This website is dedicated to the true heroes of old Catholic Japan, the Kirish’tan Martyrs.
 - The Flag of the Hara Castle Kirish’tan, the followers of Amakusa Shiro; it was the erstwhile banner of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament.
On the Fifteenth of August in the Year of Our Lord 1549, St. Francis Xavier, Father Cosme de Torres and Brother Juan Fernandez landed in Kagoshima; their mission was to plant a seedbed of Christendom in Japan. Their labors and those of the many selfless men who followed their route to Japan to proclaim the Gospel would produce fruit in abundance.
Panicked by the growth of a spirit of freedom, however, Japan’s martial rulers began to suppress the Faith. Toyotomi Hideyoshi proclaimed the first nationwide ban on the Catholic Faith in 1587. His successors, the Tokugawa Shoguns, would do everything humanly and hellishly possible to cow Japan’s converts–the Kirish’tan–into apostasy. Many believers, however, clung to their faith unto death, suffering torments inconceivable to sound human minds. These Martyrs’ stories must be told.
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Dedicated to the Christian Martyrs of Japan
