Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
exhibiting and providing information on the church group. Compared with other
World Heritage sites related to Christianity already registered around the world, the
Nagasaki Church Group is in a situation where it is diffi cult to emphasize the value
of its scale, history, and splendor. Thus, the historical characteristics of Nagasaki are
emphasized, along with the church group as an expression of a historic landscape.
4.2.3.2
What Is the Value of the Nagasaki Church Group?
The World Heritage Association emphasizes three points of value of the Nagasaki
Church Group in the light of the UNESCO criteria. (The Association for Declaring
the Nagasaki Church Group a World Heritage 2007 ). First, the association cites the
historic value. Churches in Nagasaki have a 450-year history of Christianity, since
St. Francis Xavier arrived at Hirado in 1550, and could even be said to represent
the history of Christianity in Japan. Christianity had a checkered history and
Christians were persecuted by Anti-Christian Edicts, leading to a period of conceal-
ment during the Edo era. Christianity revived after the ban was abolished in 1873,
and almost half the churches built before The Second World War still exist through-
out Nagasaki (Kawakami and Tsuchida 1983 ; Kawakami et al 1985 ). Many churches
were designed by foreign missionaries and built by Japanese master carpenters and
Christians with the advice of foreign missionaries. The churches symbolize the
revival of a faith that had been handed down through generations, and represent
local history. In this way, the Nagasaki Church Group is an expression of a globally
rare historic landscape, symbolizing the introduction, acceptance, persecution, con-
cealment, and revival of Christianity among Christians of Nagasaki, where the
Christian faith was fi rst established in Japan (Matsui 2006 ).
Nagasaki is also famous for the culture of the hidden Christians who handed
down their faith from concealment (Miyazaki 1996 , 2001 ). This now only exists in
part of the Goto Islands. Furthermore, many sites of martyrdom and relevant histori-
cal sites still exist, including the Delegation of Tensho Young Envoys that shines so
brilliantly in the history of Christianity in Japan, and the ruins of Hara Castle in
which Christian farmers barricaded themselves during the Shimabara Rebellion.
Value can be found in the characteristics of Christianity in Nagasaki that created
such a unique Christian culture.
Second, the ecclesiastical buildings have considerable aesthetic and artistic
value. The churches include many distinctive buildings where the architectural tech-
niques of the West brought by foreign missionaries and the conventional techniques
of Japan were mixed. (The photo collection of Misawa and Kawakami ( 2000 ) pro-
vides extensive pictures of the churches.) The redbrick and stone churches, in par-
ticular, which were built between the 1860s and 1920s, are famous for the exotic or
romantic exteriors. These churches blend Eastern and Western cultures and tech-
niques to reach fruition in distinctive ecclesiastical architecture. The master carpen-
ter who is referred to whenever discussing ecclesiastical architecture is Yosuke
Tetsukawa. Mr Tetsukawa, who was born into a family of master carpenters in
Kamigoto in Nagasaki in 1889, was engaged in many ecclesiastical architectural
Search WWH ::




Custom Search