Pilgrimage Report: Seeking Samurai 2019

Back in 2017, I did a six-month work assignment in Japan. During the summer, one of my friends from my parish back home in Texas visited Japan in order to teach art at a local university near Osaka. Since my work location wasn’t that far from Osaka, we decided to meet up one weekend to talk about seeking a samurai.

We talked about how he learned about Ukon Takayama, a Catholic samurai who is up for canonization. During his time teaching art the university, my friend strove to dive deep into learning more about Takayama by visiting the places around Osaka associated with him since Takayama is from the Osaka area.

Later that year, he painted a large painting depicting Takayama. Long story short, later that year he submitted it to the Vatican, and the Vatican Museum is currently hanging onto it! My friend made smaller copies of this large painting to give to various locations around Osaka, to which he’d be returning in another trip to Japan.

I helped my friend by paying for his material costs for four copies of the painting. He eventually delivered these copies on his next trip to Japan in early 2018. I got to see these paintings in Texas before he brought them over to Japan! Before his trip, I signed the back of them all, and also submitted prayer intentions given to me by others in my parish young adult group.

Unfortunately, my business trips to Japan ceased in 2017, and I haven’t been able to visit Osaka. However, recently (July-August 2019), I was able to tag along for a business trip, and I decided to go seek out these paintings during my one free weekend.

I figured that a day trip pilgrimage would be appropriate to find these paintings.

Planning

Before leaving for my business trip, I asked my friend to recall where the copies of the painting were. One is in Osaka’s cathedral, another one in a parish church outside of Osaka, and two are at a distillery in Kyoto.

Fortunately, since I was on a business trip, my company paid for me getting to/from Japan from Texas. And my work location is in central Japan so getting over to Osaka and Kyoto for a day trip was pretty easy.

The only planning I needed to do was timing of visiting the places given that it may be a struggle finding the paintings once at a location. For costs, I only anticipated transportation costs using the bullet train and local trains to get around. Food-wise, perhaps just lunch and convenient stores for drinks. 

So on Saturday morning, I escorted some of my first-time-to-Japan coworkers to Kyoto, and continued my way on to Osaka.

Pilgrimage Details:

Location: Osaka, Japan and surrounding area

Time Required: 1 Day

Cost: $$

Transportation: Bullet train, local train/subway, walking

Accommodation: None

Essentials: Water, prayer intentions, camera on smartphone

This pilgrimage was completed on August 3, 2019.

Itinerary:

• 0700 Big breakfast at hotel (free due to hotel loyalty status)
• 0832 Depart to Osaka on bullet train/shinkansen
• 0920 Arrive Shin-Osaka Station
• 0945-1130 Visit the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception for Takayama painting
• 1230-1630 Lunch/shelter from heat
• 1700-1745 Visit Our Lady of Guadalupe, Hirakata
• 1930 Depart Osaka on bullet train/shinkansen
• 2015 Return to Nagoya

*Sorry for the military time, just subtract 12 if time is greater than noon

Map

Points of Interest

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception – Osaka, Japan

This cathedral is located just south of Osaka Castle. It was previously named after St. Agnes, but it got destroyed in an earthquake decades ago. The church was renamed to honor the Virgin Mary after being rebuilt.

It has a small chapel to the left side of the church dedicated to St. Francis Xavier, the first missionary to Japan, and to St. Agnes, the original namesake of the church. 

The church also has a relic of Ukon Takayama, and due to renovations in the main part of the church, it is currently kept at the side chapel. The relic is a piece of cloth from Takayama’s tunic.

Most striking feature of the cathedral is the giant mural of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the back wall depicting her holding the child Jesus, both dressed in Japanese traditional wear.  I would show a picture, but taking pictures inside is prohibited. :-/

The painting I was looking for is located in a side room off of the narthex of the cathedral. The room remains locked when not in use.

Our Lady of Guadalupe – Hirakata, Japan

Our Lady of Guadalupe is a neat little church located on a hill in Hirakata. You can easily see it from the nearby train station. 

It is small inside, but it has a large painting/poster of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the right, front side of the church. That’s pretty wild because Our Lady of Guadalupe is a Mexican icon. But this is in the middle of Japan in the suburbs. Crazy!

The painting is located in the main hallway of the adjacent parish hall.

Stats and Achievements

• Pokemon Go players encountered: 20+
• Steps walked: 16,400+
• Miles walked: 6+ miles
• Total Cost = ~$135 USD
  • Transportation = $118 USD
  • Lodging = $0 USD
  • Food = $10 USD
  • Other = $7 USD

Response

Honestly, my only goal for this pilgrimage was to see these paintings where they’re currently hanging. I haven’t seen these paintings since my friend completed them 2 years ago back home in Texas. It was really cool to see them at both the cathedral and the other church. Unfortunately, I ran out of time and energy to be able to go seek it out the paintings located at the distillery in Kyoto.

Central Japan gets very hot and humid in July and August, and it was pretty miserable being out and about walking around. With a pilgrim’s attitude, I know that such weather conditions brings about suffering and discomfort, and that is totally okay! #Penance 🙂

Despite the simplicity in motivation and the challenge of hot weather, I still have a few takeaways from this pilgrimage. 

Ask and You Shall Receive

While at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, I had a bit of an awkward time. I didn’t really find anyone around the cathedral when I first stepped inside. I figured that I ought to stop and pray a bit while waiting so I did. However, I could only do so briefly because they were not running the air conditioner, and it was pretty warm inside.

When I walked up to the cathedral, I noticed that there was a Pauline bookstore and gift shop caddy corner to the cathedral. After sweating in church for a few minutes, I decided to go check it out and hopefully find a religious sister who could possibly help me out.

I went into the bookstore, and I was immediately greeted by a sweet, Japanese religious sister. She spoke limited English, but I was able to communicate that I was looking for my friend’s painting. It helped that I showed a photo of the painting to her. She didn’t know where it was so she directed me to the parish office.

I went to the parish office, but again, I didn’t immediately see anyone. It had a little waiting area, but this being Japan, it was one of those waiting areas that I had to remove my shoes. I stood around for a while in my socks, but realized I heard some voices coming from the offices. I waited some 20 minutes before I encountered another religious sister. I had the same conversation with her about the painting, and it seemed like she knew where it was, but didn’t know how to tell me that in English for me to understand. She led me outside, but instead of leading me to the church, she led me to another religious sister!

This third religious sister, thankfully, spoke better English and even some Tagalog (Filipino). We were able to communicate. She apparently knew where the painting was, and led me back to the narthex of the cathedral where she unlocked a side room door. This door led to a side meeting room, and lo and behold–there it was!

Finally! Giving it some thought, I found the whole ordeal to be amusing that it took me three religious sisters to get to it, but at least I know where the painting hangs at Osaka cathedral!

I could have easily given up, and the heat made everything miserable…but…I asked–no, kept asking–and I received! Isn’t that how it typically works with God? He’ll answer your prayers, but maybe not in the timeframe you’re looking for.

Praying for Us

The second painting I found at Our Lady of Guadalupe was pretty easy. It’s hanging in their parish hall. Again, when I arrived, no one was around.

Since the painting was hanging at arm’s length, I was able to lift it off the wall a little bit to check its backside. This was important for me to do because my signature is on the back of each of these copies of the painting, and prayer intentions from my young adult group are also written. And when I lifted this copy, I could verify my signature and our prayer intentions are still with the painting. Amazing. I’m hoping that people in Japan are still praying for us as I’m praying for them.

A Samurai’s Story

Ukon Takayama’s story still serves an inspiration for me. The current culture seems rather hostile towards the faith, and we’re not supposed to give into the culture or renounce our faith even if the authorities impose and oppress. Takayama did not give in despite losing everything. And that’s inspiring to me. Here’s a little more info on him. 

Concluding Thoughts

I’m really glad I was able to have another business trip to Japan. It’s been a few years. And I’m really grateful that I had the opportunity to go find copies of these Ukon Takayama paintings that my friend painted. It’s really cool to think that I can share in the joys and prayers of the Japanese Catholic Church, particularly in Osaka, as they await the canonization of one of their own.

This pilgrimage was short and sweet. I would’ve been a little more touristy visiting other popular areas of Osaka, and I probably would have made it over to the Kyoto distillery to seek out the third copy, but again, the heat made it pretty miserable. Even then, I think it goes to show that it’s possible to go on short, day-trip pilgrimages.

Want to see more pilgrimage reports? Here are some previous ones:

• Treasures of the Church 2019
• St. John Vianney Relic Tour, Atlanta, GA 2018
• The Catholic Man Show Campout 2018
• Into the Desert, Phoenix, AZ 2018