Many Samurai Had Swords With Secret Crucifixes And Hidden Christian Symbols To Avoid Persecution

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - During the feudal era in Japan, also known as the Age of the Warrior, Christians were persecuted.

Christianity was banned in Japan, but some kept their deep faith despite persecution.

Left - Image source; Right: Image source - Sawada Miki Kinenkan Museum.

Hundreds of Japanese Samurai warriors were Christians, and they hid religious codes in their sword hilts. Several Samurai swords with secret crucifixes and hidden Christian symbols have been found.

The feudal era lasted from 1185 CE to 1868 CE. It was a time when the Emperor and the Shogun were the highest-ranking nobles.

The collapse of aristocratic rule ushered in a new age of chaos — appropriately called the Warring States period (c.1400-1600) — in which the military might dictate who governed and who followed.

During this period, Bushido, which means "way of the warrior," the warriors developed a code of chivalry as the samurai.

Early seventeenth century sword tsuba featuring an unusual crucifix in it’s decoration. Image credit: Revivaler

 In 1549, Roman Catholic Jesuit missionaries led by Francis Xavier introduced Christianity to the East. Catholic missionaries initially brought the religion to the East around the mid-1500s.

However, it took only a short time before Christianity was banned. Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1596), a Japanese warrior commander who later became an undisputed military dictator, prohibited the practice of Christianity and expelled all foreigners in 1638.

At the time, there were about 300,000 people in Japan. Many renounced their faith, and others went underground. Several Christians were also tortured and killed.

Samurais were banned from following religions after feudal Japan and many carried secret Christian symbols. Image credit: Sawada Miki Kinenkan museum.

Catholics who hid underground continued to practice their religion. They disguised images of Jesus and Mary to look like Buddhas and changed their prayers to sound like Buddhist chants.

At the Sawada Miki Kinenkan museum, several Japanese feudal-era sword guards are on display. These ancient swords offer evidence that Japanese Samurai warriors were Christians.

Forty-eight swords were identified to have belonged to Christians, and more than 10 of these could have been created somewhere between 1467 and 1568 during the Sengoku period. Having been among the Samurai's most important ornaments for their swords, the sword guards are believed to have been designed with hidden crosses to prove their Christianity, albeit in secret.

"A characteristic of sword guards made after anti-Christian measures were taken is that Christians carefully hid crosses in their designs.

We concluded the designs show the faith of hidden Christians, Yuhiko Nakanishi, chairman of the nonprofit group Nihon Token Hozon Kai, a Japanese sword preservation association, said.

Today, Christianity in Japan is a religious minority of about one million to three million people.

Written by – A. Sutherland AncientPages.com Staff Writer

Updated on February 8, 2024

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