A Letter to the Cook: Norms and Conversions in Early Modern Japan

Damião of Akitsuki, a Japanese brother of the Jesuit mission to Japan, was able to persuade merchants, warriors, and local lords to embrace Christianity, a faith brought from halfway across the globe. At a time when European missionaries could speak no more than a few phrases of Japanese, Damião allegedly would engage in complex debates with Buddhist monks and attest to the conversion of large groups of people.