Edict expelling Jesuit Missionaries (1587)
Source: Edict Expelling Jesuit Missionaries, https://www.japanese-wiki-corpus.org/history/Edict%20expelling%20Jesuit%20missionaries.html. Generated from the Japanese-English Bilingual Corpus of Wikipedia’s Kyoto Articles which is translated by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) from Japanese sentences on Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA.
- Japan is the land of gods, and thereby it is not possible to accept the evil belief from the Christian countries.
- It is unprecedented that they made the domain people their believers, destroyed shrines and temples, and places of living, enfeoffment, and other things that have been done only for the time being. Obey Acts by the realm, making anything possible and doing ad arbitrium are vile for people of low ranks.
- The missionaries held temples’ supporters with their wits as they desired and destroyed the Buddhist law, therefore, they should not be allowed in the land of Japan, and should prepare to leave and return to their country within twenty days from this day, and also those who harm the missionaries during this period shall be punished.
- The black ships are for commerce, and thereby they shall be treated differently and we shall buy and purchase various items over the years.
- For those who do not try to prevent Buddhist law, such foreign merchants shall be allowed to come to or leave Japan any time after this.
The end of the text.
June 19, 1587 Red seal
