Latest / The History of Portugal: The Small Nation That Built a Global Empire — Fexingo History / The Last Samurai: Portugal's 1637 Shimabara Uprising
Transcript
- Lucas: Today I want to talk about one of the most dramatic and tragic episodes in Portugal's history in Japan — the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637–1638. It's the event that effectively ended the Portuguese presence in Japan and triggered the country's isolation from the outside world for over two centuries. Luna: I remember we touched on sakoku in the Japan episodes. This is the rebellion that caused it, right? Lucas: Exactly. By the 1630s, the Tokugawa shogunate had grown deeply suspicious of Christianity. They saw it as a foreign ideology that could undermine their authority, especially after the earlier Shimabara Rebellion — actually, there was a precursor in 1636, but the big one was 1637. The immediate cause was the brutal rule of daimyo Matsukura Katsuie over the Shimabara domain. He imposed crushing taxes and persecuted Christians with extreme cruelty. Luna: What kind of persecution? Lucas: Forced apostasy, torture, public executions. The shogunate had already started the fumi-e practice — forcing suspected Christians to trample on images of Christ or the Virgin Mary to prove they weren't believers. But Matsukura went further. He burned entire villages suspected of harboring Christians. The resentment boiled over in October 1637 when a local peasant, Yashiro, and a young samurai named Amakusa Shiro led an uprising. Amakusa was only about 16 or 17, but he was charismatic and claimed to have prophetic visions. The rebels quickly swelled to around 30,000 — mostly peasants, but also ronin and former samurai. Luna: So it was both a religious revolt and a peasant uprising. Lucas: That's exactly right. They marched under the banner of the Christian cross, but their grievances were also economic. They took over the abandoned Hara Castle on the Shimabara Peninsula, which had a strategic location overlooking the sea. The shogunate sent a massive army — over 100,000 men — under the command of Itakura Shigemasa, and later the famous general Matsudaira Nobutsuna. They besieged the castle for months. Luna: How did the rebels hold out against such overwhelming numbers? Lucas: They had some firearms — arquebuses that had been introduced by the Portuguese decades earlier — and they fortified the castle well. But they were running out of food and supplies. The shogunate also brought in ships from the Dutch East India Company at Hirado, who provided naval support and even bombarded the castle from the sea. That was a huge blow to the rebels, who had hoped for Portuguese help. Luna: Wait, the Dutch helped the Japanese crush a Christian rebellion? That's ironic considering they were also European traders. Lucas: It is deeply ironic. The Dutch had been rivals with the Portuguese in Asia, and they were eager to curry favor with the shogunate. They provided cannons and ships, and even demanded the heads of rebels as proof. After a grueling siege, Hara Castle fell in April 1638. The shogunate's forces killed nearly all the rebels — estimates say over 30,000 died. Amakusa Shiro was captured and beheaded, and his head was displayed in Nagasaki. Luna: So what happened to the Portuguese after that? Lucas: The shogunate decided that Christianity was a direct threat. In 1639, they expelled all Portuguese traders from Japan — ending more than a century of Nanban trade. The only Europeans allowed to remain were the Dutch, who were confined to the artificial island of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay. The Japanese also closed their borders, banning almost all foreign travel and contact. This policy of sakoku lasted until 1853. Luna: That's incredible. One rebellion essentially ended the Portuguese century in Japan. Lucas: And it sealed Japan's isolation for 250 years. The rebellion also had a profound impact on the Portuguese. The loss of the Japan trade was a major economic blow, and it underscored the vulnerability of their empire in Asia. The memory of Amakusa Shiro lived on in Japanese folklore, sometimes as a tragic hero or even a folk saint among the hidden Christians, known as Kakure Kirishitan, who practiced their faith in secret for generations. Luna: Were there any survivors who managed to keep their faith alive? Lucas: Yes, in remote villages, especially in the Nagasaki region, Kakure Kirishitan maintained a hidden version of Christianity, passing down prayers and rituals orally. They didn't have priests or Bibles, so their practices evolved into something quite unique — sometimes mixing with Buddhist and Shinto elements. It wasn't until the 19th century that they were rediscovered by French missionaries. Luna: It's a story of both tragedy and resilience. Lucas: Absolutely. And it's a powerful reminder of how a small nation like Portugal could have a global impact, but also how that impact could be violently reversed. The Shimabara Rebellion is a turning point that shaped not just Portuguese history, but Japanese history and world history as well.