Giovanni Battista Sidotti

Giovanni Battista Sidotti (* 1668 in Palermo ; † November 27, 1714 ( traditionally : Shōtokū 4/10/21) in Edo (today Tokyo )) was an Italian Jesuit priest and missionary.

Arai Hakuseki , an important Japanese politician and scholar of his time, published the work Seiyō Kibun on the basis of discussions with Sidotti.

While Sidotti worked as a priest, he heard stories of missionary martyrdom in Japan and decided to go to Japan himself, which was illegal under the country's landlocking ( sakoku ) policy at the time and was punishable by the death penalty. After receiving permission from Pope Clement XI. He got as far as Manila , but couldn't find a ship there that would take him to Japan.

He finally managed to find a ship and in August 1708 he landed on Yakushima . He had disguised himself as a samurai , but was of course immediately recognized as a Westerner, captured and soon afterwards brought to Nagasaki .

The next year, 1709, he was taken to the capital Edo and interviewed by the Japanese politician and Confucian scholar Arai Hakuseki. Hakuseki was impressed by Sidotti's behavior and learning, and developed a great deal of respect for him.

That feeling was reciprocated and Sidotti began to trust Arai. This was the first meeting between two great scholars of the civilizations of Japan and Western Europe since the beginning of the sakoku era in the 17th century. Among other things, Sidotti stated that contrary to the Japanese belief at the time, western missionaries were not the vanguard of western armies.

Therefore, Arai did not follow the common belief that it was best to torture Christians until they would give up their belief, and recommended that his superiors deal with foreigners in one of three ways. If possible, they should be deported; if not, then they should be imprisoned. Execution should be the last resort.

Hakuseki's recommendation for deportation was unprecedented. Finally, the government decided to imprison Sidotti in the Kirishitan Yashiki in Myogadani (now Kohinata , Bunkyō-ku in Tokyo ). The house was built in 1646 to accommodate missionaries arrested as a result of the Sakoku and the ban on proselytizing. However, it has been used for this purpose for the first time since it was built.

Since he was unable to proselytize in Kirishitan Yashiki , Sidotti was spared torture. In addition, he was not treated like a prisoner, but received special treatment that was more comparable to house arrest ( 五 人 扶持 , go-nin fuchi , “5-man food ration ”). Its guardians were an old couple named Chōsuke and Haru, two former Christians who had renounced their faith. When Sidotti tried to persuade her to return to the Christian faith, he was transferred to an underground cell in the house, where he died in 1714 at the age of 46.

Arai Hakuseki used the knowledge gained from his conversations with Sidotti to publish the works Seiyō Kibun and Sairan Igen . A picture from his estate, oyayubi no seibozō ( 親 指 の 聖母 像 , "thumb-sized image of the Virgin Mary ") was declared an important cultural asset of Japan and is now in the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 浅見 雅 一 : シ ド ッ テ ィ【Ｓｉｄｏｔｔｉ ， Ｇｉｏｖａｎｎｉ Ｂａｔｔｉｓｔａ】. In: 朝日 日本 歴 史 人物 事 典 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved December 4, 2013 (Japanese).