Background
Yajiro was in Kagoshima Prefecture in a family of traders.
矢次郎
Yajiro was in Kagoshima Prefecture in a family of traders.
Being young Yajiro killed a man in a quarrel and hid in a Buddhist temple. While in hiding he met a captain of a Portuguese ship, who advised him to leave Kagoshima Taking this advice Yajiro and two others fled to Malacca, where they were baptized Christians (1546).
Two years later he went to Goa (Portuguese India) and met St. Francis Xavier, to whom he supplied information of Japan and the suggestion that he should go there (1548). St. Xavier accordingly left for Japan with a party of eight missionaries including Yajiro and arrived in Kagoshima where they were received by Lord Takahisa Shimazu, who gave St. Xavier permission to preach the gospel (1549). This was the first contact of Christianity on Japan.
Later Yajiro translated Christian literature into Japanese and engaged himself in missionary work. Yajiro stayed behind after St. Xavier left (1550) and eventually was driven out of Kagoshima by Buddhist priests. Sought sanctuary in China, where he was killed by a fanatic Chinese.