>>17845244
This is a time dependent statement.
When the Portuguese missionaries first arrived in Japan in 1549 there were no overall rules, laws or guidelines on religious conversion because the country was not yet unified. Most of Christian Europe, including Portugal, operated under the concept of Cuius regio, eius religio, Whose realm, his religion. So when Ōmura Sumitada, Ōtomo Sōrin, and Arima Yoshisada each converted to Christianity they also sought to convert the people of their domain as well.
It was only in 1587 that Hideyoshi completed the unification of Japan. He waited until just after the deaths of Ōmura Sumitada and Ōtomo Sōrin to issue his Bateren Edict on July 24, 1587. He decided that any commoner could become Christian, but the feudal lords needed his permission first.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bateren_Edict#Translation
>1. Being a Christian should be at the discretion of the person.
>4. A daimyo with more than 3,000 Kan and 200 towns can become a Christian with the permission of Hideyoshi.
>9. It does not matter that a person with a lower status (rather than a daimyo, etc.) becomes a Christian at will, as in the case of the eight sects and nine sects.
Hideyoshi then issued a second anti-Christian edict the next day banning the Christian missionaries. The Jesuit missionaries were wise and so hid and kept a low profile until Hideyoshi changed his mind and allowed Christian missionaries to operate unofficially in his shadow.
This worked until October 19, 1596 when the Spanish ship San Felipe avoided Nagasaki and was beached at Urado. Chōsokabe Motochika confiscated all their trade goods. When they went to Kyoto to sue, they avoided the Portuguese Jesuits and instead relied on the Spanish Franciscans who were newcomers to Japan. The Spanish crew then made comments that revealed that Portugal had been ruled by Spain since 1580, something which the Portuguese Jesuits had never disclosed. Hideyoshi flew into a rage.
