Yamaguchi Xavier Memorial Church

In 1952, a church was built to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the visit by St. Francis Xavier, the first Jesuit missionary in Japan, who spent a year preaching in Yamaguchi. That church was lost in a fire in 1991, but a second memorial church was constructed in 1998. Featuring an innovative design with two steeples and a white triangular pyramid-shaped roof covering the entire structure, the chapel is decorated inside with beautiful stained glass. On the first floor is a museum about St. Xavier and the “Hidden Christians” who secretly kept their faith when Christianity was banned in Japan for two and a half centuries.