Christianity and Cultures: Japan & China in Comparison, 1543-1644 (review)

Expanding on the proceedings of an international symposium held in Macau in 2006, Christianity and Cultures aims at promoting further "comparative studies on the various forms that the acceptance, accommodation, and rejection of the Christian faith took in Japan and China" (p. 1). M. Antoni J. Üçerler underscores in the introduction that this collection reflects a postcolonial methodological shift in the field of global historical studies away from the perspective, represented by Leopold von Ranke, of "Western ideas of universal progress." Since the 1990s economic historians such as K. N. Chaudhuri have explored methods of "connected history." Presenting views from at least "two principal trajectories," this connected history provides "comparisons of the cultural, political, economic, social and religious history of different nations" and "connections that exist between these respective histories" (p. 5; emphasis in original). This shift redirects the work of scholars of Jesuit missions in Japan and China, who had previously developed their discipline independently, and is particularly suitable to the early modern period because "a significant number of missionaries actually spent time in both countries" (p. 2) and used both languages. There were many cultural similarities between Japan and China, and these early missionaries saw the close connection of the two missions. The essays for the most part strive to offer ideas for new frameworks of research. Üçerler also explains the secondary aim of the volume: The symposium was one of the many conferences to celebrate a symbolic year, person, and place, namely, the four hundredth anniversary of the death of Alessandro Valignano (1539-1606) in Portuguese colonial Macau. Valignano was an influential Jesuit Visitor to the East Indies from 1573 until his death and is often regarded as the most important promoter, if not originator, of the Jesuit missionary theory of cultural accommodation in Japan and China, a theory that the book takes up. Üçerler, a prominent Valignano scholar, was the main organizer of the symposium, and his contribution as the editor of this volume—especially his meticulous English translations of the essays originally delivered in Japanese or Chinese and inclusion of helpful and beautiful illustrations—gives a steady focus to an otherwise kaleidoscopic collection of essays.

Following the organization of the symposium panels, the book is divided into seven chapters, most comprising two essays, one focusing on Japan and the other on China, and a discussant's responses and reflections. The titles of the chapters specify the scope of comparisons: (1) "Christian Missionaries and Their Encounter with Japan and China," (2) "The Challenges of Religious Translation: Creating a Native East Asian Christian Literature," (3) "Living the New Faith I: Christian Liturgy and Rituals," (4) "Japanese and Chinese Christians: Native Faith Communities and Organizations," (5) "Living the New Faith II: Christian Art and Its Various Expressions," (6) "The Politics of the Encounter: Japanese and Chinese Attitudes towards Christianity and Christians," and (7) "Macau at the Crossroads of Europe and East Asia." Chapter 7 includes only one essay. The contributors are mainly historians and art historians of early modern East Asia; others are specialists in philosophy, anthropology, and religion. Included are seven members of the Society of Jesus and three women. The late John W. Witek's concluding remarks summarize each panel and draw a coherent theme in the epilogue.

The ideas and questions raised in these essays and comments open up further inquiry into connected and comparative histories of the Jesuit Japan and China missions from a global perspective. The first set of questions concerns the methodology of comparing the developments between these missions. Because each historian only covers a narrow period within the time frame 1543-1644 (from the arrival of the Portuguese in Japan to the end of the Ming Dynasty in China), it is difficult to place a particular essay on the comparative chronological scale without knowing more of the political history of each location, nation, or region. Moreover, the combination of papers in each chapter does not necessarily...