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Updated: June 28, 2025
The local persecutions in Kyushu, for example, would seem to have been natural consequences of the intolerance of the Jesuits in the days of their power, when converted daimyo burned Buddhist temples and massacred Buddhist priests; and these persecutions were most pitiless in those very districts such as Bungo, Omura, and Higo where the native religion had been most fiercely persecuted at Jesuit instigation.
In the Fudoki of other provinces reference is made to forest giants in Harima, Bungo, Hitachi, etc., and when full allowance has been made for the exaggerations of tradition, there remains enough to indicate that the aboriginal inhabitants did not attempt any work of reclamation.
Don Mancio, his ambassador, being arrived at Rome, with those of the king of Arima, and the prince of Omura, was not satisfied with bringing the obedience of the king, his master, to the vicar of Jesus Christ, by presenting him the letters of Don Francis, full of submission and respect to the Holy See; but he also petitioned him, in the name of his sovereign, to place the apostle of Japan amongst those saints whom the faithful honour; and declared to his Holiness, "That he could not do a greater favour to the king of Bungo."
The Japanese consented that Portuguese commerce should be introduced, and the King of Bungo authorized an annual visit from a Portuguese ship. Thus commercial relations were established, and at the same time a religious mission, led by St. Francis Xavier, was despatched to Japan. The prospects of trade and the new principles of religion were welcomed with equal readiness.
In justice to Yoritomo's strategy it must be noted that these orders were given almost simultaneously with the departure of the Minamoto army westward from Harima, so that by the time of Noriyori's arrival in Bungo, the military governor, Kagetoki, had got together some four hundred vessels at Watanabe. Meanwhile, Yoshitsune had been chafing in Kyoto.
But the ambition of Columbus was otherwise satisfied, and Japan was not visited by the representatives of any Western nation until the year 1543, or 1545, when a party of Portuguese, among whom was Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, were driven by a storm upon the coast, and forced to take shelter in the province of Bungo, upon the island of Kiu-siu.
"Kind folk, sir bad as their mountebanking looked the first night, sir why, Lord bless your honour, may they make a marine of me, if they han't set a Bungo to wait on us, Bill and I, that is and we has grog more than does us good and grub, my eye! only think, sir Bill and Timothy Tailtackle waited on by a black Bungo!" and he doubled himself up, chuckling and hugging himself, with infinite glee.
A ship was loaded with articles likely to be in demand in Japan, and Francis Xavier embarked in another vessel, with the Japanese refugee and a number of Jesuit priests as missionaries. The vessels in due course arrived at Bungo, and both priests and traders were cordially, not to say enthusiastically, received.
Local disturbances had compelled them to leave Yamaguchi, where their disputes with Buddhist priests had become so violent that an official proscription of the Western religion was pronounced. In Funai, the capital of the province of Bungo, they built their first church in Japan and also a hospital.
"Don't be afraid, little one," said the latter, "he's only angry with the bad men that went away this morning. Are there any of them still remaining here?" "What, in the caves?" "Ay, in the caves or anywhere?" "No they're all away. Nobody left but me and Meerta and blind Bungo." "Is it a long time since you came here?"
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