“Se adaptava a todos para os ganhar para Cristo”: o processo de cristianização no Japão no século XVI e o método de “acomodação” da Companhia de Jesus

Abstract

Through the Portuguese Crown, christianity came to Japan in 1549, through the Society of Jesus, in a missionary process that lasted until the mid-seventeenth century, when the great persecution of the christian religion by the Japanese government began. It was in the early decades that the missionaries established strategies and methods of evangelization that permeated all the jesuit activity in Japan, especially through father Francisco Xavier, the called “Apostle of the Indies”, and companion of Ignatius de Loyola in the founding of the Order, which first outlined a modus operandi by which the jesuits based to preach and convert the japanese people. One such method is known as “accommodation”, which consisted of adapting missionaries to the japanese cultural universe, such as wearing silken robes, maintaining eating habits according to japanese custom, and observing the rules of etiquette. The priests was “accommodated” in the first twenty years of the mission, but from 1570 the method was discouraged by father Francisco Cabral, who arrived in the archipelago this year, and assumed the post of mission superior. This situation led to debates about the relevance of this methodology within the Society of Jesus, as some priests disagreed with father Cabral's view and defended the use of “accommodation” as a fundamental strategy for the success of the mission. One of them was father Visitador Alessandro Valignano, who on his visit to Japan between 1579 and 1582 officially instituted the method. Through the jesuit writings of this period, from the founding of the mission to the 1580s, we will analyze this debate in general, and also in a specific way, through the works of father Luís Fróis, especially his “Tratado”, written in 1585, in which he compared various european and japanese customs. Since "accommodation" encouraged the study of native culture, we will try to situate the "Tratado" as one of the priests' efforts to apply this method and understand the japanese. KEYWORDS: