The Samurai of God
Excerpts of the post "O Samurai de Deus" of the blog "O Apologeta Mariano" Known as the “samurai of Christ”, Justo Ukon Takayama was a brave warrior, a great evangelist and an honest politician. He was a feudal lord who preferred to abandon his country than to abandon his Lord Jesus Christ. Infancy Takayama was born in 1552, three years after the introduction of the Christianity in Japan by the Jesuit missionary Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552). Takayama was 12 years old when a Catholic priest was brought to Sawa Castle, at the request of his father, Mr. Tomoteru, a man with religious concerns, who wanted to discuss the virtues of Buddhism with a Christian scholar. It was 1564, and 15 years had passed since a Portuguese ship first docked in Japan. Tomoteru analyzed the Christian proposal in depth and with determination and he liked it, and so he and his house were baptized. His son Takayama (whose real name was Hikogoro Shigetomo) was baptized with the name ...