To learn the history of the property

Catholicism was first introduced to Japan by a Jesuit priest, Francis Xavier, in 1549. It spread nationwide due to the evangelising activities of the Jesuits who came to Japan after Xavier, and also due to the protection afforded by baptised feudal lords (Kirishitan Daimyo) who sought to profit from overseas trade. However, the ban on Christianity, which had begun with an edict issued by Toyotomi Hideyoshi expelling the missionaries, was tightened under the Tokugawa Shogunate, by which all the churches were destroyed and all the missionaries were ordered to leave Japan. In 1637, during the nationwide ban on Christianity, remaining Catholics took up arms against the tyranny of their local lord and were besieged in Hara Castle. The Shogunate was shocked at this Shimabara-Amakusa Rebellion and adopted its national seclusion policy (known as Sakoku) to prohibit the arrival of Portuguese ships that could be used to smuggle missionaries into Japan. After the last missionary within Japan had been martyred in 1644, the remaining Japanese Catholics could only maintain their faith and communities on their own in secret. These believers are referred to as Hidden Christians. Many such communities disintegrated in rapid succession in the latter half of the 17^th century due to a series of large-scale crackdowns on remaining Catholics, forcing them to either renounce their religious faith or be martyred.

Hidden Christian communities disappeared in Japan except for the Nagasaki region, where Catholic missionary activities had taken place more extensively than in any other parts of Japan in the initial phase of the introduction of Catholicism. This region provided the foundations for the maintenance of the secret faith even into the 18^th century and afterwards. Here, Hidden Christians tried to find ways out to practise their secret faith. Their own objects provided a focus for their worship: for example, a mountain and an island in Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado, everyday items that were used in their life and work in Sakitsu Village in Amakusa, sacred images in Shitsu Village in Sotome, and Shinto shrines in Ono Village in Sotome.

To cope with increases in the population in Sotome, some of the villagers began to migrate to the Goto Islands and other remote areas at the end of the 18^th century. Many of the migrants were Hidden Christians, and they decided where to settle, considering how they could maintain their religious communities and live alongside pre-existing communities and their religions. These destinations included abandoned pasturelands of the feudal lord in the Villages on Kuroshima Island that needed redevelopment, a location that was regarded as sacred by Shinto practitioners in the Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island, and a location in the Villages on Kashiragashima Island that had been used for sick people and therefore had no settled communities, and untouched land in the Villages on Hisaka Island.

Specific sites and devotional tools provided a focus for the Hidden Christian faith, and the migration of Hidden Christians contributed to the continuation of their religious beliefs for over two centuries.

Following the opening of Japan to overseas trade in 1854, Catholic missionaries returned to Nagasaki and constructed Oura Cathedral for Westerners within the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement. In 1865, a group of Hidden Christians from Urakami came to the cathedral and revealed to the missionary that they had been practising Christianity in secret. This event came to be known as the Discovery of Hidden Christians, following which many Hidden Christian communities professed their faith despite the fact that the ban on Christianity was still in effect. The authorities once again strengthened the suppression of Christians, leading to the last wave of persecutions. In 1873, however, due to Western countries lodging strong protests to the Meiji Government, the ban on Christianity was eventually lifted in Japan. Consequently, Hidden Christians split into three groups: (1) those who reaccepted Catholicism under the guidance of the missionaries and rejoined the Catholic Church, (2) those who continued with their own practices, and (3) those who decided to convert to Buddhism or Shinto.

Simple churches were built in the villages where the inhabitants reconverted to Catholicism. Among these churches, Egami Church on Naru Island is a representative example clearly demonstrating how traditional techniques were adopted to deal with the environment in the places Hidden Christians migrated to and visually marking the end of the hiding of Hidden Christians.