Biography
John Kisaka
About John Kisaka
John Kisaka is remembered in the Franciscan tradition as a convert and silk weaver. His name appears in several forms, including John Kinuya.
Yuki’s personal sketch places him in Kyoto, where he traded silk. After baptism he moved his shop beside the Franciscan community. This brief connection between work and religious commitment is the main surviving outline of his earlier life.
The scholarly New Catholic Encyclopedia records the name variations in early missionary reports and the canonization proceedings. It also preserves a different occupational description, calling this martyr a carpenter. The disagreement concerns the form of the remembered life, rather than warranting two new people.
He was crucified with the Nagasaki martyrs on February 5, 1597. PiusIX canonized the group in 1862.
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