Amakusa Christian Museum

photo by Ippukucho · CC BY 3.0

The original of Amakusa Shirō's banner is on display for only 4 weeks a year.

On the second floor four rooms follow the Christians of Amakusa, from the arrival of the faith to the rebellion of 1637–38 and the hidden believers: about 160 items, including a Maria Kannon (the Madonna depicted as the Buddhist goddess Kannon) and a fumi-e, the sacred image to be trampled on. The centrepiece is the banner of Amakusa Shirō, leader of the rebels; outside the four weeks of display there is a replica.

The museum opened on 1 August 1966 as the Hondo city museum, to collect and show the relics of the Amakusa Christians while the bridge to the mainland (today the Five Bridges, opened in 1966) led people to expect tourists to arrive. It passed to the municipality of Amakusa with the merger of 2006 and, because the building was being rebuilt, from December of that year it was housed on the first floor of the Hondo historical and folklore museum; it reopened in the original building on 1 July 2010 under its present name. It stands on the site of the old Hondo Castle (本渡城), now Shiroyama Park. Amakusa Shirō's banner, official name 綸子地著色聖体秘蹟図指物, is an Important Cultural Property (重要文化財), designated in 1964 together with two documents and a plan of the siege of Hara whose whereabouts are now unknown; a private individual donated it to Hondo in 1995. Under the rules of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, which limit display to 30 days a year and one week at a time, the original can be seen only four times a year.

ℹ️ Open 9:00–17:00, last entry 16:30; closed on Tuesdays (if a public holiday, the first working day after) and from 30 December to 1 January, but open on the days when the original banner is displayed. The original is displayed 1–7 March, 1–7 May, 1–7 August and 1–7 November (the museum may move the dates and says so on its website); the next display is 1–7 November 2026, with the museum also open on Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4. The ticket is needed only for the second-floor room: adults 300 yen, high school 200, elementary and junior high 150; the entrance and the rest of the building are free, and it is also free for those attending a school in the municipality of Amakusa and for those with a disability booklet, together with one companion. From the municipality page of 04/08/2026: exhibition ‘絵図で読み解く島原・天草一揆’ (the maps of the rebellion) until 9 November, for the museum's 60th anniversary. On the roof there is a viewpoint over the city, reachable from outside. The combined ticket for the four Christian museums of the municipality cost 600 yen and was valid for 7 days (notice of 11/04/2023, to be rechecked). From Kumamoto take the Sankō bus ‘Amakusa-go’ to 本渡バスセンター, then a city bus to ‘船の尾’ and 9 minutes on foot (760 m, according to Wikipedia; timetables not read). By car the car park has about 10 spaces (museum.or.jp) and the roads in the park are one-way. None of the pages read asks for booking.

🚉 九州産交 本渡バスセンター · 21 min walk

Sources: hp.amakusa-web.jp · hp.amakusa-web.jp · hp.amakusa-web.jp · hp.amakusa-web.jp · hp.amakusa-web.jp · city.amakusa.kumamoto.jp · hp.amakusa-web.jp · museum.or.jp · ja.wikipedia.org

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