Translating the inquisitor: understanding and reading the documents related to torment and interrogation in the Kirishito-

Abstract

To research Christian activity in Edo-period Japan, it is essential to collate those sources written by the laity, those written by the clergy and those written by the different representatives of power in Europe and Japan. However, apart from the documents written by the European clergy, which have been published and analysed regularly and which present a particular emphasis on missionary activity in Japan, almost no other documents are accessible to the Spanish-speaking researcher. This article looks to address this problem by giving an analysis and partial translation of one of the most representative Japanese sources of the period: the Kirishito-ki. This work consists of a group of documents whose authorship is largely attributed to Inoue Masashige, the first "inquisitor" in charge of Christianity's repression and persecution in Japan in the mid-17th century. Inoue's work, written in the quintessential bureaucratic language of the time, sōrōbun, presents information relating to religious persecution and Japanese legal history and is an essential piece of information for understanding the development of crypto-Christianity in Japan. The customs depicted in this source would largely survive until Christianity's legalisation in Japan in the second half of the 19th century.