Katase Catholic Church: The Church That Looks Like a Temple

A place for the Holy Family

Christian paintings, Japanese hanging scrolls

The scrolls are by Hasegawa Roka, a Catholic artist who worked in both Japanese painting and European fresco. In these narrow vertical compositions, Christian figures occupy the kind of space where you might expect a landscape or a passage of calligraphy.

It began with a trip to the beach

This was a deliberate choice. When the church was built in 1939, Archbishop Chambon wanted a building that would sit naturally among the temples and shrines of the wider Kamakura area.

The year mattered too. Japan was at war with China, and one local guide notes that the temple-like design took account of residents’ wariness towards foreign culture.

The community behind it had a less architectural beginning.

During the Meiji period, a Marianist priest visiting Katase for sea bathing met a local landowner, Yamamoto Shōtarō. That connection led Shōtarō’s son, Shinjirō, to a Catholic school and eventually to baptism. Shinjirō became a naval officer. For his part in resolving diplomatic problems between the Holy See and Japan, he later received special permission to establish a chapel in his home.

The congregation that gathered there grew, moving through temporary arrangements before the present church was dedicated on March 19, 1939, the feast of St Joseph.

Even the Madonna knows the coast

Yamamoto Shinjirō also commissioned the image known as the Madonna of the Morning Star, a copy of which hangs in the church.

A smaller consequence of visiting the coast

The sea that brought the priest to Katase remains a good reason to spend more time in the area. At Kinokuniya Shokudo, near Katase-Enoshima Station, it also makes a persuasive appearance in a bowl.