, also known simply as , was a Japanese

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

technique used in the 17th century to coerce Christians ("

Kirishitan The Japanese term , from Portuguese ''cristão'' (cf. Kristang), meaning "Christian", referred to Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used in Japanese texts as a historiographic term for Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

") to

recant Recantation is a public denial of a previously publishing, published opinion or belief. The word is derived from the Latin ''re cantare'' ("sing again"). It is related to repentance and revocation. Philosophy In philosophy, recantation is link ...

their faith. The victim was hung head-down by the feet. Both Japanese and Western Christians are known to have been subjected to the torture. One of the victim's hands would be held tight with a rope, but the other would be left free so that he could signal his willingness to recant. The technique was said to be unbearable for those submitted to it, though some particularly resilient martyrs like

Lorenzo Ruiz Lorenzo Ruiz (; zh, link=no, 李樂倫; ; November 28, 1594 – September 29, 1637), also called Saint Lorenzo of Manila, was a Filipino Catholic layman and a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. A Chinese Filipino, he became his cou ...

never broke under torture. The body was often lowered into a hole, itself often filled with excrement at the bottom. Typically, a cut would be made in the forehead around their temples in order to let blood pressure decrease in the area around the head. The aim was to "break their resolve" to renounce their faith or they would eventually die. Sometimes there was a doctor to resuscitate them only to be tortured again. An estimated 2,000 Christians died as martyrs. Christians were let go after apostatizing, and in this way the Shogunate practically purged Christianity from Japan. A notable victim of this method of torture was

Saint Lorenzo Ruiz Lorenzo Ruiz (; zh, link=no, 李樂倫; ; November 28, 1594 – September 29, 1637), also called Saint Lorenzo of Manila, was a Filipino Catholic layman and a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. A Chinese Filipino, he became his cou ...

, the first Filipino martyr to be

canonized Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of sa ...

by the Roman Catholic Church. ''Ana-tsurushi'' was made famous in the novel ''

Silence Silence is the absence of ambient hearing, audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low sound intensity, intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be exten ...

'' by Shusaku Endo, where it is referred to as "anazuri".

References

*Boxer, C.R. ''The Christian Century in Japan, 1549–1650''. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1951. {{ISBN, 1-85754-035-2 (1993 reprint edition). Asian instruments of torture History of Christianity in Japan 17th century in Japan