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In What Storms of Blood from Christ's Flock Is Japan Swimming?

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In What Storms of Blood from Christ's Flock Is Japan Swimming? Chapter 4 “In what storms of blood from Christ’s flock is Japan swimming?”: Gratia Hosokawa and the Performative Representation of Japanese Martyrdom in Mulier fortis (1698) Makoto Harris Takao On September 15, 1627, Pope Urban viii (r.1623–44) recognized the religious constancy of three Japanese Jesuits—Paul Miki (c.1564–97), John de Gotō (1578–97), and James Kisai (1533–97)—who were crucified together with twen- ty-three other Christians on February 5, 1597 in the city of Nagasaki.1 The be- atification of these converts provided creative inspiration for the playwrights of the Society of Jesus, who, from the seventeenth century, wrote Japanese characters onto the stages of Europe before the monarchs, nobility, and towns- people who populated their theaters. Within the emerging dramaturgical genre of what can be called “Japanese plays,” theatrical works that glorified the martyrs of Japan’s Christian Century (1549–1639) drew upon prominent historical figures who dominated Jesuit literature such as Dom Justo Takayama (1522–1615), Ōtomo Sōrin (1530–87), and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–98).2 Muli- er fortis (Strong woman [1698]), a ludus caesareus or “imperial play” written by Johann Baptist Adolph (1657–1708) with music composed by Johann Bernhard Staudt (1654–1712) of the Jesuit College in Vienna, represents the life and death of a Japanese noblewoman, Hosokawa Tama (baptized as Gratia [1563–1600]), glorifying her alleged Christian martyrdom (see fig. 4.1).3 Modeled as a virtuous 1 See Luís Fróis, De rebus Iaponicis historica relatio, eaque triplex (Mainz: Johannes Albini, 1599), 1–81. 2 As per convention, surnames of Japanese historical figures are presented first (e.g., Hoso- kawa Tama), except in the instance of baptismal names (e.g., Gratia Tama Hosokawa). On the conceptualization of the “Christian Century,” see Charles R. Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan, 1549–1650 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951). However, some historians, such as Ikuo Higashibaba, have defined this period as ending with the expulsion of the Portu- guese in 1639. See Ikuo Higashibaba, Christianity in Early Modern Japan: Kirishitan Belief and Practice (Leiden: Brill, 2001). 3 Since the completion of this chapter, a full English translation of Mulier fortis has been ren- dered by Ann Louise Cole. For translation and a comparative literary analysis of the text, © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���9 | doi:�0.��63/9789004385�9�_006 <UN> 88 Takao Figure 4.1 Title page of Mulier fortis (1698). Reproduced with permission from Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 9812, fol. 270 Christian who observed the principles of imitatio Christi, Gratia’s character dies at the hands of her tyrannous husband, Jacundonus (Hosokawa Tadaoki [1563–1646]), who demands that she apostatize. This three-act drama valorizes her religious constancy through allegorical commentaries in the musical pro- logue and epilogue, as well as in the divisional choruses4 and interludes com- prised of intermezzi, dance, recitative, ariosos, and arias. As will be discussed in this chapter, Staudt’s music also served as a medium of rhetorical affect (affectus musicus). In addition to emblematic art, dance, stage design, and dec- lamation, music contributed to a multi-sensorial representation of Gratia’s life with the aim of inspiring religious constancy in the performance’s audience.5 see Ann Louise Cole, “Becoming All Things to All Men: The Role of Jesuit Missions in Early Modern Globalization” (PhD diss., University of Arkansas, 2015), 221–49. 4 The term “chorus” (as it relates to chorus primus and chorus secundus) in the Mulier fortis manuscript is only indicative of its dramatic function (in the classical Greek tradition) and not its musical structure. Both choruses in the melodrama do not feature any choral singing, but rather recitative, ariosos, and arias. Polyphonic singing is only found in the “chorus” of townspeople in act 1, scene 3 (see appendix), and toward the end of the epilogue. 5 For the sake of consistency, the baptismal name of “Gratia” is used throughout most of this chapter in place of “Hosokawa Tama,” apart from contexts in which her pre-Christian life requires emphasis. <UN>.
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