The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Tokyo (, ) is a

Latin Church The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical ...

metropolitan

archdiocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It was erected as the Apostolic Vicariate of Japan on May 1, 1846, by

Pope Gregory XVI Pope Gregory XVI (; ; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in June 1846. He had adopted the name Mauro upon enteri ...

, and its name was later changed by

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...

to the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Japan on May 22, 1876. It was elevated to the

Metropolitan Archdiocese A metropolis, metropolitanate or metropolitan diocese is an episcopal see whose bishop is the metropolitan bishop or archbishop of an ecclesiastical province. Metropolises, historically, have been important cities in their provinces. Eastern Ortho ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...

on June 15, 1891, with the suffragan sees of Niigata, Saitama,

Sapporo is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in Hokkaido, Japan. Located in the southwest of Hokkaido, it lies within the alluvial fan of the Toyohira River, a tributary of the Ishikari River. Sapporo is the capital ...

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,098,335 in 539,698 households, making it the List of cities in Japan, twelfth most populated city in Japan. ...

, and

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

. Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, S.V.D., previously serving as Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Niigata, was appointed Archbishop of the Tokyo Archdiocese on October 25, 2017.

History

The evangelization of Japan started in 1549 with the arrival of

Saint Francis Xavier Francis Xavier, SJ (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; ; ; ; ; ; 7 April 15063 December 1552), venerated as Saint Francis Xavier, was a Navarrese cleric and missionary. He co-founded the Society of Jesus and, as a representative o ...

and went on until 1587, when

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

issued an edict forbidding Christianity and ordering all missionaries to leave Japan. In the following years of persecution, also in

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

(now Tokyo), there were cases of martyrdom in 1612 and 1623. After the “seclusion period”, the first missionaries of the

Paris Foreign Missions Society The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (, , MEP) is a Catholic Missionary order, missionary organization. It is not a religious institute, but an organization of secular clergy, secular priests and Laity, lay persons dedicated to missionary wo ...

arrived in Japan in 1858, and were stationed in the three ports of

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

and

Hakodate is a Cities of Japan, city and seaports of Japan, port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture. As of January 31, 2024, the city had an estimated population of 239,813 with 138,807 househol ...

. On 1 May 1846, Vicariate Apostolic of Japan was erected. On 22 May 1876, the

vicariate apostolic An apostolic vicariate is a territorial jurisdiction of the Catholic Church under a titular bishop centered in missionary regions and countries where dioceses or parishes have not yet been established. The status of apostolic vicariate is often ...

was divided in two: the

Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Japan The Archdiocese of Nagasaki (, ) is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the city of Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Nagasaki in Japan. History The Apostolic Vicariate of Japan was headed by Bishop Bernard Petitjean, Paris Foreign Mi ...

, with its center in Nagasaki, and the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Japan, with its center in Tokyo. Pierre Marie Osouf was the first

Ordinary (Catholic Church) An ordinary (from Latin ''ordinarius'') is an officer of a church or civic authority who by reason of office has ordinary power to execute laws. Such officers are found in hierarchically organised churches of Western Christianity which have an ...

of the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Japan. On April 17, 1891, the Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Japan was divided into the Archdiocese of Tokyo and the Diocese of Hakodate. Pierre-Marie Osouf became the first Archbishop of Tokyo. On August 13, 1912, the Archdiocese of Tokyo ceded the prefectures of Toyama, Fukui and Ishikawa to the newly established Prefecture Apostolic of Niigata, and on February 18, 1922, the prefectures of Aichi and

Gifu is a Cities of Japan, city located in the south-central portion of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and serves as the prefectural capital. The city has played an important role in Japan's history because of its location in the middle of the country. Durin ...

were ceded to the newly established

Prefecture Apostolic of Nagoya The Diocese of Nagoya (, ) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church that is centered in the city of Nagoya and is part of the ecclesiastical province of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Osaka, Osaka in Japan. History On February 18, 1922, th ...

. In November 1937, Tokyo was entrusted to Japanese clergy, and confined to Tokyo-to and the

Chiba Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama ...

. The remaining territory was detached to form the Diocese of Yokohama. The first Archbishop selected from among the Japanese clergy was Archbishop Peter Tatsu Doi.

List of ordinaries

* Théodore-Augustin Forcade, MEP (1846 - 1852) * C. Collin (1852 - 1854; not possessed) * Bernard Petitjean, MEP (1866 - 1876) * Pierre-Marie Osouf, MEP (1876 - 1906) * Pierre-Xavier Mugabure, MEP (1906 - 1910) * François Bonne, MEP (1910 - 1912) * Jean-Pierre Rey, MEP (1912 - 1926) * Jean-Baptiste-Alexis Chambon, MEP (1927 - 1937) *(Cardinal) Peter Tatsuo Doi (1937 - 1970) *(Cardinal) Peter Seiichi Shirayanagi (1970 - 2000) * Peter Takeo Okada (2000 - 2017) *(Cardinal) Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi (2017–present)

References

External links

Official site
{{authority control Christianity in Tokyo

1846 establishments in Japan

History

List of ordinaries

See also

References

External links