人文地理
Online ISSN : 1883-4086
Print ISSN : 0018-7216
ISSN-L : 0018-7216
論説
京都府旧佐賀村におけるカトリックへの集団改宗と農村社会
阪野 祐介
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ジャーナル フリー

2006 年 58 巻 4 号 p. 357-376

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The purpose of this paper is to consider the acceptance of religion at a village level. One condition under which a religion penetrates a population is during intellectual, spiritual and social instability. There are several confirmed periods during which Catholicism expanded in Japan. 1) The late Muromachi period when Francisco Xavier came to Japan until the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. 2) From the end of the Tokugawa shogunate until the Meiji modernization. 3) The period of GHQ rule in Japan after World War II. The case to be treated in this paper is the group conversion to Catholicism which happened at Saga village, Kyoto, in 1949 just after World War II.

This year holds an important meaning for Catholicism in Japan. The event that commemorated the 400th year since St. Francisco Xavier arrived in Japan and began missionary activity was held for about 2 weeks from May 29, 1949. For this event, “the Holy arm” of St. Francisco Xavier was brought to Japan. The arm was unveiled at a solemn mass in Nagasaki, Nishinomiya and Tokyo. The solemn mass was publicized in newspapers on a large scale. There was a member of the Imperial Family who attended the mass in Nishinomiya. In this way, Christianity was given not only a good position in the religious world of Japan but also a good position in the environment of society and politics by the support of GHQ.

Group conversion began in Saga on April 17, 1949, when ten villagers were baptized. The number of people baptized reached 816 in 1949 or 28.7% of the village population. However, conversion rates differ among districts within the village. The reason for such a difference is because Saga village was formed in 1889 through the merger of several communities with differing customs, traditions and relationships. We can see that the unifying effect of communal bonds has a strong effect on the people’s attitude towards religion.

The second part of the analysis concerns the relation between blood relationship and conversion pattern. In terms of conversion or non-conversion of a householder, 150 householders were converted from 193 households. One of the characteristics of a household maintaining the Catholic faith to date is the conversion of the householder.

After the group conversion, there was only minimal friction between the Catholic religion and Buddhist temples related to ancestor’s cult. Rather, there was greater friction over a festival of a Shinto shrine which occurred among the village people (non-Catholics / Catholics). The reason is because a festival of a Shinto shrine is based on the solidarity or unity of a community, compared with an event of Buddhism such as a funeral which is related to ancestor cult which is a problem of a house unit.

As mentioned above, we can see that religion has the power to strengthen group ties. At the same time, religion can also emphasize the differences among groups. Religion can also be used to create new social relationships.

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© 2006 人文地理学会
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