WHO KNEW! It wasn't him, it was his brother!

So apparently he went through Siberia, then through Alaska, then ended up in Japan...

[ 02-29-2004: Message edited by: Trillee ]

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Trillee had this to say about Matthew Broderick:
ubb pwned edit linkage!

WHO KNEW! It wasn't him, it was his brother!

So apparently he went through Siberia, then through Alaska, then ended up in Japan...

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jesus' brother bob?

Although, now that I think about it, the missions were only allowed in Nagasaki, which is on the other end of Japan. Still, there were as many as 500,000 converts back the olden days(which was actually a higher percentage of Japan's population than currently exists), so it's feasable that one made his way back north and pieced together this legend. Obviously, since the original scrolls are destroyed, we can't carbon date them, so unless we go digging, we won't know for sure.

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Everyone wondered WTF when Karnaj wrote:
There have been missions set up in Japan for over 450 years. It's far more reasonable that a Japanese convert from the area bashed this legend together to legitimize Christianity in Japan.

Although, now that I think about it, the missions were only allowed in Nagasaki, which is on the other end of Japan. Still, there were as many as 500,000 converts back the olden days(which was actually a higher percentage of Japan's population than currently exists), so it's feasable that one made his way back north and pieced together this legend. Obviously, since the original scrolls are destroyed, we can't carbon date them, so unless we go digging, we won't know for sure.

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Actually, they weren't actually converts per se. If I remember correctly the Japanese follow(ed) Shinto (spelling I'm sure) religion which states that the gods may manifest themselves in many ways, not just through Japanese temples. So this meant that a relatively large number of Japanese might be praying to the Christian God in the morning, and then the next day might spend hours praying to all the differnt Hindu gods. So a "convert" might just simply accept christianity as another manifestation of the gods.

On the actual story I am thinking that it is bogus, however, anything is possible, but this kind of undermines the entire Christian belief system if it is true...

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And now, we sprinkle Gembolah liberally with Old Spice!
Actually, they weren't actually converts per se. If I remember correctly the Japanese follow(ed) Shinto (spelling I'm sure) religion which states that the gods may manifest themselves in many ways, not just through Japanese temples. So this meant that a relatively large number of Japanese might be praying to the Christian God in the morning, and then the next day might spend hours praying to all the differnt Hindu gods. So a "convert" might just simply accept christianity as another manifestation of the gods.

On the actual story I am thinking that it is bogus, however, anything is possible, but this kind of undermines the entire Christian belief system if it is true...

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Shinto has waxed and waned in popularity over the years, and around 1550, when the first missions were set up, most popular was actually salvationist Buddhism, which had first gained prevalence after the decline of the Heian court from roughly 1050-1150 CE and rise of the samurai. You have to remember, though, that the Japanese absolutely love to bodge together bits and pieces of other cultures together with their own, so even though salvationist Buddhism was popular, there were always sprinklings of Shinto and even Confucianist ideals interspersed amongst people's beliefs and actions.

When Christianity first arrived, people were "Meh" to it, because it sounded so much like salvationist Buddhism in a different suit. The missionaries, however, were able to win over converts, and by 1615, you had close to half a million honest-to-God(pun intended) Christians in Japan...sort of. Like I said, many of them never fully denounced all other religions as completely false, so they probably picked bits and pieces of Shinto and Buddhism, and added them in. You can call them Christians, though, because they believed Jesus was their Lord and Savior and all that jazz.