How to Make "Colored" Japanese Counter-Reformation Saints: A Study of an Iconographic Anomaly
The 1627 beatification of the twenty-six martyrs of Japan was a major milestone in the history of the Church and especially for the missionary orders. These martyrs were the first officially recognized saints from the newly "discovered" lands. However, while the majority of the twenty-six...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2017
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| In: |
Journal of Early Modern Christianity
Year: 2017, Volume: 4, Issue: 2, Pages: 195-225 |
| IxTheo Classification: | KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KBM Asia KCD Hagiography; saints KDB Roman Catholic Church NBE Anthropology |
| Further subjects: | B
Iconography
B modern period B Race B Japanese martyrs B Mission (international law |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The 1627 beatification of the twenty-six martyrs of Japan was a major milestone in the history of the Church and especially for the missionary orders. These martyrs were the first officially recognized saints from the newly "discovered" lands. However, while the majority of the twenty-six were in fact Japanese, surviving paintings depict them as white-skinned missionaries and without any physical features that would have been considered "typically Asian" at the time. This paper analyzes this iconographic tradition and shows how it can be understood as a consequence of a process of assimilation of Christian Japan into the Catholic world view. Associating particular skin color with true faith and civilization was part of discourses that blended the physical "otherness" of these martyrs. This paper demonstrates how these discourses point to the first seeds of a racial perception of East Asians, which would later become the notion of "yellow." |
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| ISSN: | 2196-6656 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Early Modern Christianity
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/jemc-2017-0010 |