IKITSUKI, Japan (AP) — On the rural islands of Nagasaki, a handful of believers practice a version of Christianity that has direct links to a time of samurai, shoguns, and martyred missionaries and believers.
On Ikitsuki and other remote sections of Nagasaki prefecture, Hidden Christians pray to what they call the Closet God — scroll paintings of Mary and Jesus disguised as a Buddhist Bodhisattva, hidden in special closets. They chant in a Latin that has not been widely used for centuries.
Now, though, the Hidden Christians are disappearing. Almost all are elderly, and as the young move away to cities or turn their backs on the faith, those remaining are desperate to preserve evidence of this unique offshoot of Christianity — and convey to the world what its loss will mean.
Masatsugu Tanimoto, left, and Yoshitaka Oishi perform Orasho, recitation of Latin chants, in the Ikitsuki Island Museum “Shima no Yakata” at Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
A scroll of the Virgin Mary and Jesus once secretly worshipped hangs at a home in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Masatsugu Tanimoto, a farmer and a community leader who is one of only hundreds of so-called “hidden” Christians on the island of Ikitsuki, shows a notebook of handwritten “orasho” prayers passed down orally for generations at his home in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Masatsugu Tanimoto, from left, Yoshitaka Oishi and Yoshinori Yamamoto chant Orasho, recitation of Latin chants, in the Ikitsuki Island Museum “Shima no Yakata” at Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
A fumie, or stepping image, used during Japan’s Edo period to identify hidden Christians is seen on display in the Ikitsuki Island Museum “Shima no Yakata” at Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Shigeo Nakazono, a folklore studies expert specializing in the hidden Christians and head of the Ikitsuki Island Museum “Shima no Yakata” explains an official edict board issued to ban Christianity during Japan’s Edo period displayed at the museum at Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A fisherman, left, walks on a seashore of Ikitsuki island in Hirado, southern Japan, Monday, April 28, 2025, as seen from a sacred site where it’s believed a grave was built after Catholic family members were martyred. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
Masatsugu Tanimoto, a farmer and one of the few remaining hidden Christians on Ikitsuki Island, prepares a scroll of the Virgin Mary and Jesus once secretly worshipped at his home in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Masatsugu Tanimoto, a farmer and a community leader who is one of only hundreds of so-called “hidden” Christians on the island of Ikitsuki, speaks at his home in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
The sun sets over water-filled, terraced rice field in Hirado, southern Japan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
St. Francis Xavier Memorial Church, back right, looks over Zuiunji, lower left, and Komyoji Buddhist temples, in front of the church, in Ikitsuki island in Hirado, southern Japan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
A woman walks past the Twenty-Six Martyrs Monument in Nagasaki, southern Japan, on Saturday, April 26, 2025, which commemorates 26 Christians executed in 1597. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A woman plants rice in a terrace rice field in Ikitsuki island in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
A scroll of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, once secretly worshipped, is seen at a home in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Visitors look at an exhibition at the Ikitsuki Island Museum “Shima no Yakata” in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A Shinto shrine stands on a hilltop which was previously a cemetery for Christians in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
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