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Updated: May 29, 2025
The records say that on one occasion, when remonstrated with by his friend, the daimyo of Hirado, who warned him that his hardness and severity might involve him in trouble, Masatoshi replied, "I thank you for your advice, but so long as I am endeavouring to reform the country, I have no time to think of myself."
He had not made any converts in Kyoto, but he had learned a useful lesson, namely, that religious propagandism, to be successful in Japan, must be countenanced by the ruling classes. He therefore caused his canonicals to be sent to him from Hirado, together with his credentials from the viceroy of India, the governor of Malacca, and the bishop of Goa.
In 1587 Hideyoshi destroyed the mission churches in Kyoto, Osaka, and Sakai, and drove the Jesuits from the capital; and in the following year he ordered them to assemble at the port of Hirado, and prepare to leave the country.
During the reigns of the succeeding shoguns a violent persecution began. The Dutch traders, who showed no disposition to interfere in religious affairs, succeeded in ousting their Portuguese rivals, all foreigners except Dutch and Chinese being banished from Japan, while foreign trade was confined to the two ports of Hirado and Nagasaki.
However, the extant correspondence of the Dutch factory at Hirado proves beyond question that they were forced, under menace, to thus act. In any event, it would be difficult to discover a good reason for the merely religious denunciations of their conduct, although that conduct would be open to criticism from the humane point of view.
We know that the invaders occupied the island of Hirado and landed in Hizen a strong force intended to turn the flank of the Hakozaki Bay parapet. We know, inferentially, that they never succeeded in turning it. We know that, after nearly two months of incessant combat, the Yuan armies had made no sensible impression on the Japanese resistance or established any footing upon Japanese soil.
From the Japanese sailors' sketch it appeared that a little west of the Dazai Fu was the island of Hirado, which, being surrounded on all sides with plenty of water, afforded a good anchorage for the ships. It was decided subject, apparently, to Kublai's approval to occupy Hirado first, and then summon General Hung, etc., from Iki, to join in a general attack.
For alike at Hirado and at Nagasaki, the foreign traders "were exposed to a crippling competition at the hands of rich Osaka monopolists, who, as representing an Imperial city and therefore being pledged to the Tokugawa interests, enjoyed special indulgences from the Bakufu.
Hirado continued to be frequented by Portuguese merchantmen, and news of the value of their trade induced Sumitada, feudatory of Omura, to invite the Jesuits in Bungo to his fief, offering them a free port for ten years, an extensive tract of land, a residence for the missionaries, and other privileges.
Therefore, the precaution was adopted of confining the English and the Dutch to Hirado, the domain of a feudatory too petty to become formidable, and to Nagasaki, which was one of the four Imperial cities, the other three being Yedo, Kyoto, and Osaka.
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