establish some houses in Japan where
Ours would live conjointly in the manner of a college," Point III (2), in Valignano, Sumario de
las
cosas
de Japan, vol. 1, p. 107.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
344 CHRISTIANITY AND THE DAIMYO
The allies made little progress, as transport difficulties, if nothing
else,
made a massive transfer of Satsuma troops from other fronts
impossible. By the middle of April 1584, not many more than five
thousand had arrived, but they were picked men serving under the
command of
a
fine general, Shimazu Iehisa. Even so, the troops at the
disposal of Iehisa and Dom Protasio only numbered about 6,300 when
they laid siege to Shimabara, one of the important fortresses that had
been played into Ryuzoji's hands by Arima's treacherous vassals.
Observing the numerical weakness of his enemy, Takanobu quickly
moved to the relief of Shimabara with the whole glittering array of his
main force, which is said, depending on the source, to have numbered
between 25,000 and 50,000 men. On Tensho 12.3.24 (May 4,1584, by
the Gregorian calendar), this huge force was routed at Okidanawate, a
spot on the seashore between Shimabara and
Mie
(now part of
the
city
of
Shimabara), by the far smaller allied army of Arima and the Shimazu.
An important role in the allies' dramatic success was played by a naval
vessel belonging to an Arima nobleman and armed with two pieces of
Western artillery, which bombarded the Ryuzoji troops clustered on the
beach. "In the absence of
a
[trained] gunner,
a
Caffir loaded,
a
Japanese
soldier aimed, and a Malabari fired the pieces." These three were no
doubt all natives of Hizen; strange though it may seem, according to
Frois,
they praised the Lord as they passed the ammunition.
52
Providentially, the marching orders issued by Ryuzoji reached
Omura Sumitada, his constrained vassal, too late. On their way to
Shimabara, Sumitada and his hastily gathered contingent were still
some "6 or 7 leagues [36-42 kilometers] from the field of
battle"
when
they "encountered much soldiery who were fleeing as fast as their
horses' hooves would carry, away from the disaster that had befallen
Tacanobu and his entire army."
53
Dom Bartolomeu wisely turned back
to Omura Castle and escaped being caught up in the general rout. Thus
the "Christian daimyo" of both the contending sides survived the battle
of Okidanawate. But the "diabolical" Ryuzoji had been killed; the
Christianity of western Kyushu was saved from his clutches.
And yet the Jesuits' troubles were far from over. No less infernal an
52 There is an extensive treatment of this campaign in Frois, Historia, pt. 2 [B], chaps. 6-9,
Wicki, vol. 4 (1983), pp. 42-70; Matsuda and Kawasaki, trans.,
Furoisu
Nihonshi, vol. 10,
pp.
287-337; quotation from p. 59 and p. 316 (incomplete translation), respectively. Note
that contemporary and near-contemporary Jesuit sources give the date of the battle of
Okidanawate as April 24, 1584, that is, according to the Julian calendar, as the news of the
reform that put the Gregorian calendar into effect in Catholic lands of Europe in October
1582 had not yet reached Japan at the time when the combat took place.
53 Lucena,
Erinnerungen,
pp. 254-5.
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