The Jesuit Mission in Japan and History of Rhetoric and Its Languages

Abstract

This article addresses the works of the Jesuit Mission Press dedicated to rhetorical persuasion. The Society tried to transplant Christian expressions of faith inJapanin Latin and in European Christian paintings, and it met with the indigenous convention of expressions. Because these two expressive conventions are so different, the effect of their interactions sometimes took a turn unexpected by the Jesuit missionaries who stayed inJapanfrom 1549 to 1639. To implant Christianity, the Society adopted a holistic approach of building schools and hospitals in order to reach a wide range of population, while Jesuits operated very carefully so that their teaching would not disturb the existing social order inJapan. At the same time, the mission press worked to publish texts with the Christian doctrine, to teach how to say prayers, to explain puzzling aspects of Christianity, and to set the standard for the language to be used as church Japanese. These documents also taught how to survive the proscription.

Keywords

• the society of jesus
• rhetoric
• japan
• translation
• printing press