Sedome Catholic Church

About Sedome Catholic Church

Sedome Catholic Church is a Catholic church founded in 1908 at Sedome, Tatsugo Town, Oshima District, Kagoshima Prefecture, on Amami Oshima. Its church building and priest's house were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (structures) on April 18, 2008 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The name is read Sedome.

The registration numbers are 46-0073 for the church and 46-0074 for the priest's house, both owned by the Catholic Diocese of Kagoshima (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Catholic Mission on Amami Oshima

According to Tatsugo Town, baptisms by French missionaries began at Sedome around 1897, which is when Catholicism is thought to have reached the village. The present church was dedicated in May 1908, and by 1918 the congregation had grown to over 400.

In 1934, however, an anti-Catholic campaign forced the church to close, and in 1937 the confiscated building became a youth school (Tatsugo Town). The Agency for Cultural Affairs sees the church and priest's house as part of the record of the Catholic mission on Amami Oshima.

The Two Registered Structures

Both were registered on April 18, 2008, as structures contributing to the historic landscape of the country (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The church, of 1908, is a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 221 square metres. Its north end has a hipped roof and its south end a hip-and-gable roof, with a gabled porch projecting to the south. The front has been much altered, but the three-aisled interior keeps much of its original character (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The priest's house, of about 1908, is a two-storey timber building with a sheet-metal roof and a building area of 114 square metres, east of the church. It has a hipped roof, a single-storey annexe projecting to the north and clapboard walls (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

Sedome Catholic Church is a working church, and no information on visiting hours or interior access has been published. Please do not disturb Mass or prayer.

The address is 271-1 Sedome, Tatsugo Town. Each structure is described in its own article.