The Samurai & the Cross: The Jesuit Enterprise in Early Modern Japan

The Toronto Jesuit History Research Group presents:

The Samurai & the Cross: The Jesuit Enterprise in Early Modern Japan, w/M. Antoni J. Ucerler, S.J.

Friday, October 21, 2022, at 1-3 PM, ET — Regis College (Classroom C) or Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYucuquqDsjGd3fhGZQLOu7zxDcqxvLWj5p

Registration is required for both online and in-person participants.

After the arrival of Francis Xavier in 1549, a new era of Christian encounters with Japan began. Xavier’s successors found themselves in the period of Warring States when samurai warlords vied each other for dominance. Despite these difficulties, the Jesuits soon established both schools and a college to train European and Japanese missionaries and began printing books. After the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603, persecution and martyrdom followed for more than 250 years.

This presentation will highlight some of the major events that marked this turbulent history, including the unique story of Hidden Christians and their legacy up to the present time.

M. Antoni J. Ucerler, S.J. (D.Phil., Oxon.) is a British-born Canadian of Polish and Turkish descent. Since entering the Society of Jesus in Italy in 1981, he has spent decades engaged with Japan, where he taught for many years at Sophia University in Tokyo. He has also taught at the University of Oxford, Georgetown, and the University of San Francisco before moving the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History to Boston College in 2021. His main areas of research are the history of Christianity in premodern Japan, as well as in China and Korea, global intellectual history in the early modern era, transcultural translation, and the material and visual culture produced by these encounters, including the history of the book.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting online.