ABSTRACT
As I sit before my desk preparing to write about a category of overseas prostitutes known as karayuki-san, I find that one particular scene continues to surface in my memory. The setting is Tenshudo, Lord of Heaven Chapel, in the town of Sakitsu, at the southern end of Amakusa-Shimo Island. At the time, I was on my second trip in search of karayuki-san, and I had been brooding over the possibility that my efforts would be in vain. Perhaps it was a subconscious attempt to put my mind at ease, but as soon as I got off the bus, I headed for the Tenshudo’s dark gray steeple, rising conspicuously high over the flat roofs of the traditional houses around it.
