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Ruins of the Hara fortress

The Shimabara Rebellion (島原の乱, Shimabara no ran^?) was an uprising of Japanese peasants, most of them Christians, during the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1637–1638. Image File history File links Information_icon. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 731 KB) Please see the file description page for further information. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 731 KB) Please see the file description page for further information. ... Look up rebellion in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Categories: 1911 Britannica | Historical stubs | Feudalism ... Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. ... The Tokugawa shogunate or Tokugawa bakufu (徳川幕府) (also known as the Edo bakufu) was a feudal military dictatorship of Japan established in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family until 1868. ... Events February 3 - Tulipmania collapses in Netherlands by government order February 15 - Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor December 17 - Shimabara Rebellion erupts in Japan Pierre de Fermat makes a marginal claim to have proof of what would become known as Fermats last theorem. ... Events March 29 - Swedish colonists establish first settlement in Delaware, called New Sweden. ...

The rebellion

Rebellion broke out on December 17, 1637, when peasants rose against their daimyo Matsukura Shigeharu. Most rebels were Japanese converted to Christianity, but a primary reason for the revolt was the very heavy tax burden; many rebels took the mantle of Christianity later. December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events February 3 - Tulipmania collapses in Netherlands by government order February 15 - Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor December 17 - Shimabara Rebellion erupts in Japan Pierre de Fermat makes a marginal claim to have proof of what would become known as Fermats last theorem. ... Daimyo Matsudaira Katamori visits the residence of a retainer. ... Matsukura Shigeharu Son of Matsukura Shigemasa, this much hated Daimyo whose cruelty helped cause the Shimabara Rebellion was renown for dressing disobedient peasants in straw raincoats and then setting them on fire. ... A tax is an involuntary fee paid by individuals or businesses to a state, or to functional equivalents of a state, including tribes, secessionist movements or revolutionary movements. ...

The rebellion included up to 23,000 peasants and ronin, including many women, in Shimabara and nearby Amakusa Islands under the leadership of Amakusa Shiro (also named Masuda Tokisada) who used a Christian name Jerome. Both areas had been under the rule of the previous Christian daimyo Konishi Yukinaga. Graves of 47 Ronin at Sengakuji For other uses, see Ronin (disambiguation). ... Shimabara can mean any of the following: The city of Shimabara in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan The district of Shimabara, an entertainment quarter in Kyoto, Japan This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The Yatsushiro Sea and surroundings Amakusa (天草) is an island belonging to Japan, 26½ miles long and 13½ in extreme width, situated about 32°20N, 130°E, on the west of Kumamoto Prefecture (formerly the province of Higo on the island of KyÅ«shÅ«), from which it is separated by... The article incorporates text from OpenHistory. ... Daimyo Matsudaira Katamori visits the residence of a retainer. ... Konishi Yukinaga (小西 行長 Konishi Yukinaga, born 1555 and died November 6, 1600) was a Japanese (Christian) daimyo under Toyotomi Hideyoshi. ...

Terazawa Hirotaka, governor of Nagasaki, dispatched an army of 3,000 samurai to Amakusa but rebels defeated them on December 27, 1637, with 2,800 casualties. Survivors retreated to Nagasaki and the governor asked the shogunate for reinforcements. However, in battle on January 3, 1638, shogunate warriors defeated the rebels who lost about 1,000. They retreated to Shimabara. Megane-bashi (Spectacles Bridge) Nagasaki   listen? (長崎市; -shi, literally long peninsula) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture located at the south-western coast of Kyushu, Japan. ... Japanese samurai in armour, 1860s. ... December 27 is the 361st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (362nd in leap years). ... Events February 3 - Tulipmania collapses in Netherlands by government order February 15 - Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor December 17 - Shimabara Rebellion erupts in Japan Pierre de Fermat makes a marginal claim to have proof of what would become known as Fermats last theorem. ... Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate Shogun ) is a military rank and historical title in Japan. ... January 3 is the 3rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events March 29 - Swedish colonists establish first settlement in Delaware, called New Sweden. ...

In Shimabara, rebels besieged Shimabara castle and took over the fortress at Hara.

Statues of Jizo beheaded by rebelling Christians.

Hirotaka had already left for Shimabara on January 2 with 500 samurai and gathered 800 more from Omura. They made camp half a mile from Shimabara castle. They commenced artillery fire from cannons commandeered from Japanese and Chinese vessels. Beheaded statues of Jizo, Shimabara, Nagasaki, Japan I took this photograph and contribute it to the public domain. ... Beheaded statues of Jizo, Shimabara, Nagasaki, Japan I took this photograph and contribute it to the public domain. ... Jizo statue at Mt. ... January 2 is the second day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Artillery with Gabion fortification Cannons on display at Fort Point Continental Artillery crew from the American Revolution Firing of an 18-pound gun, Louis-Philippe Crepin, (1772 – 1851) A forge-welded Iron Cannon in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. ...

They then requested aid from a Dutch merchant vessel to bombard the Hara fort from the sea. Koekebakker, head of the Dutch trading station in Hirado provided the services on the one ship he had in harbour: the Rijp. He put about 20 batteries on shore, manned by about 100 men, and also fired his cannons from the Rijp. These guns fired about 425 rounds in the space of 15 days, without great result, and two Dutch lookouts were shot by the rebels. The ship withdrew at the request of the Japanese, following contemptuous messages sent by the rebels to the besieging troops: Categories: Cities in Nagasaki Prefecture | Japan geography stubs ...

"Are there no longer courageous soldiers in the realm to do combat with us, and weren't they ashamed to have called in the assistance of foreigners against our small contingent?" ^[1]

Shogunate troops arrived but rebels in Hara fortress resisted siege for months and caused them heavy losses. Both sides had a hard time fighting in winter conditions. On February 3, 1638, a rebel raid killed 2,000 warriors from Hizen including their daimyo. However, they slowly ran out of food, ammunition and other provisions. Winter is one of the four seasons of temperate zones. ... February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events March 29 - Swedish colonists establish first settlement in Delaware, called New Sweden. ...

On March 10, shogunate forces begun to gather in Shimabara and by April there were 30,000 rebels facing 200,000 shogunate soldiers. Desperate rebels mounted an assault against them on April 4 and were forced to withdraw. Captured survivors revealed the fortress was out of food and gunpowder. March 10 is the 69th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (70th in leap years). ... April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ... Smokeless powder Gunpowder, whether black powder or smokeless powder, is a substance that burns very rapidly, releasing gases that act as a propellant in firearms. ...

On April 12, 1638, Hizen warriors stormed the fortress and captured the outer defenses. Rebels held out and caused heavy casualties until they were routed on April 15. The Shogunate had lost about 10,000 soldiers. April 12 is the 102nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (103rd in leap years). ... Events March 29 - Swedish colonists establish first settlement in Delaware, called New Sweden. ... April 15 is the 105th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (106th in leap years). ...

Aftermath

The shogunate forces beheaded an estimated 37,000 rebels and sympathizers. Amakusa Shiro's head was taken to Nagasaki and Hara fortress was destroyed. The shogunate suspected that Western Catholics had been involved in spreading the rebellion and Portuguese traders were driven out of the country. An already existing ban on the Christian religion was then enforced stringently, and Christianity in Japan survived only by going underground, turning into something called Kakure Kirishitan. The term Western World or the West can have multiple meanings depending on its context. ... Kakure Kirishitan (隠れキリシタン, Japanese for Hidden Christian) is a modern term for a member of a sect of Japanese Roman Catholicism that went underground after the Shimabara Rebellion in the 1630s. ...

From this time until the 1860s, no major battles took place in Japan. During the next ten generations of the Edo period, most samurai never fought in combat. The following text needs to be harmonized with text in the article History of Japan#Edo Period. ...

Notes

1. ^ Hendrik Doeff "Recollections of Japan", p26

See also

• Taiping rebellion

Combatants Qing Empire Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Commanders Xianfeng Emperor, Tongzhi Emperor, Empress Dowager Cixi Hong Xiuquan The Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864) was perhaps the bloodiest civil war in human history, a clash between the forces of the Qing Empire in China and those inspired by a Hakka self-proclaimed mystic...

External links

• Amakusa Shiro Museum