Cristovao Ferreira (1580 - 1650) was a Portuguese Catholic priest and Jesuit missionary who committed apostasy after being tortured in the anti-Christian purges in Japan.
Biography[]
Cristovao Ferreira was born in Torres Vedras, Portugal in 1580, and he served as a missionary in Japan from 1609 to 1633. In 1633, he was captured and renounced Christianity after being tortured for five hours, and he changed his name to Sawano Chuan. He registered at a Buddhist temple in accordance with Japanese law, and he called himself a member of the Zen sect. He married a Japanese woman and wrote several books, and he died in Nagasaki in 1650.