The Takasagonese

"If you change it far enough back," I wrote two months ago, "you start getting ethnicities that don't exist IRL." Changing colonial histories, and you get things like most of the American South being French Farrellites... or a Lusophone *Philippines instead of a Hispanophone one, because Cabral didn't sail for Spain... or Yevanic surviving to the present day because there's a totally different Sephardi diaspora. Or, as I started the list with, a Japonicized *Taiwan.

Today, boys and girls, the post is about that Japonicized *Taiwan. Meet the Takasagonese.

A note on terminology before I go further: Historically, Japan called the island of Taiwan 高砂 "Takasago," whence the name. (For the sake of clarity, "Takasagonese" will here and elsewhere refer only to the Japonic inhabitants of the island. "Taiwanese" will refer to any inhabitant of Taiwan, including and especially the aboriginal ones.)

Takasagonese history 101

The Christianization of Japan came to a rather spectacular end in the 16th century, much as it did IRL. Unlike that end, however, at least some of the Christian Japanese pulled up their roots and left for less inhospitable territory. Which in their case turned out to be the relatively unclaimed island of Takasago.

Takasagonese language

The Takasagonese language does not exist. Not officially, at least; for ideological reasons Japan considers it a dialect.

• Japonic base: The Takasagonese were originally from Western Japan, in particular Kyushu. As such, it conserves a number of features that Kyushu-ben (and for that matter the rest of Oyashima Japanese) loses in the next few centuries.
• Cantonese on'yomi: Just because of its location, Takasago has a lot of trade with southern China. One side effect of this is that a lot of kanji will, over time, develop on'yomi closer to the Cantonese than the Mandarin.
• Portuguese loanwords: Because of their Catholic connections, the Takasagonese have more contact with Portuguese than any other European language, which colors their loanwords accordingly. (This is particularly pronounced after the reunification; where Imperial Japanese borrows its loanwords from England-Scotland, Takasagonese usually follows the Porty equivalent. "Animation" would be animeshon in Kyoto, but animasan on Takasago, cf. animação.)
• Aboriginal loanwords: There's also a lot of aboriginal loanwords, but I'm not qualified to talk about that yet.

This is a stub, and merits its own page someday when somebody cares.

Takasagonese religion

Takasago is overwhelmingly Catholic. Overwhelmingly so. That's the entire point of their existence, after all.

• Oddly enough, because they do have some exposure to Isidoran liturgy via the Diocese of Coimbra, Takasago honors some saints that are otherwise unknown outside the Iberian peninsula: Santa Eulalia, for instance.
• Judging by Fra Damian, there's also a cult of the Holy Face in there too. Given that the IRL Holy Face devotions were butterflied away, the nature and history of the Holy Face cult remains indeterminate.

The big idiosyncratic thing about Catholicism in Takasago, though, is how monolithically Franciscan it is. Assisi is less devoted to Saint Francis; pan-Japonic perceptions of Catholicism are strongly sculpted by the fact that the Greyfriars ran the island's religious life with an iron fist for the better part of 300 years. (And I do mean "iron fist." The shugembo are respected, but they tolerate no opposition, and - keeping with Japanese, but not European, ascetic practice - unarmed combat training is an important part of a friar's life.) Where the Franciscans aren't dominant, it's because they've been replaced by one or another post-Franciscan reform movement that's even more hardline. (Taiwan is totally going to give rise to an eremitic order a la the Minims.)

Whence this Franciscan hegemony?

• Rule of cool. This colors everything with Andalusada; after all, it is in the P&P.
• A reaction against Portuguese Gonzalanism. Until Takasago was established enough to build its own seminaries, their priests had to be educated abroad, usually in the *Philippines. Historically, where the Portuguese educated their subjects they created a caste of leadership that was able to object, very strongly, to Portuguese foreign policy. If the *Philippine seminaries tend to be Gonzalan, it could drive the Japonic priests to the Greyfriars in protest.
• Missionary work. When the first Japonic settlers start building on Takasago, there are already plenty of aborigines. (There are IRL.) As ever, the Franciscans did an enormous amount of missionary work, and all Taiwanese folk Catholicism (especially that of the aborigines, for whom Franciscan imperialism was a move up the social ladder) is colored by this.

Afterward: Because ethnicities take work, I'm not gonna write another one until August 13th, at which point I'm going to introduce another part of the Japonic diaspora: the Meammosiran Cossack Host, first mentioned in the Russo-Japanese War.