Women Religious Leaders in Japan's Christian Century, 1549–1650 (review)

The scholarly work on Japan's Christian century (1549–1650) has been, for the most part, by and about male missionaries, primarily the Jesuits, except for some hagiography praising obedient women and women martyrs for the Christian faith. The story of talented women converts and their works for the Christian mission has been sorely lacking. Rarely also have strong, anti-Christian women been treated in any depth; the women who stood up to and spoke against those promoting Christianity in this early period have not been given their due. Little scholarly work has been done on women in either the early Christian tradition or, until recently, the early Shintō-Buddhist tradition.¹ Especially when talking about the Christian and Shintō-Buddhist practices and their mutual influences on women, society, and religion, virtually nothing had been done until this work under review. Haruko Nawata Ward's new study provides a major contribution that begins to fill these lacunae; she adds as well interesting new insights into the work of Jesuits, especially their relationships with women and how this affected their proselytizing mission.

Drawing from sources in eight languages (Japanese, English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Latin, and Portuguese), Ward provides a readable and fascinating story of the advent of Christianity to Japan and its relationship to the Shintō-Buddhist religious beliefs prominent in Japan at this time (1549–1650). She frames her study in terms of byōbu, Japanese folding screens, on which she imagines the varied women she treats in her work, namely, nuns, witches, catechists, and sisters. Included in the work are 11 well-chosen illustrations related to the major topics under discussion.

Besides an introduction and a conclusion, the work is divided into four parts. Each begins with a preface and contains two to four chapters and an epilogue. Ward's introduction begins by setting the stage for the Christian period in Japan, including the arrival of members of the Society of Jesus and their rules about and attitudes toward women at the time. She continues by describing her plan of looking anew at women in Christian-century Japan.

Expanding on the work of Jésus López-Gay's El Catecumenado en la Mision del Japon del s. XVI (1966), she comments on women's background in Japanese religions and on their ability to make autonomous decisions. She argues that "while Kirishitan [i.e., Catholic] women converts rejected Shinto-Buddhist doctrines which disadvantaged them, they utilized theological, liturgical, communal, and practical tools from their Shinto-Buddhist past in creating their own Kirishitan mission" (p. 11). In explaining the benefits of Christianity explicitly for women, Ward mentions its inclusion of salvation for women, the agency it provided them in preaching the Christian message, their ability to make their own decision about becoming Christian, their power to make a vow of celibacy or choose to marry only a Christian man, and their opportunities to make bonds outside the home with women of other classes.

The works Ward consulted are widespread and deftly employed. One of her main sources is História de Japam (1976–84), the work of a Jesuit in the Japan mission at the time, Luís Fróis, for whom she provides a lengthy introduction for English-speaking readers. His work offers extensive detail on Kirishitan women apostles and Shintō-Buddhist women preachers, teachers, nuns, and catechists. Other sources are Jesuit writings and limited primary sources in Japanese. Her use of the secondary research is extensive and thorough.

Part 1, titled "Nuns," explores the lives of different monastic women, both within the Christian community and within the Shintō-Buddhist tradition, as well as their influences on each other. Here she discusses the lives of two women, Hibiya Monica and Naitō Julia, and a group of women driven from Japan by the persecution of Christians, the Beatas, who fled to the Philippines. Part 2 discusses the women the Jesuits labeled...