Introduction of Christianity, i6y 
profession of Christianity. Upon the reaction of the nation 
against Roman Catholic Christianity, and the expulsion of its 
missionaries, various tests had been applied to discover those 
who really leant towards Christianity. One of the tests was 
that of requiring a suspected person to trample on a crucifix, 
or a portrait of Christ. The whole crew of any junk in 
which a missionary reached Japan, were to be drowned, and 
the junk sent to the bottom, as a punishment. In the year 
1614, most terrible modes of torture and death were resorted 
to. A special department called " The Christian Inquiry " 
was formed, for the purpose of inquiring into, and punishing 
this thing. Such punishments as crucifixion, drowning, and 
hanging, were adopted, along with many terrible forms of 
torture. Some Christians were cut into numerous pieces ; 
others were hurled from the tops of precipices ; others were 
buried alive, or torn asunder by oxen ; other were tied up in 
rice-bags, and then a large heap was formed of these bags, 
with their human contents, and set on fire. Others were 
starved to death in iron cages, while yet others had sharp 
spikes driven into the quick of their nails. With recollec- 
tions like tbese, it cannot be very much a matter for wonder, 
that the Japanese themselves looked with suspicion and 
fear upon the prospect of admitting missionaries into their 
country. 
In 1869, the English Church Missionary Society sent the 
Rev. Bishop Russell, of China, to Japan, to inspect and 
report as to the desirability and possibility of planting 
missionaries in the midst of the people. This gentleman 
stated in his report, that, " while against Christianity in a 
Roman Catholic garb, from what took place in the past, 
there no doubt existed bitter feehngs, no hostility was 
manifested against Protestantism, which the Japanese were 
already beginning to discern was a very different thing." 
