In 1873, the Meiji government abolished the ban on Christianity. Believers who had been in hiding returned to Catholicism, and churches in various villages were built with a variety of designs that combined Japanese and Western techniques.   Although many Hidden Christians returned to Catholicism, there are still people in the Nagasaki region who did not return to Catholicism and still preserve and pass on the unique religious rituals of the Hidden era, and they are called “Hidden Christians.”

Ban on Christianity was abolished in 187…の続きを読む