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Saikai NPKujukushima, Nagasaki
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In 1867, 6 Christians from Nozaki Island went to Nagasaki’s Oura Church for baptism. Authorities then seized about 50 island believers and took them to Hirado for torture.
Hidden Christians settled on Nozaki Island, home to Okinokamijima Shrine, by appearing outwardly as its Shinto parishioners. That careful coexistence helped them sustain their faith within the island’s existing society.
For the 1908 brick church, local Christians cut back their meals to save the 3,000-yen building cost and carried construction materials themselves. The little congregation helped build its own place of worship.
Inside the Gothic-inspired church, look for stained glass with five-petal flowers—a distinctly Japanese floral touch. The design brings local ornament into a church shaped by medieval European forms.
The 1908 church is actually Nokubi’s third: its side altar came from the second church, built in 1890. That surviving altar quietly links the brick landmark to an earlier chapel.
This was master carpenter Yosuke Tetsukawa’s first brick church. Its construction also marks a turning point in the Goto region, where church buildings were shifting from timber to brick.
On the brick facade, side buttresses carry carved ornaments modeled on late French Gothic lilies—a small European flourish on a church designed and built by a Japanese master carpenter.
Nokubi Church closed in 1971, when its last 6 Catholic households left the island. The Nagasaki Archdiocese later donated it to Ojika Town, and it became a prefectural tangible cultural property in 1989.
The church sits within the UNESCO-listed “Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island,” inscribed in 2018. The protected story is a whole settlement shaped by Hidden Christians’ survival, not just one beautiful building.
