A XVII CENTURY JAPANESE EMBASSY: recorded in the Roman Basilica of S.

Maria Maggiore
Author(s): Emma Amadei
Reviewed work(s):
Source: East and West, Vol. 3, No. 4 (JANUARY 1953), pp. 236-238
Published by: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (IsIAO)
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29758045 .
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A XVII CENTURY
JAPANESE
EMBASSY
recorded in the Roman
Basilica
of
S. Maria
Maggiore
In the basilica of Santa Maria
Maggiore,
the
largest
church dedicated to the Blessed
Virgin
in
Rome,
dominating
the
Esquiline
hill,
there is an
interesting
record of the
second
Japanese Embassy
which visited Rome
in 1615. We find it in the
sumptuous chapel
of the
princely family
of
Borghese,
erected
by
Paul
V,
the first of the
great
XVII
century
Pontiffs,
who entrusted the construction to
Flaminio Ponzio and the
sculptures
and
paintings
to the
most
eminent artists of the
time. To the left of
Ippolito
Buzio's basre
lief of the Coronation of the
Pope,
is ano?
ther basrelief
by
Cristoforo Stati of Braccia
no,
representing
the
reception
accorded
by
the
Borghese Pope
to ambassadors of the so?
vereigns
of
Japan,
of the
Congo
and of Per?
sia,
sent as
envoys
to the
Holy
See to sub?
mit to the Chair of St. Peter their doctrines
concerning
the
dogmas
of
Catholicism,
and
to ascertain whether in
any way
they
diffe?
red from the truth. The tablet bears the fol?
lowing inscription:
?
Congi, Persidisque regum
et
Japonoruni
ad Sedem
Apostolicam
de re
Christiana
lega
tos honorif icentissime
excepit
?.
The dissemination of
Christianity
in mis?
sionary
lands constituted without doubt
one
Basilica
of
5. Maria
Magglore,
Rome
-
Monument to Paul V.
of the most efficient and
widespread
activities
of Paul
V,
who attached the
greatest impor?
tance to
propagating
in
every way
the
Gospel
in
China,
Japan,
India,
the
Congo
and Persia.
In the Oriental
Empire
the Catholic missions
seemed
very
well established from the earliest
times,
and were
comparatively
undisturbed,
being
welcomed and
cordially supported by
the founder of the House of
Tokugawa, Ieya
su;
and of this fortunate circumstance the
re?
ligious
orders,
the
Franciscans,
the Domini
cans,
the
Augustinians
and the
Jesuits
had
largely
taken
advantage;
the Jesuits
alone
had succeeded in
converting
over
15,000 per?
sons in a
single
year.
The chief centre of the new Faith was Na?
gasaki.
This
city
which had not less than five
parishes
under
Japanese priests
and other
churches for the various
religious
orders,
was
called ((the little Rome)). But in
spite
of
peace?
ful and deceitful
appearances,
a
plot
ag?
ainst the Christians was
being secretly
pre?
pared.
It
very
soon broke out with the
utmost
violence,
at the
suggestion
of some Protestant
seamen and
traders, mostly English
and
Dutch, who,
out of hatred for the
Catholics,
presented
the missionaries in an unfavoura
236
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ble
light
to
leyasu.
A
regular persecu?
tion
began early
in the
year 1613,
and
seve?
ral missionaries
were
captured, imprisoned
and
put
to death.
Among
those condemned
was the
Spanish
Franciscan
Luis
Sotelo;
but
through
the intervention of Date Masamune.
Prince of
Osih?,
he was set free. That ambi?
tious
sovereign,
anxious
to
magnify
his
own
activities,
took
advantage
of his commercial
relations with
Spain
in order to
try
to make
himself the ruler of the whole of
Japan,
and
with that end in view he
applied
for the assi?
stance of the
Japanese
Christians,
the
King
of
Spain
and
Pope
Paul
V, sending
an
embassy
to visit Madrid and
Rome,
under the
guidance
of the said
Sotelo,
who
already
looked for?
ward to the
possibility
of
becoming
at no
di?
stant date
Archbishop
of
Japan.
Masamune
gave
him as a
companion
for the
long voyage
his vassal Hasekura
Rokuyemon,
and the en?
voys
set sail in October 1613 for
Spain
via
Mexico.
During
their
sojourn
in Madrid
they
had themselves
baptized,
and nine months la?
ter
they
left the
Spanish capital
for Genoa
and thence for
Rome,
where
they
were suit?
ably lodged
in the
convert
of
Aracoeli,
on the
summit of the
Capitol.
On October
25, 1615,
the
Pope
received them
with full
honours,
granting
them
a
private
audience. This was
followed
by
a
public reception,
also in the
Vatican,
in the
presence
of
many
cardinals
and Court
dignitaries.
On that occasion
a
letter sent
by
Masamune
was
read,
in
a Latin
translation,
afterwards commented
on
by
the
Franciscan
Gregorio
Patrocha. In this
message,
which is still
preserved
in the Sixtine
room
of the Vatican
Apostolic Library,
the
haugh?
ty
Oriental Prince announced his conversion
to
Christianity,
and
requested
the
Pope
to
send a
large
number of missionaries to his
country.
Sotelo added that Masamune would
very
soon be raised to the
supreme dignity
of
the
Imperial
crown,
while a
petition
from
the
Japanese
Christians,
submitted to the Po?
pe
at the same time and
preserved
down to
the
present day
in the secret Vatican
archives,
confirmed the statement of the imminent ele?
vation of the Prince to the throne.
Basrelief representing
the coronation
of
Paul V and the Oriental
Embassy.
237
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In his ? Documenti?sul Barocco in Roma ?
Orbaan
publishes
a
statement,
taken from
the Codex Urb. lat.
1084,
to the effect that
Hasekura
Rokuyemon
visited the Conserva
tori of the Roman
people, by
whom he was
? received and honoured
as a
Royal
Ambassa?
dor,
in a hall
hung
with
new
damask,
and
asked
to be seated before them?. In the Ca?
pitol
the
Japanese
Ambassador also received
the honour of
being
created
a Roman
patri?
cian,
and
was
presented
with a
beautifully
en?
amelled
diploma
to which
a
golden
seal was
attached. This valuable document
was discov?
ered in
Japan during
the last
century,
to?
gether
with
an oil
painting
in which Haseku?
ra is
depicted praying
on his knees before
a
crucifix. Another
portrait
of the same
per?
sonage
is to be found
among Raphael
Sade
lerV
engravings;
in it the
Japanese
Ambassad?
or to Paul V
appears
with
a small
cross atta?
ched
to a
rosary
round his neck.
The
Embassy
remained in Rome until
Ja?
nuary 7, 1616,
and all the
expenses
of its so?
journ
were
defrayed by
the
Pope,
who
was
extremely generous
in his
gifts given
in ex?
change
for those he had received. Nevertheless
the
envoys
were not satisfied with the results of
their
visit,
for the
Pope
laid down
as a
first
and essential condition for the favours he
was
asked to
grant
the conversion of the Prin?
ce. The
prudent
reserve of His Holiness with
regard
to
the wishes and intentions of Masa
mune and of the Franciscan Sotelo
were
op?
portune
and
fully justified.
In fact the vain?
glorious
Prince was
only acting
for mundane
objects,
and was far from
being
affected
by
the
grace
of
Faith;
and in the meanwhile the
sagacious
and
cunning Ieyasu, suspicious
and
fearful of the aims and
plans
of
Masamune,
took the sudden and cruel decision of
expel?
ling
the Christians from his whole
territory.
This
happened
in
1620,
after the return of
Hasekura;
and
Masamune,
instead of
accep?
ting
conversion,
openly
took
part
in the
per?
secutions,
of which Sotelo himself was to re?
main a
victim,
for
having imprudently
retur?
ned to
Japan
in
spite
of
.
the strict law
prohi?
biting
all
missionary
activities,
he was
burnt
at the stake in Omura in 1624.
Hasekura died two
years
after his return to
Japan,
and
although
he had fallen into
disgra?
ce
and
poverty
and been for
gotten,
*
his mis?
sion to Rome is recorded
on a column raised
over his tomb.
Emma A made!
Italian
landscapes:
an
aspect of
the island
of Capri.
238
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