Women Religious Leaders in Japan's Christian Century, 1549-1650

Meticulously researched and drawing on original source materials written in eight different languages, this study fills a lacuna in the historiography of Christianity in Japan. Ward analyzes the experience of nuns, witches, catechists and sisters in sixteenth-century Japan, bringing to light how these women utilized resources from their traditional religions to new Christian adaptations and specific religio-social issues, creating unique hybrids of Catholicism and Buddhism, or rejecting the new religion.