Valignano exercised his position as Visitor by overseeing all of the Jesuit missions in Asia from the major Portuguese port of Macau. He had a particular focus on Japan, however, and made three extended visits there in 1579–1583, 1590–1592 and 1598–1603.
Language study Language study had always been one of the core problems for the mission. Before the Visitor arrived in Japan, seventeen of Valignano's personally appointed missionaries wrote to him complaining that language training was totally nonexistent. Cabral had protested that it was impossible for Europeans to learn Japanese and that even after fifteen years of study the
padres could hardly preach a
sermon, even to Christian converts. It was Valignano's first official act upon arriving in Japan that all new missionaries in the province spend two years in a language course, separating these newcomers by leaps and bounds from the first enthusiastic but stilted efforts of
Francis Xavier. By 1595, Valignano could boast in a letter that not only had the Jesuits printed a Japanese
grammar and
dictionary, but also several books (mostly the lives of
saints and martyrs) entirely in Japanese. The main body of the grammar and dictionary was compiled from 1590 to 1603; when finished, it was a truly comprehensive volume with the dictionary alone containing some 32,798 entries. Where Cabral had worked to exclude Japanese men from rising beyond brothers in the Society, Valignano insisted that they be treated equally in every way to
Europeans and while the Japanese seminarians would learn
Latin for
sacramental use, the Visitor remarks that it is Europeans who must learn Japanese customs, and not the other way around. This, it must be added, was the complete opposite of Cabral's stated opinion that the Japanese must be adapted to
Western ideas and modes of thought.
Establishment of the seminaries The need for a trained native clergy was obvious to Valignano, and so, in 1580, a recently emptied
Buddhist monastery in
Arima province was converted into a nascent
seminary. There, 22 young Japanese converts began receiving instructions towards
holy orders. The process was repeated two years later at
Azuchi, where the seminarians numbered 33. The first order of business in the seminaries would be language training. Valignano made clear that all seminarians, whatever their background, would receive education in both
Latin and Japanese. After the foundations were laid, the students were educated in moral
theology,
philosophy and Christian doctrine. This was typical of Jesuit education, and reflects the state of Jesuit schooling in Europe. But there were some significant differences. For one, as the Arima seminary was a converted
Buddhist monastery, and because Valignano emphasized the need for cultural adaptation, the original décor was left largely unchanged. This pattern was repeated in other seminaries at other sites, and, in the 1580
Principles for the Administration of Japanese Seminaries, which goes into great detail about seminary methods, Valignano notes that the "
tatami mats should be changed every year" and that students should wear "
katabira (summer clothes) or
kimonos of blue cotton" and outdoors a "
dobuku (black cloak)." The students were instructed to eat white
rice with sauce with a side dish of fish. Valignano's purpose is quite clear. The seminaries were typical Jesuit institutions of
humanistic education and theological exploration but their style of living was wholly Japanese. They were carefully designed to blend, as much as possible, Japanese sensibilities with European ideology. In short, they were a perfect place to train Japanese preachers, men who would appeal to both their families and friends, and also to the Society. Some experts hypothesize that Valignano was actively trying to replicate the Japanese institution of
dojuku, or novitiate monastics. This is probably an apt interpretation, because it does appear that the Catholic seminaries appealed to, but in typical Jesuit style were not limited to, many of the same sons of wealthy nobles as the Buddhist tradition of living as a
novice in a monastery would have. Valignano's methodical and organized mind is apparent in every aspect of mission organization. Appended to his "Principles for the Administration of Japanese Seminaries" is a complete daily schedule for a Japanese seminarian. True to form, the scheduled activities include both daily Latin and Japanese instruction with a sprinkling of choral and other musical performance.
Success of seminary reforms Despite their great idealism, it is unclear how successful Valignano's seminary reforms really were. They certainly stimulated Japanese converts to join the Society; in the decade after Valignano's first visit, some sixty native Japanese joined the Jesuits as novices. But there were problems too. Few Buddhist monks were forced to live under a rule of strict
poverty as the Jesuits enforced it, and because gift-giving was such an important part of Japanese social relations, the inability of the novices to accept these gifts undoubtedly helped to alienate them from their families. In addition, the
Ignatian mode of spirituality, with its emphasis on
confession and
examination of conscience struck the seminarians as terribly improper. Valignano, Cabral, and others had often noted how Japanese culture stressed the suppression and concealment of emotion. This problem was exacerbated by the inability of most of the Jesuits to fluently speak or understand the language. Revealing all of one's secret thoughts to another, through an
interpreter, was seen as a serious violation of social
customs. Lastly, but even more fundamentally, Japanese culture did not and does not view religious life as totally separate from secular life in the sense that the Jesuits understood it. Within most Buddhist communities it is common, if not expected, that young men and women spend some time in seclusion as a
monk or
nun for a few years or months. It was no dishonor for a monk to take vows for a limited period of time and then return to his normal occupation, while the counter-Reformation era
Roman Church, with its emphasis on vocation and eternal
priesthood, could scarcely have been more different.
Port of Nagasaki As the scale of the mission began to expand rapidly, financial difficulties began to crop up. All of the Jesuit institutions: the seminaries, the schools, the
printing presses and the missions required money to finance. This eternal conflict, which Valignano describes as the one between "God and Mammon" raged for most of the history of the mission. ", 17th century folding screen, Nagasaki Originally local Japanese
daimyo had tried to curry favor with the Jesuit
administration in order to have the
Portuguese trading ships visit their local ports more frequently. All of this changed in 1580 when Father Vilela converted the
daimyo Ōmura Sumitada who controlled the port of
Nagasaki. As a gift, the port, which was then merely a small fishing village, was ceded to the control of the Society, as was the
fortress in the
harbor. The Superior General in Rome was shocked by the news of such a blatant acquisition of property and gave firm instructions that Jesuit control of Nagasaki should only be temporary. But like most suggestions coming from Europe, Cabral and Valignano chose to tactfully ignore them, especially because, as Valignano explained later, the town quickly became a haven for displaced and persecuted Christians. Under Jesuit control, Nagasaki grew from a town with only one street to an international port rivaling the influence of
Goa or Macau. Jesuit ownership of the Port of Nagasaki gave the Society a concrete
monopoly in taxation over all imported goods coming into Japan. The society was most active in the Japanese
silver trade, wherein large quantities of Japanese silver were shipped to
Canton in exchange for Chinese
silk; but the superiors of the mission were aware of the inherent distastefulness of Society involvement in
mercantile transactions and resolved to keep the traffic to a minimum.
Embassy to Europe Valignano was the initiator of the
Tenshō embassy, the first official Japanese delegation to Europe, and accompanied the group of Japanese converts led by
Mancio Ito from Nagasaki to
Goa, from where he then returned to Macau. The delegation would sail on to
Lisbon and spend several years in Europe where they were received with honors in
Portugal,
Spain,
Florence,
Rome,
Venice and
Milan.
Conflicts with Rome and the Shogunate This breach of ecclesiastical practice did not go unnoticed by the heads of other European missions in the area, or by those who made their living via inter-Asiatic trade. Eventually, the
Pope was forced to intervene, and, in 1585, the
Holy See ordered an immediate cessation of all
mercantile activities by the Society. Valignano made an impassioned appeal to the Pope, saying that he would forgo all trade as soon as the 12,000
ducats required to meet their annual expenses were forthcoming from another source. Abandoning the silk trade, he said, would be the equivalent to abandoning the mission to Japan, which was undoubtedly true. In a letter to the Superior General, Valignano asked for leniency and above all, trust: "Your paternity must leave this matter to my conscience, because with the help of God I trust that I shall continue to think about it, and also to consider the good name of the society in Japan and China, and when it seems to me possible to do so I shall gradually reduce and finally abandon the trade." But sufficient
finances had to be secured from somewhere. By 1580, the society was maintaining a community of 150,000 people, 200 churches staffed with 85 Jesuits, including twenty Japanese brothers and an additional 100
acolytes. A decade later, there were 136 Jesuits in Japan with a caretaking staff of up to 300. At the height of the mission, there were about 600 people who were entirely dependent on the society for funds. All of this, in addition to the construction and maintenance of churches,
schools, seminaries, and the
printing press cost a great deal of money. Placed in the context of the widespread
poverty that plagued Japan during this era, it is not surprising that the Valignano authorized the mission to rely on the
tax income provided them by the Port of Nagasaki. By 1600, the Jesuit mission there was in decline because of persecution from the ruler
Toyotomi Hideyoshi and later, most severely, under the Tokugawas.
Tokugawa Ieyasu worked diligently to thwart all European attempts to reestablish contact with Japan, religious or otherwise, after his rise to power in 1603. All samurai and members of the army were required to forswear Christianity and remove Christian emblems or designs from their clothing. Later,
daimyo and commoners were ordered to follow the same restrictions. In 1636,
Tokugawa Iemitsu enacted the
Sakoku edict which ended almost all contact with the outside world. No Japanese ships were allowed to leave the country under pain of death, and any Japanese who attempted to return from abroad would likewise be executed, policies which remained in force until
American Commodore Matthew C. Perry's arrival in 1853. ==Death and legacy==