TÇUZZU, João RODRIGUEZ. — Jesuit, missionary, and historian, born at Sernancelhe (diocese of Lamego, Portugal) ca. 1561, died at Macao (China) in 1634.
Having departed for Japan in 1576, he is found in 1578 in the retinue of Yakata Yoslishige, who had converted to Christianity under the name of don Francisco di Bungo; in 1580 he entered the Society of Jesus, where, ordained a priest in 1594, he continued until 1626 in the office of procurator of the mission, which he had begun in 1591. The new persecution of 1614 banished him from Japan and brought him, together with 12 confrères, to Macao. His familiarity with the Japanese language and its various doctrines made him highly skilled in the ministries and greatly esteemed by the Shoguns Hydeyoshi and Jeyasu, before whom he was able to render excellent services to the Order and to Christianity; in 1590 he accompanied as interpreter to Hydeyoshi’s court the pilgrims who had returned from Italy.
His works are: Arte da lingua de Japon, Nagasaki 1590; Arte breve da lingua japa (Macao 1620). His principal work remained incomplete and unpublished: Historia da Igreja de Japan (in two manuscripts: one in the Library of the Academy of History in Madrid, the other in the Ajuda Library in Lisbon). Of the three parts it was to contain, according to the author’s plan expressed in the preface—Poese e popolazione! Storia della Chiesa, Terre vicine (China, Annam, Cambodia, Korea)—only II. I and II of part 1ª and I. I of the 2ª remain. It is an excellent work in terms of historical and critical value, because of its carefully gathered information and the events of which he was an eyewitness.