Over the weekend my family and I attended the Christmas Candlelight Service at my daughter’s school, a mission-kei (kei meaning ‘affiliated with’) private Christian school started founded in 1888, as Japan was modernizing and opening up to the outside world. The service is very popular in our city, and the darkened main hall was filled with Japanese families all holding candles while the school choir sang — it really makes Christmas real for me. While December 25 is a day to eat “Christmas Cake” while children open presents from “Santa-san” and couples go on a special date, Christmas has a long history in Japan. When Ieyasu Tokugawa became shogun of Japan in 1603, he placed limitations on missionary work, which lead to the outright banning of Christianity in 1626, in part to ensure Japan did not end up a colony of foreign powers, as was happening to other nations in Asia. Despite the banning, thousands of kakure-kurishitan (“hidden Christians”) continued to practice their faith in secret, creating statues of Maria re-worked to resemble Buddhist bodhisattvas and passing the torch from generation to generation.
A candlelight service in Japan for Christmas.
