Background
Mansho Itō was born in 1570. He was the son of Itö Shurino- suke, a close relative of the Christian daimyo of the domain of Bungo, Otomo Sorin.
Mansho Itō was born in 1570. He was the son of Itö Shurino- suke, a close relative of the Christian daimyo of the domain of Bungo, Otomo Sorin.
In 1582, when three of the Christian daimyo of Kyushu Omura, Otomo, and Ariina, dispatched a group of four youths on a mission to the Pope and the king of Spain, he was chosen by Otomo Sorin to be one of them, and though he was only eleven at the time, he acted as spokesman for the group. In Rome he was made an honorary citizen and raised to the rank's of the nobility with the title Cavaliere di Speron d’oro.
The group returned to Nagasaki in 1590, and the following year Ito was summoned to an audience with Toyotomi Hideyoshi and gave an account of what he had seen and heard in Europe. The same year he entered the novitiate at Ama- kusa in Kyushu, becoming a member of the Jesuit order. During the period around 1606-07 he assisted in giving instruction at a seminary sponsored by the Arima family, and later became a regular member of the priesthood. In the year of his death, the Edo shogunate issued the first of its orders outlawing Christianity.