Anti-Christian Edict in Japan

1614

Shogun Tokugawa Hideyori issued a sweeping edict declaring Christianity an evil doctrine and ordering the expulsion of all missionaries. Some three hundred thousand Japanese converts went underground, worshipping in secret for generations and disguising the Virgin Mary as the Buddhist bodhisattva Kannon. When Japan reopened two centuries later, missionaries found these hidden Christians still faithfully keeping a faith no priest had tended.