This chapter provides a general introduction to Christian architecture in Japan during the so-called “Nanban Century” or “Christian Century” (1543-1640). The prayer spaces established by missionaries in Japan consisted in a first phase of the use of
rooms inside private houses or abandoned temples adapted for the purpose; a second short-lived
phase saw the construction of buildings based on European standards. In the
last phase, the religious facilities returned to forms more in keeping with their Japanese
context, while introducing some European elements. Because
of the temporary nature of these structures and subsequent religious repressions,
few remains of these buildings survive; moreover, the graphic representations of such religious facilities on
late 16th / early 17th-century Nanban folding screens are often unreliable, because they do not perfectly correspond to contemporary
written descriptions.