Toyotomi Hideyoshi and St Francis Xavier: Kami-Making and the Impact of the Cult of Saints in Japan, 1552–1622

Tür:

Kitap Bölümü

Yazar:

Timon Screech

Yayın yılı:

2025

Dil:

en

This essay considers the raising to kami status (‘deification’) of the great warlord-turned-nobleman Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1599. Although not afforded greater attention, this event took place while the Jesuit order was engaged in a major campaign for canonisation of their ‘Apostle to the Indies’ St Francis Xavier. It is proposed here that the Jesuit campaign had some bearing on events in Japan. Human-to-kami elevation had taken place in ancient Japan, but been virtually defunct for centuries. In Rome there was also a long-standing moratorium on the creation of new saints, requiring the Jesuit case to be made with great vigour. Actors around Hideyoshi’s elevation were strikingly close to the missions, being baptised, or linked to those who were. A saint and a once-human kami are similar in the sense of being exceptional, deceased persons, not all-powerful, but possessing the capacity to answer prayers and perform miracles. The kami-making of Hideyoshi is a celebrated event in Japanese history, but this essay argues it should be understood in a new light.

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