The Site of the 26 Martyrs

The story of the 26 Martyrs is one that is tied up in the rise of the Tokogawa Shogunate around the 1600s and the predecessor to Tokogawa, Toyatomi Hideyoshi. Christianity had been introduced to Japan via Portuguese trade about fifty years before and had a rocky history to say the least, as an excerpt from a paper I wrote last semester here is the short story of the 26 Martyrs (26 Holy Men in Japanese):

As Hideyoshi continued to learn more about the West and the colonization of the Philippians, by the Spanish after their conversion to Christianity, distrust continued to grow even more toward the West and the Jesuits. In late January of 1597 Hideyoshi intensified his persecution of Christians and captured 24 of them, including two boys, in the capitol city of Kyoto. After having their left ears’ cut off and being paraded around the city and through the country to be ridiculed, they were marched to Nagasaki where on February 5th 1597 Hideyoshi had them, along with two Jesuits who had come to defend them, crucified. It is possible that this incident was spurred on by Hideyoshi’s own insecurities and need to assert his authority after the failed invasion of Korea, in which his demands were rejected and he was referred to as a subordinate of China. Hideyoshi died roughly a year later leaving his son in the care of 5 reagents, one of whom was Tokugawa Ieyasu, which delayed the expulsion of the Priests. At this time there were estimated to be around 300,000 Christians in Japan.

Beyond that there is not much to tell, so here is the site:

 The shorter man here is a young adult, but is not a child

 This is a Cathedral behind the site

 And this is the public bathroom at the site

If you ever come to Nagasaki you will often find fun maps like these around for tourists, I don't think there is anything shown on this map that I haven't been to see, or seen by matter of course during my time here. The site of the 26 Martyrs was the last site that I had intended to see in Nagasaki, and when I realized where it was I kicked myself for not seeing it sooner as it was near a common hang out of mine. While I still have bigger events from days gone by to write about this was my last real adventure in Nagasaki. Next weekend I will be going to a Baseball game in Fukuoka, that will be interesting to say the least, America might have invented Baseball, but I think the Japanese surpass us in their love of the game. Hopefully, I get more time to fill you in on some of my past adventure soon.

Short Tail Cats

Somewhat unique to Nagasaki are these strange "short tailed" cats. Their tails have not been cut or otherwise altered after birth, but are simply shorter than most cats and often curled into a ball on the end. Here are two that I was able to photograph while I was out one afternoon:

This guy is the most passive cat I've ever seen, he just rolled over when I reached down to pet him without even opening his eyes, unbelievable!

 That is the full length of his tail, his though is not curled like most are

 This guy has the curl, but was also more wary of me

 

Anyway, there's a brief look at a phenomenon that is almost exclusive to Nagasaki. I noticed it early on, but since I was busy with other site seeing I forgot about it until about winter, and by then the cats had all gone into hiding during those cold days. They've only begun reemerging in the last month or so.

Tall Ship Festival

So, I'm obviously behind on my updates, but school is keeping me busy and I can't really fail my blog, plus the rainy season is overdue to start so I've been going out and enjoying myself while I still can. Back on the last weekend of April however there was a Tall Ship Festival. This was several days of being able to go down to the docks and look at sailing ships from various parts of the world, complete with all the usual festival foods and the obligatory fireworks.

 This ship is from Russia

 This is the water front at dusk, very beautiful

The night view was great

Here you can get a brief idea of the atmosphere. This was no where near as big as Kunchi back in the Fall or New Year's, but it was still fun to come out and relax and just have fun. If you're wondering what was going on on stage it was belly dancing. I tried to watch, but it honestly was not very interesting to me.

The last two videos show case parts of the fireworks show (which lasted for about 15 minutes). This is normal for regular festivals, but these were sad compared to the fireworks we saw back in the winter (which I did not make a video of because I was too busy being mesmerized). Still it was pretty nice to have the ship's silhouette in the foreground.