Two portraits of Christian martyrs, once gifted to the Pope in 1931, have returned to Japan for the first time in 94 years. Now on display at Osaka’s Catholic Tamatsukuri Church, these rare works — on loan from the Vatican Museums — mark a long-awaited homecoming and a chance for the public to reconnect with a little-known chapter of Japan’s past.
A Seven-Year Effort of Restoration and Return
The Portraits of the 26 Martyrs of Japan were painted by Seikyo Okayama, a Catholic artist from Hiroshima and student of master painter Takeuchi Seiho. Okayama spent nearly 15 years completing the series, which depicts 26 Japanese Christians crucified in Nagasaki in 1597 under the anti-Christian edicts of warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The believers were marched from Kyoto and Osaka to Nagasaki before their execution. Each hanging scroll, painted with natural mineral pigments on silk, measures approximately 190 by 75 centimeters.
The full set was gifted to Pope Pius XI and kept in the Vatican, where the scrolls suffered damage over the years due to differences in climate and storage conditions. The fragile state of the works spurred Japanese Cardinal Thomas Aquino Manyo Maeda to launch a seven-year effort to restore and bring them home. Negotiations with the Vatican culminated in May, when it was decided two restored scrolls would be sent to Japan for exhibition.
The two portraits on display depict St. Francis Kichi, a carpenter captured near modern-day Koshien in Hyogo Prefecture, and St. James Kisai, a catechist who taught at a Jesuit church in Osaka. Alongside the originals, full-size replicas of all the martyrs are also on view.
For Cardinal Maeda, the exhibition is more than just an art event. “I believe many people still don’t know who the 26 martyrs were,” he told The Asahi Shimbun. “I hope they’ll learn this history and reflect on religious freedom and the dignity of life.”
The exhibition runs through September 15. Entry is free, and is open on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Official website
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Updated On July 15, 2025
