Alessandro Valignano - Methods in Japan

Methods in Japan

Valignano made the first visit to Japan from 1579 to 1582. In 1581, he wrote Il Cerimoniale per i Missionari del Giappone to set forth guidelines for Jesuits. In the writing, he mapped Jesuit hierarchy to that of Zen Buddhists even though he detested them. He claimed that, in order not to be despised by Japanese, every Jesuit should behave according to the class he belonged to. As a result, Jesuit fathers served daimyo sumptuous dishes and walked around Nagasaki with armed Japanese servants.

Such a luxurious life and authoritarian attitudes among Jesuits in Japan were criticized not only by rival mendicant orders but also by some Jesuits. In addition, his detailed instructions on customs and manners suggest that his understanding on Japanese culture was only superficial.

As was ordered by the Superior General, he devoted efforts to nurturing Japanese priests. He forced Francisco Cabral to resign as Superior of the Jesuit mission in Japan since Cabral opposed his plans. But it was not only Cabral who disagreed with Valignano. In fact, Valignano remained in a minority within the Jesuits in Japan. Valignano was optimistic about training of native priests, but many Jesuits doubted the sincerity of Japanese converts. And Valignano himself came to hold a negative view after his second visit in Japan—although he did not give up his hope. After Valignano's death, negative reports from Japan were reflected in the policies of the headquarters of the Society of Jesus in Rome in 1610s, and the society heavily restricted admission and ordination of Japanese Catholics. Ironically, persecution by the Tokugawa shogunate forced Jesuits to rely increasingly on Japanese believers. In spite of the headquarter's policies, the Jesuit college in Macau, which was founded by Valignano, produced a dozen Japanese priests.

On his first arrival in Japan, Valignano was horrified by what he considered to be, at the least, negligent, and at the worst, abusive and un-Christian practices on the part of mission personnel.

Valignano later wrote that, although the mission had made some major gains during Francisco Cabral's tenure, the general methods used by the Superior were severely lacking. In addition to the problems of Japanese language study and racism, some of the Jesuits, and specifically Cabral were in the habit "to regard Japanese customs invariably as abnormal and to speak disparagingly of them. When I first came to Japan, ours (the crowd usually follows the leader), showed no care to learn Japanese customs, but at recreation and on other occasions were continually carping on them, arguing against them, and expressing their preference for our own ways to the great chagrin and disgust of the Japanese."

There is an implicit belief in the Visitor's writing that leaders influence and are responsible for the behavior of those of lesser rank. Thus, in Valignano's view, any lapse in the mission's behavior towards the Japanese was surely a result of Cabral's heavyhandedness. He immediately began to reform many aspects of the mission, and wherever possible, undermined Cabral's authority as Superior of the Jesuit mission to Japan.