Luís Fróis
Luís Fróis | |
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| Born | 1532 |
| Died | July 8, 1597 (aged 64–65) |
| Nationality | Portuguese |
| Occupation | Portuguese Missionary, writer |
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Luís Fróis (1532 – 8 July 1597) was a Portuguese missionary who worked in Asia during the second half of the 16th century.
He was born in Lisbon and in 1548 joined the Jesuits, traveling to Portuguese India in the same year to study at Saint Paul's College, Goa. During his stay in Goa, he reported on the mass conversion of over 200 Kshatriyas to Christianity that had taken place on 25 August 1560 in the village of Batim, in a letter dated 13 November 1560:[1]
"Mass baptisms in this village took place on 25 August 1560. The priests who had been sent to make preparations for the christening were asleep when at midnight of the 24th, more than 200 persons (men, women and children) knocked at their door and declared that they wished to become Christians. The women were very well dressed and wore plenty of gold. The men were also well dressed with feathers in their caps and guns on their shoulders. This group was led by one man named Camotim. He wore scarlet satin pants, had a silver sword at his waist and a gun on his shoulder. All of them were baptised on the above-mentioned day. These people belonged to the Chardo class, consisting of warriors, men of a much better personality than the Bamonns."
In 1563, he arrived in Japan to engage in missionary work, and in the following year arrived in Kyoto, meeting Ashikaga Yoshiteru who was then shōgun. In 1569, he befriended Oda Nobunaga and stayed in his personal residence in Gifu while writing books for a short while. His works on history were somewhat expanded by Joāo Rodrigues. Among his works was the Treatise (1585) in which is contained some of the contradictions and differences in behaviors between the peoples of Europe and this province of Japan very briefly and succinctly (Tratado em que se contêm muito sucinta e abreviadamente algumas contradições e diferenças de costumes entre a gente de Europa e esta província de Japão).
Frois witnessed the end of Nobunaga, from his church across the street from Honno-ji, writing an account afterward.[2]
A fictionalized version of Luis Frois appears in the Capcom game Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams.
See also[]
- Francis Xavier
- Gaspar Vilela
- Francisco Cabral
- Alessandro Valignano
- List of Westerners who visited Japan before 1868
References[]
- ^ Pinto, Pius Fidelis (1999). History of Christians in coastal Karnataka, 1500–1763 A.D. Mangalore: Samanvaya Prakashan. p. 166.
- ^ Sato, Hiroaki (1995). Legends of the Samurai. New York: Overlook Duckworth. pp. 243–245. ISBN 9781590207307.
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- 1532 births
- 1597 deaths
- People from Lisbon
- Portuguese Jesuits
- Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries
- Roman Catholic missionaries in Japan
- Jesuit missionaries in Japan
- Portuguese male writers
- Japanologists
- 16th-century Portuguese writers
- Portuguese Renaissance writers
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- Portuguese expatriates in Japan
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