Overtaxation and Persecution
In 1618, as per the Ikkoku-ichijō (一国一城, literally, "One Castle Per Province") order established by the Tokugawa Shogunate, Shigemasa dismantled his two castles of Hara and Hinoe, and began construction on the new Shimabara Castle (also known as Matsutake Castle). The castle was on a scale much grander than the domain could afford, and so Shigemasa taxed the commoners beyond belief, with the price of the castle construction resulting in twice the amount that the domain could reasonably afford.
In 1621, the persecutions of Christians began, with mutilation and branding being practices ordered by the ever-tightening restrictions of the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu. In Shimabara, the Matsukura clan tortured Christians by boiling them alive in the infamous Unzen Volcanic Springs, beginning in 1627. In 1629, Shigemasa approached the Nagasaki Magistrate Takenaka Danjo no Sho Shigeyoshi and offered to do the same for all the Christians in Nagasaki. Takenaka agreed.
Read more about this topic: Matsukura Shigemasa
Famous quotes containing the word persecution:
“I hate Science. It denies a man’s responsibility for his own deeds, abolishes the brotherhood that springs from God’s fatherhood. It is a hectoring, dictating expertise, which makes the least lovable of the Church Fathers seem liberal by contrast. It is far easier for a Hitler or a Stalin to find a mock- scientific excuse for persecution than it was for Dominic to find a mock-Christian one.”
—Basil Bunting (1900–1985)