Download Free The Samurai And The Cross Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online The Samurai And The Cross and write the review.

In 1614 the shogunate prohibited Christianity amidst rumors of foreign plots to conquer Japan. But more than the fear of armed invasions, it was the ideological threat--or spiritual conquest--that the Edo shogunate feared the most. This book explores the encounter of Christianity and premodern Japan in the wider context of global and intellectual history. M. Antoni J. Ucerler examines how the Jesuit missionaries sought new ways to communicate their faith in an unfamiliar linguistic, cultural, and religious environment--and how they sought to re-invent Christianity in the context of samurai Japan. They developed an original moral casuistry or cases of conscience adapted to the specific dilemmas faced by Japanese Christians. This volume situates the European missionary enterprise in East Asia within multiple geopolitical contexts: Both Ming China and Warring States Japan resisted the presence of foreigners and their beliefs. In Japan, where the Jesuits were facing persecution in the midst of civil war, they debated whether they could intervene in military conflicts to protect local communities. Others advocated for the establishment of a Christian republic or civil protectorate. Based on little-known primary sources in various languages, The Samurai and the Cross explores the moral and political debates over religion, law, and reason of state that took place on both the European and the Japanese side.
M. Antoni J. Ucerler examines how the Jesuit missionaries sought new ways to communicate their faith in an unfamiliar linguistic, cultural, and religious environment--and how they sought to ""re-invent"" Christianity in the context of samurai Japan. Based on little-known primary sources in various languages, The Samurai and the Cross explores the moral and political debates over religion, law, and ""reason of state"" that took place on both the European and the Japanese side
Christians are called to be both servants and soldiers of Christ. As this book demonstrates, there is much to be learned from the teachings and example of the Samurai, legendary servant-warriors of Japan, in order for believers respond to Gods call as Christian Samurai. (Christian)
By 250 AD, Christianity had spread throughout India and China. Known as the Shining Religion or the Luminous Teaching, it drew adherents from Buddhism and Hinduism who were seeking a faith that taught the possibility of achieving a society founded on love and compassion for their fellow man. The new doctrine reached the island nation of Japan where it was so well received that Christianity threatened to supplant Buddhism as the dominant religion. By the close of the 16th century Japanese Christians numbered in the millions. Fifty years later Christianity was officially proscribed and Christians faced execution for openly practicing their faith. Jesus and the Samurai tells their fascinating story with facts drawn from ancient and modern sources.
The sect was said to harbour dark designs to overthrow the government. Its teachers used a dead language that was impenetrable to all but the innermost circle of believers. Its priests preached love and kindness, but helped local warlords acquire firearms. They encouraged believers to cast aside their earthly allegiances and swear loyalty to a foreign god-emperor, before seeking paradise in terrible martyrdoms. The cult was in open revolt, led, it was said, by a boy sorcerer. Farmers claiming to have the blessing of an alien god had bested trained samurai in combat and proclaimed that fires in the sky would soon bring about the end of the world. The Shogun called old soldiers out of retirement for one last battle before peace could be declared in Japan. For there to be an end to war, he said, the Christians would have to die. This is a true story.
The daughter of a Chinese mother and a Japanese father, Gail Tsukiyama's The Samurai's Garden uses the Japanese invasion of China during the late 1930s as a somber backdrop for this extraordinary story. A 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from a bout with tuberculosis. Here he is cared for by Matsu, a reticent housekeeper and a master gardener. Over the course of a remarkable year, Stephen learns Matsu's secret and gains not only physical strength, but also profound spiritual insight. Matsu is a samurai of the soul, a man devoted to doing good and finding beauty in a cruel and arbitrary world, and Stephen is a noble student, learning to appreciate Matsu's generous and nurturing way of life and to love Matsu's soulmate, gentle Sachi, a woman afflicted with leprosy.
A Seattle Times Best Book of the Year A Buzzfeed Best Nonfiction Book of the Year "Nimura paints history in cinematic strokes and brings a forgotten story to vivid, unforgettable life." —Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha In 1871, five young girls were sent by the Japanese government to the United States. Their mission: learn Western ways and return to help nurture a new generation of enlightened men to lead Japan. Raised in traditional samurai households during the turmoil of civil war, three of these unusual ambassadors—Sutematsu Yamakawa, Shige Nagai, and Ume Tsuda—grew up as typical American schoolgirls. Upon their arrival in San Francisco they became celebrities, their travels and traditional clothing exclaimed over by newspapers across the nation. As they learned English and Western customs, their American friends grew to love them for their high spirits and intellectual brilliance. The passionate relationships they formed reveal an intimate world of cross-cultural fascination and connection. Ten years later, they returned to Japan—a land grown foreign to them—determined to revolutionize women’s education. Based on in-depth archival research in Japan and in the United States, including decades of letters from between the three women and their American host families, Daughters of the Samurai is beautifully, cinematically written, a fascinating lens through which to view an extraordinary historical moment.