S P O T ／ SPOT-225

Karematsu Shrine

枯松神社かれまつじんじゃ

Standing on a hillside south of Kurosaki Church in the Sotome district of Nagasaki, Karematsu Shrine is one of only a handful of Christian shrines in Japan. It enshrines Father San Jiwan (San Juan), a foreign missionary said to have worked in secret during the persecution era and revered as the teacher of the Japanese evangelist Bastian. According to local tradition, San Jiwan hid in a rock cave on Mount Karematsu and was buried where the shrine now stands; after the ban on Christianity was lifted in the Meiji era, believers built the shrine over his grave. Christian graves marked by face-down stone slabs remain in the precincts, and at the nearby "Prayer Rock," Hidden Christians are said to have gathered secretly on the night of the pre-Easter "Season of Sorrow" to chant Orasho, prayers derived from Latin and Portuguese. The shrine has long been tended by local Hidden Christians and by parishioners of the Soto Zen temple Tenpukuji. Designated a Nagasaki City historic site in 2005, it is counted among Japan's rare Christian shrines. Each year on November 3, Hidden Christians, Catholics, and Buddhists gather here to pray at the Karematsu Shrine Festival.