A Japanese Christian lord in Manila

Philippines-Japan Friendship Day is fixed at July 24 to commemorate the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1956. This date is inaccurate because the Philippines had diplomatic relations with Japan long before 1956: during the wartime republic under Jose P. Laurel, and during the Spanish and American colonial periods when Japan’s citizens and interests were represented and protected by a Japanese consul in Manila. July 24 took the place of Feb. 3, a date that reminded Filipinos of the wanton rape, pillage and murder of unarmed Filipino men, women and children by the cornered Japanese forces during the Battle for Manila in 1945. Feb. 3 was once the date for Philippines-Japan Friendship Day, being the date of Takayama Ukon’s martyrdom.

Takayama is not a familiar name to Filipinos except those who remember a Japanese restaurant, long gone, thus named. This week over 10,000 Japanese Catholics gathered in

Osaka for the beatification of the Christian daimyo who courted martyrdom during the persecution of Christians in Japan in the 17th century. He is relevant to the Philippines because he chose to be exiled to Manila, where he died on Feb. 5, 1615.

To Japanese Catholics Takayama Ukon, born in 1553, is a prominent figure just one step away from full sainthood; to Filipinos he is a footnote in our shared history. In Jesuit mission letters he appears as Justo (his Christian name) Ucon (his title)-dono (or lord). Another primary source refers to Ukon Don Justo Tacayama Minaminobo. The added name is what he took after shaving his head as a sign of his retirement from public life, or the alias he used as one of the great tea masters of Japan.

Takayama served under three shoguns: Nobunaga, Hideyoshi (Taikosama) and Ieyasu (Tokugawa). All respected him but were wary of his being Christian. In a show of humility and surrender, Takayama presented himself once to Nobunaga, unarmed and in pilgrim’s clothes, accompanied only by his son and younger sister. They were received well as Nobunaga was tolerant of Christians, unlike his successor, Hideyoshi, who was publicly tolerant but inwardly suspicious of Christians knowing that Spanish and Portuguese colonization came hand in hand with evangelization. When Hideyoshi first made a threat to kill all Christians in 1597, Takayama offered his life to be taken first, but Hideyoshi refused to make a martyr of someone in his inner circle.

Hideyoshi later demanded that Takayama choose between renouncing his faith or be stripped of his title and fiefdom. Takayama chose the latter. Without status, income, and soldiers, he was vulnerable yet he was spared death. Instead, Hideyoshi gave him the choice of serving another lord or being exiled to China with the Jesuit fathers. Takayama chose exile.

To avoid well-meaning friends who advised him to be anti-Christian in public but Christian in private, Takayama retired to the island of Awaji. Years later Hideyoshi summoned him back to Kyoto, where he was invited to the tea ceremony—a sign that he had been restored to his place in court. Yet Takayama avoided court activities because he did not agree with many of Hideyoshi’s views. He retired to Kanazawa as a vassal of another warlord until the great persecution of Christians in Japan began in 1614.

Ieyasu offered Takayama exile to avoid having blood on his hands by ordering the Christian lord’s execution or assassination. Ieyasu feared Takayama and was quoted as having said: “In Ukon’s hands 1,000 soldiers would be worth more than 10,000 in the hands of whosoever else.”

At the time of his exile Takayama was over 60 years old and Ieyasu knew the physical toll that the journey from Kanazawa to Nagasaki in the winter would take on his health. Add to that the 33-day voyage from Nagasaki to Manila threatened by Dutch pirates. Accumulated stress plus the change in weather and diet in the Philippines had the desired effect. Forty days after arriving in Manila and being received with great honors by the Spanish governor-general and the City of Manila, Takayama fell ill and died on Feb. 5, 1615, his life a continuing martyrdom.

When Takayama is canonized a saint, he will join a list of saints who once walked in the Philippines.

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