When the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier introduced Catholic Christianity to Japan in 1549, it developed quickly in the country. The Japanese called this new religious movement and its believers Kirishitan. This volume explores the popular religious life and culture of the native adherents, which have been so often ignored in conventional studies of Christianity in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Japan. Subjects included are lay missionaries, followers' engagement in symbols and rituals, Japanese catechism, and apostasy, underground practice, and martyrdom under persecution. This...