A reliquary cross Namban Art gilt copper alloy decoration en relief with black lacquered background: on one side "Crucified Christ topped by a cartouche with the «Titulus Crucis» INRI and at His feet a skull and two crossed bones"; on the other side the Blessed Sacrament surmounted by the Dove of the Holy Spirit, flanked by fluttering Angels and at its feet a branch of Chinese apricot flowers with an inscription LOUVADO SEIA O SANCTISS[IM]º SACRAME[NT]º nippo-portuguese - Momoyama period (1573-1615) late European suspension ring, wear to the gilt Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - 16,5 cm Notes: vd. CRESPO, Hugo Miguel - "Jóias da Carreira da Índia", Exhibition Catalogue.Lisbon: Museum of the Orient, 2014-2015, pp. 62 and 195, No. 110; and "São Roque Antiguidades - 2017", Catalogue. Lisbon: São Roque Antiques and Art Gallery, 2017, pp. 194-196, No. 153; and RIBEIRO, José Alberto (coord.) - "Uma História de Assombro - Portugal - Japão - Séculos XVI-XX", Catalogue of the Exhibition on display at the King D. Luís I Painting Gallery, Ajuda National Palace. Lisbon: DGPC - Ajuda National Palace / Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Diplomatic Institute, 2018, p. 65.

Namban Reliquary Crucifixes are to be found in the Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis in Oporto, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Tokyo National Museum in Japan, Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapura and some private collections in Portugal.

This rare reliquary cross is made from shakudō, a copper alloy (with gold, silver, and arsenic), lacquered in black (urushi), fire-gilt, and of a type of Japanese ware known as sawasa. Set with a later bronze loop on top for suspension, the cross is internally divided into small compartments to house relics—all now empty. It has two cross-shaped covers, front and back, cast in relief and finely chased for added detail, articulated and the upper ends on either side by hinges, and fastened with screws at the arms of the cross. One cover depicts the Crucified Christ with the sacred monogram ‘INRI’ (‘Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum’, or ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’) inscribed above, and, at his feet, a human skull and two crossed bones symbolising the Golgotha—literally ‘skull’. The other cover features, at the centre, the communal cup with the consecrated host above (depicting the Crucified Christ), crowned by the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove and flanked by two hovering angels surrounded by clouds. Beneath, occupying most of the longer arm of the cross, is a long, eight-row inscription in Portuguese. Written in capital letters, it reads ‘LOV // VADO // SEIA // O SA // NCTI // SS[IM] O // SACR // AM[EN] TO ’, or, in English translation, ‘Blessed be the Holy Sacrament’. Underneath the inscription is a branch of the Chinese plum, also known as Japanese apricot (Prunus mume), called ume in Japanese, with its typical five-petalled blossom—a symbol of beauty, purity and longevity, being the flower of winter and, alongside the clouds, one of the few purely Japanese elements present in the decoration of this reliquary cross.
Modelled after an Iberian prototype, this reliquary cross—and the other surviving examples from this powerful yet turbulent period in Japan’s religious history—exemplifies the relationship between model and replica, epitomising the flow of objects and designs along transcontinental sea routes, a voyage of artistic forms that characterises the aesthetic exchanges between Portugal and Asia in the early modern period. It represents a rare and highly sophisticated production of religious and devotional objects within the sphere of Nanban art, a Japanese artistic production which, while incorporating European or Christian (kirishitan) themes, appealed both to curious, cosmopolitan natives and to the ‘Southern Barbarians’ (Nanbanjin), notably the Portuguese stationed in Asia. Serving not only as a focal point for meditation and spiritual exercises, but also as a repository of very rare and precious relics, such crucifixes reflect the devotional practices promoted by the devotio moderna, a movement that reached Asia alongside the teachings and proselytism of the Jesuits. Probably made in a single workshop, these objects were likely intended for a wealthy community of local Japanese converts, eager to hold in their hands relics of distant saints with whom they identified, and whose hagiographies formed a cornerstone of their doctrinal instruction by the Jesuits missionaries. They could also have been intended as diplomatic gifts from Jesuit priests to senior dignitaries at the regional Japanese courts whom they had managed to convert within the entourage of powerful daimyō (warlords). These conversion efforts continued until the first persecutions in 1587 and the martyrdoms at Nagasaki in 1597, persisting through to 1614 edict and ending with the expulsion of the Portuguese in 1639. It is therefore unlikely that this type of production extended beyond the first quarter of the seventeenth century.
Two reliquary crosses of this type belong to the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (invs. 168-1886 and 200-1881); the first acquired from M. Blumberg in Lisbon. 1 In the Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis, Porto, there are also two examples, one of which (inv. 6 Our), originally from the Archbishop’s Palace in Porto, features a Virgin in adoration surmounted by a flaming sun, with flowers on the other arms of the cross, and a lengthy Marian inscription on the sides. The other (inv. 102 Our), acquired in 1947, shows the Crucified Christ on one side, and the Virgin in adoration on the other, surrounded by branches of ume in full bloom. The Tokyo National Museum (inv. C-874) holds a smaller (7.9 x 3.9 cm), much simpler cross—with the ‘IHS’ monogram of the Jesuits surrounded by some of the arma Christi on one side, and other symbols of the Passion, and stylised paulownia flowers on the other—whereas another (15.0 x 11.0 x 2.5 cm) now belongs to the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore (inv. 2017-00943). As with one cross in the Porto museum, the example in Singapore features the Crucified Christ on one side and the Virgin on the other. One beautifully preserved example in a private Portuguese collection shows, on one side, the Virgin and Child. Another cross in a Portuguese private collection was exhibited for the first time in 2014 alongside a similarly shaped Iberian silver reliquary cross. 2 Its design matches exactly that of the present cross, including the Portuguese inscription. Another matching example (15.0 x 10.0 x 2.5 cm), owned by São Roque Antiguidades, differs from the present one only in the floral decoration of the sides, which include paulownia flowers. Other crosses of a different construction feature sliding cover with pierced openings, allowing the relics stored within tp be contemplated in adoration. One such example (14.0 x 9.7 x 1.2 cm), now in a private collection in Lisbon, was published in 2016. 3 Another, yet smaller (8.3 x 5.6 x 0.8 cm), belongs to a Portuguese private collection. This small group of reliquary crosses, imbued with art-historical relevance and spiritual resonance, bears witness to the intense missionary activity of early seventeenth-century Japan, during the last decades of the so-called ‘Christian Century of Japan’. Previously unknown, the present cross adds further religious and historical weight to the group.

1 Max de Bruijn, Johannes Bastiaan, Sawasa. Japanese Export Art in Black and Gold, 1650-1800 (cat.),
Amsterdam - Zwolle, Rijksmuseum - Uitgeverij Waanders, 1998, p. 24, cat. 29.
2 Hugo Miguel Crespo, Jewels from the India Run (cat), Lisbon, Fundação Oriente, 2015, pp. 73 and 77,
cats. 109-110.
3 Hugo Miguel Crespo, Choices, Lisbon, AR-PAB, 2016, pp. 390-397, cat. 34.

Hugo Miguel Crespo, August 2025