Christian Kyushu

I think the POD has to be before the Shimabara Rebellion. I see three possibilities.

1) Japan's period of warring states is prolonged allowing more missionary activity before a Shogun can impose any anit-Christian edits.

2) The Shogun that units the control is either Christian or favorable to Christianity. Oda Nobunaga was supposedly favorable to the Jesuits, although it's hard to know what his position would be had he lived to unite Japan.

3) The Catholic Church better handles the position of the Jesuits in Japan with the desire of the mendicant orders to preach. Since the Jesuits were seen as being Portuguege and the mendicants Spanish, there is a political struggle here. But perhaps something could be worked out that would improve the Catholic position in Japan while not spooking the Japanese that they might become pawns to the Europeans. That might change some attitudes enough so that Hideyoshi or Tokugawa are less severe.

There needs to be a longer period of Catholics allowed to proselytize so that 1) a critical mass of Catholics is reached that would make it hard to crush, and 2) enough time so that Christianity becomes native and not seen as some dangerous form of foreignness.

Any Catholic majority in Kyushu implies correspondence with Rome, so in this scenario I can't see Japan becoming isolationist. In fact, it's likely Japan will continue to develop technology on par with Europe since it is in constant contact with it. Very different history here. And if Japan ever successfully invades Korea, or invades China with some initial success, it is likely to push China to reform far sooner than it did IOTL.
 
Satsuma Rebellion is aided by the western powers after Saigo takes Kumamoto castle?
In a similar vein perhaps the Christian powers (well really just Portugal or Spain) aid Japan by sending a fleet during the Korean War?

Distance makes logistics and will to do this difficult... but Spain had the Philippines already and missionaries could convince their homenations that Japanese Korea will lead to a weaker China and thats good.
 
In a similar vein perhaps the Christian powers (well really just Portugal or Spain) aid Japan by sending a fleet during the Korean War?
We already have a quite long timeline about Spain aiding Hideyoshi's invasion, don't have the link on hand however.
 
Yes I have come to a similar conclusion, a dis-unified Japan would lead to the local Daimyos, many of them Catholic to retain their power and maybe unify under a Catholic leaning ruler. The Jesuit society enfact pretty much ran Nagasaki untill Shimabara Rebellion.
 
I've been thinking...Shimazu Yoshiro's father allowed Christanity for a while to spread in Kyushu, while Yoshiro himself was a devout Buddhist, what if he was not? I think the fortunes of Christanity in Kyushu would rest of patronship and fortunes of the Shimazu clan to resist unification of the Shogunate.
 
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