Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University Museum
This museum was established by Professor Kataoka Yakichi (1908–1980) of Junshin Women’s Junior College (now Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University), who specialized in the Christian history of Nagasaki. It is now managed by his two daughters. The museum has a good collection of Christian artifacts, including a Jesuit “annual report” on the state of proselytization in Japan in the year 1614, Japanese signboards prohibiting Christianity, and fumi-e tablets which people had to trample on to prove that they were not Christians, as well as documents relating to the reemergence of Christianity in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
Professor Yakichi was himself a native of Urakami, and many documents in the collection relate to the Fourth Urakami Crackdown (1867–1873), the last great persecution of Japan’s Hidden Christians. The museum also includes the collection of Professor Ecchu Tetsuya, a well-known local historian. The primary function of the museum is to serve as a reference library for scholars.