View source for Fumi-e

{{Short description|Pictures of Christian figures to be stepped upon by suspected Christians in Japan}}
{{redirect|Fumie|the given name|Fumie (given name)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Expand Japanese|踏み絵|date=December 2022}}
{{Italic title|reason=[[:Category:Japanese words and phrases]]}}
[[File:Jesus on cross to step on.jpg|thumb|A picture of Jesus used to reveal practicing [[Catholic Church|Catholics]] and sympathizers]]
[[File:Virgin Mary tile to step on.jpg|thumb|A picture of the Virgin Mary]]

A {{Nihongo|'''''fumi-e'''''|踏み絵|fumi "stepping-on" + e "picture"}} was a likeness of [[Jesus]] or [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]] onto which the religious authorities of the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] of [[Japan]] required suspected [[Christians]] ([[Kirishitan]]) to step, in order to demonstrate that they were not members of the outlawed [[religion]]; otherwise they would be tortured or killed.<ref name="Exploring the Japanese Ways of Life">{{cite book |author=Shunkichi Akimoto |title=Exploring the Japanese Ways of Life |publisher=Tokyo News Service |year=1961 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0AweAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Fumi-e%22 |accessdate=21 November 2011 |page=233 |quote=Attached to this word is an exotic, foreignized sort of interest though it was a native invention of the early Yedo Period and had remained a curious symbol of the anti-Christian policy of the Tokugawa feudalism.}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Fumi-e to Expose Christians by Tokugawa Shogunate.png|thumb|A ''Fumi-e'' to expose Christians by the Tokugawa Shogunate]]
''Fumi-e'' began first to be used against Christians in [[Nagasaki]] in 1629. Residents of Nagasaki, whether commoner, Buddhist monk or samurai, were required to tread on the icons which were brought from house to house.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Tan |first=Yvette |date=2019-11-24 |title=The Japanese Christians Forced to Trample on Christ |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50414472 |access-date=2022-04-29 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> Their use was officially abandoned when ports opened to foreigners on 13 April 1856, but some remained in use until Christian teaching was placed under formal protection during the [[Meiji era]]. The icons were also known as ''e-ita'' or ''ita-e''.<ref name="Toward a geography of art">{{cite book|last=Kaufmann|first=Thomas DaCosta|title=Toward a Geography of Art|year=2004|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|isbn=9780226133119|page=308|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3OKYI8ZtmEC&pg=PA303}}</ref> The forced test was called ''e-fumi''.<ref name="Toward a geography of art" />

The Japanese government used the ''e-fumi'' to uncover Christians and sympathizers.<ref>{{cite news |author=Bradley K. Martin |title=Japanese Christian Group Keeps Relics of Old Faith in the Closet |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=19 December 1980 |page=C1 |quote=A government office devised a test called fumi-e...}}</ref> ''Fumi-e'' contained images of the Virgin Mary and [[Jesus]], which government officials ordered all to trample on. Those who were reluctant or refused to do so were arrested for being Christians. The policy of the shogunate was to get them to [[Apostasy|abjure the faith]]. If they refused they would be [[torture]]d. If they still refused to abjure, they would be killed. Some executions took place at [[Nagasaki]]'s [[Mount Unzen]], where the Christians were boiled in the hot springs.<ref name="NY Times 1991">{{cite news |author=David E. Sanger |title=Volcano's Fury Turns a Shrine Into a Morgue |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/07/world/volcano-s-fury-turns-a-shrine-into-a-morgue.html |accessdate=6 December 2015 |work=The New York Times |date=7 June 1991}}</ref>

Execution for Christianity was unofficially abandoned by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1805.

Eighteenth-century Europe was aware enough of ''e-fumi'' for authors of fiction to mention it when alluding to Japan, as in [[Jonathan Swift]]'s ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' (1726),<ref name="Swift1726"/> [[Oliver Goldsmith]]'s ''[[The Citizen of the World]]'' (1760), and [[Voltaire]]'s ''[[Candide]]'' (1759).<ref name="Artistic and Cultural Exchanges" /> Allegations published in Europe during the late 17th and early 18th century that Dutch traders at [[Dejima]] were required to undergo the ''e-fumi'' are thought by modern scholars to be propaganda arising from the [[Anglo–Dutch wars|Anglo–Dutch Wars]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gardiner |first1=Anne Barbeau |date=Summer 1991 |title=Swift on the Dutch East India Merchants: The Context of 1672-73 War Literature |url= |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |volume=54 |issue=3 |pages=234-252 |doi=10.2307/3817708 |jstor=3817708}}</ref>

In modern Japanese literature, treading on the ''fumi-e'' is a pivotal plot element of the novel ''[[Silence (Endō novel)|Silence]]''<ref>{{cite journal |author=Cavanaugh |first=William T. |year=1998 |title=The God of Silence: Shusaku Endo's Reading of the Passion |url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+god+of+silence%3A+Shusaku+Endo%27s+reading+of+the+Passion.-a020485535 |url-status=dead |journal=[[Commonweal (magazine)|Commonweal]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130203231853/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+god+of+silence:+Shusaku+Endo's+reading+of+the+Passion.-a020485535 |archive-date=3 February 2013 |accessdate=25 November 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Jeff Keuss |title=The Lenten Face of Christ in Shusaku Endo's Silence and Life of Jesus |journal=[[Expository Times]] |date=March 2007 |volume=118 |issue=6 |pages=273–279 |doi=10.1177/0014524606076087 |s2cid=170461263 |url=http://www.mendeley.com/research/lenten-face-christ-shusaku-endos-silence-life-jesus-8/#page-1 |accessdate=25 November 2011}}</ref> by [[Shūsaku Endō]] and [[Silence (2016 film)|the 2016 film of the same name]]. 

Christians would sometimes perform the ''e-fumi'' yet continue to practice their beliefs secretly ([[Kakure Kirishitan]]); there were some 20,000 secret Christians in Japan when Christianity was legalized again, down from 500,000 in Nagasaki at the height of Japanese Christianity before the persecution. [[University of Auckland]] professor Mark Mullins concluded that "In that sense, the fumi-e policies were effective."<ref name="Tanfumie">{{cite web |author=Tan |first=Yvette |date=24 November 2019 |title=The Japanese Christians Forced to Trample on Christ |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50414472 |accessdate=24 November 2019 |work=[[BBC]]}}</ref>

==Interpretations==
Many theologians have tried to contemplate the role of the ''fumi-e'' to Japanese Christians, some seeing the treading of the ''fumi-e'' as a sign of the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.<ref>[[Masao Takenaka]]: ''When the Bamboo Bends, Christ and Culture in Japan'', WCC 2002 pp. 50–51.</ref>

[[Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University]] professor Simon Hull stated that if all of the ''fumi-e'' participants had instead chosen to be defiant and died, Christianity would not have continued in Japan; he stated "It is only because some made an existential decision to trample on the ''fumi-e'',{{nbsp}}... that Christianity in Japan was able to survive."<ref name=Tanfumie/>

==Form==
''Fumi-e'' were usually cast from bronze. Others were made of painted stone and some were woodblock prints. There are relatively few surviving ''fumi-e'',<ref name="Artistic and Cultural Exchanges">{{cite book |author=Michael North |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7JScE4Q0TU8C&pg=PA141 |title=Artistic and Cultural Exchanges Between Europe and Asia, 1400–1900: Rethinking Markets, Workshops and Collections |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]] |year=2010 |isbn=9780754669371 |editor=Michael North |page=141}}</ref> as most were simply thrown away or recycled for other uses. Some examples were displayed by the [[Smithsonian]] in their 2007 exhibition "Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries."<ref>{{cite news|last=Jenkins|first=Mark|title=Portugal's Unending Sphere of Influence |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/19/AR2007071900610.html |accessdate=21 November 2011 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=20 July 2007}}</ref><ref name="The American show review">{{cite web |author=Michael Fragoso |title=Fair Trade with 17th-Century Portugal |url=http://www.american.com/archive/2007/july-0707/fair-trade-with-17th-century-porugal |work=[[The American (magazine)|The American]] |accessdate=21 November 2011 |date=11 July 2007 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131003084514/http://www.american.com/archive/2007/july-0707/fair-trade-with-17th-century-porugal |archivedate=3 October 2013}}</ref> One example is on display at the [https://eikokuji.jp/chiristianmuseum/ Christian Museum in Nagoya ( 切支丹遺跡博物館 )]

==See also==
{{Portal|Japan|Christianity}}
*[[Auto-da-fé]]
*[[Catholicism in Japan]]
*[[Holy Inquisition]]
*[[Martyrs of Japan]]

==References==
<references>
<ref name="Swift1726">{{cite book |title=[[Gulliver's Travels]] |author=Jonathan Swift |author-link=Jonathan Swift |chapter=Part III. A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan. Chapter 11 |date=1726 |quote=To this I added another petition, that for the sake of my patron the king of Luggnagg, his majesty would condescend to excuse my performing the ceremony imposed on my countrymen, of '''trampling upon the crucifix''': because I had been thrown into his kingdom by my misfortunes, without any intention of trading. When this latter petition was interpreted to the Emperor, he seemed a little surprised; and said, he ... suspected I must be a Christian...}}</ref>
</references>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fumi-E}}
[[Category:History of Christianity in Japan]]
[[Category:Anti-Christian sentiment in Japan]]
[[Category:Anti-Catholicism]]
[[Category:Religion in the Edo period]]
[[Category:Persecution of Christians]]
[[Category:1629 establishments in Japan]]
[[Category:1620s establishments in Japan]]
[[Category:1856 disestablishments]]
[[Category:Religious policy in Japan]]