This is a list of resources (databases, repositories, and projects) that are useful for those interested in Christianity in Japan during the 16th and 17th centuries and related topics. The list is ordered alphabetically.
Bibliotheca Sinica 2.0
Bibliotheca Sinica 2.0 is a bibliography aggregating pre-1939 digitised books that pertain to interactions between China and the West. The user can search for texts via a keyword search, via tags, or by searching through authors’ surnames alphabetically. The WordPress powered site organises bibliographic entries as posts in which the user finds bibliographical information on the text, links to repositories that hold digital copies, and when they exist in digitised format any pre-1939 translations. Although the platform isn't directly related to the history of Christianity in Japan it contains numerous sources relating to the Jesuits in East Asia and is a potentially useful platform for those looking for primary and secondary sources pertaining to the Jesuits' mission to Japan. The search capabilities are limited which mean that it often better to use the resource to search for texts for which one is already searching rather than attempting to use the platform to find new texts.
Chinese Christian Text Database
The Chinese Christian Text Database is a bibliographic database of primary and secondary sources related to interactions between China and the West from 1582 to 1840. Each entry provides extensive bibliographical information. This may include physical descriptions, the texts' inclusion in other bibliographies, notes on the contents of the texts, information on translations, information on library copies, and information on facsimiles and reprints. Where available links to digitized copies are also provided. There are options for basic and advanced searches with various parameters relating to different bibliographical information. Whilst the database focuses primarily on China it also includes a large number of sources relating to Japan most of which were composed in European languages. It is a potentially useful, but currently underutilized resource for those interested in the study of the history of Christianity in Japan.
Danjuro
Danjuro (Edo jidai ni okeru jinkō bunseki shisutemu 江戸時代における人口分析システム) is an analysis system for different sorts of population data taken from Edo period documents developed by Kawaguchi Hiroshi in 2013. The platforms data from and analytical tools for assessing Shūmon aratame chō will be of particular interest to those studying anti-Kirishitan policy.
The platform's Shūmon aratame chō bunseki shisutemu 「宗門改帳」分析システム includes data from documents taken from 13 villages written between 1750 and 1869. Users need to apply for an account which can be done via the index page. After an account has been created the platform offers two primary features. First is a series of powerful search tools that to search through different documents and the households and individuals that they provide information on. Second is an analysis programme (Bunseki puroguramu 分析プログラム) which can be used to quickly download quantified data taken from the system's documents and analyse it. As such although the data is limited to documents from 13 villages it can be easily accessed and incorporated into a study.
Access: http://www.danjuro.jp/
Japan Search: "Crypto-Christians" Gallery
The “Crypto-Christians (senpuku Kirishitan)” gallery hosted on Japan Search is a curated collection of resources related to Christians in early modern Japan. It uses Japan Search’s vast database, encompassing the holdings of over 100 partner institutions, to collate historical events, primary and secondary sources, biographies, artworks, artifacts, videos and more. All of these can be viewed through links to the websites of the individual partner institutions. The gallery also has a short, albeit incomplete, list of Kirishitan-related exhibitions and museums that hold Kirishitan materials. This is particularly useful as a starting point for research into Kirishitan items across different institutions. Following links under the "Related People, Things and Events" section allows users to discover additional related materials including the Shimabara Rebellion, the Tenshō Embassy, or Kirishitan daimyō. A potential limitation of this sizeable collection of resources is the paucity of non-Japanese materials.
Laures Kirishitan Bunko Database
The Laures Kirishitan Bunko is known to every scholar interested in Kirishitan studies as the definitive collection of Kirishitan and pre-20th century Catholic material related to Japan. The collection includes over 15,600 items produced in Japan, European works that make reference to Japan, maps of East Asia, Christian artifacts and more. The collection was founded by Father Johannes Laures in 1939 to research the Jesuit connections between Japan and Europe, and bibliographies were printed and updated through to the 1950s. The online database was then compiled and released in 2004.
The database is fully searchable, although as it contains works written in multiple languages users will have to be careful and thorough in their use of search terms or use the database's functions to refine their search parameters. It is otherwise organised into three sections: “Essays,” “Sources,” and “Texts.” The “Essays,” section consists of the updated and revised text from Laures’ bibliography (Kirishitan Bunko: A Manual of Books and Documents on the Early Christian Mission in Japan) in both English and Japanese, along with a foreword written on the publication of the online database. The user can find important information on the history of Jesuit and 19th century Catholic printing operations in Japan.
The “Sources” and “Texts” sections are most likely to capture the scholar’s attention. The “Sources” section provides bibliographical information on different texts sorted as “Japanese Press,” “Restoration Press,” “European Press,” “Americana,” “Maps of East Asia,” and “Christian Artifacts.” Entries in the database feature information adapted from Laures' Kirishitan Bunko including its bibliographical data, notes about the item and where it is held worldwide. The documents included in the “Maps of East Asia” and “Christian Artifacts” sections contain not only bibliographical data but have also been digitised, and where textual in nature, transcribed. The images themselves are very high quality and the transcriptions of letters are particularly useful, although it is a shame that only five of nine of the anti-Christian decrees (kōsatsu) have been transcribed. It is also important to note that the majority of the sources within the archive have not been digitised.
Finally, the “Texts” section directs the user specifically to images and transcriptions of texts, although there are only six full documents in total. An interested feature is that the digital images of these transcribed documents can be overlaid with their transcriptions. Clicking any character on the image will tell you what it is, which makes studying how to read komonjo easier. The addition of modern Japanese translations of the documents is also appreciated. As mentioned above, the main issue with this is that the feature only extends to six documents. The collection is large and impressive, but if more of it were digitised and/or accessible in digital transcription that would open up a world of research possibilities for those unable to visit Sophia University in person.
Access: https://digital-archives.sophia.ac.jp/laures-kirishitan-bunko/
Missionary Linguistics
Missionary Linguistics created and maintained by Dr Masayuki Toyoshima 豊島正之 is an extremely valuable resources for any researchers interested in Japanese linguistics and the dictionaries produced by missionaries in Japan. It contains fully searchable copies of a large variety of dictionaries, split into multiple different search engines. JPDICT (Japanese pre-modern dictionaries) includes four dictionaries from the late nineteenth-century, LGR (Latin Glossaries with vernacular sources) a further eight, LGRI (Latin Grammars in the Iberian Peninsular) a further four, and LGRM (Historical Portuguese Orthographies) a final nine. Each database has its own uses but together undoubtedly form the most complete collection of searchable dictionaries for Kirishitan studies.
The JPDICT database offers a particularly powerful set of search functions, allowing the user to search by dictionary entry, contents of a definition, root words and, in the case of one of the dictionaries, pitch accent. The search results will also provide image links to the NDL digitisation of the texts. It is a shame that the other databases do not also provide image links, but as Dr Toyoshima writes himself, this is due to unavoidable server costs. The other databases offer less thorough search functions but nonetheless allow the user to filter by specific dictionaries and languages. The website even lets the user search Aozora Bunko, although this is especially difficult to find without accessing the search function directly at the link above (for reference, you have to make a JPDICT query, wait a short while, and then once it appears click the link at the top of the page which will say something like "AOZORA also has 2 usages").
The previous example about Aozora Bunko search functionality could be used to sum up the main issue with Missionary Linguistics: its user interface. The website can be quite difficult to navigate and certain functions are well hidden. For example, most of the databases are listed on the homepage, but then there are some that are only listed on the "Related Linguistic Resources" page. The generic name of the website can also makes it difficult to find with a google search (depending on the user, their location etc.), which is not helped by the potentially difficult to remember URL. As such this site is worth bookmarking. Nevertheless, if you can work with these potential issues and get used to its slightly esoteric design, this website will prove invaluable.
Access: https://joao-roiz.jp/index.html
Projects by NINJAL
The British Library holds the Amakusa edition of ‘Feiqe no monogatari’ [Heike monogatari], ‘Esopo no fabulas’ [Isoho monogatari] and ‘Qincuxu’ [Kinkushū] which, in collaboration with the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL), has formed the basis for a number of projects. The first is their digitisation. The three texts were originally bound in one book with a glossary and vocabulary at the end, but they can be viewed separately online. The photos are of high quality and resolution, and clicking on the image of any page will open it in a new tab where it can be downloaded. These photographs are undoubtedly useful for research into these texts and increasing access to these rare materials.
By navigating to pages on NINJAL’s website, which hosts a number of different secondary projects utilising data from the texts, the user can access other parts of the project. The biggest in scope is a text corpus, forming part of NINJAL’s Corpus of Historical Japanese (an English version of the site is also available). The corpus contains transcriptions of works along with a transliteration into Japanese characters produced by NINJAL. They have also annotated the corpus with the morphological information necessary for any linguistics project. As they mention on their website, this corpus is not just useful for research into Kirishitan studies but also into the language of Japan at the time, as the Latin alphabet could capture phonological changes that Japanese writing cannot. But as with all of NINJAL’s corpora the user will have to sign up to their Chūnagon service to access the data, so it is not completely open-access. Nevertheless, the full text data (transcription and Japanese transliteration but without morphological tags) of the Heike Monogatari and the Isoho Monogatari can be downloaded from the website.
This data is put to use with a now completed project focusing on the Isoho Monogatari (Aesop’s Fables), combining the image scans of the text with the corpus’ Japanese transliteration. The user can choose to have the transliteration side-by-side with the Amakusa-ban images or overlaid on top. This is useful for comparing the Latinised phonology with the Japanese words they represent. The only issue is that this project only covers a small fraction of the Isoho Monogatari, not the entire text. If the technology were applied to more images it would be of even greater use.
In addition to the British Library's Amakusa editions, the full transcription of Herzog August Bibliothek's copy of Contemptus Mundi created by Sven Osterkamp, Sophie Neutzler and So Miyagawa can also be accessed via NINJAL's site (English version).
Overall these projects are a notable example of how digitisation can both open access to documents, but also inspire their use in creative ways.
The Max Besson Library of "Japonica" Collection
Access: http://www.tulips.tsukuba.ac.jp/pub/tree/besson.php
The Max Besson Library of "Japonica" Collection also known as the Besson Collection is a collection of 377 books pertaining to European-Japanese relations during the 16th and 17th centuries held and digitized by the University of Tsukuba Library. The collection includes 4 Kirishitan-ban published outside of Japan, 64 texts pertaining to Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, 19 texts on the Tenshō embassy, 16 texts on the 26 martyrs of Japan, 6 texts on the Keichō embassy, 194 volumes of missionary reports and letters, and 74 miscellaneous texts. Most of these books were published during the 16th and 17th centuries, but collection includes also includes small number texts from the 18th and early 19th century. The Besson Collection appears to constitute the largest repository of digitized primary and early secondary sources written in European languages pertaining to early intercourse between Japan and Europe. It is an essential, but criminally underused resource.
The user can access texts by clicking on their individual hyperlink. They are then transported to the entry for the text in University of Tsukuba Libary's Tulips system where clicking on the "View E-Resources" button (電子資料を表示) beneath the text's storage data (call number etc.) will allow the user to view a digital copy. Digital copies are monochrome and can be navigated through a series of simple options. There is no search functionality on the dedicated page itself and this page hasn't been updated since 2008 so the instructions it offers for accessing the collection are out of date. Additionally those interest in the paratext of the materials may be disappointed since the choice to digitise the collection in monochrome means that some parts of the volumes (particularly illustrations) are poor in quality.
The Vatican Marega Collection Database
The Marega Collection Database is an extensive project, containing digitised copies and bibliographical information for the 14,643 items in the Vatican’s Marega Collection many of which pertain to the Kirishitan religion. The digitisation was completed by the National Institute for the Humanities and the National Institute of Japanese Literature (NIJL) in Japan, and has made a wide range of documents in Japanese, Italian, English and German freely available to the public. The collection itself was created by Father Mario Marega and mostly relates to the Usuki Domain’s Office of Religious Affairs (11,938 materials), although also includes other domainal documents (413 materials), items written or collected by Marega (2236 materials), and miscellaneous pieces (56 materials). Those within Kirishitan studies will be most interested in the aforementioned collection of documents from Usuki Domain's Office of Religious Affairs, but may also find materials of interest within Marega's personal collections which includes copies of his books and his memos.
The filing system (referred to as the “Marega Survey Levels”) is based on the preservation bags the Vatican stores the items in, so users will find it easiest to use the search bar function (or the “Marega Function Levels”) to find specific items. Once the user searches for and clicks on an item they will be directed to a large quantity of bibliographic information as well as the digital scans, which are high enough resolution to be read. The extensive nature of bibliographic data including that which pertains to the sender and addressee of documents provides an easy way to make links between different documents in the collection. Nevertheless, the sheer volume of data can make this highly useful platform difficult to navigate.
What we didn't include
In this list we have tried to limit the number of resources that are much broader than the topic of Christianity in 16th and 17th Century Japan. Prominent physical collections can be browsed on the Collections page. It is also important to note that users can find significant collections of digitized primary and secondary sources through the Internet Archive (Free) (particularly the ARSI and the Jesuitica collections), the National Diet Libary's Digital Collections (Free, with some texts having restricted access), the HathiTrust (Free, with some texts having restricted access), Google Books (Free and Paid), JapanKnowledge (Paid), and the Maruzen eBook Library (Paid). Users will also be able to find some smaller collections such as the holdings pertaining to Christianity in Doshisha University Digital Collections. JapanSearch is a good resources to locate some of these smaller collections.
If there are resources you think we have missed that should be included in the list please email us at kirishitanbank[at]gmail.com (replace the [at] with @).
Compiled by James Harry Morris and Joseph Bills, 2023
Last update: September 2023