Xavier Lands at Kagoshima

August 15, 1549

Francis Xavier stepped ashore at Kagoshima in southern Japan with two Jesuit companions and a converted Japanese guide named Anjiro. He preached through translation and admired, cautiously, the courtesy of his hosts. Within decades Japan would count hundreds of thousands of Christian converts. He considered the Japanese the most gifted unbelievers he had encountered, an assessment shaping Jesuit strategy in Asia for a century.