Watanabe had learned over many years as an apprentice the technique oftraditional stencil dying as used for kimonos in Okinawa, called katazome.Later the young man studied under Serizawa Keisuke (1895-1984) and under Yanagi Soetsu (1891-1961). The young guy did recover and he did tell the story of the Bible in many, many stencil prints.Katazome and KappazuriSadao's art prints look like a combination of modern Western art, Japanese folk art and old Buddhist painting.And this is what they actually are. Young Sadao vowed to study the Bible and spread the Christian story through artwork if he shouldever recover. Today only 1% of the Japanese population belong to aChristian denomination.So much about the history of Christianity in Japan. Oda Nobunaga embracedthe new weapon technology of the European foreigners and supported the Jesuits as a counterbalance against Buddhism.Under his followersand Tokugawa Iyeasu, Christianity was banned and its followers were persecuted with harsh to cruel methods until thenearly complete extinction of the Christian religion in Japan. For more than a century several regional warlords had triedto achieve military and political supremacy in Japan.,the leading warlord and the first of the three pacifiers and unifiers of Japan, was opposed to Buddhism.The powerful and martial Buddhist sects in their cloister strongholds were a permanent threat for him. In the beginning the Jesuits had beenquite successful in spreading the Christian religion in Japan, mainly among the lower classes.The early success of the Christian missionaries had been the result ofpolitical circumstances favorable to them in a country torn by ragingcivil wars.
They brought firearms with themand the zeal to evangelize Japan.