Oe Church

kawau
Originally uploaded by granimal.

This church is located in Kawaura, a town on Amakusa (the Japanese island we currently inhabit) not too far from our town. Amakusa has an interesting history regarding Christianity. For a period of about 300 years, Christianity was forbidden in Japan. However, many Japanese people has been converted to Christianity by various missionaries and practiced secretly. In the late 1630's there was a Christian uprising in Amakusa. About half of the population of Amakusa were killed. Christianity was not accepted in Japan until 1871 (somewhere around here anyway, remembering dates has never been one of my strong points...)

Please feel free, anyone who knows more about this topic than I do (including Granto), to elaborate/make corrections.