You probably passed through a small graveyard and the front of an orphanage on your way to this church. The truth is, after the ban on Christianity was lifted, a priest named Brel built the orphanage first instead of the church. Back then, Gotō was a poverty-stricken land with many abandoned children. Father Brel felt that, first and foremost, the children had to be saved.
However, this land bears older scars. Namely, the killing of the “Takanosu Six.” It happened a scant three years after the ban was lifted on Christianity. There was a family that fled the island to escape the Collapse of Gotō. Believing it was safe, they came back, fixed their family home, and began a new life. They invited their pregnant youngest daughter’s family as well. Finally, they thought, their life as a family had begun. Then, not three days later, four men claiming to be samurai for the shogun broke into their home.
According to the tale, they screamed, “We come to punish the Christians.” They then said, “We need to test our blades.” Six lives were ended that night. The daughter and her unborn child died together.
Only three children survived the massacre. One immediately slipped under the floor where the potatoes were kept, watching from a crack as the family was cut down. Another held their breath at the feet of their mother’s corpse. Six-year-old Nagayoshi wailed and begged for his life. The killers spared him, then left. According to the story, he was spared in order to spread word of their deeds.
After the massacre, the surviving children appeared at the police lineup. The story goes that Nagayoshi pointed at the samurai’s faces and said in turn, “This man killed my mother. This one, my aunt,” and so on. Government officials tested Nagayoshi by wearing the perpetrators’ kimono; Nagayoshi saw through them, saying “It’s the same kimono, but the face is different.” Eventually the samurai were ordered to commit seppuku. When the surviving relatives were asked if they sought retaliation, they said “Catholicism does not teach such things.” So the story goes.
This church was raised afterwards, facing the graves of the six who died that day. Unfortunately, Father Brel, the one who built it, also passed away. He had left the island to seek support for the church and children. On his way back, he and the funds he raised met with a disastrous storm. Legend has it that fishermen rescued him, but then killed him to get their hands on the money.
The death and sacrifice of many come together at this place. The freedom of religion we take for granted today was built upon the backs of people just like Father Brel and the Takanosu Six.
