In this episode of Golden Bones, we travel to sixteenth-century Japan to tell the story of The House of Hashimoto; the Samurai father who led them, his beloved wife Tekla, and their children. Against the backdrop of the Sengoku wars, the rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the outlawing of Christianity, one family must choose between loyalty to the shogun or faith in Christ. Their journey culminates in one of the most moving martyrdoms in Japanese Christian history, reminding us that the Gospel has always been carried forward by those willing to count the cost.

Sources:

• Boxer, C. R. The Christian Century in Japan, 1549–1650. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951.

• Elisonas, Jurgis. "Christianity and the Daimyo." In The Cambridge History of Japan. Vol. 4, Early Modern Japan, edited by John ...