Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, exotic tales of conversion and martyrdom set in Japan played out upon the Jesuit stages of Europe. It is in this way that Japan’s Christian Century (1549–1639) endured in the Jesuit mind as a source of spiritual and creative inspiration. The development of the “Japanese genre” in the acted and musical dramas of the historical Society of Jesus is a scarcely travelled road of research. In exploring this unique performance tradition, the article presents an analysis of the only known example of an oratorio based on a solely Japanese theme: La conversione alla santa fede del re di Bungo giaponese (1703). The article addresses the oratorio’s literary genealogy in order to identify the librettist’s didactic intention. In so doing, the representation of theological disputations between the Jesuits and the various sects of Buddhist priests in the mid-sixteenth century is reconstructed and examined.

中文翻译：

---

大友吉重法院的弗朗西斯·泽维尔：《La converte alla santa fede del re di Bungo giaponese》中耶稣会士和佛教徒之间宗教争论的表现（1703 年）

在整个 17 和 18 世纪，以日本为背景的关于皈依和殉难的异国故事在欧洲的耶稣会舞台上上演。正是通过这种方式，日本的基督教世纪（1549-1639 年）在耶稣会心目中作为精神和创作灵感的源泉而存在。耶稣会历史剧和音乐剧中“日本流派”的发展是一条鲜为人知的研究之路。在探索这种独特的表演传统时，本文分析了唯一已知的基于纯日本主题的清唱剧例子：La converte alla santa fede del re di Bungo giaponese (1703)。这篇文章讨论了清唱剧的文学谱系，以确定编剧的教学意图。这样做时，