Since I'm reading Shusaku Endo's Silence, I thought it would be handy to work up a crude timeline of events concerning the Tokugawa Shogunate and Catholic Christianity in Japan. All dates are rough.
1467 Approximate beginning of Sengoku or Warring State Period
1543 First Portuguese ships in Japan
1549 St. Francis Xavier comes to Japan
1573 Approximate beginning of Azuchi-Momoyama phase of the Sengoku period: unification is beginning to take shape under Oda Nabunaga
1582 Oda Nabunaga dies; Toyotomi Hideyoshi takes over and continues conquest of dissident daimyo
1587 Hideyoshi issues decree banning Christianity, although it is only inconsistently and usually lightly enforced in order to maintain trade with Europe
Hideyoshi begins laying down plans to invade Ming China through Korea; the Koreans, despite the inconveniences of being a Chinese puppet state, are understandably not cooperative
1590 Hideyoshi allies with Tokugawa Ieyasu and forces him to move his center of operations to the backwater town of Edo, in modern-day Tokyo
1592 Japanese forces invade Korea; the Chinese Empire sends armies to recapture Pyongyang and Seoul
A ship carrying Korean prisoners is shipwrecked; one of the survivors is nursed to health in Kyoto by Christians, is converted, and takes the name Caius
1593 Having retaken Pyongyang, the Chinese army is decisively defeated at the Battle of Byeokjegwan, leaving Seoul in Japanese hands, and making the remaining army reluctant to take aggressive action; the Korean army has a major victory over the Japanese army at the Siege of Haengju; the Japanese eventually pull out of Seoul due to stalemate conditions that look increasingly unfavorable to them
Peace talks begin between the Ming dynasty and Hideyoshi; since the Ming Emperor is told that Japan is surrendering and Hideyoshi is told that China is surrendering, the talks break down completely
1597 Hideyoshi orders the crucifixion of the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan (including St. Paul Miki) in Nagasaki; the result is actually an increase in Catholic converts
Hideyoshi invades Korea again, an invasion that is less successful militarily, although more effective diplomatically; the overall result, however, is to begin the weakening of both the Ming dynasty in China and the Toyotomi clan in Japan
1598 Hideyoshi dies
1600 Tokugawa Ieyasu wins decisive victory over those opposing him at the Battle of Sekigahara
William Adams becomes first (known) Englishman in Japan after the Dutch vessel for which he was a pilot is shipwrecked; he is taken to Ieyasu, who takes him on as an advisor.
1603 Ieyasu becomes shogun, beginning the Tokugawa Shogunate
Edo (in modern-day Tokyo) becomes the seat of government.
1605 Ieyasu resigns and his son, Tokugawa Hidetada becomes shogun, although Ieyasu continues to control affairs
1606 Anti-Christian decrees are proclaimed.
1609 Cristóvão Ferreira enters Japan as a missionary
1610 Decree of expulsion for all Spanish and Portuguese missionaries
1613 The Eight Martyrs of Arima are killed
1614 Ieyasu and Hidetada expel all Christians and foreigners and ban Christianity; the diamyo Dom Justo Takayama and other Christians (including Bl. Caius of Korea) are also expelled
1616 Ieyasu dies
1619 The Fifty-Two Martyrs of Kyoto are killed
1622 St. Francix Xavier canonized by Gregory XV
The Great Martyrdom of Nagasaki: A very large number of Christian priests, missionaries, and laity are killed
1623 Hidetada resigns and his son, Tokugawa Iemitsu becomes shogun
1624 Bl. Caius of Korea and James Koichi are burned alive for Christian missionary activities
1627 Bl. Thomas Tsugi and companions are burned alive for Christian activities
1629 The Fifty-Five Martyrs of Yonezawa are killed by beheading
1632 Great Genna Martyrdom: 55 Catholics killed in Nagasaki
1633 Iemitsu issues decrees restricting overseas travel.
St. Jacobo Kyushei Gorobioye Tomonaga de Santa María is killed by the tsurushi (reverse hanging or pit) torture
Bl. Domingo Ibáñez de Erquicia is killed by the tsurushi torture
Cristóvão Ferreira is captured and subjected to the tsurushi torture; after six hours in the pit, he apostasizes; this is the event that sets off the story in Shusaku Endo's novel Silence
1634 St. Giorgano Ansalone is killed by the tsurushi torture
St. Magdalene of Nagasaki is killed after thirteen days of the tsurushi torture
1635 Iemitsu begins the policy of Sankin Kotai, requiring the daimyo to reside part of every other year in Edo, a move that will severely curtail the power of the daimyo by siphoning money from their treasuries that might otherwise be spent on armies
1637 Shimabara Rebellion near Nagasaki begins as a peasant uprising but from the beginning is backed by many Japanese Christians
St. Lorenzo Ruiz is killed by the tsurushi torture
St. Antonio Gonzalez dies in his cell after extended torture
1638 Shimabara Rebellion is crushed at Hara Castle, with 40000 peasants, a significant number of them Catholic, slaughtered; this leads to an increasingly strict persecution of Christians
1639 Iemitsu bans Portuguese ships from Japan; Sakoku, the National Seclusion Policy, begins
[The year in which the narrative of Shusaku Endo's Silence starts]
1651 Tokugawa Ietsuna becomes shogun
1657 The Meiriki Fire sweeps through Edo; tens of thousands are killed in the fire
1680 Tokugawa Tsunayoshi becomes shogun
1688 The Genroku Period begins, expanding and deepening Japanese theater and teahouse culture
1701 The 47 Ronin
1709 Tokugawa Ienobu becomes shogun
1713 Tokugawa Ietsugu becomes shogun
1716 Tokugawa Yoshimune becomes shogun
Kyoho economic reforms begin; ban on imported books is lifted
1745 Tokugawa Ieshige becomes shogun
1760 Tokugawa Ieharu becomes shogun
1782 Temme Famine begins, and will last until 1787; hundreds of thousands die
1787 Tokugawa Ienari becomes shogun
1837 Tokugawa Ieyoshi becomes shogun
1839 Crackdown on critics of the national seclusion policy
1853 Tokugawa Iesada becomes shogun
Commodore Matthew Perry sails into Bay of Edo with American warships demanding that Japan open its borders
1854 Kanawaga treaty: Matthew Perry returns and the period of Sakoku, or seclusion, ends
1858 Tokugawa Iemochi becomes shogun
Iemochi ends Sankin Kotai, requiring daimyo to reside alternate years in Edo
1862 The Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan are canonized by Pius IX
1864 Oura Tenshudo, the first Christian church in Japan dedicated to the Twenty-Six martyrs, is finished in Nagasaki
1865 The Kakure Kirishitan, or hidden Christians, are discovered, especially in and around the village of Urakami: Catholic life had not completely died in Japan despite the persecutions
1866 Tokugawa Yoshinobu becomes shogun
1867 The Two-Hundred Five Martyrs of Japan (including Bl. Caius of Korea and Bl. Thomas Tsugi) are beatified by Pius IX
1868 Tokugawa Shogunate comes to an end; Meiji period begins
1869 Urakami Yoban Kuzure: Thousands of Japanese Christians exiled from Japanese village of Urakami
1873 Ban on Christianity lifted; returning Japanese Catholics begin building Urakami Cathedral
