Word: kirishitan
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Neither does anyone else. The men at prayer are among 10,000 surviving Kakure Kirishitan (crypto-Christians)-members of a fossilized faith that is unique in church annals. The poignant tale of the sect begins in 1549, when Jesuit Missionary Francis Xavier brought Roman Catholicism to Japan. The new creed soon gathered 300,000 followers, including most of the inhabitants of Ikitsuki, but its success also spelled its doom. Fearing the Christians' growth and foreign links, the warlord ruler Hideyoshi and later shogun mounted terror campaigns in which tens of thousands perished, often gruesomely. Christianity was all but stamped...
...were decapitated, some executed in scalding-hot springs by shoguns and local lords. The ruthless persecution continued over the centuries. Officials forced suspected believers to tread on Christian images. In some places an annual oath renouncing Christianity was obligatory. One reminder of the past: at least 7,000 kakure Kirishitan (crypto-Christians) persist even today in practicing an odd form of Catholicism, just as their ancestors had to do in order to preserve their faith...
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