THE LOST TOMB

Chapter 2

Three days later, the group of five of us took the flight to Tokyo and then resumed our domestic flight to the Amakusa Islands. is an archipelago belonging to Japan's sovereignty, located in the western part of Kyushu Island, the southernmost island among Japan's 4 largest islands, separated from Kumamoto by the Yatsushiro Sea. The largest island of this archipelago is Shimoshima.

This time Uncle Ben brought a total of three people, including two people I had met before. They were open-minded, liberal, and the third person was the swordsman behind me who met under Uncle Ben's house, not knowing what relationship he had with him, too. The thing is that this guy is extremely obnoxious, the figure looks like a stepchild, the whole journey doesn't talk to anyone, just looks up at the staring sky, as if it were about to collapse! At first I tried to talk to him for a few sentences, then also lazy to pay attention to him, eventually even the name did not know.

Previously, when Christianity was introduced to Japan, the Amakusa was one of the centers of Christian prosperity. There are still some Catholic churches located on islands such as Oe church and Sakitsu church. In 1637, Amakusa, along with Shimabara Peninsula, became the place of the rebellion of Christian followers against the bakufu government in the 17th century. The rebellion was brutally suppressed and the people followed. Christianity is forced to operate in secret in response to the bakery's aggressive attitude. Currently, no more than 1% of the population is Christian.

Amakusa has some good quality coal and kaolin mines. These minerals were previously used in pottery making in Hirado and Satsuma provinces. Ancient pottery kilns still exist on the island, and ceramics are still an export. Hidenoshin Koyama, who built the house of Thomas Blake Glover at Glover Garden, came from this archipelago.

Currently, the Amakusa Islands are organized into Amakusa districts, Amakusa city and Kami-Amakusa city, all of Kumamoto province.

Talk a bit about the Fujiwara family. The family was opened when the founder, Nakatomi no Kamatari, was rewarded by Emperor Tenji for the honorary name "Fujiwara", developed as a surname of Kamatari and his descendants. Over time, Fujiwara is known as a family name.

The Fujiwara clan dominated Japanese politics during the Heian period through the monopoly of regent, sesshō and kampaku positions. The family's main strategy to influence the center was through the marriage of the Fujiwara family's daughters to the Emperor. Through this, the Fujiwara family will have influence over the next Emperor, the family tradition of that time will be brought up in the maternal family and be loyal to his grandfather. When the emperors were abdicated to regain control of power by executing insei at the end of the 11th century, then the rise of the warrior class, the Fujiwara family gradually lost political control.

In addition to the 12th century, they continued to monopolize the sesshō and kampaku titles for many times, until the system was abolished during the Meiji period. Although their influence was reduced, the family was still an advisor to the next emperors.

The clan is divided into four branches:

The tribe of Hokke (genus North) founded by Fujiwara no Fusasaki

The Kyōke clan formed by Fujiwara no Maro

The Nanke tribe (Southern tribe) was founded by Fujiwara no Muchimaro

Shikike tribe founded by Fujiwara no Umakai

Among them, the tribe Hokke was considered the leader of the entire family. The original place of the family was in Yamato, but the true origin began in the Amakusa, because of that, every member was buried in the Amakusa.

The people here mostly followed Christianity in contact with Western culture quite early, so speaking English was quite good so we could let go of the language barrier and talk to them.