
An Important Document: Frois's Historia de Japam
Lois Frois, SJ, wrote an account of his
time in Japan, and it constitutes a crucial record for understanding the
early history of the Jesuits there, and more generally of life in the
period. The first part of the work is in three sections, An Account of the
Sixty-six Provinces of Japan (or Japam, as Frois wrote it), A General Survey
of Japan, and a Chronicle of the years 1549-78; part two continues the
Chronicle up to 1589, and part three to 1590.
Frois put every effort into
the work, and travelled extensively to collect data throughout Japan. But
his superior, Valignano, who had commissioned the work, decided it was
overlong, and refused to send it back to Europe for approval. Frois was
disheartened, and died of grief in Japan not much later.
The whereabouts
of this vast manuscript was unknown for three hundred years, until it turned
up in the Jesuit library in Macao. Sadly, the original was lost to fire in
1835, and today it is only known via an eighteenth-century copy. But the
Historia is now published, and a Japanese translation also exists - running
to twelve volumes.
Of course the Historia has a Christian bias, but it
offers many valuable insights into the period, from elite to common social
levels.
Luis Frois
Column
The Jesuits
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