ABSTRACT
Jezebel “knows full well that [she and her brother] are good collaborators of the devil,” exclaimed Francisco Carrión, who was facing the fierce attacks from the former wife of the Kirishitan Daimyō Ōtomo Yoshishige Sōrin Francisco.1 To the Jesuits, Jezebel became a symbol of idolatrous religions, magic, sorcery, and the spirit of Japan itself. Feeling her powerful threats, the Jesuits mentioned her name without fail when they described the slow growth of the mission in Sōrin’s kingdom of Bungo between 1575 and 1589. In fact Jezebel was the principal leader of the anti-Christian force in Bungo during the rule of Ōtomo Sōrin.
