The Janus Face of Normativities in a Global Mirror: Viewing 16th-Century Marriage Practices in Japan from Christian and Japanese Traditions

Abstract

Since the 13th century, the Ashikaga clan governed Japan as shōguns (military rulers). During the rule of Ashikaga Yoshiharu, the 12th shōgun of the Muromachi period (1336–1573), Japan was amid the turmoil of a civil war. Due to the lack of political articulation, the effective power of the shōgun was diminishing considerably day by day. To complicate this scenario, something unique happened for the first time on Japanese soil: in 1543, Portuguese travelers arrived in the island of Tanegashima aboard Chinese junk ships, making the first contact between Japan and Europe.1 Six years later, the first Jesuits in Japan, Francisco Xavier, Cosme de Torres, and Juan Fernández, landed in today’s Kagoshima, at that time part of the Satsuma fief, and began the Christian mission in Japan. After these events, an increasing number of missionaries came to Japan, developed their evangelical mission, and attempted to forge alliances with daimyōs (local warlords) and shōguns. From that moment, Christians began to document their life, their preaching, and their mission in Japan. Today, this corpus of sources can be found in different parts of the world in Jesuit, Franciscan, and Dominican archives. Descriptions about early Christian life in Japan can also be found in national archives around the world: in Tokyo, Madrid, Mexico City, Lisbon, Seville, and Manila, to name a few. This includes official correspondence with monarchs in Europe, histories of Japan, descriptions and letters, and instructions for the captains of the official trips from China to Japan.2 The same, however, cannot be said about Japanese sources about the Christians written in the same period. Many factors account for this imbalance, with the most significant one being the systematic persecution of Christians since