was a Japanese writer who converted from

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Zen Buddhism Zen (; from Chinese: '' Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka ph ...

in his youth. He was an

apostate Apostasy (; ) is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous religious beliefs. One who ...

. He wrote

tracts Tract may refer to: Geography and real estate * Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots * Land lot or tract, a section of land * Census tract, a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census ...

at first advocating and later criticizing Christianity in comparison to the other

religions of Japan Religion in Japan is manifested primarily in Shinto and in Buddhism, the two main faiths, which Japanese people often practice simultaneously. Syncretic combinations of both, known generally as , are common; they represented Japan's dominant ...

Early life

Although little is known about Fabian's life before his

conversion to Christianity Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person that brings about changes in what sociologists refer to as the convert's "root reality" including their social behaviors, thinking and ethics. The sociol ...

, he is known to have hailed from the Hokuriku region. Sometime in his youth, he would join a Zen Buddhist monastery and given the name Eshun (恵俊). Fabian would convert to Christianity in 1583.

Christianity

Fabian became an ''Irmão'' (Portuguese for "

brother A brother (: brothers or brethren) is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a family, familial relationship, it is sometimes used ende ...

") in the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

in 1586. During his time with the Jesuits, he made significant contributions to the production of Christian devotionals and assisted members of the Society in their study of the

Japanese language is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...

.Schrimpf, Monika (2008)
The Pro- and Anti-Christian Writings of Fukan Fabian (1565-1621)
(PDF). ''Japanese Religions''. Vol. 33 (1 & 2): 35-54 In 1592, Fabian wrote an abridged edition of the Japanese epic

The Tale of the Heike is an epic account compiled prior to 1330 of the struggle between the Taira clan and Minamoto clan for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century in the Genpei War (1180–1185). It has been translated into English at least five times. ...

in Latin script which was used as a language and history textbook by the missionaries. He also translated portions of

Aesop's Fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a Slavery in ancient Greece, slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 Before the Common Era, BCE. Of varied and unclear origins, the stor ...

into Japanese. The ''Myōtei Dialogues'', one of Fabian's two well-known pieces of writing, was a work of Christian

apologetics Apologetics (from Greek ) is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and recommended their f ...

, framed as a dialogue between the fictional Lady Myōshu and Yūtei. In the work, Fabian critiqued Buddhism, Shinto and Confucianism. He was known as a great public debater, said to embarrass his Buddhist opponents in the many debates he partook in. However, many details regarding his membership in the Society are unknown, as there are limited writings about Fabian prior to his debate with

Neo-Confucianist Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, which originated with Han Yu (768–824) and Li Ao (772–841) i ...

Hayashi Dōshun.

Apostasy and ''Deus Destroyed''

Although Fabian's debate with Dōshun, which centered around the rationalization of Christian beliefs according to early modern Japanese views of the world, ended with each side feeling more confident of his beliefs, Fabian shortly thereafter left the Society of Jesus and briefly vanished from public view around 1608. He reappeared in 1620, having renounced Christianity. Fabian's apostasy may be attributable to his belief that the Portuguese Jesuits routinely treated their Japanese counterparts as their inferiors. In 1620, Fabian wrote ''Ha Daiusu'', a treatise against Christianity. The work is considered one of the earliest rebuttals of Christian criticism aimed towards Japanese religions that would later be used as a model for future anti-Christian treatises. One such possible text influenced by Fabian's ''Ha Daiusu'' was a tract penned by Suzuki Shosan titled ''Ha Kirishitain'' (''Christianity Destroyed''). The text was used throughout the

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

region to help preach against and eliminate Christianity from the area, especially in the aftermath of the

Shimabara Rebellion The , also known as the or , was an rebellion, uprising that occurred in the Shimabara Domain of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan from 17 December 1637 to 15 April 1638. Matsukura Katsuie, the ''daimyō'' of the Shimabara Domain, enforced unpo ...

Works

* ''The'' ''Myōtei Dialogues'' (1605) * ''Ha Daiusu'' (1620)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fucan, Fabian 1560s births 1621 deaths Converts to Buddhism from Roman Catholicism Japanese critics of Christianity Converts to Buddhism from Christianity Japanese Jesuits Japanese Zen Buddhists Japanese former Christians