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Karematsu Shrine

This area became a holy site for the Hidden Christian era in the Meiji era (1868–1912).

But for years, there was only a miniature stone shrine known as a hokora.

The first proper wooden shrine was constructed in 1938, during the Sino-Japanese War. Men being shipped to the front believed that praying at this shrine would save them from harm in battle, while those who returned home safely from the fighting would offer sake drinking bowls in gratitude.

The current building, which is identical to the original, dates from 2003.

Since 1999, the shrine has hosted an interfaith ceremony known as the Karematsu Festival every November, in which local Catholics, Hidden Christians, and Buddhists all pray together for the repose of their ancestors. This festival is not open to the public.

Approaching the path that leads to Karematsu Shrine.

Informational sign about the shrine.
«With the ban of Christianity enforced in 1614, treatment of Christians by the Shogunate grew more severe with time. However, many Hidden Christians in the Sotome area were able to continue practicing their faith in hiding. Furthermore, over many years the Hidden Christians in the Kurozaki area congregated in secret upon this hill to pray.
At the beginning of the Meiji period, Christians in this area built a shrine here that was dedicated to St. John (not St. John the Baptist), who was the teacher of the Japanese religious instructor, Bastian. The main pavilion of the shrine was reconstructed in 2003. Many gravestones still remain today in the grounds of the shrine, in a style frequentely seen in gravestones for Hidden Christians. What is particularly noteworthy is that the gravestones are placed upside down so that the epitaph is not visible. Shrines dedicated to Hidden Christians are very rare in Japan, with only two other similar sites in the country. Nagasaki Board of Education (February 2008)»


Path up to the shrine.
The route up to the shrine passes a couple of huge flat rocks. A space has been hollowed out beneath the lower rock; legend has it that the local Hidden Christians would use this spot to memorize and practice their prayers (oratio), posting a lookout to avoid detection.


Karematsu Shrine.
On either side of the shrine's front can be seen a stone lantern.

  • The place was originally known as Jiwan (Japanese for “Juan”) Karematsu.
  • The word karematsu literally means “dry pines,” but any pines that once stood here have been replaced by camphor trees.
  • The flat stretches of ground around the shrine once served as Christian graveyards, and the flat stones now piled up as terracing may originally have been gravestones.

Gravesite of San Juan.
The shrine was constructed to mark the gravesite of San Juan, a Spanish Franciscan friar who was buried here by local people after he died of cold and hunger.

  • San Juan is famous as the mentor of Bastian, the Japanese evangelist who compiled the Japanese church calendar and prophesied the end of Christian persecution.

Inside the shrine.
Inside the current shrine are two miniature stone shrines.

  • The larger one in the center dates from 1933, while the smaller one to the left is from the Meiji era (1868–1912).

Small graveyard.
Down the hill is a small graveyard dating from 1990; it includes family gravestones combining elements from three religions.

  • There is a Christian tombstone marked with a gilded cross and Western baptismal names on one side; a Buddhist upright stone with kaimyo posthumous names in the center; and a small, bulbous Taoist monument on the far side.

See also

Source

Location

Location: Shimokurosakimachi, Nagasaki, 851-2326, Japan