The collection

A16 is comprised of eight groups. The vast majority of them are documents grouped together by newspapers (from the 1930s to 1950s), paper for wrapping, envelopes, paper string, twine, etc., as well as notes written by Marega himself or someone working with him. Based on the years of the newspapers used to wrap these groups, it appears that Marega organized / used these materials in the second half of the 1930s and first half of the 1940s. However, there are documents from the same year that were held together with koyori apparently made during the early modern period (A16.7.3.2, A16.7.4.1, A16.7.4.2, etc.), which might be a result of the Usuki Domain’s Office of Religious Affairs organizing and managing them during this time period.

A16.1 mainly consists of documents wrapped in a dark blue paper. There are materials related to the receiving of and payment for items, daily work, and so on (with titles like “Tax Record,” “Journal,” etc.) from Usuki Domain’s Office of Religious Affairs, as well as materials that show the number of members of various Usuki Domain retainer families.

In A16.2, Marega number documents B895 to B909 are wrapped with newspaper. It appears that it brings together materials that were sent by Usuki Domain retainers.

In A16.3 there is a pile of five cards upon which Marega wrote.

A16.4 is a group that enables us to clearly understand how Marega managed and categorized materials. A16.4.4.1.1 “Catalogo dei documenti nella persecuz. in Giappone D. Marega 1938” (Marega Catalogue) is a book organizing materials based on the numbers Marega assigned to them (Marega numbers). He assigned numbers spanning from 1 to 1000, M1 to M1000, and B1 to B941. In this book, materials’ years of creation, classifications, and overviews are written. (For M801 to B13 only the years of creation are included.) It is a foundational resource for examining how these materials were managed and passed down to us today.Below I have listed A16.4 groups of materials for which we can surmise Marega's intention behind organizing and categorizing them.

A16.4.1.2 consists of documents from the Jisha Bugyō 寺社奉行 and after the Meiji Restoration　(1868). These are materials that Marega judged to be different in nature from those of the Office of Religious Affairs. A16.4.1.3 consists of a bundle of certificates stating how paper received from various government offices for fumie record books created by Office of Religious Affairs officials and the magistrate’s office (daikansho 代官所) was used, as well as the number of sheets that were left over. In light of the kinds of string used and how it is bound, we can say with confidence that it was bound together at a later point—perhaps by Marega. A16.4.1.4 consists of documents and tatechō fragments catalogued under the Marega number B74. A16.4.2.2.1 consists of memos regarding requests by people to extend stays in a certain places. A16.4.2.2.2 consists of memos regarding people returning to their homes and moving. A16.4.2.2.3 are documents regarding marriages. A16.4.4 is a collection of records and memos regarding Marega’s organization of materials. A16.4.6 consists of fragmented materials, such as a tatechō collected to be pieced together. A16.4.7.1–3 consists of records regarding the prohibition of Christianity, as well as religious investigations in domains besides the Usuki Domain. 16.4.7.4 is a bundle relating to relatives of former Christians born in the 8th and 9th month of Genroku 2 (1689). Each document has a different Marega number assigned to it. It is possible that this was also bound together by Marega at a later point. A16.4.7.10 is a group of memos regarding births and deaths in 1829 (Bunsei 12). A16.4.7.11–12 is a group of bags for holding documents made at the Office of Religious Affairs. A16.4.8 is a group of memos by Marega.

A16.5 and A16.6 include corpse inspection certificates of descendants of former Christians and　documents recording the number of members of retainer families.

A16.7 was wrapped in the newspaper Il Quotidiano (06/25/1959). It primarily consists of oaths attesting to non-Christian religious affiliation submitted by farmers in Miyao Village (Mie Shimo Village Unit) in the 11th month of Kan’ei 12 (1635), and corpse inspection certificates submitted by temples in the Usuki Domain in the 1st month of Enpō 7 (1679) (A16.7.4.1.1–17), the 1st month of Genroku 16 (1703) (A16.7.4.2.1–13), and the 1st month of Hōei 2 (1705) (A16.7.3.2.1–A16.7.3.31). Comparatively speaking, these remain organized as they were by the Office of Religious Affairs. They are organized in a way that is clearly different than the other materials.

A16.8 appears to be records of people who carried out fumie as part of the Usuki Domain’s religious investigations at their household due to illness and documents regarding religious investigations from the Funai Domain.