A study in cross-cultural transmission of natural philosophy : the Kenkon Bensetsu / José Miguel Duarte Leite Pinto dos Santos.
Text in English, with sections in Japanese-English and Portuguese.
Abstract in English and Portuguese.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dissertação de Doutoramento em História dos Descobrimentos, 2011. Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
Includes bibliographical references.

KEYWORDS: Natural Philosophy, Aristotelianism, neo-Confucianism, Christianity in Japan, Heavens and Earth, Four Elements, Astronomy, Translation, 乾坤弁説

This work shows that the transmission of European natural philosophy by Christian missionaries in Japan during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was made in a systematic way, even if at an elementary level. The Kenkon Bensetsu is used as main evidence of this. This text was introduced into Japan by Antonio Rubino, on the orders of Inoue Masashige it was translated by Sawano Chuan, at the request of Kainosho Masanobu it was transliterated by Nishi Kichibei and Mukai Gensho, and this last one also wrote a commentary on its theories from a neo-Confucian perspective. The historical setting and the process that led to the production of the Kenkon Bensetsu are described. From this it is established that the Japanese of all walks of life were curious about the causes of natural phenomena; that the missionaries had the ability to provide those explanations, drawing from the pool of theories provided by sixteenth century Aristotelian natural philosophy, adjusted to the interests and talents of their audience; and that the Japanese authorities considered that these theories were important in some way and thus took the necessary steps to ensure that that they would not be consigned into oblivion as a consequence of their efforts to stamp out Christianity. The text is integrally translated following explicit criteria, therefore opening the way to further exploration by many researchers. Some of its most striking characteristics concerning content and style are analysed.

Local access dig.pdf. [Santos-Kenkon bensetsu.pdf]

ABSTRACT (in English in the original)
The spread of the gospel in Japan began with the arrival of the Jesuits in 1549. Owners of a peculiar culture and a hierarchical social structure, the Japanese became the target of the admiration of the missionaries, who came to adjectives from White of Asia. Japan was located in the periphery of the Portuguese empire, which caused serious complications for evangelization. Apart from the distance from Goa and the lack of priests and resources, there were cultural, religious and linguistic disparities, along with political instability on behalf of Sengoku-Jidai. In the sixteenth century, the Jesuits used the model of cooperation with local elites and different strategies of adaptation as a way to achieve considerable results for Catholicism in the Kyushu and Honshu archipelagos. In the daily life, the mishaps were almost always overcome with the help of the natives, leading Companhia de Jesus to think about the elaboration of a corps of auxiliaries and catechists, called dógicos, in order to give linguistic and doctrinal support to the parents.
Between 1549 and 1578, the catechists were widely used by the Jesuits, however, their institutionalization came only from 1579, when Alessandro Valignano instituted the policy of training these individuals from colleges and seminaries. The institutional artifice of the visitor showed the predilection for the dógicos, who from the 1580s and 1590s underwent a process of educational improvement with the creation of seminars and colleges in Japan and Macao. Despite the relative success of the missions, the beginning of the seventeenth century was marked by retreats in these Christian communities, as a consequence of the rise of the Tokugawa shogunate. However, between 1598 and 1614, the period of activity of the Bishop of Funai, D. Luís de Cerqueira, began the first ordinations of natives in Japan with the creation of the Nagasaki Diocesan Seminary. In this way, the fear of Christianity's failure due to political upheavals led the Jesuits to transform the dógicos into a native clergy, guaranteeing the survival of their communities even at the height of religious persecution.

Keywords: Jesuits in Japan - Native Clergy - Nanban Period
Local access dig.pdf. [Leao-Missões jesuíticas.pdf]

[Scioli, Stefano (2013) Daniello Bartoli, Il Giappone, Edizione critica, [Dissertation thesis], Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna. Dottorato di ricerca in Culture letterarie, filologiche, storiche: indirizzo "Italianistica" , 25 Ciclo. DOI 10.6092/unibo/amsdottorato/6125.]

La tesi di ricerca ha portato alla realizzazione di un'edizione critica del Giappone di Daniello Bartoli (1660): per la prima volta la «seconda parte» dell'Asia trova, in questo lavoro, una trascrizione integrale condotta con moderni criteri filologi. Quanto all'esegesi la ricerca ha visto la compilazione di tre «Schedari»: un «Indice dei nomi», che vede l'identificazione dei personaggi storici citati esplicitamente nell'opera, ne traccia un rapido profilo biografico e ne fornisce precisa e aggiornata bibliografia. Per quanto riguarda i missionari evocati dall'autore nel testo, questa sezione indica se (e dove) si tratta di personaggio o di fonte (registrando, nel caso, il luogo o i luoghi in cui Bartoli ricorre a tale testimonianza); un «Indice dei luoghi», che dà l'indicazione moderna del luogo citato e ne fornisce il riscontro con i repertori più aggiornati; un «Lessico» riservato ai termini giapponesi presenti nel testo che vengono spiegati e, là dove possibile, studiati nella loro storia, nella loro presenza nella coeva letteratura di viaggio e corredati di utili riferimenti bibliografici. Le pagine introduttive inquadrano l'opera di Bartoli sia nell'orizzonte biografico dell'autore sia nel milieu gesuitico barocco, fornendo puntuali coordinate storiche grazie alle quali recuperare il più ampio contesto delle missioni gesuitiche nell'Estremo Oriente tra Cinque e Seicento. Particolare attenzione è stata riservata al modo di intendere il compito dello storico da parte di Bartoli: una storiografia la sua che s'intreccia in modi affatto peculiari alle diverse forme stilistiche e dinamiche retoriche richieste dalle altre due grandi attività a cui egli dedicò impegno e passione: l'insegnamento e la predicazione.

This research thesis is the accomplishment of the critical edition of Giappone, by Daniello Bartoli (1660): for the first time "the second part" of Asia is fully transcribed through modern philological criteria. About the exegesis, the research work consisted in compiling three "Schedari": - An "Index of names", where historical figures explicitly mentioned in the text are identified with their biographies (that provides the identification of the historical figures explicitely mentioned in the work, tracks their biographical profile and provides a precise and up-to-date bibliography). Concerning the missionaries recalled by the author in the text, this section specifies if (and where) they consist in real figures or sources, reporting the place or the places where the evidence is used by Bartoli; - An "Index of locations (site) that gives a modern indication of the place mentioned in the text and provides a crosscheck with the most up-to-date references; - A "Lexicon" devoted to the Japanese terms found in the text. Here they are explained and, wherever possible, studied in their history (historical meaning), in their presence in the contemporary travel literature and enriched with useful bibliographical references. The introductory pages set the work of Bartoli in the biographical horizon of the author and in the Jesuit Baroque milieu, providing precise historical coordinates through which to retrieve the widest context of the Jesuit missions in the Far East between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Particular attention has been reserved to the way Bartoli proceeded with the assignment of the historian: his historiography is interlaced in a quite peculiar way to the different stylistic forms and to the rhetorical dynamics required by its two other great activities, to which he devoted commitment and passion: Teaching and Preaching.

Local access dig.pdf. [Scioli-Bartoli Giappone.pdf]
Thesis Online.
Online Repository.

Ha Daiusu : Destruyendo a Deus / Fabián Fukan ; edición crítica y traducción de Giuseppe Marino.
Translation of Ha Deusu 破提宇子. Includes Japanese text.
Includes bibliographical references.

“La transcriptión del texto original ha sido elaborada por el Dr. Kofuji Timoyasu 小藤朋保 del departamento de Religiious Studies de la Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology en la The University of Tokyo. El texto sigue fielmene la edición del professor Ebisawa Arimichi, en Kirishitansho/Haiyasho. Nihon Shiso Taikei vol. 25, Tokyo, Iwanami Shoten 1970”

Title in Japanese: 近世日本における奴隷問題とイエズス会

氏 名 ホムロ ダ シルバ エハルト
学位の種類 博士（学術）
学位記番号 博甲第２４４号
学位授与の日付 2018 年3 月12日
学位授与大学 東京外国語大学
博士学位論文題目 近世日本における奴隷問題とイエズス会

Local access dig.pdf. [Ehalt-Slavery Japan.pdf]

Nihon Kirishitan junkyōshi  日本キリシタン殉教史  / [chosha Kataoka Yakichi 著者片岡弥吉].

Title also in Latin: Historia ecclesiae Japoniae martyrum sanguine foecundatae
Originally published in 1979 by Jiji Tsūshinsha 株式会社時事通信社. With new afterword.
Includes indexes.

Local access dig.pdf. [Kataoka-Nihon.pdf]

Abstract:
This thesis explores the history of Christianity and conversion to it in 16th and 17th Century Japan. It argues that conversion is a complex phenomenon which happened for a variety of reasons. Furthermore, it argues that due to the political context and limitations acting upon the mission, the majority of conversions in 16th and 17th Century Japan lacked an element of epistemological change (classically understood). The first chapter explores theories of conversion suggesting that conversion in 16th and 17th Century Japan included sorts of religious change not usually encapsulated in the term conversion including adhesion, communal and forced conversion. Moreover, it argues that contextual factors are the most important factors in religious change. The second chapter explores political context contending that it was the political environment of Japan that ultimately decided whether conversion was possible. This chapter charts the evolution of the Japanese context as it became more hostile toward Christianity. In the third chapter, the context of the mission is explored. It is argued that limitations acting upon the mission shaped post-conversion faith, so that changes to practice and ritual rather than belief became the mark of a successful conversion. The fourth chapter explores methods of conversion, the factors influencing it, and post-conversion faith more directly. It argues that Christianity spread primarily through social networks, but that conversion was also influenced by economic incentive, other realworld benefits, and Christianity’s perceived efficacy. Building on Chapter Three, the final chapter also seeks to illustrate that the missionaries were not successful in their attempts to spur epistemological change or instil a detailed knowledge of theology or doctrine amongst their converts.

See St Andrews Research Repository for more information.
Local access dig.pdf [Morris-Rethinking Conversion Japan.pdf]