James Kisai was born as Ichikawa Kisaemon (市川喜佐衛門).[7]
As a lay catechist intending to join the Society of Jesus, he was imprisoned along with 23 other Catholics in December 1596 in the aftermath of the pivotal San Felipe incident.[8] While he was in prison, Kisai and a fellow lay catechist John Soan de Goto gave their vows to Jesuit fathers John Rodriguez and Francis Pasia to enter the Jesuit order.[9] Shortly after, Kisai and the other imprisoned Catholics were forced to take a land journey during the winter time from Sakai to Nagasaki. Kisai and the others would eventually reach Nishizaka Hill in Nagasaki,[10] where they were crucified and lanced to death on February 5, 1597.[8][11]
^Molinari, Paolo (1974). Companions of Jesus: Spiritual Profiles of the Jesuit Saints and Beati. Translated by Edmund Dignam; Joseph Gill; Charles Hand; Hugh Kay; Nicholas King; Michael McMorrow; Anthony Nye; Paul Symonds. English Province of the Society of Jesus. p. 49. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
^de Lucena, Afonso (1972). Erinnerungen aus der Christenheit von Ōmura (in German). Translated by Josef Franz Schütte. Rome: Institutum historicum S.I. p. 193. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
