Fushimi Church and its Connection with Takayama Ukon

Fushimi, which stands at the southern edge of the Kyoto basin, started being used by court nobles for their second homes in the Heian period, thanks to its scenic landscapes overlooking Ogura Pond. Fushimi Castle dates back to 1592, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi built his castle on top of Shigetsu Hill (currently Taichoro, Momoyama-cho, Fushimi-ku, Kyoto City). In two major expansions, in 1594 and 1597, a castle town stretched 4 km east-west and 6 km north-south was created. With the development of the castle town, the population is believed to have swelled to tens of thousands, turning Fushimi into the largest city outside Edo, Osaka, and Sakai. During the Tokugawa period, the first three Tokugawa shoguns (Ieyasu, his son Hidetada and grandson Iemitsu) were formally appointed to the post of Sei-I Tai-Shogun at Fushimi Castle, underscoring its importance as a political center.

Within Fushimi Castle were residential mansions for the top five magistrates of the shogunate, and around it were the residential mansions for the inner circle lords, and finally the outer mansions (part-time residences) for other daimyo, all encircling the castle and creating planned and elegant streetscapes. As a lord, Takayama Ukon also had a mansion in the castle town of Fushimi, as can be seen from period maps.

The road plans and canals of the castle's outer moats remain today much the same as they were during the castle's heyday. It is easy to where places were from the names of roads in ancient historical documents, and we can stand there today and think back to those far-off events.

In the Hoko Fushimijo-no-Zu map of the castle town of Fushimi, which shows how daimyo mansions and merchants' townhouses were spread out during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's rule of Japan, there are two listings as daimyo mansions belonging to Takayama Ukon: one as “Takayama Ukon” and the other as “Takayama Ukon Nagafusa.” The mansion listed as "Takayama Ukon” was located in what is now Tango-cho, Fushimi-ku, Kyoto City and covered a large area over what is now Kyoto Municipal Fushimi Minamihama Elementary School, and Kyoto Municipal Fushimi Minamihama Kindergarten, which lie to the east of the Gekkeikan Uchigura Brewery and the Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum, as well as the western part of Fushimi Shorin-in Mausoleum (managed by the Imperial Household Agency), which in turn are south of the Gekkeikan head office. Looking at the castle town map shows that the mansion was surrounded by merchants' townhouses, with an access road from the west side (now the side of the Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum).

The site at Tango-cho, Fushimi-ku, Kyoto City, which is shown as “Takayama Ukon” on the Fushimi castle town map, has been hypothesized as the site of the Fushimi Jesuit Church in a book by Professor Emeritus Mitsumata Shunji of Kyoto Seibo College. The church was built in 1604 in the name of Marco Magobei, a cousin of Takayama Ukon, and lasted until it was burned down and demolished as part of the 1614 prohibition on Christianity. The Society of Jesus annual report for 1614 states that the head priest was Father Angelis, and it was in a discrete location surrounded by merchants' townhouses. It appears to have been a rather unusual section, camouflaged so that it was not immediately obvious as a church in order that its religious activities could go unnoticed, as the shogun had not given permission.

During the decade the church existed (1604-1614), Takayama Ukon found refuge as a “guest general” under the protection of Lord Maeda of Kaga Domain, but was able to move about freely, and there are records of him visiting the Fushimi Magistrate as well as letters that he exchanged with Marco Magobei, the title holder of Fushimi Church. He was involved in founding churches in a number of places, and was a frequent visitor to Fushimi Church as well, which, Professor Mitsumata suggests, may have been the reason the surveyor making the castle town map showed the site as the mansion of “Takayama Ukon.”