The item is owned by a family that lives in the Sotome district, where Japanese Catholics were driven underground to avoid persecution during the Edo Period (1603-1867). Hidden Christians continued to practice their faith secretly at a high cost to themselves. The Nagasaki prefectural government speculated on 16 May the vase might have been used in a ceremony for Konishi Yukinaga, a Christian feudal lord in the 16th century. The prefectural government labelled the vase an important item, saying it offered an insight into how Christian churches in Japan operated, as few records from the period survive. The artefact is 25 centimetres tall and painted in three colours. It was made in China around 1600 and kept in a storage room. As a "treasured item," only the head of the household historically was allowed to view the vase, the owner said. The vase was dubbed "Yokahito-sama" and used as an object to venerate when saying prayers. Until now, the owner said it had not been known what the vase was for. While studying the vase, the prefectural government last year noticed that a foreign word, "Escencia," is written in ink on the base. The word means "fragrant oil."
The prefectural government concluded the artefact was used for holy. This suggests that the vase featured in ceremonies such as consecration or celebration at Mass that only bishops are allowed to perform, experts said. Luis de Cerqueira was the bishop of Japan back then. He is said to have conducted a "confirmation" ceremony in the Amakusa Islands in 1599 to affirm Yukinaga's religious faith. The bishop arrived in Nagasaki in 1598. The vase was likely secretly moved somewhere after the Edo Shogunate banned Christianity in 1614, resulting in the expulsion of missionaries from Japan and the destruction of churches, said Yohei Kawaguchi, an official with the arts and culture division at the prefectural government who is also an archaeologist.
jref.com
