Footprints of the Martyrs of the Hosokawa Domain@No.15@ @@@@@
Genya Ogasawara and Miya Kagayama 6
For eleven years the families of Genya and Miya continued to
live in poverty, but through their faith they were able to overcome
many hardships. In 1632, Iyemitsu Tokugawa moved Tadatoshi Hosokawa
who was the daimyo of Buzen (an area of present Fukuoka Prefecture and
the north of present Oita Prefecture) to Kumamoto Castle to be lord of
a territory of 540,000 koku in Higo (Kumamoto Prefecture) and Bungo (in
the south of Oita Prefecture). Immediately after Tadatoshi had left Buzen,
Father Julian Nakaura, who had continued to preach the gospel around Kokura
(present Kitakyushu City), was arrested and sent to Nishizaka hill where
he was tortured to death by being hanged upside down.
Genya was prepared to lose Tadatoshi's protection at this point. However,
Tadatoshi ordered the families of Genya and Miya to move to Higo where
he would be living. He also urged them to take this opportunity to
renounce their faith. Genya resisted any such temptation and conveyed
clearly through a letter to Tadatoshi his intention to trust his savior,
Jesus Christ, to the last. Tadatoshi overlooked it, brought the families
to Higo as they were, and provided them with the same ration of rice as
before.
The families of Genya and Miya moved to Shioya-cho in Kumamoto. Although
they continued to live in penury, they always prayed to God, preached the
gospel and got on with their lives, radiant with hope.
It was one year before the governmentfs national isolation policy of sakoku
began, and the Bakufu adopted an even more severe policy of repression
of Christianity.
"except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that
chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me; nor
do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy,
and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the
gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:23-24)
(The Kyoto Glory Church Translation Committee is responsible for the wording of this article.)
