Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code" and the film of the same name currently performing box office miracles around the world, center around the premise that the Holy Grail wasn't some sort of cup, but the direct blood descendant of Jesus Christ. But Japan has a Holy Grail connection of its own that it also wrapped in mystery. The military standard used by 17th century Japanese Christian Amagusa Shiro during a Christian rebellion against the Shogun is preserved in Kumamoto's Amagusa Kurisuchian Museum in Hondo, Kumamoto Prefecture."This standard is, along with the standard of the Western European crusaders and the flag of Joan of Arc, regarded as one of the three great flags of Christendom. The Holy Grail is in the center of the flag, while above it is bread to symbolize the body of Christ. Written on the flag is the Latin acronym INRI (Iesus Nazarenus Indaeorum -- Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews)," a Kumamoto historian tells Weekly Playboy, which says that Amagusa Shiro's decision to use the Holy Grail as his standard entitles him to claim to be the direct descendant of Christ."That's going a bit far," the historian says. "But the flag is said to have been made by Goemon Yamaguchi, the only survivor of the Shimabara Rebellion. Without him, nobody would ever have known about Amagusa Shiro."The Shimabara Rebellion occurred in 1637. Then 16-year-old Amagusa gathered 37,000 Christians who, in a last-ditch effort to save their religion, took on the 124,000-force mustered by the Shogunate, which was hell-bent on ridding Japan of Christianity. The Christians were, with the exception of Yamaguchi, brutally slaughtered.Weekly Playboy notes that early in the 17th century, a Portuguese priest called Marcos predicted that the Messiah would be born in Japan. Being in the right time and place, Amagusa, the son of a masterless samurai Christian, was suddenly deified."Christian samurai duped people into believing Shiro was the Second Coming. They told people he could walk on water from one island to another. They also said that all he needed to do was extend his arm and a dove would fly down and lay an egg in his palm. Breaking the egg open would reveal a Christian scripture. The Christian samurai who organized the Shimabara Rebellion used Shiro by claiming he was the Messiah and getting ordinary folk to join their fight," the historian says. Though Amagusa Shiro was also cut down in the rebellion, he left plenty of mystery in his wake.
View: Full Article | Source: Mainichi Daily News
