AHC: Christian Japan

To what extent? Some people regard Korea as having been significantly Christianized but it's still only a third of the population even on paper that's been Christianized. On the other hand, East Timor and the Philippines have at least majority Christian populations, though I'm not sure as to the extent.

Also, when does the most Christianization occur, and what form of Christianity? Does it happen relatively soon after the Dutch show up in Nagasaki or does it happen around the Meiji era? These are all huge factors.

I'm intrigued, but more detail please.
 
Hmmm, again, depending on the kind of Christianity and how it interacts with Japanese culture will be the big question, I think then. If they get a form that focuses on evangelizing the entire planet, maybe it might be possible for Japanese missionaries to reach out to China and Korea, which could have an interesting effect for Christianity in Korea. One academic article I read about Christianity here mentioned that two of the reasons it spread so widely in Korea were that 1) it wasn't seen as a foreign religion, because Korean converts from China were the ones who first started spreading it during the Joseon dynasty, and 2) during the Japanese occupation it was associated with Korean patriotism, because they refused to worship the Japanese emperor, though for theological rather than patriotic reasons.

As for Japan, if they were to have THAT particular brand of Christianity and the associated evangelism, perhaps that could have Japan breaking out of isolation earlier, and god knows what effects could happen depending on where their ships land. Anything from a Japanese Hawaii or Indonesia could happen.

Of course, if you start the ball rolling that early, that butterflies away god knows how much of the 19th and 20th century as we know it.

But again, it depends on what aspects of Christianity they pick up. If different parts of Japan pick up different versions, say Catholicism one area and various Protestant versions elsewhere, that could be bad for Japan and cause a 30 Years war-ish scenario in Japan, or at least exacerbate the shogun/warlord situations. It really depends on the details here.
 

Sumeragi

Banned
But again, it depends on what aspects of Christianity they pick up. If different parts of Japan pick up different versions, say Catholicism one area and various Protestant versions elsewhere, that could be bad for Japan and cause a 30 Years war-ish scenario in Japan, or at least exacerbate the shogun/warlord situations. It really depends on the details here.

Reminds me of a map game.
 
It was happening at quite a speed IOTL. Have someone other than Tokugawa emerge victorious and it could well happen.
 
If christian missionaries had supported Toyotomi Hideyoshi's and later Tokugawa Ieyasu's claim for the shogunate and thus stayed in their favor like under Oda Nobunaga and if there had thus been no persecutions Japan might have a christian community about the same size as Korea, which would also have been helped if the Liefde with William Adams aboard had sunk before reaching Japan.

It also would have helped if Rome had been doctrinically more flexible and accepted a proposal made by a Jesuit missionary in Japan to posthumously baptize ancestors of possible japanese converts and thus spare them eternal damnation, this would have made christianity much more attractive for many Japanese who were used to revere their ancestors and were quite apalled by the idea that their revered ancestors had to stay in hell forever.
 
If christian missionaries had supported Toyotomi Hideyoshi's and later Tokugawa Ieyasu's claim for the shogunate and thus stayed in their favor like under Oda Nobunaga and if there had thus been no persecutions Japan might have a christian community about the same size as Korea, which would also have been helped if the Liefde with William Adams aboard had sunk before reaching Japan.

It also would have helped if Rome had been doctrinically more flexible and accepted a proposal made by a Jesuit missionary in Japan to posthumously baptize ancestors of possible japanese converts and thus spare them eternal damnation, this would have made christianity much more attractive for many Japanese who were used to revere their ancestors and were quite apalled by the idea that their revered ancestors had to stay in hell forever.

There's also the whole question about what happened to those who hadn't heard the Gospel in any form during their lifetime, dunno how recent that came up, but that would be a good bonus, reassuring people about their relatives. Now that I think about it, I should check for my own sake how it worked out in Korea.

As for the whole ancestor thing in general, it would be interesting to see what happens in such a case. In Korea there are two real schools of thought on this, when we get to Chuseok (추석) or Seolnal (설날), where people traditionally have the ancestor worship, there are those who still do it as tradition, honoring their ancestors, but explicitly saying that this is not worship. On the other hand there are those who have stopped that completely, saying it's too close to idol worship.

Also, I think the OP's intent was to have a Christian Japan as in not to the extent SK is today, but like absolutely majority. So assuming something like that happens, what happens to traditional Japanese culture? What parts of the Shinto mythology might get absorbed into a "Japanese Christianity", sort of how local traditions have fused with Islam in Indonesia, Catholicism in Latin America, Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa, etc. Wonder what would happen with say the myth of Amaterasu, considering there's the whole "Japanese Emperor is a descendant of Amaterasu" bit.
 
Stupid probably, but maybe Amaterasu could have been conflagrated in a way like afro-americans religions did with a saint, or *Virgin Mary*?

You have then also a christian 'divine right to rule' thing maybe...
 
The biggest obstacle to Christianizing Japan is the fact that Christians weren't trusted and were often viewed as foreign agents.
If you make missionaries more tolerant to Japanese society and not make converts change names (bit hard not to be seen as foreign when you take on a European name) and posthumously bless their descendants then it would stand a better chance.
 
You would have to prevent the centralization of Japan during the Sengoku period to allow the influence of Christianityt o spread within the Shimazu and affiliated noble families in Kyushu.
 
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