"The study the architecture and furnishings of the interior spaces of the Catholic worship in Japan involves a big challenge, since all churches were destroyed because of the anti-Christian policy of native authorities.ʺ (HKB Translation) --Verso Cover. Historian Rie Arimura reexamines the methods of evangelization, cultural exchanges and artistic and architectural features of churches founded in Japan since the arrival of St. Francis Xavier in 1549 until the implementation of the policy of isolation in 1639. This period spanning almost a century is called "Kirishitan century", as the Japanese called the converts to that epithet derived from the Portuguese word christão.