EDO PERIOD (18TH CENTURY)

Fumi-e (literally "step-on pictures") were created by the Tokugawa government after it officially banned Christianity. Officials used fumi-e to identify Christians. Suspects were ordered to step on these icons, under the belief that real Christians would hesitate or outright refuse to do so. The practice became widespread after 1629. Initially, crude painted icons or crosses were used during these examinations but from around 1661 brass and bronze crucifixes were cast at foundries in Nagasaki and distributed to daimyo solely for the purpose of rooting out Christian adherents.