Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,995
Picture Kicking ...!
On February 12, 1873, the so-called "Fumien" were abolished by law in Japan.
In reality these institutions were called 踏 み 絵 ("Fumi-e", translated as "Kick-Picture") and were a specially devised institution of the Japanese authorities to track down unwanted followers of the Christian faith and bring them to justice.
Such a "Fumi-e" worked like this:
The followers of the Japanese state religion of Zen Bhuddism assumed that Christians would never betray their beliefs - neither would they!
So they built small huts with Christian symbols and motifs made of wood or metal embedded in the floor ...:
Most of them were crosses or pictorial representations of the crucifixion scene or images of the Virgin Mary.
Originally the symbols were made of wood, but - due to the rapid wear and tear - they were soon replaced by stronger materials.
However, even these preserved specimens show clear signs of wear and tear after almost 400 years of use ...:
These "Fumien" - here a western representation ...
... stood in every Japanese place since the 1920s - the first in the city of Nagasaki, which is open to foreigners ...:
On a certain day of each year - in Nagasaki it was the eighth day of the first month - the entire population had to gather in front of such a "Fumi-e" ...
... and trample on Christian symbols in front of the watchful eyes of an official!
Anyone who refused was considered a Christian - and was instantly arrested and executed!
The Japanese authorities had resorted to this method in order to suppress the ever more spreading Christian faith - spread by missionaries - which was felt to be "un-Japanese" and "unpatrotic" ...
(I add: It was less about faith itself than about the political influence that "Christian" powers tried to exert over "converted" Japanese in the country!)
George Meister, a Protestant gardener from Saxony, who lived in Nagasaki in 1682/83 and 1685/86, left us a written note about this "kicking pictures":
“The figures, which are kept in a specially made box, are cast from brass and about a foot long.
With their step it goes in the following way: After the Inquisition Council sits down on a mat, everything from the house, big and small, together with the families living there, has to gather in the room.
The bronzed figures lie on the bare floor: the scribe appointed to the Jefumi opens his sample book and reads off all the names that come as they are read and walk or step over the pictures.
The mothers pick up underage children who cannot yet walk and place their feet on it, which is also regarded as having walked over it. When this happens, the head of the house presses his seal under the pattern roll, as a testimony that the Inquisition has been held with them and that the inquisitors can therefore justify themselves to the governor. "
With the Treaty of Kanagawa (1854) enforced by US Commodore Matthew Perry ...
... the following English-Japanese "friendship" treaty (1854), the Russian-Japanese treaty of Shimoda (1855) ...
... the western pressure on the Japanese authorities increased.
In the spring of 1856, “picture kicking” was abandoned in Nagasaki and Shimoda.
But beyond the ports that were open to the West, things continued until the ban on Christianity was finally lifted in 1873.
Such a "picture kicking" would be a nice idea for a little diorama ...
On February 12, 1873, the so-called "Fumien" were abolished by law in Japan.
In reality these institutions were called 踏 み 絵 ("Fumi-e", translated as "Kick-Picture") and were a specially devised institution of the Japanese authorities to track down unwanted followers of the Christian faith and bring them to justice.
Such a "Fumi-e" worked like this:
The followers of the Japanese state religion of Zen Bhuddism assumed that Christians would never betray their beliefs - neither would they!
So they built small huts with Christian symbols and motifs made of wood or metal embedded in the floor ...:
Most of them were crosses or pictorial representations of the crucifixion scene or images of the Virgin Mary.
Originally the symbols were made of wood, but - due to the rapid wear and tear - they were soon replaced by stronger materials.
However, even these preserved specimens show clear signs of wear and tear after almost 400 years of use ...:
These "Fumien" - here a western representation ...
... stood in every Japanese place since the 1920s - the first in the city of Nagasaki, which is open to foreigners ...:
On a certain day of each year - in Nagasaki it was the eighth day of the first month - the entire population had to gather in front of such a "Fumi-e" ...
... and trample on Christian symbols in front of the watchful eyes of an official!
Anyone who refused was considered a Christian - and was instantly arrested and executed!
The Japanese authorities had resorted to this method in order to suppress the ever more spreading Christian faith - spread by missionaries - which was felt to be "un-Japanese" and "unpatrotic" ...
(I add: It was less about faith itself than about the political influence that "Christian" powers tried to exert over "converted" Japanese in the country!)
George Meister, a Protestant gardener from Saxony, who lived in Nagasaki in 1682/83 and 1685/86, left us a written note about this "kicking pictures":
“The figures, which are kept in a specially made box, are cast from brass and about a foot long.
With their step it goes in the following way: After the Inquisition Council sits down on a mat, everything from the house, big and small, together with the families living there, has to gather in the room.
The bronzed figures lie on the bare floor: the scribe appointed to the Jefumi opens his sample book and reads off all the names that come as they are read and walk or step over the pictures.
The mothers pick up underage children who cannot yet walk and place their feet on it, which is also regarded as having walked over it. When this happens, the head of the house presses his seal under the pattern roll, as a testimony that the Inquisition has been held with them and that the inquisitors can therefore justify themselves to the governor. "
With the Treaty of Kanagawa (1854) enforced by US Commodore Matthew Perry ...
... the following English-Japanese "friendship" treaty (1854), the Russian-Japanese treaty of Shimoda (1855) ...
... the western pressure on the Japanese authorities increased.
In the spring of 1856, “picture kicking” was abandoned in Nagasaki and Shimoda.
But beyond the ports that were open to the West, things continued until the ban on Christianity was finally lifted in 1873.
Such a "picture kicking" would be a nice idea for a little diorama ...
Good work Martin. That's new to me.
