Japanese Ban Christian Missionaries.

Prior to the sixteenth century, the islands of Japan were relatively isolated from world events. The exception to this trend was Japan’s long relationship with China and its sometime vassal state of Korea. Japanese writing was based on that of China, and seventh century Chinese Buddhist missionaries shaped Japanese religious history. Even with these influences, however, Japan’s relative geographical isolation resulted in a unique and largely self-contained Japanese culture. The culture’s native religion was Shintoism, or the “way of the gods,” and Japan’s emperor was claimed to be descended from the sun goddess, Amaterasu. Most Japanese in the sixteenth century practiced a combination of Shintoism and Buddhism.