northern extremity of the Main island. Takeyama, who had already been
banished by Taiko Sama to the province of Kaga, was ordered to leave the
country. He was sent in a Chinese ship to Manila, where he soon after
died. In order to repress any disturbance that might arise from the
execution of this edict, ten thousand troops were sent to Kyushu, where
the converts were much the most numerous, and where the daimyos in many
cases either openly protected or indirectly favored the new faith.

In accordance with this edict, as many as three hundred persons are said
to have been shipped from Japan October 25, 1614. All the resident Jesuits
were included in this number, excepting eighteen fathers and nine
brothers, who concealed themselves and thus escaped the search. Following
this deportation of converts the most persistent efforts continued to be
made to force the native Christians to renounce their faith. The accounts
given, both by the foreign and by the Japanese writers, of the
persecutions which now broke upon the heads of the Christians are beyond
description horrible. A special service was established by the government
which was called the Christian Enquiry,(210) the object of which was to
search out Christians in every quarter and drive them to a renunciation of
their faith. Both the foreign priests who had remained in the country in
spite of the edict and the native converts were hunted down and punished
with the most appalling tortures. Rewards were offered for information
involving Christians of every position and rank, even of parents against
their children and of children against their parents. At what time this
practice began it is difficult to say, but that rewards were used at an
early period is evident from the re-issue of an edict in 1655, in which it
is stated(211) that formerly a reward of 200 pieces of silver was paid for
denouncing a father (_bateren_) and 100 for denouncing a brother
(_iruman_); but from this time the rewards should be: for denouncing a
father, 300 pieces; a brother, 200 pieces; and a catechist, 50 pieces. In
1711 this tariff was raised, for denouncing a father to 500 pieces, a
brother to 300 pieces, and a catechist to 100 pieces; also for denouncing
a person who, having recanted, returned to the faith, 300 pieces. These
edicts against Christianity were displayed on the edict-boards as late as
the year 1868.

The persecution began in its worst form about 1616. This was the year in
which