Luís Fróis

Luís Fróis (1532 – 8 July 1597) was a Portuguese missionary who worked in Asia during the second half of the 16th century.

Luís Fróis
Born1532 (1532)
Lisbon, Portugal
DiedJuly 8, 1597(1597-07-08) (aged 64–65)
Nagasaki, Japan
NationalityPortuguese
Occupation(s)Portuguese Missionary, writer
Signature

Biography

Fróis was born in Lisbon in 1532. He was educated at the court of King João III of Portugal, where a close relative served as a scribe.[1] At an early age, he started working for the Royal Secretary's office.[2] In 1548, he joined the Jesuits traveling to Portuguese India to study at Saint Paul's College, Goa. He arrived in Goa on September 4, 1548.[1] One of his teachers described Fróis' character as tough and good natured but not religious.[1]

During his stay in Goa, Fróis reported on the mass conversion of over 200 Kshatriyas to Christianity that had taken place on 25 August 1560 in the village of Batim, in a letter dated 13 November 1560:[3]

"Mass baptisms in this village took place on 25 August 1560. The priests who had been sent to make preparations for the christening were asleep when at midnight of the 24th, more than 200 persons (men, women and children) knocked at their door and declared that they wished to become Christians. The women were very well dressed and wore plenty of gold. The men were also well dressed with feathers in their caps and guns on their shoulders. This group was led by one man named Camotim. He wore scarlet satin pants, had a silver sword at his waist and a gun on his shoulder. All of them were baptised on the above-mentioned day. These people belonged to the Chardo class, consisting of warriors, men of a much better personality than the Bamonns."

Fróis became a priest and confessor in 1561 after completing his theological studies in Goa.[2] A year later, he was sent to Japan along with Giovanni Battista de Monte to engage in missionary work.[4] On June 6, 1563 - after spending several months in Macau - he arrived in Yokoseura, Japan.[2] The following year, he travelled to Kyoto, where he met Ashikaga Yoshiteru who was then shōgun. In 1569, he befriended Oda Nobunaga and stayed in his personal residence in Gifu while writing books for a short while. His works on history were somewhat expanded by Joāo Rodrigues. Among his works was the Treatise (1585) in which is contained some brief comparisons of the behaviors between the peoples of Europe and that province of Japan (Tratado em que se contêm muito sucinta e abreviadamente algumas contradições e diferenças de costumes entre a gente de Europa e esta província de Japão).[5]

Fróis wrote a book about the history and custom of Japan, titled Historia de Iapam. In it he gave details about the Jesuit mission in Japan and its most important figures. He described the destruction of Buddhist and Shinto temples as victories over the devil and that Jesuits like Gaspar Coelho encouraged the destruction despite resistance from Japanese Christian nobles.[6]

Cultural references

He was portrayed by Terry O'Brien in the Japanese TV series Hideyoshi. A fictionalized version of Luis Frois appears in the Capcom game Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams.[7]

Historia de Iapam, manuscript page.

See also

References
  1. Castel-Branco, Cristina; Carvalho, Guida (2019). Luis Frois: First Western Accounts of Japan's Gardens, Cities and Landscapes. Singapore: Springer Nature. pp. 4, 223. ISBN 978-981-15-0017-6.
  2. Ward, Haruko Nawata (2016-12-05). Women Religious Leaders in Japan's Christian Century, 1549-1650. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-87181-5.
  3. Pinto, Pius Fidelis (1999). History of Christians in coastal Karnataka, 1500–1763 A.D. Mangalore: Samanvaya Prakashan. p. 166.
  4. Thomas, David; Chesworth, John A. (2015). Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History. Volume 7 Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and South America (1500-1600): Volume 7. Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and South America (1500-1600). Leiden: BRILL. p. 858. ISBN 978-90-04-29720-3.
  5. O'Leary, Jessica (2023). "Luís Fróis, Gendered Knowledge, and the Jesuit Encounter with Sixteenth-Century Japan". The Historical Journal. 66 (3): 497–515. doi:10.1017/S0018246X23000109. ISSN 0018-246X.
  6. Alfieri, Fernanda; Jinno, Takashi (2021). Christianity and Violence in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period: Perspectives from Europe and Japan. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-064018-2.
  7. "Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (Video Game)". TV Tropes. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
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