90415-0024 - Shimabara Onsen

A hot spring at Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture. During the late Muromachi Period (1336-1573), this area saw much foreign trade and missionary activity. Accordingly, it housed many Kirishitan (Christians). Shimabara became the capital of the Shimabara Domain during the Edo period (1603-1868).

The Shimabara Rebellion took place here in 1637–1638. Peasants, most of them Catholic Christians, revolted against high taxes and religious persecution. The Tokugawa Shogunate sent more than 125,000 troops which quelled the rebellion and beheaded an estimated 37,000 rebels and sympathizers.