In sixteen-thirties, kirishitan(catholic faith Christians) which was brought here, first by an unknown man of societas Jesu, and a little later, by an Franciscan, were completely extinct in South-Aizu under a tremendous, fierce and miserable persecution by governors at that time. Under their order a local lord(Landes-herr) here chased poor Christians.
Now we are able to find out some clues and foot-prints of their being to a certain cemetery and some dishes, on the bottoms of which we see a cross being printed and some others.
At first a feudal landlord(Landes-herr) called 'Ujisato Gamoh came and his men followed to Aizu from Mie prefecture. Many people here calloit "Matsuzaka of Ise". May be, some of his men would come to Minami-Aizu and settled in, I think.
We hear one of Gamoh's sisters married a lord of Minami-Aizu. We do not know whether she was a christian or not.
The fact is that Christians where were extinct.
By the way, if you want to know more on Christians under the persecution in feudalistic time of Minami-Aizu. Former missionaries called Rev. E and A Kroehler wrote it. And you can get a copy of his book(about 1000 yen or so). Please ask Rev. Yagihara, the pastor of Aizu-Takada Church.
Two hundred and fifties later or so, in Meiji era, First Christians were born in South-Aizu. They had the catholic faith. On the other hand, in Protestantism a missionary from America called Dr. and Rev. Ch. Noss. came here and proclaimed His good news.
In 1960 a first christian church was built. Thanks to offering from many American friends in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Ours is one of the United Church of Christ in Japan. Das ist die evangelische Kirche in Tajima.