KIRISHITAN BUNKO : ALESSANDRO VALIGNANO AND THE CHRISTIAN PRESS IN JAPANKirishitan Bunko ：范禮安和日本基督教刋物
The article examines the role of the Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano in the construction and circulation of a Christian “press kit” for the Japanese archipelago, articulated under the designation Kirishitan Bunko (“Christian library”). Departing from the propaganda project conceived by Valign...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
July 2006
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40019/3754 |
| Summary: | The article examines the role of the Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano in the construction and circulation of a Christian “press kit” for the Japanese archipelago, articulated under the designation Kirishitan Bunko (“Christian library”). Departing from the propaganda project conceived by Valignano after his first visit to Japan—including the celebrated Japanese embassy to Rome and to the court of Philip II—the text argues that the Jesuit strategy was not limited to recruitment and diplomacy, but involved the deliberate management of editorial circulation, translation, and cultural mediation. Methodologically, the study combines a historical-institutional analysis of Jesuit plans and chronologies with a contextual reading of textual production and the effects of European reception, observing how the accounts and materials sent reverberated in Europe. The main conclusions maintain that, despite the political-religious deterioration in Japan after 1587 (centralization of power and the first anti-Christian edict), the embassy functioned as a catalyst: it increased the visibility of the Jesuit mission in Europe, stimulated vocations and patronage, and generated a rapid growth of publications on Japan. Thus, Kirishitan Bunko emerges as an expression of a spiritual conquest founded on the press, curation, and the capacity to reframe images and knowledge across continents. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |