Japan, now Rome: a priceless resource falling into
place
ROME: 15th June 2006 -- Japan and Rome, working together
at all levels including Government, Church and with that particular
sensitivity to history that has marked out so many in Salesian
tradition, now have a priceless historical resource located on the
fourth floor of the Main Library at the Salesian Pontifical University
(UPS) in Rome. The source is the work of Fr Mario Marega (1902-1978),
missionary to Japan from 1930-46, 49-74. He worked with an
assiduous, rigorous historical approach on a range of texts extending
back to the 17th Century, concerning the origins of Christianity in
Japan, translations, and comparative studies of Oriental religious
traditions. Now a range of scholars, European and Japanese, have
access to these materials through the systematic work of a number of
Salesians in Japan and Rome, preserving and making an inventory
of these texts.
From 10-12 June, during the visit of the Rector
Major and a number of Councillors to the UPS for the Team Visit, Laura
Moretti, a university researcher at the University of Ca' Foscari's
(Venice) Department of East Asian Studies, presented a report on the
'Fondo Marega' project - specifically, the conclusion of one process of
inventory and categorisation of documentary material, known as
M.DOC. Fr Achille Loro Piana, Rector of the Salesian community at
Meguro, Japan, where a large part of the collection was held, was
present for the occasion. The entire process of categorisation,
inventory and publication, including transcription into modern
Japanese, of certain select examples of the collection, is expected to
last until 2010.
The collection has three sections. The first
is a large collection of literary, religious, historical and didactic
material from two important periods in Japanese history - the Edo
(1603-1867) and the Meiji (1868-1912). Part of this had already
been brought to Rome in Don Farina's time, inventoried, then published
in Japan in 2002 by the National Institute of Japanese Literature
(NIJL). Another part of this same collection was kept, until
2005, in the Parish at Meguro, Fr Marega's last residence in
Japan. Fr Joseph De Witte had undertaken much of the inventory
process. This part of the collection, about 400 pieces, includes the
most ancient of the texts, for example the celebrated, beautifully
illustrated Edo meishoki, 1662. The collection contains
travel guides of the period, works describing traditional military
values, Buddhist texts, texts on the education of women in Japan,
fiction texts, maps. Anyone interested in a study of the Edo
period would find a well-selected microcosm of the period and a fertile
resource for critical editions of works largely unknown to the
West. Fr Marega's method involved collecting multiple editions of
the same text - effectively providing a rich resource for the
comparative study of Japan's long tradition of printed materials.
The second section of the collection contains
manuscripts from the 17th-19th Centuries, but especially of the period
of Christian persecution with lists of names of martyrs and apostates
and other documentary evidence. Much of this had been under the
care of Fr. Osamu (now bishop) Mizobe at the Salesian seminary at
Chofu. Fr Puppo, the current provincial in Japan, and his vice
provincial, Fr. Joseph Mitsugi Matsuo, saw to its careful removal to
Rome.
A third section contains manuscripts of Fr. Marega
himself, and documents his approach - at least 150 documents in this
collection were being held in the Cimatti Museum at Chofu under the
care of Fr. Gaetano Compri. Click
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