DNA match for remains of early Italian Jesuit missionary
Asahi Shinbun/April 5, 2016
DNA match for remains of early Italian Jesuit missionary：The Asahi Shimbun
Researchers believe they have identified the remains of a Jesuit priest who entered Japan illegally in the early 1700s after Christianity was banned on pain of death and the country was essentially closed to the outside world.
The remains are thought to be those of Giovanni Battista Sidotti, an Italian who died in 1714 and was one of the last Christian missionaries to operate under Tokugawa Shogunate rule.
Authorities in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward announced their findings April 4, based on forensic testing of three sets of remains dug up in July 2014 on the grounds of what used to be called the "Christian mansion."
Researchers at the National Museum of Nature and Science conducted a DNA and anthropological analysis of the remains and concluded one set was of "a middle-aged Italian male more than 170 centimeters tall."
Records of the Christian mansion show the names of only two Italians, Sidotti and Giuseppe Chiara.
Chiara served as the model for one of the missionaries in Shusaku Endo's novel "Silence" about the hardships of early Christian missionaries and believers during the Edo Period (1603-1867).
However, Chiara was 84 when he died. The records showed Sidotti was 47 when he died and his height was also listed as being between 175.5 cm and 178.5 cm.
Museum researchers concluded the remains represented a close match with Sidotti based on similarities between the documentary records and physical evidence.
This would be the first instance of a positive ID being made on an individual believed to have been a missionary when Christianity was banned in Japan.
Sidotti was arrested on Yakushima island in southern Japan in 1708. He was moved to the Christian mansion in Tokyo, where he was questioned by Arai Hakuseki (1657-1725), a scholar and politician who advised the Tokugawa Shogunate. Arai used Sidotti's knowledge in compiling a work titled "Seiyo Kibun," which described various aspects of the West--then largely unknown--based on their conversations.
Arai tried to save Sidotti, who in turn managed to convert the elderly couple looking after him with the result that he died in an underground prison cell.
Akio Tanigawa, an archaeology professor at Waseda University who led the investigative team, said the two other remains were likely those of the elderly couple.
Pino Marras, who heads a museum in Italy devoted to Sidotti, said that if the three were buried together, "even though they had violated the ban, that would show some tolerance on the part of the Tokugawa Shogunate despite the ban on Christianity."
Father Mario T. Canducci of the St. Anthony Monastery in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward said: "Sidotti was an outstanding martyr who never gave up on his missionary work. I want to ask the Vatican to re-evaluate his eligibility for canonization."
**********************************************
Giovanni Battista Sidotti
He is said entered Japan disguising a samurai.
"Virgin Maria Showing Her Thumb".
Sidotti brought this portrait with him.
Asahi Shinbun/April 5, 2016
DNA match for remains of early Italian Jesuit missionary：The Asahi Shimbun
Researchers believe they have identified the remains of a Jesuit priest who entered Japan illegally in the early 1700s after Christianity was banned on pain of death and the country was essentially closed to the outside world.
The remains are thought to be those of Giovanni Battista Sidotti, an Italian who died in 1714 and was one of the last Christian missionaries to operate under Tokugawa Shogunate rule.
Authorities in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward announced their findings April 4, based on forensic testing of three sets of remains dug up in July 2014 on the grounds of what used to be called the "Christian mansion."
Researchers at the National Museum of Nature and Science conducted a DNA and anthropological analysis of the remains and concluded one set was of "a middle-aged Italian male more than 170 centimeters tall."
Records of the Christian mansion show the names of only two Italians, Sidotti and Giuseppe Chiara.
Chiara served as the model for one of the missionaries in Shusaku Endo's novel "Silence" about the hardships of early Christian missionaries and believers during the Edo Period (1603-1867).
However, Chiara was 84 when he died. The records showed Sidotti was 47 when he died and his height was also listed as being between 175.5 cm and 178.5 cm.
Museum researchers concluded the remains represented a close match with Sidotti based on similarities between the documentary records and physical evidence.
This would be the first instance of a positive ID being made on an individual believed to have been a missionary when Christianity was banned in Japan.
Sidotti was arrested on Yakushima island in southern Japan in 1708. He was moved to the Christian mansion in Tokyo, where he was questioned by Arai Hakuseki (1657-1725), a scholar and politician who advised the Tokugawa Shogunate. Arai used Sidotti's knowledge in compiling a work titled "Seiyo Kibun," which described various aspects of the West--then largely unknown--based on their conversations.
Arai tried to save Sidotti, who in turn managed to convert the elderly couple looking after him with the result that he died in an underground prison cell.
Akio Tanigawa, an archaeology professor at Waseda University who led the investigative team, said the two other remains were likely those of the elderly couple.
Pino Marras, who heads a museum in Italy devoted to Sidotti, said that if the three were buried together, "even though they had violated the ban, that would show some tolerance on the part of the Tokugawa Shogunate despite the ban on Christianity."
Father Mario T. Canducci of the St. Anthony Monastery in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward said: "Sidotti was an outstanding martyr who never gave up on his missionary work. I want to ask the Vatican to re-evaluate his eligibility for canonization."
**********************************************
Giovanni Battista Sidotti
He is said entered Japan disguising a samurai.
"Virgin Maria Showing Her Thumb".
Sidotti brought this portrait with him.
