Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum and Monument

On 5 February 1597, 26 Christians were crucified on Nishizaka hill, a few minutes' walk from where Nagasaki Station stands today. Six were foreign Franciscan missionaries and 20 were Japanese; the youngest, Ludovico Ibaraki, was 12. They had been arrested in Kyoto and Osaka under Toyotomi Hideyoshi's ban and made to walk for about a month to Nagasaki. The Ibaraki City Museum of Christian Relics, north of Osaka, covers the Kansai side of this early Christian history. The execution ground is now Nishizaka Park, a prefectural historic site. Sculptor Funakoshi Yasutake's bronze relief of the 26 went up in 1962, the centenary of their canonization, together with the museum behind it and St. Philip's Church next door. Architect Imai Kenji, who introduced Gaudí to Japan, covered the church's twin towers in broken-ceramic mosaic. The museum is small but holds a letter handwritten by Francis Xavier and objects kept by hidden Christians. Allow about an hour; the last stretch up from the station is steep.