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Pictures from the Goto Islands
Here is a look at Hamawaki Church as we approached the island by ferry.
Before we stopped at Hamawaki we went to a site that was a memorial to Christians that were imprisoned here. This is a shot of the small footprint of the cell in which the Christians were crammed.
Part of the memorial has graves of people that perished here. Many of the graves were for children. The cramped conditions of the cells resulted in many children being crushed to death. The stones give acounts of how some of the children died.
Many of the names are distinctly Christian, Maria was one of the most common.
Mr. Izumi was a healthy 78 year old local who we struggled to keep up with as he lead us through the history of the area. We were extremely fortunate to have received his time and help.
Here is a shot of the Church that is next and part of the memorial.
We escaped from the heat into the church with Mr. Izumi where he gave us more explanation and we planned out the rest of our time in the Goto Islands.
This is the front of Hamawaki Church.
The inside is beautifully decorated and has vaulted cellings the construction of which would not have been possible with out the help and knowledge of the French preists.
Statue outside of Hamawaki Church.
Here is a shot of our group in front of the view from the Hamawaki Church grounds.
We then moved on to Christian a graveyard. The mixture of Christian symbols and Japanese style graves was unique amoung some of the other graveyards in Goto.
While he was not sure, Mr. Izumi believes that all of there graves are facing East to be facing Christian heaven; which contrasts the rest that face west toward Buddhist paradise. Even though not all of the graves have crosses the fact that they are all packed tightly and facing the same direction makes Mr. Izumi believe that the families who had the grave put here are descendants of hidden Christians. Not even the Catholics that live in the area do the same thing. It is a subtle testament to the spirit of the hidden Christians.
After the graveyard we proceeded on to Dozaki Church set right next to a small calm bay.
Out side of the church are some small memorials to the hidden Christians for the regions. Many of the churches from this region commemorate the huge number of martyrs.
Mr. Izumi explains the statue of the men who brought Catholocism to the Goto Islands.
Dozaki also has a small section of garden with naturally formed rocks. These rocks were brought from Sotome and other places Christians were fleeing from.
Mr. Izumi explains how the rock looks like Mary and that the volcanic rock cannot be found naturally on the Goto Islands.
This rock also has an image of Christ and Mary making it a sacred stone for the people who brought it to the Islands.
This stone does not have the image of Christ but just the image of Mary.
This stone just looks normal in among the others but when Mr. Izumi turns it over there is a faint cross on the back. When he replaces the stone he turns it back over hidding the cross.
The interior of Dozaki has a small museum portion besides having a normal church.
We then went to Mizunoura church, meaning water inlet church.
This style of arched celling is the same in Hamawaki Church. The beautiful architechture is found in many of the Catholic churches in Goto.
One can find the use of flowers as elements in crosses in many of the Churches of Goto.
This stylized depiction of a camellia as a cross is unique to this region of Japan. The tsubaki (camellia) is found in almost all of the churches in Goto.
The church grounds has a stunning garden.
The garden also has crosses that have the fourteen stations of the cross.
Here is a close up of one of the stations of the cross.
This is another shot of Mizunoura church.
Behind the graden are some graves and monuments to some important early Japanese christians. The Statue is of Johannes De Goto one of the 26 Martyrs.
Mr. Izumi also shared a wealth of knowledge on history in the goto Islands besides Christian shitory.
We made one last stop at a Catholic graveyard to look at some of the differences in gravestones. The gravestones here had a much more European style which contrasted agaisnt the ones we had seen earlier.
This is our last shot with Mr. Izumi and our driver before we have to board our ferry back to Nagasaki. Mr. Izumi's energy and spirit came through in his guilding us over a short period of time. He shared in a few days what could take some teachers weeks.
Unfortunately our time on the Goto Islands was short but the time we spent there was illuminating and one of the highlights of our research. This was the view aboard our ferry back to Nagasaki.
Copyright © 2006 Brendan Eagan