| 研究開始時の研究の概要 |
In light of new studies on the term religion and its reconceptualization in modern Europe, Latin America, and East Asia, our research will clarify the following points: 1) how the experience of the Japanese Christian mission and its debates of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries impacted the reformulation of the idea of religio in Europe; 2) the distinctive features of the Japanese mission in this reformulation process; and 3) how the Jesuit tradition influenced contemporary Buddhist ideas and the type of adaptation observed in kirishitan practices throughout the Edo Period.
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| 研究実績の概要 |
In the first half of the sixteenth century, people from the Iberian nations accomplished the first circumnavigation of the world and permanently linked the continents of Asia, Africa, Europe, and America. Many historians argue that these events marked the beginning of modern globalization. During the fiscal year of 2021, I investigated how this early modern globalization forced European thinkers -- more specifically Latin Christians -- to reframe a number of their own concepts so that they could make sense of this "new" world. That is, the Catholic missionaries endeavored to organize this data in a way that would avoid disruption of the traditional Christian worldview. In my research, I focused particularly on the role of Japan in this process. The Japanese Christian mission was seen by the Jesuits, who held the monopoly of this mission for over four decades, as one of their most promising ones. Nevertheless, it still ended up in failure due to the prohibition of Christianity and the harsh persecution promoted by the Tokugawa government. The rationale for labeling Japan a promising land for Christians underpins the new understanding of religion developed under early modern globalization. My conclusions on this topic were presented at the public lecture "Religion in a Global Context: Early Modern Globalization and the Catholic Missions," given at the Graduate School of International Cultural Studies in December 2021, and further elaborated in an article currently under submission to a global history related academic journal.
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