Churches and Cathedrals

The Church is dedicated to Antonio Ishida and others who were martyred in

the Unzen jigoku from 1627 to 1632 and was built in 1982 to commemorate

Pope John Paul II’s visit to Nagasaki.

The number of believers in the church is small, but many pilgrims visit, since

it is also a place of martyrdom.

This Cathedral is house of prayer for tens of thousands Christians who

were martyred between 1612 and 1658 throughout the Shimabara Peninsula.

t was built in 1997 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the martyrdom of

26 Japanese Saints and the 360th anniversary of the Shimabara Rebellion.

The Cathedral is a beautiful octagonal building with a large octagonal dome.

The church is a Christian Pilgrimage site and was designed by Tetsukawa

Yosuke, a famous architect of various churches in Nagasaki-prefecture,

and built between December 1915 and October 1917. It is one of the latest 

brick churches in the prefecture of Nagasaki. Tetsukawa Yosuke has called

this one of his best works.

This church is a catholic church in Hirado, Nagasaki. Hirado is a place

where Francis Xavier visited 3 times in Japan to spread Christianity, and

even during the Kinkyo Ordinance of the Edo Period that prohibited religions,

Christianity was very widespread. For that reason when the ordinance was

lifted this church was constructed, and the image of Francis Xavier was

put on the side.

After the discovery of the numerous hidden Christians in Ikitsuki Island in 1865,

they began to work on recovering their Catholic faith although they were not too

successful at first. Then in 1878, a priest named Fr. Pelu came to Hirado and

baptized many people who are said to be the ancestors of the churchgoers of

Yamada Church today.

Yamano Church was built in 1924 in the Yamano area, where is halfway of  

Mount Yasuman. Most people living in this area are Christians. The ancestors

of the Yamano village fled persecution from Nishisonogi and Sotome to Goto

island during ban on Christianity. However, they were unable to live on Goto

island, so they moved to this area of Hirado Island between 1820 and 1830.

The Church is a Pilgrimage site and is the oldest Catholic Church in Amakusa 

and was one of the first churches built right after the ban on Christianity was

lifted. The Romanesque-style architecture and the chalky white structure was

rebuilt in 1933 by a French missionary priest named Father Garnier using his

own money and contributions from local Christians living in the area.

Sakitshu is a Christian Pilgrimage site and has been registered on UNESCE

World Heritage as Hidden Christian site Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki 

Region. A Gothic-looking church is located on a cove of a fishing village.

In 1934, a French priest Augustin Halbout MEP purchased the premises of the

former village headman and built a wooden and concrete finished church, with

Tetsukawa Yosuke’s design and construction. He placed the altar at the very

site where fumie  or a test to ensure non-allegiance to Christianity had been

conducted.