s were rapidly digging
their own graves in Japan. During the life of Nobunaga all went on well.
In his hatred to the Buddhist bonzes he favored the Jesuits, and
Christianity found a clear field. With the advent of Hideyoshi there
came a change. His early favor to the missionaries was followed by
disgust, and in 1587 he issued a decree banishing them from the land.
The churches and chapels were closed, public preaching ceased, but
privately the work of conversion went actively on, as many as ten
thousand converts being made each year.

The Spanish mendicant friars from the Philippines were bolder in their
work. Defying the decree, they preached openly in the dress of their
orders, not hesitating to denounce in violent language the obnoxious
law. As a result the decree was renewed, and a number of the priests and
their converts were crucified. But still the secret work of the Jesuits
continued and the number of converts increased, among them being some of
the generals in the Corean war.

[Illustration: MAIN STREET, YOKOHAMA.]

With the accession of Iyeyasu began a rapid downfall of Christianity in
Japan. In the great battle which raised him to the head of affairs some
of the Christian leaders were killed. Konishi, a Christian general, who
had commanded one division of the army in Corea, was executed. On every
side there was evidence of a change in the tide of affairs, and the
Christians of Japan began to despair.

The daimios no longer bade their followers to become Christians. On the
contrary, they ordered them to renounce the new faith, under threat of
punishment. Their harshness resulted in rebellion, so new a thing among
the peasantry of Japan that the authorities felt sure that they had been
secretly instigated to it by the missionaries. The wrath of the shogun
aroused, he sent soldiers against the rebels, putting down each outbreak
with bloodshed, and in 1606 issued a decree abolishing the Christian
faith. This the Spanish friars defied, as they had that of his
predecessor.

In 1611, Iyeyasu was roused to more active measures by the discovery of
a plot between the foreigners and the native converts for the overthrow
of the government. Sado, whose mines were worked by thousands of
Christian exiles, was to be the centre of the outbreak, its governor,
Okubo, being chosen as the leader and the proposed new ruler of the
land.

Iyeyasu, awakened to the danger, now took active steps to crush out the
foreign faith.