AP PHOTOS: On remote Nagasaki islands, a rare version of Christianity heads toward extinction

IKITSUKI, Japan (AP) — On the rural islands of Nagasaki, a handful of believers practice a version of Christianity that has direct links to a time of samurai, shoguns, and martyred missionaries and believers.

On Ikitsuki and other remote sections of Nagasaki prefecture, Hidden Christians pray to what they call the Closet God — scroll paintings of Mary and Jesus disguised as a Buddhist Bodhisattva, hidden in special closets. They chant in a Latin that has not been widely used for centuries.

Now, though, the Hidden Christians are disappearing. Almost all are elderly, and as the young move away to cities or turn their backs on the faith, those remaining are desperate to preserve evidence of this unique offshoot of Christianity — and convey to the world what its loss will mean.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

A Shinto shrine stands on a hilltop which was previously a cemetery for Christians in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Visitors look at an exhibition at the Ikitsuki Island Museum "Shima no Yakata" in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A scroll of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, once secretly worshipped, is seen at a home in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A woman plants rice in a terrace rice field in Ikitsuki island in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

A woman walks past the Twenty-Six Martyrs Monument in Nagasaki, southern Japan, on Saturday, April 26, 2025, which commemorates 26 Christians executed in 1597. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

St. Francis Xavier Memorial Church, back right, looks over Zuiunji, lower left, and Komyoji Buddhist temples, in front of the church, in Ikitsuki island in Hirado, southern Japan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

The sun sets over water-filled, terraced rice field in Hirado, southern Japan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Masatsugu Tanimoto, a farmer and a community leader who is one of only hundreds of so-called "hidden" Christians on the island of Ikitsuki, speaks at his home in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Masatsugu Tanimoto, a farmer and one of the few remaining hidden Christians on Ikitsuki Island, prepares a scroll of the Virgin Mary and Jesus once secretly worshipped at his home in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A fisherman, left, walks on a seashore of Ikitsuki island in Hirado, southern Japan, Monday, April 28, 2025, as seen from a sacred site where it's believed a grave was built after Catholic family members were martyred. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Shigeo Nakazono, a folklore studies expert specializing in the hidden Christians and head of the Ikitsuki Island Museum "Shima no Yakata" explains an official edict board issued to ban Christianity during Japan's Edo period displayed at the museum at Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Masatsugu Tanimoto, from left, Yoshitaka Oishi and Yoshinori Yamamoto chant Orasho, recitation of Latin chants, in the Ikitsuki Island Museum "Shima no Yakata" at Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

A scroll of the Virgin Mary and Jesus once secretly worshipped hangs at a home in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A Christian cross at a memorial park for Catholics martyred in the early 1600s is silhouetted before sunrise at Hirado, southern Japan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

ST. LOUIS (AP) — World champions Ilia Malinin and the ice dance duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates will anchor one of the strongest U.S. Figure Skating teams in history when they head to Italy for the Milan Cortina Olympics in less than a month.

Malinin, fresh off his fourth straight national title, will be the prohibitive favorite to follow in the footsteps of Nathan Chen by delivering another men's gold medal for the American squad when he steps on the ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.

Chock and Bates, who won their record-setting seventh U.S. title Saturday night, also will be among the Olympic favorites, as will world champion Alysa Liu and women's teammate Amber Glenn, fresh off her third consecutive national title.

U.S. Figure Skating announced its full squad of 16 athletes for the Winter Games during a made-for-TV celebration Sunday.

"I'm just so excited for the Olympic spirit, the Olympic environment," Malinin said. “Hopefully go for that Olympic gold.”

Malinin will be joined on the men's side by Andrew Torgashev, the all-or-nothing 24-year-old from Coral Springs, Florida, and Maxim Naumov, the 24-year-old from Simsbury, Connecticut, who fulfilled the hopes of his late parents by making the Olympic team.

Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova were returning from a talent camp in Kansas when their American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter and crashed into the icy Potomac River in January 2025. One of the last conversations they had with their son was about what it would take for him to follow in their footsteps by becoming an Olympian.

“We absolutely did it,” Naumov said. “Every day, year after year, we talked about the Olympics. It means so much in our family. It's what I've been thinking about since I was 5 years old, before I even know what to think. I can't put this into words.”

Chock and Bates helped the Americans win team gold at the Beijing Games four years ago, but they finished fourth — one spot out of the medals — in the ice dance competition. They have hardly finished anywhere but first in the years since, winning three consecutive world championships and the gold medal at three straight Grand Prix Finals.

U.S. silver medalists Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik also made the dance team, as did the Canadian-born Christina Carreira, who became eligible for the Olympics in November when her American citizenship came through, and Anthony Ponomarenko.

Liu was picked for her second Olympic team after briefly retiring following the Beijing Games. She had been burned out by years of practice and competing, but stepping away seemed to rejuvenate the 20-year-old from Clovis, California, and she returned to win the first world title by an American since Kimmie Meissner stood atop the podium two decades ago.

Now, the avant-garde Liu will be trying to help the U.S. win its first women's medal since Sasha Cohen in Turin in 2006, and perhaps the first gold medal since Sarah Hughes triumphed four years earlier at the Salt Lake City Games.

Her biggest competition, besides a powerful Japanese contingent, could come from her own teammates: Glenn, a first-time Olympian, has been nearly unbeatable the past two years, while 18-year-old Isabeau Levito is a former world silver medalist.

"This was my goal and my dream and it just feels so special that it came true,” said Levito, whose mother is originally from Milan.

The two pairs spots went to Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, the U.S. silver medalists, and the team of Emily Chan and Spencer Howe.

The top American pairs team, two-time reigning U.S. champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, were hoping that the Finnish-born Efimova would get her citizenship approved in time to compete in Italy. But despite efforts by the Skating Club of Boston, where they train, and the help of their U.S. senators, she did not receive her passport by the selection deadline.

“The importance and magnitude of selecting an Olympic team is one of the most important milestones in an athlete's life,” U.S. Figure Skating CEO Matt Farrell said, "and it has such an impact, and while there are sometimes rules, there is also a human element to this that we really have to take into account as we make decisions and what's best going forward from a selection process.

“Sometimes these aren't easy," Farrell said, “and this is not the fun part.”

The fun is just beginning, though, for the 16 athletes picked for the powerful American team.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Amber Glenn competes during the women's free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Alysa Liu skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Maxim Naumov skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Madison Chock and Evan Bates skate during the "Making the Team" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Gold medalist Ilia Malinin arrives for the metal ceremony after the men's free skate competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)