Conversion to the Catholic Religion of Rural Society in Postwar Japan: A Case of Group Conversion in Saga Village, Kyoto

要旨

The purpose of this paper is to consider the acceptance of religion at a village level. One condition under which a religion penetrates a population is during intellectual, spiritual and social instability. There are several confirmed periods during which Catholicism expanded in Japan. 1) The late Muromachi period when Francisco Xavier came to Japan until the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. 2) From the end of the Tokugawa shogunate until the Meiji modernization. 3) The period of GHQ rule in Japan after World War II. The case to be treated in this paper is the group conversion to Catholicism which happened at Saga village, Kyoto, in 1949 just after World War II.

主題