The Experiences of Christians During the Underground Years and Thereafter.

This paper examines the "underground" Christians of the Edo period, looking principally at the experiences of Christians in community. It is argued that these experiences reflect a tension between the complementary realms of secrecy on the one hand and privacy on the other, concluding that at the start of the Edo period, the Christians who took their faith and practice underground exhibited the characteristics of a proscribed religion practiced in secret. However, with the relaxation of enforcement of the state's religious policies, and with the passage of two centuries and more, the underground Christians became something different, what came to be styled the Kakure Kirishitan, who subsequently in modern times acquired and finally retained to the very end the characteristics of a secret society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]