Shimabara Rebellion

The Shimabara Rebellion (島原の乱, Shimabara no ran?) was an uprising in southwestern Japan in 1637–1638 during the Edo period. It largely involved peasants, most of them Catholic Christians.

It was one of only a handful of instances of serious unrest during the relatively peaceful period of the Tokugawa shogunate's rule. In the wake of the Matsukura clan's construction of a new castle at Shimabara, taxes were drastically raised, which provoked anger from local peasants and lordless samurai. Religious persecution against the local Christians exacerbated the discontent, which turned into open revolt in 1637. The Tokugawa Shogunate sent a force of over 125,000 troops to suppress the rebellion, and after a lengthy siege against the rebels at Hara Castle, defeated them.

In the wake of the rebellion, the rebel leader Amakusa Shiro was beheaded, and persecution of Christianity became strictly enforced. Japan's national seclusion policy was tightened, and formal persecution of Christianity continued until the 1850s.