A celebrated daimyo stands immortal in the middle of a plaza in the busy Paco district of Manila.

The statue in Plaza Dilao is a representation of Takayama Ukon, Japan's best-known Christian daimyo. Takayama was banished from Japan and fled to the Philippines in 1614 for refusing to disavow his Christian faith.

According to one scholarly work, Takayama occupies an "enduring and crucial place in the history of the Japanese Church."