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Presented by
Professor C.H. Powles
1984

THE LIGHT OF JAPAN

SOLDIER AND SERVANT SERIES, APRIL, 1906.
EXTRA NUMBER

THE LIGHT OF
JAPAN

CHURCH WORK IN THE DIO
CESES OF SOUTH TOKYO,
OSAKA AND KIUSHIU, UNDER
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

COMPILED BY A. ARNOLD, AS
SOCIATE OF THE S. P. G. IN THE
DIOCESE OF SOUTH TOKYO

WITH INTRODUCTION BY THE
BISHOP OF SOUTH TOKYO

CHURCH MISSIONS PUBLISHING CO

AUXILIARY TO THE BOARD OF MISSIONS

211 STATE STREET HARTFORD CONN

BV
ft

COPYRIGHT, 190G, BY
Church Missions Publishing Co.

129411

.1AM 9 C 10on

Illustrations

The Bishops of the Nippon Sei Kokwai Frontispiece

To face page
Bishop Bickersteth ...... 41

By kind permission of G. Palmer ... 28

First Six Clergy of the Nippon Sei Kokwai . 42

First Aid to the Injured ..... 55

A Soldier of the Line .... 58

Tokyo Pro-Cathedral 66

St. Andrew s Boys School, Tokyo ... 68

A Group of Pupils 70

A Pilgrim starting for the Holy Mountain . 74

The Bishop, the Rev. F. W. and Mrs. Kennedy and
Family, Miss Makeham, the Staff and Pupils of

St. Mary s School 100

Little Buddhist planting Prayers for Soldiers in

the Grass 117

The Hommyoji Temple at Kumamoto . . 124
Men s Ward of the Gardens of the Kumamoto Lep
er Hospital 126

Deaf and Dumb Artist In-patient of the Leper

Hospital at Kumamoto . . . . 128
Three Little Patients in the Kumamoto Leper

Hospital 129

Chapel of the Kumamoto Leper Hospital . 131

Country walk near Ikan . . . . . 143
Cherry tree-lined Arbor to the Famous Temple

of Kompira ..... 145

The Church of the Holy Cross, Matsumoto, with

the Chapter of St. Andrew s Brotherhood 157

Miss Makeham, Miss Ichimura, and Girls of St.

Mary s Home, Matsumoto .... 160

Police Bible Class, Shitaya Station . . 186

The Cape Inuboe Lighthouse which supplied the
design for our cover is described on page 167-9 of this
volume. The significance of the choice will be under
stood from the account there given of the use that the
Headkeeper has made of his opportunities as guardian
of that terrestrial light to point his visitors and associates
to the Celestial Light, "Which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world."

The inscription on the sides of the title-page follows
out the same thought. It was used as a Christmas
decoration in one of our mission schools and reads, "The
Light from the Manger Bed has shown throughout the
World."

With the exception of the frontispiece, most of the
illustrations of this book have been made expressly for
it, many of them from private photographs sent by
Miss Arnold.

Contents

CHAP. PAGE

I INTRODUCTORY .... 1
II GENERAL PROGRESS OF CHRISTIAN MIS
SIONS (1859-87) 13

III BISHOP BICKERSTETH S EPISCOPATE (1886-

97) .... .21
IV THE BUILDING UP OF THE SEI KOKWAI
BISHOP BICKERSTETH S EPISCOPATE (Con
tinued) 28

V THE WORK OF THE S.P.G. AND C.M.S. IN

TOKYO 42

VI ST. ANDREW S AND ST. HILDA S COMMUN
ITY MISSIONS AT TOKYO . . 62
VII ST. ANDREW S AND ST. HILDA S COMMUN
ITY MISSIONS AT TOKYO (Continued) 75
VIII CHURCH WORK AT OSAKA ... 84
IX CHURCH WORK AT SOME TREATY PORTS" 100

X C. M.S. WORK 112

XI THE LEPERS AT KUMAMOTO, ITS CHURCH

AND HOSPITAL ..... 125
XII THE MISSIONS OF THE CANADIAN CHURCH

IN JAPAN 132

XIII THE MISSIONS OF THE CANADIAN CHURCH

IN JAPAN (Continued) . . . 151

XIV COUNTRY WORK IN BOSHU, ETC. . . 162
XV SOME COUNTRY STATIONS OF THE S.P.G.

MISSION IN THE SOUTH TOKYO DIOCESE 173
XVI WORK AMONGST POLICE AND FACTORY

WORKERS 185

XVII ON THE JAPANESE PRAYER BOOK AS COM
PARED WITH THE ENGLISH AND AMERICAN
PRAYER BOOKS ..... 193
APPENDIX I DIOCESE OF HOKKAIDO
APPENDIX II TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES
APPENDIX III STATISTICS ....
INDEX

Preface

The Church Missions Publishing Company, in its
endeavor to supply information from every part of the
Missionary world, found a demand for some authority
on the English Church Missions in Japan.

They deputed one of their number to enter into
correspondence with the workers in the field, and
the four English bishops were approached. From
two of them, Bishop Fysori of Hokkaido and Bishop
Awdry of South Tokyo, answers were received. The
former pointed us to the statistical information which
can be compiled from printed sources, such as Mr.
Stock s book and the Year book of the Church of
England; while Bishop Awdry most kindly undertook
through Miss Arnold, an Associate of the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel, to prepare a state
ment of the field and the work.

Many vicissitudes were encountered and, from
various causes, delays arose which were vexatious.
These delays have not, however, impaired the value
of the work. It would be difficult to present any
thing as a finality for life in Japan to day, but it is
certain that such an account of existing conditions
secures for us the story of the work done by the Church
of England in the Sunrise Kingdom, during its most
important period.

The Publishing Company had already brought
out "Japan and the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai," which
the Rev. Dr. Abbott of Cambridge had kindly written
at their request, presenting the work of the American
Church in the Dioceses of Tokyo and Kyoto. They
now send out to the public this little volume, which

x PREFACE

treats of some aspects of the Sei Ko Kwai and her
missions in the South Tokyo, Osaka, and the Kiu
Shiu Dioceses, trusting that with its touches of per
sonal experience, with the account of missions to the
fishermen and of those to the lepers, and with the
additional fact that it is the first compilation of the
missions of the Church of England in the Sei Ko
Kwai as a whole yet published, it may constitute a
sterling contribution to the literature of missions.

At the request of Bishop Awdry and Miss Arnold,
permission was given for the book to appear simulta
neously on both sides of the water. The English
edition has, however, preceded the American, taking
the title of "Church Work in Japan"; while the
American book will bear the legend "The Light
of Japan"with the English as an explanatory sub-title.

Miss Arnold desires to say that she has endeavored
to present the work not of one society or another,
but that of the Church as a whole. The Dioceses
have been taken as centres and the addition of Hokkai
do in an appendix by the American editor is due to
the fact that it did not come within the range of her
travels. She wishes to express her indebtedness to
the Missionaries of the several stations for their review
of each section of the work, and to the Rev. A. F.
King for his careful scrutiny and kind advice, while
to Mrs. Bickersteth and Bishop Awdry the Board of
Editors unite with Miss Arnold in grateful acknowl
edgement of work which could not have been ac
complished save by their kind co-operation.

ANNIE LEAKIN SIOUSSAT,
Editor for Church Missions Publishing Co.

Introduction

Tokyo, Japan, December 19, 1905.

Miss Alfreda Arnold has written this little book
at my request, and I was led to ask her to write it
by the desire expressed in America* to have some
thing about the missions of the English Church in
Japan more or less corresponding to what Dr. Abbott
has published in regard to the American Church
Missions in this country.

This sketch is rather fuller than Dr. Abbott s but
does not profess to be exhaustive. For example,
as Miss Arnold has not been able personally to visit
Hokkaido (the Northern Island of Japan), she has
not included it in her sketch, through the mission of
the Church Missionary Society there is very fruitful
and the aboriginal inhabitants, the Ainu, who to the
number of fifteen thousand are found there only,
are rapidly becoming Christians under the influence
of that mission.

But Miss Arnold has travelled widely among the
Mission Stations of the other three jurisdictions,
South Tokyo, Osaka and Kiu Shiu which are under
the charge of Bishops of the English Church, and her
little book has the merit of being the product of the
bright fresh mind of one who is living in Japan and
taking her part in missionary work; while, being
more free than most missionaries, she has travelled
about to the places of which she speaks and has drawn
her information at first hand. These qualifications
are of the highest importance, for scarcely any one

*Through the Church Missions Publishing Company.

xii INTRODUCTION

in the West understands Japan who has not been
there for a considerable period, and changes are so
rapid that what is written by a person who left the
country five or even three years ago, may be quite
out of date.

WILLIAM AWDRY.
Bishop in South Tokyo.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

Modern Missions Sketch from 1859-87.

IT was in 1853 that Commodore Perry anchored with
his squadron off the entrance to the Gulf of Yedo.
Eight months later, as the result of firm but courteous
negotiations with the Shogunate, he arranged a treaty
by which two Japanese ports were opened to American
trade. For two hundred and thirty years Japan had
been closed to the outside world ; the Dutch alone,
under humiliating terms, had been allowed to hold
scanty communication with it through the few Dutch
merchants in Nagasaki. Fruitless efforts to open the
closed doors had from time to time been made, but now
at last Perry had succeeded in gaining an entrance, and
the other Western nations hastened to claim the same
privileges as those granted to the United States. For
a time only a few further concessions were made, and
these with the greatest reluctance ; but in 1858 treaties
with the United States and with Great Britain allowed
members of those nations to reside at certain ports of
Japan, and it was stipulated that these ports Hako
date, Kanagawa (Yokohama), Nagasaki, Hiogo (Kobe),
Osaka, and Niigata should be opened to their com
merce. Very soon France and other countries received
for their people the same privileges.

1 B

2 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

But these early treaties had been made with the
Shogun s government, not with the Mikado who had
been wrongly regarded by foreign governments as merely
the spiritual ruler of his people. For some years attacks
on the legations and on individuals witnessed to the deep
resentment felt by many of the great Daimyos and by
their retainers, the Samurai, at the way in which their
Emperor s sovereign authority and their own rights
were being ignored. The Powers concerned demanded
heavy indemnities for the outrages which ensued, and
much bitterness was created. Happily, though the in
cidents were deplorable in themselves, they led to some
good results. The leaders of the Choshu and Satsuma
clans began to seek closer intercourse with the Western
nations in order to learn of them the arts that made
them so strong. The Shogunate, too, from internal
causes was by this time much shaken in power. The
Shogun and his advisers had treated with the foreigners,
in most cases from sheer inability to resist the guns
of their fleets ; but when the Daimyos at Kioto (the
Emperor s ancient capital) induced the Emperor to
command that the foreigners be driven from the country,
the Shogunate could only adopt a temporising policy
towards, both parties. Gradually the Powers awoke to
the facts that the Shogun was but the Viceroy of the
Emperor, that the Emperor himself had not sanctioned
their treaties with his government, and that Daimyos
and Samurai had had good cause for their hostilities.
The recent misunderstandings began to clear ; the
foreign treaties were ratified at Kioto by the Emperor
in 1865 ; and, three years later, the progressive party,
headed by the Satsuma men, directed a successful
revolution against the Shogun s government after
having induced the new Shogun to resign and firmly
established the young Emperor, who had just come to
the throne, as undisputed ruler of all Japan,

INTRODUCTORY 3

The same year, as an outward sign of the momentous
change wrought by the Revolution, the Emperor left
his seclusion at Kioto, entered Yedo in state, and set
up his throne there, making it his new capital. For
centuries Yedo had been the seat of the executive
government of the Shogunate, and Kioto the sacred
Imperial city. Now a new era had begun for nation
and for city and, to emphasize the change, Yedo re
ceived its new name of Tokyo, or " Eastern Capital."

Then quickly followed, in 1871, a further change of
highest import. That year witnessed the noble and
self-denying surrender by the Daimyos of all their
feudal rights, lands, and revenues into the hands of the
Emperor. This voluntary act of patriotism meant
nothing less than a supreme determination to have a
truly united Japan under one Imperial ruler. Modern
Japan had begun her march forward to take her place
within thirty years among the foremost nations of the
twentieth century. Japan had not had the slightest
desire to be drawn into the race with the Western
nations, but finding that she must be in it, she resolved
at the beginning that she would go on with all her heart
and would run, not last, but with the first.

MODERN MISSIONS (1859-87).

The story of the Portuguese Jesuit missions to Japan
conducted by Francis Xavier in the sixteenth century
is too well known to need recapitulation here. Suffice
it to say that while the Christian teaching of the Jesuits
was welcomed by the people, many unfortunate cir
cumstances combined to bring about the speedy down
fall of a mission that numbered within fifty years close
upon one million adherents. The ingrained suspicion
of all foreigners on the part of the Japanese government ;
a policy of predetermined opposition pursued so soon as

4 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

convenient by both Hideyoshi and lyeyasu ; * the bad
feeling between the Portuguese Jesuits and the later
arrived Franciscan Spaniards from Manilla a bad
feeling made worse by theological differences, and the
indiscreet zeal of the Franciscans ; lastly, the animosity
and intrigues of the Buddhist priests who, persecuted
by Nobunaga, saw their chance of regaining power under
his successors Hideyoshi and lyeyasu : these untoward
circumstances of opposing policy, internecine jealousy,
and religious hatred, were without doubt turned to cruel
account by the enmity of the Dutch (and, be it acknow
ledged, by a few English) traders who were bitter foes
to Spaniards and Portuguese, alike in religion and trade.
Hence, within fifty years came persecution, bloodthirsty
and overwhelming, and a process of extermination
total as it was thought of the foreign religion. The
edicts for the discovery, denunciation, and relentless
punishment of all Christians remained in force for over
two centuries, and it needed but the marvellous dis
covery in 1865 of the continued existence, in the Pro
vince of Kiushiu, of loyal descendants of these Japanese
Catholics of the seventeenth century, for the flame of
persecution to rise again to fierce heat. Of this more
in due course ; the story of modern missions to Japan
begins properly in 1859.

At that date the treaties of the foregoing year came
into force that with the United States being negotiated
by Towsend Harries and the one with Great Britain
being carried through by Lord Elgin. These, and those
following with France and with other nations, gave to
the foreign residents full religious toleration ; but the

1 Even Nobunaga s previous favourable reception of the
Jesuits had only been diplomatic ; before his assassination, and
as his position grew stronger, signs of change of his policy be
came evident (see Mr. J. H. Gubbins in Transactions of the
Asiatic Society of Japan}.

INTRODUCTORY 5

edicts against Christianity were still proclaimed on the
public notice-boards throughout the country, and were
enforced with severity against any Japanese who might
have the courage to embrace the Christian faith. Pre
viously, at long intervals, both Catholic and Protestant
missionaries had made solitary attempts to force the
barriers guarding the isolated empire, but with little
visible result. And for some years to come little or no
work could openly be attempted beyond the limits of
the treaty ports. But the delay proved beneficial in
giving opportunities of fuller preparation for entering
in at the door, afterwards to be flung wide open to all.

To America belongs the high honour of first sending
missionaries to take advantage of the treaties opening
the country to the foreigner s residence. In May, 1859,
even before the treaties came into force, the Rev. J.
Liggins and Rev. C. M. Williams (afterwards Bishop of
Yedo), of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America,
had already arrived at Nagasaki. Within the year Dr.
Hepburn (of the American Presbyterian Board), Dr.
Verbeck (of the Dutch Reformed Church of America),
and a minister of the American Baptist Free Missionary
Society, had arrived and were settling at Nagasaki and
at other treaty ports.

Unfortunately the United States Civil War of 1861-65
sadly crippled American missionary efforts for the
time ; in 1861, therefore, some of the episcopal mis
sionaries, who were compelled to retire from Japan for
lack of home support, wrote to England, appealing to
the Church Missionary Society to take up the work
they had begun. Means, however, were not forthcoming,
and on the restoration of peace the American missions
were enabled to strengthen their forces in Japan.

Next came the French Roman Catholic Mission on
the conclusion of that nation s treaty with the Mikado.
By 1862 chapels had been erected in Yokohama and

6 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

Nagasaki to supply the spiritual needs of Western
Roman Catholics. To these, attracted by curiosity,
came numbers of Japanese, and a church at Nagasaki,
dedicated in 1865 to the " Twenty-six Martyrs of
Japan," * became the direct cause of the discovery that
" several Christian communities round about Nagasaki
had survived the ruin of the Church of their forefathers
over two centuries ago. They had preserved certain
prayers, the rite of baptism, and a few books. But if
these Christian communities survived, the persecuting
spirit survived also. In 1867-70, all those Christians
and they numbered over four thousand who refused
to forswear their faith, were torn from their native
villages and distributed over various provinces of the
empire, where they were kept as prisoners by the re
spective Daimyos." 2 Exile, and torture in numerous
cases, caused the deaths of over two thousand of these
faithful Christians ; the remainder were set at liberty in
1873, about which time the laws against Christians fell
into abeyance. This wonderful occurrence, in spite of
all the sufferings, could not but arouse the keenest joy
and thankfulness ; on the other hand, the mission has
had to make way against the aversion in which they
have been held on account of natural prejudice due to
the memory of the past a memory so fraught with
religious animosity and supposed political intrigue.

English Episcopal and American Congregational
Missions now followed in quick succession. From
England came the Rev. George Ensor, of the Church
Missionary Society, to Nagasaki, and from America
the Rev. D. C. Greene, D.D., of the American Board
Mission (Congregational), both arriving in 1869. Dr.
Greene, a resident first in Yokohama and then in Tokyo,
is still an active missionary of his Society.

1 Crucified for their faith at Nagasaki, in 1597.

a B, H. Chamberlain in Things Japanese, 3rd ed. p. 287.

INTRODUCTORY 7

Though for a long time the Church Missionary Society
had been desirous of working in Japan, it was not till
1868 the year of the Restoration that a fitting op
portunity arose. In this year an anonymous dona
tion of 4,000 enabled the Church Missionary Society
to send Mr. Ensor in January, 1869, as their first mis
sionary to represent the Church of England in Japan.
For reasons of health he, and the Rev. H. Burnside,
who had joined him in 1871, were soon obliged to retire.
Their work at Nagasaki was carried on by the Rev. H.
Evington (now bishop) from Osaka, and in 1875 the
station was placed under the control of the Rev. Herbert
Maundrell.

Beside their first station at NAGASAKI, the C.M.S. had
between 1873 and 1875 established four new mission
centres ; OSAKA, to which came the Rev. C. F. Warren,
afterwards Archdeacon in 1873 ; 1 TOKYO was assigned
to the Rev. J. Piper, in 1874 ; HAKODATE in the
same year to the Rev. W. Dening, who was transferred
from Madagascar, and NIIGATA, in 1875, to the Rev.
P. K. Fyson from Tokyo, now Bishop of the Hokkaido
diocese. These five stations, with the exception of
Niigata, which was relinquished in 1883, are still the
chief centres of the Church Missionary Society in Japan.

Meanwhile, Mr. Williams (in 1866 consecrated
" Missionary Bishop to China, with jurisdiction in
Japan ") of the American Episcopal Church, through
the ill-health of his colleagues and the American Civil
War, had been left to carry on his Mission, from 1859
to 1871, practically single-handed. In 1869 he moved

1 For a year Mr. Warren conducted services for the English
community in Kobe ; he was then relieved there by Mr. Eving
ton, and in 1875 that work was handed over to the S.P.G. This
foreign settlement of Kobe is close to the native port of Hiogo,
on the other side of the bay from Osaka, and has become the
rival of Yokohama as a principal port of the Empire.

8 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

his centre of work from Nagasaki, to which place Mr.
Ensor of the C.M.S. had just been sent, to Osaka ;
there he was joined by a colleague, and in 1873 he came
to Yokohama to start nearer to the capital of the em
pire a fresh centre of the Mission. A year later, and on
becoming resident at Tokyo, his title was changed to
that of " Missionary-Bishop of Yedo, with jurisdiction
in Japan." At Tokyo, Osaka and Kioto, the American
Episcopal Church have now their chief spheres of work,
Tokyo and Kioto being their two diocesan centres.

In the previous year, 1873, missionaries belonging to
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign
parts began work in Japan, arriving at Yokohama
in the same ship that brought Bishop Williams. The
Rev. W. B. Wright and the late Rev. A. C. Shaw (of
Toronto, Canada, and afterwards Archdeacon of the
diocese of South Tokyo) proceeded at once to Tokyo,
where they took up their residence. Starting work
thus at Tokyo, in 1876 the Society took over the work
of the C.M.S. Mission at Kobe, being represented there
by the Rev. H. J. Foss and the Rev. F. B. Plummer.
The former, now as Bishop of Osaka, still continues to
reside there. Hence Tokyo and Kobe are the chief
centres of this Society s Missions in Japan.

The Russian Orthodox Church, though established in
Tokyo so recently as 1871, numbers already some 24,000
Church members, and nearly 200 churches. It owes
this striking progress to Bishop Nicolai, its founder in
Japan. In 1861 he had come to Japan as chaplain to
the Russian consulate at Hakodate ; for several years
he made no attempt to preach to the Japanese, but
devoted himself to a careful study of their language. In
1866 he baptized his first convert, a Buddhist priest,
and three years later he baptized a physician. Return
ing in 1869 to Russia, Bishop Nicolai induced the Holy
Synod to establish a Mission in Japan, and he was sent

INTRODUCTORY 9

out as its first bishop. A man of striking appearance,
and for forty- three years a resident in Japan from
1871 living in the heart of its capital no missionary
has exerted a greater influence through personal magne
tism and force of Christian character upon Japanese
and foreigners alike. With sometimes four more
often with only two or no other missionaries to help
him he has thoroughly trained numerous native
assistants as priests and catechists, and dispersed
them throughout the country. Some few of them have
been even through a theological course in Russia.

The cathedral of the Orthodox Church is in the centre
of Tokyo, situated upon high ground, and overlooking
some of its most crowded and closely built streets. It
is conspicuous by its size and character of simple but
ample proportions in the Russian-Byzantine style.
The exterior of stone, cased in stucco, gleams white in
the sunlight as it dominates that portion of the city ;
the interior possesses a magnificent and gilded chancel
screen to the closed sanctuary, adorned with many
modern pictures representative of the Christian Faith.
As Mr. Chamberlain truly remarks, "It is the only
ecclesiastical edifice in Tokyo with any pretensions to
architectural splendour."

Its commanding position has aroused some prejudice
among the people, for no building in this city should,
according to Japanese taste, attain a higher altitude than
the Emperor s Palace. Fears also were prevalent on the
outbreak of the present war that popular excitement
might vent itself in some attempt upon the Bishop s
life as a Russian subject, and on his cathedral as repre
sentative of the Russian faith. Police protection was
at once afforded by the authorities, and now, after ten
months of war, during which excitement has been kept
at fever heat, now by glorious victory, occasionally by
sudden disaster, we have it stated in the Seikyo Shimpo

io CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

(Greek Church paper) that not only have the services at
their cathedral gone on as usual, but that the cordial
feelings between the Bishop and his Japanese fellow-
workers have not cooled in the least. Japanese Chris
tians were indeed praying for their country s success,
but they recognized that their prayers were subject to
the Divine Will. In the Bishop s letter to the Novoe
Vremya he refers to the fact that the work of the Greek
Church has been very little affected by the war. There
have been 720 baptisms during the past year, and the
number of workers has risen from 188 to IQ8. 1

Between the years 1871 and 1887 many new missions
were established in Japan, or took the place of others
resigned for various reasons. Among the earlier of
these missions was the American Mission Home, an
important educational institution set on foot in 1872
at Yokohama by the Women s Union Missionary Society
of America ; in 1873 the American Methodist Episcopal
Church, the Methodist Church of Canada, besides the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, all com
menced work ; and in 1874 the Edinburgh Medical
Mission was started and the United Presbyterian Church
of Scotland sent out its first missionaries. 2

Thus at the close of 1895 there were thirty- four
Christian Missions represented in Japan ; viz., the
French Roman Catholic Mission ; the Russian Orthodox
Church Mission ; the American and British Episcopal
Missions of the Anglican Communion ; the Missions of
the Canadian " Methodist," and the American " Metho-

1 Taken from the Japan Daily Mail, Dec. io, 1904. Sum
mary of the religious press.

2 In 1873 the American " Baptist Mission Union " took the
place of the Baptist Free Mission Society, one of the first group
of Missionary Societies to arrive in 1859 ; and some few years
later the Edinburgh Medical Mission withdrew from the field,
transferring its work at Niigata to the American Board of (Con
gregational) Missions.

INTRODUCTORY n

dist Episcopal " Churches ; the Scotch Presbyterian, one
Swiss, and one Scandinavian non-Episcopal Mission ;
the remainder being American including Methodists,
Baptists, Congregationalists and others all non-
episcopal.

The Society of Friends, the Salvation Army, and the
Young Men s Christian Association have also their
Missions in Japan.

This bewildering multiplicity of Protestant missions
has become, however, since 1877 a good deal simplified.
That year is memorable as seeing a great step towards
unity taken by the three Presbyterian Missions, Ameri
can and Scotch, in amalgamating to form a single church,
the " Nippon Kirisuto Kyokwai " or " Church of Christ
in Japan," based upon the common Confession of Faith
the Apostles Creed. 1

Propositions also have been made for uniting the work
of the different Methodist Societies, and at one time the
union of the Presbyterian and " Kumiai " Congrega
tional Churches came close to completion.

Mr. Chamberlain, in his Things Japanese, 2 has ob
served : " Numerous as are the Protestant bodies labour
ing on Japanese soil, and widely as some of them
differ in doctrine, fairness requires it to be stated that
they rarely, if ever, have made Japan the scene of
sectarian strife. The tendency has been rather to
minimise differences, a tendency exemplified in the
amalgamation of the various Presbyterian Churches,
the proposed union of these with the Congregationalists
and the cementing influence of the Young Men s Chris
tian Association work."

As regards the Anglican Communion :

1 This body embraces all the Christians (gathered) in connexion
with the American Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed, and Scotch
U.P. Missions.

3 Things Japanese, p. 291, 3rd ed.

12 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

An important step towards co-operation between the
several Missions of the Anglican Communion was taken
in 1878, when a united conference of the C.M.S., the
S.P.G., and the " American Episcopal Church " Mis
sions, under the joint direction of Bishops Williams
and Burden, met to discuss a basis of co-operation for
the bringing out of the Book of Common Prayer in
Japanese. A Translation Committee was nominated
by the Bishops, which brought out the larger part in
1879, an d the rest in 1882.

This notable achievement undoubtedly paved the
way for the formation, in 1887, in a full synod com
prising both Japanese and foreign members, of one
Japanese Church, the " Nippon Sei Ko Kwai." But
the further history of these and kindred matters more
rightly belongs to later chapters.

CHAPTER II

GENERAL PROGRESS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS (1859-87)

Periods of preparation (1859-73) Of popularity (1873-87)
Succeeded by a period of reaction.

I. " The Period of Preparation." The years 1859-73,
i.e. from the time of the opening of the treaty ports
to that of the removal of the edicts, has well been called
the " Period of Preparation." Preparation in language,
preparation in the translation of books, preparation
towards a better understanding between the missionaries
and their inquirers all this was necessary to the laying
of a good foundation for the future work.

During those thirteen or fourteen years the mis
sionaries made progress in the language, 1 and prepared
books to facilitate its study, amongst which should be
specially mentioned Dr. Hepburn s Dictionary. They
sold besides many thousand Chinese Bibles and other
Christian books to the educated classes, among whom

1 The Japanese language has for the Western learner two special
and peculiar difficulties. The spoken language is dissimilar to
the written to the extent that while the common people cannot
understand the latter, the educated classes look upon books
written in the colloquial as beneath their consideration and fit
only for children and the unlearned. Again, it depends on the
standing of the person addressed whether it be above or below
the rank of the speaker as to which distinct set of verbs and
honorific phrases be punctiliously used or as punctiliously
dropped ; hence the knowledge of a double vocabulary and an
ever tactful remembrance as to how to use the newly acquired
learning is rigorously necessary.

14 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

Chinese was the classic language, and they issued, as they
were able, a few tracts in Japanese. 1 Also a beginning
had been made by a committee appointed by a united
conference of Protestant missionaries in 1872 in the
work of the translation of the New Testament into
Japanese. The different Books were published as fast
as translated, and the whole New Testament was
completed in 1880, while the Old Testament was not
finished until 1887.

Moreover, medical and educational work, which met
with a ready acceptance at the hands of the Japanese,
as tending to their material advantages, was gaining
for the missionaries a growing respect and confidence
among the people they yearned to reach, and already a
few isolated converts had been gained in these early
years. In 1872 nearly a year before the withdrawal
of the edicts against Christianity of these original
converts two young men, with nine others, more re
cently baptized, were formed into an organized body,
and called " the Church of Christ in Japan," having a
constitution based upon a single evangelical creed.
This first congregation of Japanese Christians is now
one of the many connected with the present " United
Church of Christ in Japan," formed in 1877.

II. " The Period of Popularity" The year 1873 marked
the commencement of a new epoch, or " the period of
popularity." The edicts had been removed and, though
the official Act had been somewhat equivocal in its

1 The difficulty in getting these tracts adequately translated by
the aid of the missionaries teachers was great. One missionary
tells how sentence by sentence he forced his reluctant teacher
to use simpler words. " When all was ready for the press, the
teacher begged that his name should not be allowed to appear
in connexion with the tract, as he would be ashamed to have
it known that he had written anything in a style that could be
easily understood." (From Japan and its Regeneration, by Rev,
Otis Gary, p. 97.)

PROGRESS OF MISSIONS (1859-87) 15

nature, the people saw that they no longer needed to
regard Christianity as a prohibited religion. 1 Other in
fluences also tended to make the official and educated
classes regard religion with more favour. As the re
sult of a strong desire to adopt Western customs and
ideas, and the growing curiosity to learn more of Western
sciences, mechanics, electric apparatus, and the other
branches of physical and natural scientific research and
European customs religions and ethics received in
creased attention. To many Japanese, the Christian
religion came to be regarded at this period chiefly as a
means of furthering the advance of civilization and of
bringing good to the nation. Christianity in their eyes
was merely a medium for the production of a constitu
tional government in place of a medieval though
benevolent oligarchy, of popular rights in lieu of those
arising from fealty. Many of a later generation would
to-day eliminate from Christian religion and doctrine all
that goes beyond the attainment of virtues necessary
for responsibility and good citizenship. To such an
extent did the movement grow that in 1884 some states
men and public leaders began to urge that Christianity
be adopted as the national religion, one of them pro
posing that the Emperor should at once receive baptism.
Fortunately this mushroom growth was prevented in
time by the opposition of the Buddhists. It was natural

1 No law was repealed, but the edicts concerning Christianity
were removed from the public notice-boards along with others
respecting murder, arson, and robbery. These laws remained
iq force, and the officials were told to warn the people against
supposing that ]they were changed because the notices were no
longer exhibited. But in spite of explanations, the people
began to regard the law concerning persecution of Christians as a
dead letter, and the government, anxious to avoid offending the
Christian sentiment of Western nations, was not adverse to this
construction on its action ; having saved its face, it was the more
willing to ignore breaches of a law now less conspicuous (see
Japan and its Regeneration, p. 81).

16 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

that they, having lost the support of the government
(1871-4), should resent a religion which through its teach
ers that threatened to supplant them in their lessening in
fluence, as such was exhibited by their enfeebled hold
over the popular faith of the people. Christianity was
denounced, and in some places churches and the houses
of Christians were stoned, while preachers were occasion
ally assaulted. Buddhist priests formed societies for
the " boycotting " of everything Christian, even to
foreign goods as in one instance to kerosene oil !
What was more to the purpose, strenuous efforts were
made by Buddhists in the political arena to thwart the
nomination and election of Christian members for Par
liament. Not by opposition only, but by the better
way of imitation of Christian institutions, did Buddhism
seek to hold her own against Christianity ; schools for
young men, schools for girls (unmindful of their low
estimate previously put on women), women s meetings,
orphanages, temperance societies, summer schools, etc.,
were started and became items of organization in the
Buddhist propaganda. Just as Christianity in its
first youth had stirred in the reign of Julian the embers
of a dying paganism to a fresh blaze, so now Buddhism,
all but dead in Japan, seemed to take on a new lease of
life. The result was not really detrimental to the
progress of Christian work, for nothing, even though
misdirected, that will give renewed zeal for the good of
humanity in any shape can be profitless. And as
regards the direct work of Christian evangelization,
the hearts awakened to religious sensibility have
been found more responsive to the reading of God s
Word than those which are still sunk in the slumber
of lethargy, through disbelief by the agnosticism of
Japan s modern Confucius Herbert Spencer.

III. The Reaction. The great movement in favour of
Christianity reached its height about the year 1888.

PROGRESS OF MISSIONS (1859-87) 17

Soon after came a reaction that lasted for quite ten years
before it spent itself, the more immediate causes being
(i) the birth of a strong nationalistic spirit and anti-
foreign sentiment, (2) the shaking of the newly acquired
Christian doctrines, and (3) the growth of a commercial
spirit.

(1) The lengthened and wearying attempts to revise
and curtail the treaty-rights of foreigners and other un
toward events caused irritation against all things foreign,
including the " Western religion." Christianity must
take on a Japanese form if it would claim her adherence.

(2) Another disturbing and reactionary influence
came from the shaking of doctrinal beliefs. Many of
the young men of Japan who had travelled and studied
both in Europe and America returned somewhat better
educated and imbued with modern thought. These
Japanese, too often affected by the theological unrest
of the present day, and especially by the Unitarianism of
America, became many of them teachers of their
countrymen. From the West they had accepted, but
ill-digested, the (apparently) novel theological theories
of the day, and they found, through the prevailing de
sire of independence of former teachers at home, ready
listeners among their Japanese compatriots, always too
apt to take up with something new. Views and criti
cisms that might have done little harm in communities
that had long been instructed in Christian doctrines
assumed an exaggerated importance and led many to
give up apparently all their early faith.

(3) A third influence now beginning to make itself
felt was the growth of the commercial spirit. The won
derful increase in trade and manufactures, after the
straitened times of the Revolution and succeeding days,
had its influence on all classes. A desire to make money
and the claims of business caused some members of
Christian Churches to absent themselves from worship

c

i8 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

and to be careless of Christian duties, or to act incon
sistently with Christian standards of morality.

Owing to such influences during this period of re
action, a few measures of direct opposition were taken
by those in local authority, measures quite at variance
with the spirit and even perhaps with the letter of the
new Constitution of Japan, promulgated in 1889. Ac
cording to one article, " Japanese subjects shall, within
limits not prejudicial to peace and order, and not anta
gonistic to their duties as subjects, enjoy freedom of
religious belief." This article has greatly strengthened
the position of the Christians, but its spirit has not
always been consistently observed by those in authority.
Sometimes local officials, as commanders of garrisons
and teachers of public schools, made it difficult for
Christian soldiers or Christian students to attend ser
vices, meetings, or Sunday schools, and visited their
displeasure severely upon those who did. Such bigotry
is rarely to be met with now. For many years also
an educational system professedly secular, and with
holding privileges from private schools in which religion,
Christian or Buddhist, is taught, tended to hinder
Christian progress ; Christian ethics, said they, were
not in harmony with the Imperial edict on education of
1890, which laid stress upon filial obedience, nor as
pointed out by the leaders of a revived and modified
Shintoism inaugurated in 1897 could the Christian
doctrine of the worship of God and Christ, and the
various authorities obeyed by Christians as the Bible,
the Pope, or the head of the Greek Church (the Czar)
be held consistently with the supreme duty of loyal
Japanese to his sacred Majesty the Emperor. It was
asked Was the Mikado of Japan " to follow in the
wake of Western Emperors and to pray, Son of God,
have mercy upon me ? "

And yet through all this time of reaction, progress

PROGRESS OF MISSIONS (1859-87) 19

was made. The sifting process had its advantages.
What shook the faith of some made that of others
stronger and more intelligent. The need of greater
care in admitting persons to Church membership was
made plain. If in later years it has been less easy to
get people to attend preaching services, Christian ideas
and ideals have more and more found their way into the
hearts of the people. The secular periodicals show by
their frequent use of Christian phrases, and even of
Biblical quotations, that new thoughts are influencing
the minds of men. Knowledge of Western laws and
Western literature has been familiarising educated
people with new ways of regarding the universe and
mankind. Almost unconsciously to many has come
an unacknowledged belief in one God Who rules the
world, and toward Whom they have duties.

The conduct of the present war, and of the previous
negotiations, has shown to the world that the Japanese
not only possess dignity and natural manliness, but
other virtues superadded through the influence, direct
or indirect, of Christian ideals. The labours of mission
aries through these years have had some share in bring
ing about this development in character. Though the
conversion of the unbeliever is the aim of all missionary
effort, the result of efforts cannot be rightly appraised
solely by the counting of converts ; their indirect in
fluence upon the life of a nation has results far away
and beyond that which can be calculated by the numbers
of declared converts.

In speaking of this period of reaction, we come to
the episcopate of Bishop Bickersteth, which will be
described in another chapter. But it is well to under
stand a little, beforehand, the causes of the reactionary
period, its character, and tendency, that we may more
fully appreciate his work in Japan, and the opportune
ness of that work. Coming to the country in 1886, when

20 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

there was a passing wave of popularity in favour of
Christianity, Bishop Bickersteth saw, amongst other
dangers, that of Christian sectarianism. He saw that
the safeguard for her Christianity, as it has been for that
of other nations throughout Christian history, could
alone be a whole-sided Catholicism real, broad, and
deep. Then indeed, though she might have to learn of
the Truth, as individuals and nations alike do, slowly,
she would yet attain surely. Bishop Bickersteth s work
was arduous, and exhausted his physical powers, but
his devotion and zeal, at once fervent and well balanced,
obtained for the Sei Kokwai of Japan a " heritage " *
that her sons will ever regard as a gift in a special sense
from him.

1 Bishop Bickersteth s Addresses to Japanese Divinity
Students, published in Japanese in Japan, were reprinted in
English, and published in England (1898), after his death, under
the title of Our Heritage in the Church.

CHAPTER III

BISHOP BICKERSTETH S EPISCOPATE (1886-97)

Second English Missionary-Bishop to Japan His realization of
the circumstances in Japan, and their tendencies The need
for a " Japanese Church " " The greatness of the oppor
tunity " Dangers to be avoided Proper nature of a Church
in Japan Formation of the Nippon Sei Kohwai First
Conferences and Synod Subsequent endeavour after larger
unity.

CONSECRATED in February, 1886, at St. Paul s Cathedral,
by Archbishop Benson, as Missionary-Bishop of the
Church of England in Japan, Bishop Bickersteth arrived
at Nagasaki on April 13 of that year.

Prior to 1882 the two " Church of England " Missions
for Japan were under the supervision of Bishop Burdon,
of Victoria, Hongkong. In that year Archbishop Tait
arranged for the foundation of an English bishopric in
Japan, the C.M.S. and the S.P.G. undertaking to con
tribute to its maintenance. The Rev. A. W. Poole,
C.M.S. missionary in South India, was appointed and
consecrated by Archbishop Benson in 1883. Bishop
Poole was warmly welcomed in Japan, but, owing to the
failure of his health, his episcopate was brief. Within ten
months of arrival in the country he had to leave, and
died in England in 1885. He was succeeded by Bishop
Edward Bickersteth, son of the well-known Bishop of
Exeter, and grandson of a former C.M.S. secretary. As
founder and first head of the Cambridge University
Mission at Delhi, North India, he had been for five years

21

22 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

connected with the S.P.G. Consequently the newly
appointed bishop came to Japan with the experience
of a missionary in touch with the great English Mission
Societies.

In a letter written on his way out, Bishop Bickersteth
notes the many circumstances in Japan that called for
more organised missionary effort, and gave promise (as
explained in another letter *) of a prospect as bright as
any which had been ever set before the missionary.

He notes her acquirement, with " startling rapidity,
of European methods and customs, and the adoption of
the latest discoveries of the West." Railways, steamers,
telegraphs, telephones, post-offices, and P.O. savings
banks; English methods of municipal and executive
government ; and, lastly, a widespread system of educa
tion, 2 based upon European methods, in which English
was taught as a classic all had been " introduced
within the space of less than two decades into a country
wholly unknown to the last generation of English
men."

In the same letter Bishop Bickersteth speaks of the
changes (mentioned in the previous chapter) in public
opinion that accompanied this eager advance, and made
for an anti-foreign movement. Revived energy on the
part of the Buddhist priesthood to maintain their hold
upon the people coincided with a growing tendency
" in the mind of the young Japanese disabused of the
superstitions of his youth to regard the creed of
Christendom as practically on a level with the faith
of his own country " and to reject both. This re
action lasting for something over ten years, amounted
at one time to a distaste for any foreign influence, or
leadership whatsoever. " Japan for the Japanese "

1 Letter to Dr. Searle, August, 1886, quoted from Life and
Letters, etc.

2 29,000 schools were built and opened between 1873 and 1883.

BICKERSTETH S EPISCOPATE (1886-97) 23

became the popular cry. Along with others Bishop
Bickersteth saw that the special danger to the Church
of this transition time arose from a desire for a larger
corporate union at the expense of the principles of true
unity. The fear was lest the Japanese should adopt
after their eclectic fashion an emasculated form of
Christianity, and that the lack of co-operation and
cohesion on the part of our Church s missions might
aid in this result. In the face of this danger the differ
ent Presbyterian bodies already had joined together
and the Congregationalists were showing signs of
amalgamation. A recognised need is an opportunity
for reform, and, in the eloquent words of Bishop West-
cott, Bishop Bickersteth " at once recognized the
greatness of the unique opportunity," for the union of
the Anglican Missions in Japan. Might not the several
Missions of the Episcopal Churches of England and
America combine more closely their work in Japan and
build up together a Native Church, at once orthodox,
catholic, and evangelical ?

Though it was well, as he said, for a newly founded
Church " to pass as quickly as possible through the
congregational stage," 1 there were difficulties first to
overcome, mistakes and dangers to avoid. There had
to be no planting of a new Church a new branch had
already germinated and needed only wise husbandry.
It would be most unwise on the one hand to overlook,
in excessive zeal for union, the existence of differing
schools of thought within the Missions of the Anglican
communion, in so far as these were complementary
to one another and consistent with the real unity of the
Faith. On the other hand in regard to the native
congregations the mistake would be fatal if they sought
to impose an exact reproduction of Western Canons

1 Speech, Birmingham Church Congress, 1893, quoted in Life
and Letters, etc., p. 176. Second Edition.

24 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

and Articles upon Eastern minds. It must be " a
Japanese Church," not an English Church. Any for-
getfulness of this, any aiming at a different end, will
only reproduce in the next 200 years the miseries which
have arisen from the Italian Church, in the days of her
prosperity, having determined to be the Church of other
lands. 1 Speaking to the Rev. J. T. Imai, one of the
foremost of the Japanese clergy, on the morning
after his arrival in Tokyo, Bishop Bickersteth said :
" The Church of Japan must be the Church of
Japan ; the Prayer Book of that Church must be
really its own Prayer Book." 2 Again, " Japan will
adapt no mere Western type of the faith ; and although
receiving, as is necessary, the framework of the Church
from abroad, will complete her ecclesiastical organization
on her own lines." " We are glad of teachers/ it
was said by one of her own sons ; we require no
masters. " 3

The title chosen was a bold one ; Nippon Sei Kokwai.
" Sei " means " Holy," lit. clean ; "Ko means "general"
or " universal," and " kwai " means " society "or " com
pany." Thus the whole title may be said to correspond to
the expression in the Apostles Creed, "The Holy Catholic
Church." The Nippon Sei Kokwai was to be a native
Church, not in any loose nor attenuated meaning of
the phrase, but, as asserting its- historic position side by
side with the Roman and Greek Churches in the country,
it was to be a true " Ecclesia " rather than an aggrega
tion of Missions, and at the same time national.

From the time of his arrival in Japan, in April, 1886,
Bishop Bickersteth laboured to draw together the more
or less separate Anglican Missions into one strong

1 Letter to him from Archbishop Benson, August, 1886,
quoted in Life and Letters, etc., p. 251.

2 Ibid., p. 249.
a Ibid., p. 253.

BICKERSTETH S EPISCOPATE (1886-97) 25

native, Holy, and Catholic Church. And it was with
special joy that the Bishop welcomed the evidence of
the same aspirations on the part of some at least of his
fellow workers, as given in a-resolution proposed and
carried " in conjunction with his American brother
in the episcopate."

This was in the following conference of the Church
Missionary Society held at Osaka in May, where the
preliminary step was taken that within a year brought
about the full organization of the Sei Kokwai. This
conference passed the resolution :

" That, taking into consideration the existence of
three episcopal Missions in this country, two of which
are in connexion with the Church of England and one
with the Protestant Episcopal Church of America, and
being convinced that co-operation between these three
societies, and visible union among the native Christians
connected with them, is necessary to the establishment
of a strong episcopal Church and a necessary preliminary
to any wider union of Christians in Japan on a per
manent and satisfactory basis ; and further, noting that
for some time past united action has existed among
the various sections of non-episcopal communities, to
the manifest increase of their strength and influence,
and that efforts are now being made, specially by the
native Christians, towards unity among the different
communities themselves the annual conference of
the C.M.S., now sitting in Osaka, wishes to suggest to
the bishops and clergy of the American Church and the
clergy of the S.P.G. the desirability of holding a general
conference of the three Missions on this subject at an
early date."

Bishop Williams of the American Church accepted
the invitation, and in May a second step towards con
federation was taken by a meeting of the English (C.M.S.

26 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

and S.P.G.) and American Missions, at which Bishop
Williams presided, and a resolution passed to hold a
conference of delegates in July, each society sending its
own representatives. Bishop Bickersteth at once set
to work in conjunction with Bishop Williams to draft
Canons in order to submit a scheme to the forthcoming
conference. In this he balanced carefully the claims of
ancient precedents, and the decisions of the early Councils
of the Church, with the more recent Canons of the
American and New Zealand Churches as representative
of latter-day needs. He also referred the matter to
the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Benson), who, while
cautioning against undue haste, was equally anxious for
the building up of a native Church. The delegates in
the conference were met as the Bishop said not " to
constitute a new Church for our native brethren in the
faith there (had) been already formed (in the country)
a Christian Church " ; that Church existed, but as yet
it was not organized as an entity separate from the parent
Churches of her communion. It was now desirable to
provide the fuller organization of a Church and to con
stitute a formal synod. The discussions upon the pro
posed synod and code of Canons drawn up in conjunc
tion with Bishop Williams proved " most harmonious,"
everybody, writes Bishop Bickersteth, trying to contribute
rather than to oppose, to " build " rather than to " over
throw." A general conference was then resolved upon
for February of the following year. This united con
ference of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America
and of the Church of England took place on February 8,
1887, and preceded the first synod of the Japanese
Church at Osaka. Its result was important ; the mem
bers accepted the Articles, so that no present difficulty
might arise as to the Church of England basis, and de
layed the consideration of the more important Canons for
two years. A letter from the Bishop testified to the

BICKERSTETH S EPISCOPATE (1886-97) 27

hearty co-operation of all concerned ; the C.M.S. mis
sionaries passed a unanimous vote of satisfaction ; those
of the S.P.G. were " pleased," and the Japanese were
" delighted at having done the thing with us."

Nor did this first year of the Nippon Sei Kokwai as
a self-organized Christian Church go by without a
definite effort being made to " include " within its
communion " as many as possible of the Christians of
this country " ; this was in accordance with a resolution
passed at the united conference of Anglican Missions,
held as above stated. After a preliminary meeting in
July, a series of conferences with the American Metho
dist missionaries followed during the advent of the
same year, and were conducted in a candid but charit
able spirit for the discussion of a basis of union. A
fundamental agreement in regard to creed, rite, and
organization was considered by Bishop Bickersteth to
be necessary. The limitation of acceptance of the
Scriptures as authority and the Nicene Creed as standard
in doctrine; of the rigid adherence, " without doctrinal
explanation of the spiritual mystery" "to the ad
ministration of the sacraments in the forms which the
Lord appointed," and of the maintenance of the three
fold ministry, and the Apostolic succession proved
insurmountable difficulties ; yet these conferences were
not " without fruit," as was pointed out by the late
Archdeacon Shaw in an address given at Karuizawa
shortly after Bishop Bickersteth s death in August,
1897. " The attempt was perhaps premature in
Japan but no one can believe that such efforts, made
by such men, are altogether in vain or without effect in
hastening the coming of that day when there shall be
one fold, as there is One Shepherd.

CHAPTER IV

THE BUILDING UP OF THE SEI KOKWAI
(BISHOP BICKERSTETH S EPISCOPATE (continued)

The framing of the Constitution and Canons of theN.S.K.
Revision of Japanese Prayer Book Decision as to the
Thirty-nine Articles The Marriage laws Minor measures
Extension of the episcopate Canadian missions.

THE framing of the Constitution and Canons of the Sei
Kokwai was the work, for the most part, of the first
synod of the Church sitting in February, 1887; but
though the Canons thus resolved upon have in the main
been retained, they have since received certain amend
ments and considerable additions.

Archbishop Benson was at the first somewhat afraid
lest Bishop Bickersteth s enthusiastic spirit might lead
him to push forward too rapidly the work of framing
the Canons ; but Bishop Bickersteth and his co-leaders
of the infant Church knew well the danger that would
wait upon ecclesiastical delay. The Bishop s sermons
and addresses show that he did not act precipitately,
but felt at every turn the necessity of anticipating and
providing against future dangers. The smooth working
of the general synods (at first held biennially and now
made triennial) since the first year of his episcopate have
shown the wisdom of his policy, and were in themselves
the reward of his unresting toil on the Church s behalf.

According to the Articles of its Constitution the Nippon
Sei Kokwai " receives " the Scriptures of the Old and

BUILDING UP OF THE SEI KOKWAI 29

New Testament, " believes " them to be " a revelation of
God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation,"
and acknowledges " the Faith contained in the Nicene
and the Apostles Creeds " ; by Articles III and IV it
" sets forth the doctrine which Christ our Lord com
manded, administers the two Sacraments of Baptism
and Holy Communion which He Himself ordained,
carries out His discipline," and " maintains the three
orders of Bishop, Priest, and Deacon, which have been
transmitted from the time of the Apostles."

Further, by a resolution of the first synod in 1887,
the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England were
accepted provisionally, but their position was not de
termined. They have since been carefully re -translated,
and in this form have been again accepted by the
synod among the standards of teaching, but not as part
of the Prayer Book. For the first few years the great
questions before the synods were the revision of the
Japanese Prayer Book and the Canon law on marriage.
The much-needed matter of Prayer Book revision was
delegated by the synod of 1889 to two committees, one
dealing with translation, the other with structural de
tails. It occupied six years of anxious work, and was
not issued until September of 1895. With regard to
the marriage laws of the Church, the framing of the
Canon concerning them was deferred by the first synod
for further consideration ; it has been debated at each
successive synod, and in the synod of 1902 the first part
of a Canon was enacted whilst the most debatable
topics were referred to a committee to be brought up
again in 1905. Meantime each bishop administers the
marriage law of the Church according to the English
or American Church Canons on the subject.

The Revision of the Japanese Prayer Book, based as
that is upon the English and American Books, took the
line of filling in omissions from the American Book, and

30 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

adding from the English Book such details of service
as had been retained by the English, but lost by the
American Book. It was natural that with missionaries
inheriting two slightly different liturgies, some variance
in opinion should arise ; but their differences generally
followed the divergence of theological views rather than
of nationality. The result on the whole has been a gain
in liturgical richness for the Japanese Prayer Book.

Bishop Bickersteth referred in successive pastorals
(1890-95) to the work of revision, setting forth the
principles on which the work should proceed, noting
its progress, and regretting the few things not then
accomplished. The Bishop was anxious to limit the
principles of revision to " necessary curtailments and
additions," " to points of order and detail," not to the
" substance and fabric of the work." He counselled
the Japanese to revise rather than to remodel, for
though the brief collects and suffrages of Western
growth might be " less consonant to the genius " of
the Japanese language, yet it was too soon for Japanese
liturgical knowledge and skill to recast the Prayer Book
into a new liturgy more suited to them. Neither could
the foreign clergy serving the Japanese Church so break
their canonical obligations. The lesser matters of
forming in the Japanese language a suitable theo
logical terminology for the liturgy before them, the
preparation of minor offices and the consideration of
certain subordinate differences in the two Eucharistic
offices from which their own was drawn, would suffi
ciently occupy their attention.

In September, 1895, the revised Prayer Book was
issued, accompanied by a joint pastoral from the bishops
in Japan. The incorporation into the Office of Holy
Communion of the American Prayer of Consecration as
an alternative form, the restoration of a form of absolu
tion to the Visitation of the Sick, and the addition of

BUILDING UP OF THE SEI KOKWAI 31

some excellent occasional prayers, chiefly from the re
vised American Prayer Book, were among the more im
portant improvements. On the other hand, there were
two omissions that of the Apocrypha from her lection-
ary and of a direction for the use of the daily Office by the
clergy prefixed to the Order for Morning and Evening
Prayer. These omissions were deeply regretted by
Bishop Bickersteth ; the Apocrypha on the ground that
" the Japanese Church had as yet no adequate knowledge
to enable its representatives to form an independent
judgment on its use," and the implied permission
for her clergy to omit the use of the daily Office,
because he held that " the standard of religion would
never have been depressed as it was in England in the
last half of the eighteenth century if the Church s rule
in the matter had not been so widely neglected," and
her " recovery of the practice " had, he thought, " ac
companied and largely contributed to the present
happier state of things."

The debates in successive synods with regard to the
marriage laws have chiefly turned on the following
questions :

(1) The relation of the marriage service to the legal
registration of marriage (that the latter must precede
the former was carried in 1902.)

(2) The prohibited degrees : marriage with a deceased
wife s sister.

(3) The nature of divorce.

The difficulties have not been Japanese in origin, but
are the same fundamental difficulties that are found
dividing English and American Churchmen to-day.
The stricter party has perhaps been in a minority in the
synod all through, but it has been the more uncom
promising and has known its own mind better. Each
synod has shown itself better instructed than the pre
ceding, and the tendency consequently is now in favour

32 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

of a stricter Canon than could have been passed ten
or twelve years ago.

Some reference to Japanese social customs and ideas
in relation to marriage may interest the reader as show
ing how such customs in the minds of the native Chris
tians tend to complicate the situation and render more
difficult any agreement upon a Canon.

One great difficulty may perhaps be broadly stated
thus, that whereas marriage in the West generally takes
place from motives of personal happiness or of indi
vidual self-interest seldom from that of the happiness,
the well-being, or the interest of the family and con
nexions in Japan (where, owing to the inheritance of
Confucian philosophy and ethics, the family is every
thing, the individual nothing) marriage is entered upon
and divorce allowable, from quite another set of motives
and ethical ideas.

The family is the social unit in Japan. Its individual
members are the possessions of the family, or clan, to be
disposed of for its well-being by the guardians or heads
who, as trustees, are responsible for its honour.

As it is a law of the land that no family, once regis
tered, be allowed to die out, each family must have its
heir. The " elder brother " even of a humble household
has duties analogous to those of the heir- apparent to a
powerful dynasty. He enters into marriage as assuming
a responsibility incumbent upon him as the heir. His
wife is usually the choice of the family. If she turn out
unsuitable for the purposes of her position, if she fail to
give him children and heirs then his duty to his
House may require him to divorce his wife, and to
make a second trial for the sake of the family, or
he may not always take such extreme measures, but
adopt as a son and heir one of his relatives or any other
suitable person. But an heir somehow or other he must
have to whom to pass on the family name and entity.

BUILDING UP OF THE SEI KOKWAI 33

The case is somewhat different if the head of the house
has no son, but has daughters ; he can then marry one
to a man whom he adopts as his heir, and who changes
his name and sinks his identity into that of his wife s
House. And here comes in a frequent cause of divorce,
when the heiress (daughter or niece) of a man of position
or wealth is married to an adopted son. The son-in-
law may become tired of a position which is in a sense
subordinate, or he may prove extravagant, or in other
ways undesirable as heir to the family s name and
traditions. But with divorce in Japan as an easy
solution of the difficulty, the daughter is either re
married to a more eligible man, or her own right as
heiress is passed over in favour of a younger sister,
who, in her turn, marries another adopted son-in-law.
In this latter case, however, the disinherited elder
daughter (or niece) may not keep her husband ; his
divorce from her is necessary, for otherwise he would
retain the family s name and there would be two
claimants to that honour.

These considerations will show how difficult it has
been to frame a law that will uphold the sanctity of
Christian marriage and yet not shift the centre of gravity
in the Japanese code of social ethics. As everything in
Japanese morals hinges on the family, and no personal
right of man or woman may alter this, how can a
Japanese live according to Christian standards of con
duct and yet remain an honourable member of the
family in which he has been born, fulfilling his or her
duties towards it ? This has been the problem, and
the following pastorals and speeches of Bishop Bicker -
steth testify to the discussion of succeeding synods, and
show how they are slowly, but hopefully, feeling their
way to a solution of difficulties which still perplex the
conscience of the " Christian " West.

Writing to his clergy in 1892, Bishop Bickersteth

34 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

observes that " the marriage law of the Church vitally
affects its well-being as well as tests its obedience to
divine commands and restrictions." He says :

" For myself, I cannot doubt that the two principles
embodied by Archbishop Parker in the marriage laws
of the English Church, and from which as English
clergymen we are not personally at liberty to recede
namely, that marriage is unlawful within the third
degree, and that relationship by affinity is to be treated
as equivalent to relationship by consanguinity are
in accordance with scriptural guidance and catholic
precedent."

At the synod of 1893 he spoke of the dangers arising
in " a Christian communion " from a " laxity " of their
marriage laws, and added that " while recognizing the
consideration which Christianity always gives to national
or local customs," he " should indeed fear for the
future of the Nippon Sei Kokwai if " our " marriage law
embodied any other than the principles of the universal
Church." No Canon was passed by this synod, but a
joint pastoral on the Christian marriage law was issued
by Bishops Bickers teth and McKim early in 1894. In
the synod of 1896 there was eager discussion, and
Bishop Bickersteth was distressed at the laxity of
opinion expressed by a few of the Japanese delegates.
His declaration in full synod, " that he would resign his
position rather than preside over a Church which
tampered with the Christian marriage laws " made a
deep impression on the Japanese who were present,
and had a great effect at the time. In the next pastoral
to his clergy he emphasized his view, saying that " we
are not at liberty, if we would be true to ourselves, to
enact any law which would conflict with the mind and
practice of the Catholic Church," and that " the practice
of the Christian Church from the beginning, in days
anterior to the definite enactments of canon law, was

BUILDING UP OF THE SEI KOKWAI 35

in accordance with this view " that of " the Mosaic
law (which was) based on the principle that affinity is to
be regarded as equivalent in point of relationship to
consanguinity. . . . The canon law only defined what
had long been accepted."

The synod of 1896 was followed by a joint pastoral
on the question issued by the four Bishops of the
Nippon Sei Kokwai. The pastoral enumerated the
" three fundamental principles," relating to Christian
marriage derived from Holy Scripture ; it referred to a
table of kindred and affinity enclosed with the letter ; and
re-affirmed Christian principles and directions that
should guide their conduct as Christians in regard
to :

(i) Divorce between Christians ; (2) The legitimacy
of the remarriage of the innocent party in a divorce ;
(3) To unions contracted before baptism ; (4) To the
binding force of a union when one of the parties becomes
a Christian ; (5) The contraction of marriages between
a Christian and an unbeliever ; (6) A marriage with a
catechumen ; (7) The solemnization and registration of
Christian marriages ; and (8) The seasons for their
solemnization.

Lastly, it called the attention of the clergy to the
following additional points :

(1) To the statement in the recent synod that public
opinion in Japan held marriage with a deceased wife s
sister undesirable, though its civil law permitted it ; and
to the question whether under Canon VIII the priest in
pastoral charge should present persons who contract
such marriages to the Bishop with a view to their
excommunication .

(2) On the case of the apostasy from the Faith on the
part of a husband or wife.

(3) As to the desirability of solemnizing the service of
the Church with no unnecessary delay after due steps

36 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

had been taken to legalize the marriage according to
the requirements of the civil law.

The pastoral concluded by a reminder of " the utmost
consideration and gentleness " that should be " ex
hibited ... in dealing with the various and often
difficult cases which must necessarily arise until Chris
tian principles have wholly permeated the laws and
customs of the land."

By Canon XI, as drawn up and acknowledged by the
synod of 1902, the law as to the banns and solemniza
tion of marriage and their registration in accordance
with the civil law, was prescribed on the lines of the
preceding pastoral.

Apart from the questions of marriage and of Prayer
Book revision, the rights of election to the Church
vestries and synods, financial organization, the question
of Church discipline, and the formation of committees
for home and foreign missions were among the matters
of importance that came before the earlier synods. The
outcome of their deliberations may thus be briefly
summarized :

(1) In the Sei Kokwai, to quote from the S.P.G.
digest of 1900, " each congregation has its vestry,
and sends its representatives once a year to the council
of the missionary diocese. Each diocese has its own
council and societies for missionary and pastoral work,
which are recognized and assisted by the foreign mis
sionary societies ; and once in three years the Canons
require that there should be held (in Tokyo or Osaka)
a general synod of the whole Japanese Church." In
this synod the clerical and lay deputies may vote
separately or together ; the bishops always vote separ
ately.

(2) Funds for pastoral sustentation and for home
and foreign missions are under the management of
Board committees of the diocesan synods. Thus already

BUILDING UP OF THE SEI KOKWAI 37

has the Japanese Church acknowledged her duty and
privilege to provide means to carry on her work at
home and abroad on a corporate basis, co-extensive
with her dioceses, rather than on the too often divergent
lines of parochial and individual interests.

(3) Church discipline, though a delicate matter where
the rulers in the Church are for the most part of a
foreign nationality, and have to deal with converts of
an independent nation, has been the easier to maintain
through the instinctive fealty and loyalty to authority
which stamps the Japanese character. Bishop Bicker-
steth also by his tact and his care not to let little care
lessnesses in matters of ritual and reverence develop into
abuses hard to eradicate, did much to induce reverent
order and discipline within the Church. Within his
own jurisdiction, whilst careful to teach and uphold
certain ceremonies and ritual, he was, as Bishop Evington
wrote, " liberal to all, so long as they kept within the
bounds that he felt the Church would allow."

In regard to grave misdemeanours, the Canon, as in
force at present until the next General Synod of 1905,
provides as follows :

(a) That a clergyman accused of " crime or other
offence " shall have his name presented to the standing
committee, such presentment having to be " signed by
five communicants, of whom at least two shall be
presbyters " ; if " reasonable cause " be shown, the
clergyman so accused shall be presented to the Bishop
for examination and trial ; and a court consisting of three
presbyters chosen by the Bishop shall be constituted
from among five presbyters, in no way connected with
the accused, who shall have the right to reject the
names of two in favour of a second choice. These
presbyters shall accord judgment by majority and sub
mit it in writing, with the sentence they deem fitting, to
the Bishop, and the Bishop " shall pronounce such

38 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

canonical sentence as he may deem proper," but not
" more severe than the sentence fixed by the court."
The accused may appeal to all the Bishops of the Sei
Kokwai for their review of the case, " and their sentence
is final."

(b) That a lay member of the Church found guilty of
immoral conduct or renunciation of the Faith, may be
excluded from the Holy Communion by the presbyter,
whose action must be reported to the Bishop for de
cision as to excommunication, or exclusion for a time
only.

The extension of the episcopate into six episcopal
jurisdictions has been a matter of some nine years
growth, since the beginning of its corporate entity in
1887. In 1891 Bishop Hare of South Dakota, then
in charge of the American Episcopal Mission, and Bishop
Bickersteth, arranged a preliminary delimitation of
their respective missionary districts.

By this agreement Tokyo was, pro tern., divided into
two districts. Osaka, where also both American and
English missions were working side by side, remained
as common ground, whilst the boundary line between
their missionary spheres outside these towns followed
very much the same lines as deliminated later. Three
years later, in 1894, this arrangement, with modifica
tions, was ratified by the Japanese general synod, and
by that of 1896 the American and English " missionary
jurisdictions," now grown by sub-division into six
missionary dioceses, were formally recognized. Of
these jurisdictions two " North Tokyo " (or " Tokyo") *

1 This missionary diocese is equally termed " Tokyo " and
" North Tokyo," owing to the fact that whereas in the constitu
tions of the Nippon Sei Kokwai it is designated " the North
Tokyo District " (Kita Chihobu) to distinguish it from that of
" South Tokyo " (Minami Chihobu), its jurisdiction is still, as
before, styled " Tokyo " in the home missionary documents of

BUILDING UP OF THE SEI KOKWAI 39

and Kyoto i were assigned to the American Church,
and four, viz. South Tokyo, Osaka, Hokkaido and
Kiushiu to the English Church.

In accordance with the views maintained by Bishops
Hare and Bickersteth in their agreement that " the
residence and jurisdiction of the American and English
Bishops respectively should be determined ... by
. . . ready access to each other, and to centres of life
and population," and there being in Japan " but one
great centre of thought, life, and influence Tokyo,
the capital " Tokyo was retained as the residence of
both the English and the American Bishops respectively,
of " South and North."

As both American and English had important work
in Tokyo and Osaka, the lines of territorial divisions in
these cities were drawn upon those devised in the above
agreement ; but since then the synod of the Japanese
Church has refused to recognize any lines of division
in these cities, lest under the native episcopate of the
future such divisions should be perpetuated. The
various missions are therefore free to work in any part of
these two cities.

Meanwhile, during a short visit to England in 1893,
Bishop Bickersteth made proposals to the C.M.S. for
the creation of two new dioceses, the one to be in the
northern island of Yezo, and the other in the southern
island of Kiushiu, both to be sub-divisions of his own

the American Episcopal Church. Hence arises occasional con
fusion of thought.

i The first Bishop of Kyoto, the Right Rev. Sidney [Catlin
Partridge, was also " the first bishop ever consecrated in Japan."
The consecration took place in Trinity Cathedral, Tokyo, on the
Feast of the Purification (February 2), 1900, the consecrator,
Bishop McKim of Tokyo, being assisted by Bishop Graves of
Shanghai, Bishop Scheresehewsky, formerly of Shanghai, and by
the four English bishops in Japan, i.e. the Bishops of South
Tokyo, Osaka, Kiushiu, and Hokkaido (see S.P.G. Digest of
1900.

40 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

jurisdiction. The English missionaries in these islands
were entirely supported by the Church Missionary
Society, whose committee now undertook to be re
sponsible for the Bishop s stipends if nominated by
the Society. Accordingly, in March, 1894, the Rev.
Henry Evington was consecrated to the southern
diocese of Kiushiu, and after some little delay, in 1896
the Rev. P. K. Fyson was nominated, and received
consecration, to that of the Hokkaido, as Yezo and the
smaller islands near it were now officially termed. Both
Bishop Evington and Bishop Fyson had been since 1874
some twenty years missionaries of the Society in
Japan, and had for many years worked at Nagasaki
and Hakkodate respectively, where they have con
tinued to reside.

In 1896 the missionary diocese of South Tokyo was
further sub-divided by the creation of the bishopric of
Osaka, and to this see the Right Rev. William Awdry,
Bishop -suffragan of Southampton, was appointed.
For the stipend of the new see the S.P.G. accepted
entire responsibility at the instance of the Archbishop
of Canterbury, when the C.M.S. felt themselves obliged
to decline co-operation in the fund unless they were
given the right of nomination, on the ground that most
of the missionaries working in the proposed diocese
belonged to their Society.

A year later, in August, 1897, when in England to re
cover from a dangerous illness, and at the close of the
Lambeth conference, at which he had been present,
Bishop Bickersteth was called to his rest. 1 He was one

i Bishop Bickersteth was succeeded in the see of South Tokyo
by Bishop Awdry, he in turn being succeeded at Osaka by the
Rev. H. J. Foss, for twenty-three years S.P.G. missionary at
Kobe. For the same reason as with the diocese of Osaka, the
C.M.S. discontinued its co-operation in the financial support of
the South Tokyo see on the accession of Bishop Awdry, for
whose stipend the S.P.G. assumed then the whole responsibility.

BUILDING UP OF THE SEI KOKWAI 41

" whose far-seeing mind and statesmanlike judgment
had done much in laying the foundations " of the Church
in Japan during the eleven years of his episcopate.
The consolidation of the Japanese Church into the
Nippon Sei Kokwai, with its complete synodical organi
zation, is the living monument to a memory, and to a
name which is revered as an inspiration by all to whom
he still speaks in his recorded life and words.

CHAPTER V
THE WORK OF THE S.P.G. AND C.M.S. IN TOKYO

Sketch of the progress, and summary, of S.P.G. Work The
Society s Work among Women C.M.S. Work and its
General Progress Its Church Centres and "Hostels."

IT has been mentioned in an earlier chapter that the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sent out the
Rev. A. C. Shaw, M. A. (afterwards Archdeacon of North
Japan, 1889), and the Rev. W. B. Wright, M.A., as their
first missionaries to Japan in 1873. Establishing them
selves at Tokyo, they cultivated friendly relations
with some of the Buddhist priests and within a few
months opened services for Europeans in a disused
temple. Within two years, which were spent largely
in the study of the Japanese and Chinese languages,
they were rewarded by the baptism of five converts ;
t .ese were subsequently confirmed by the American
Bishop of Yedo (afterwards Tokyo). In 1876 Bishop
Burdon came from Hongkong and confirmed fifteen men
and three women.

At first, both Mr. Shaw and Mr. Wright carried on
their Mission work chiefly through schools, Mr. Shaw
holding classes " for moral, really Christian science "
in the large school or university established by the late
Mr. Fukuzawa. This gentleman, with whom for over
three years Mr. Shaw resided, was a leading Japanese
of wide intellectual influence at Tokyo.

THE WORK OF THE S.P.G. AND C.M.S. 43

As direct evangelization became easier, their efforts
were devoted more to preaching, and within the first
four years (by 1877) nearly 150 converts were baptized.

In 1883 Mr. Wright resigned his work in consequence
of his wife s illness, but Mr. Shaw continued in charge of
the S.P.G. work until his death in 1902. Of the Society s
work in Tokyo Archdeacon Shaw had been the principal
founder and director. In the words of a non-Christian
paper (Jiji Shimpo], he had " won the love and respect
of all his fellow countrymen in Tokyo, together with that
of an immense circle of Japanese " ; during his long
residence " his life had been indeed an example to all
priests." In 1895, after some twenty years spent in
Japan, " Archdeacon Shaw was formally thanked by
the Japanese Government for his services rendered to
Japan in one of the most critical periods of its history
by writing and correcting misapprehensions about the
country from time to time." Upon his death the
Emperor paid to his widow the further honour of pre
senting her with a sum of yen 1,000 (100) in token of
his Imperial appreciation of the Archdeacon s services
to the country.

The general progress of the S.P.G. work in Tokyo
may be noted as follows :

(1) The training of mission agents, begun in 1878
by Messrs. Wright and Shaw, was carried on for eleven
years, principally by the latter. This work was taken
up and continued by the St. Andrew s Mission, and will
be more fully described under that head ; but it should
be here mentioned that as a result of their teaching and
influence six native clergy had been ordained by 1890.
Of these, the first were the Rev. J. Y. Yamagata (deacon
1885, priest 1890), the Rev. J. Imai (deacon in 1888),

(2) In 1883 the S.P.G. shared with the C.M.S. in the
provision for a resident English [bishop in Japan.
Bishop Poole, of the C.M.S., was first appointed, and lived

44 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

at Kobe. Owing to his serious illness and enforced
absence, an arrangement he entered into with the Ameri
can Bishop of Yedo was never ratified. This was that
the English missionaries at Tokyo should be supervised
by himself, but that confirmations and ordinations
should be administered by the resident American
bishop, from whom they were to hold special licenc \
On the succession of Bishop Bickersteth in 1886 this
plan was abandoned, as the English bishop resided in
Tokyo. In 1891 he and Bishop Hare (then representing
the American Church) agreed on a basis for the exercise
of the jurisdiction of the English and American bishops,
by which the former retained the south-western part of
Tokyo. Since the death of Bishop Bickersteth and the
appointment of Bishop Awdry of Osaka as his successor,
the S.P.G. has been responsible for the entire support
of the Bishop of South Tokyo.

(3) Educational work under Christian influence was
carried on for some five years (from 1885-90) by the
Rev. Arthur Lloyd, at that time working with the
S.P.G. Mr. Lloyd, who was at one time fellow and
dean of Peterhouse College, Cambridge, having accepted
the offices of lecturer in the Japanese Government naval
medical college and naval academy, and the super
intendence of the English branch of Mr. Fukuzawa s
private university, exercised a wide influence over the
educated young men of the capital.

(4) Work among women in Tokyo was begun in 1875
by Miss Hoar, of the Ladies Association, afterwards
(1866-1895) called the " Women s Mission Association "
of the S.P.G. 1 This work was carried on by her for some
twenty-two years with the assistance of her cousin, Miss
A. Hoar, who joined her in 1886. But in 1898, both

i Since January, 1904, the S.P.G. has assumed full responsi
bility for all the women s work in its missions, and the W.M.A.
Committee has become the Committee of Women s Work, S.P.G.

THE WORK OF THE S.P.G. AND C.M.S. 45

being broken down in health, were obliged to return to
England. Their special work of teaching and train
ing Japanese women as missionary helpers was then
handed over to St. Hilda s Mission, which had been
founded by Bishop Bickersteth about ten years before.

Meanwhile, a few months before, i.e. in September
of 1897, fresh work had been begun upon her own initia
tive by another English lady, Miss M. D. Weston. This
was the providing of Christian home-life for a few school
girls and students, and was the fulfilment of an idea long
cherished by her and her friend Miss Hasegawa. In
April, 1898, Miss Weston was appointed as Miss Hoar s
successor, and her house became the W.M.A. centre in
Tokyo. She commenced her housekeeping in company
with the Japanese lady above named, whose co-operation
in the work has been invaluable in extending Christian
influence among Japanese ladies and schoolgirls.

The small house taken by Miss Weston and Miss Hasa-
gawa proved before long to be too small for the in
creasing numbers of students and schoolgirls who had
come to live with them. In February, 1899, they re
moved to larger quarters. It happened that the only
house at all suited to their needs in the district of
Kojimachi was situated just opposite the Peeresses
School. This large and important school now occupies
a good deal of the attention of the Mission. The move
had results, therefore, far wider than were ever ex
pected at the time.

The growth of the work in general made it desirable
to make another move not long after. This was pre
cipitated by an order from the town authorities, who had
bought up the land where the house stood for a new
road, in view of the increasing traffic in the city. Accord
ingly a move was made in 1901 to another house. The
two former houses had been entirely Japanese, though

46 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

in the second one there had latterly been some half-
dozen chairs and a desk for the convenience of Miss
Weston. This third house had foreign-built rooms in
the annex and a mixed mode of life was adopted.

The house was the best that could be procured at the
time, but the situation was not a desirable one from the
health point of view. In 1902 notice to leave was given
to the Mission by the landlord ; and thus circumstances
once again guided the Mission into other quarters, where
a still further expansion of work was made possible.
The present house is situated in an excellent position
for the work in the Peeresses School and for the evan
gelistic work among its students which arises from that
work. It is a healthy home for the girls and students,
and has a nice garden of its own which, being near to
some temple gardens, appears to be of great extent.

Miss Parker, who had been engaged in important
educational work in Japan from 1887 to 1891, offered
herself to the S.P.G. in 1900, and came out in November
of that year to take charge of Miss Weston s work during
her furlough. It was under her locum tenency that
this last move was made.

The work of this Mission has thus been of gradual
growth. The wish foremost in Miss Weston s mind, when
with Miss Hasegawa she began her plan unsupported by
any Society, was to provide a bright home-life for those
in her house ; a home-life free from daily contact with
non-Christian ideas and superstitions, and one which,
while retaining many of the Japanese social customs
and ways of living, should unconsciously influence the
minds of the inmates towards Christianity.

The number of girls and students vary from eight to
ten, some of whom attend the Peeresses or other schools
in the neighbourhood ; others are older students who
are glad of the opportunity which her house affords for
the study of English. One of these older students had

THE WORK OF THE S.P.G. AND C.M.S. 47

served at one of the base hospitals and on a hospital
ship during the war with China in 1895. She came
with the twofold object of perfecting her English and of
learning Christianity. She was taught and prepared for
baptism, confirmation, and Holy Communion while at
Miss Weston s house, and is now married to a Christian
Japanese living in San Francisco. Another of these
elder students who came in the first instance for the study
of English, became interested in Christianity during her
first year with Miss Weston, and became finally a most
earnest Christian. She is now holding a scholarship in
St. Hilda s Divinity School for Women.

The house is not only a Home, but a centre for classes
in English, social intercourse, philanthropic effort and,
most important of all, for definite Christian teaching.
The opportunities for such teaching arise out of all these
varied efforts to come into closer touch with the women
and girls of progressive Japan. When in 1900 Miss
Weston obtained the position of sole foreign lady
teacher on the regular staff of the Peeresses School, it
was a great step towards a further advance in the
desired direction.

This Peeresses School, with its Kindergarten, now
numbers nearly 600 pupils. It was founded by H.M.
the Empress in the year 1884, and was especially
designed to give the best educational opportunities to
the daughters of the nobility. It stands as a companion
school to the Peers School founded shortly before by
the Emperor for the sons of the nobility. A large num
ber of pupils other than those from noble families are
admitted, but the whole management is regulated by
the need and claims of those families. The princesses
sit side by side in class with daughters of the nobility,
and of the official and wealthier merchant class.

That a missionary should be given a post on the
staff of this school was a sign of the growing public

48 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

good- will towards Christian teachers. Her teaching (of
English conversation and literature) at the school takes
up a great part of her time, but its value has been proved
by experience to be great. It has been the means of
bringing her into contact with a large and important
section of the community, and of the gradual extension
of Christian influence among them. A few come from
time to time to be baptized and profess their faith in
Christ, but social and family reasons forbid many from
doing this. For the majority, the seed must be sown in
faith, and in hope that the fruit will be found " after
many days."

Two interesting societies for Japanese ladies have
come into being through Miss Weston s efforts. One is
a " Reading Society " for the encouragement of the regu
lar reading of good litertature, Japanese or foreign. It
is forming for itself a library, and at the present time
uses the Mission House for its headquarters . A further
development has taken place on the initiative of the
ladies themselves. It has been arranged to hold monthly
meetings of an informal nature, at which the members
shall take it in turn to give some account of the special
points of interest in their reading, and at which consecu
tive readings from some specially chosen book shall be
given by one member appointed for the purpose.

Some of the members of this Reading Society are
attending a fortnightly reading meeting which Miss
Weston has started for some of her older pupils. This
reading meeting is a combined one half the time is
spent in Bible study, and half in the study of some
English classic.

The other society, called the " Jizen Shugei Kwai "
(charity hand- working society), was inaugurated by
Miss Weston in October, 1900, with the help of a com
mittee of Japanese ladies. Beginning with thirteen
schoolgirls, it now numbers over ninety members, a

THE WORK OF THE S.P.G. AND C.M.S. 49

large number of the original members who have left
the school having retained their membership.

It holds monthly meetings at Miss Weston s house, at
which some speaker interested in, or engaged in, philan
thropic works addresses the members, whilst sewing
and knitting go on. Some work has been sold, and from
the funds raised donations to various deserving chari
table institutions have been given from time to time. A
good deal of clothing has also been made and distributed
among the deserving poor and inmates of orphanages
and the like. During the present year all energies have
been taken up by the war with Russia, and this Society
has contributed its share of cholera-belts, socks and
other articles to be sent to the front. Neither the
members nor the committee are necessarily Christians ;
but its work in the cause of charity and its general
influence prepares the way for Christianity.

What is now needed is a larger staff of workers to
enable the Mission to do its work more efficiently and to
watch for, and take advantage of, all the opportunities
for Christian work which lie in its way.

THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY AT TOKYO

In 1873 the Rev. A. C. Shaw and the Rev. W. B.
Wright of the S.P.G. arrived at Yokohama, in the same
ship that brought Bishop Williams of the American
Episcopal Church from Osaka. While the S.P.G.
missionaries proceeded at once to Tokyo, it was not until
the following year that Bishop Williams established in
the capital a fresh branch of his Mission. In that year
also, 1874, the Rev. J. Piper and Mrs. Piper were sent
to Tokyo as the first missionaries of the C.M.S. Arriving
at Yokohama in April, they removed to Tokyo in May,
and were shortly afterwards joined by the Rev. P. K.
Fyson (now Bishop of Hokkaido) and Mrs. Fyson.

During the first eighteen months the time was chiefly
occupied with the study of the language, and the for-

E

50 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

mation of friendly acquaintances with the people. Mr.
Piper also aided largely in the forming of local com
mittees of the British and Foreign Bible and Religious
Tract Societies.

In 1875 Mr. Fyson was transferred to Niigata, 1 and
Mr. Piper was for nearly four years, until 1879, tne on ty
C.M.S. missionary at the capital. From the close of
1875 to 1878 Mr. and Mrs. Piper lived in the heart of
the city, at some distance from the foreign concession ;
but permission to do this was then withdrawn by the
Government, which desired to reduce the number of
foreign residents outside their settlement in Tsukiji.
However, Mr. Piper secured suitable premises there for
their house, and a small Mission church was dedicated by
Bishop Burdon from Hong Kong in May, 1878. The
Church Mission House in Tsukiji became the centre of
the Society s work in Tokyo, but in the city also a room,
formerly secured for evangelistic services, was retained.
These earlier years were full of hope. As early as 1876
five converts received baptism, the first confirmation
was held, and Holy Communion administered to them.
A Church Committee was soon formed and the nucleus
of a native congregation was established. It was one
of the first of the C.M.S. congregations to become self-
supporting.

The Mission buildings had a narrow escape from the
terrible fire of 1879, which destroyed thousands of homes,
many being burnt down in close vicinity to those of the
Mission. The calamity was a means of awakening
sympathy and good feeling between the Japanese and
the foreign residents. From those in Yokohama and
Tokyo 1,600 was subscribed in relief funds, in the
distribution of which the missionaries took their share.
This practical benevolence inspired by Christianity
produced as Mr. Piper wrote " a profound impression

1 This C.M S. station was relinquished in 1883.

THE WORK OF THE S.P.G. AND C.M.S. 51

on the minds of many Japanese in favour of Chris
tianity."

In 1880 Mr. and Mrs. Piper left for England owing to
the failure of the latter s health ; and for the next three
years the Rev. I. Williams, lately arrived from Hakkodate,
took charge of the Mission. Mr. Piper s literary work
in Japan had been of great value. Besides sharing in
the work of Bible and Prayer Book translation, which
will be referred to later, he wrote and translated into
Japanese numbers of tracts for the Religious Tract
Society in Tokyo. He also prepared a Japanese edition
of a Life of Christ in the words of the Evangelists.
But his chief Biblical work was the Japanese reference
New Testament containing 12,000 references.

During Mr. Williams oversight of the Mission, 1880-3,
the members of its congregation increased in numbers,
while the better educated and more intellectual men and
women among the converts raised its tone and character
considerably. Of these Dr. Hada, now living in Boshu,
may be mentioned.

Mr. Williams left for England in 1883. When Mr.
Fyson, who had succeeded to the charge, also left in
the following year, it was feared that this important
Mission station would have to be given up. Until
more missionaries could be sent to strengthen the work
at Osaka and Nagasaki, the pastoral and evangelistic
work would have to be carried on by a catechist, aided
by the superintendence of the Rev. C. F. (afterwards
Archdeacon) Warren. In 1885 both Mr. Williams and
Mr. Fyson returned to Tokyo, and for the next few years
in spite of several disappointments the work ad
vanced not only in the city and its suburbs but in the
country villages around, more especially in Boshu,
which lies across the bay from Tokyo.

During the latter part of 1894 and the whole of 1895
the work of the Society at Tokyo was again left in the

52 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

hands of native pastors and catechists, occasional visits
being paid to them by Mr. Warren, from Osaka. But
early in 1896 the Mission was placed in charge of the
Rev. W. P. Buncombe, who was transferred from
Tokushima, and since then it has not been left without
a resident foreign missionary. During Mr. Buncombe s
furlough, 1901-2, the Rev. H. J. Hamilton, formerly at
Gifu, was placed in charge.

At the same time, in 1896 the Mission was further re
inforced by the return of Miss Julius, a missionary of
some years standing, and by the advent of other new
missionaries from England.

The Mission at Tokyo took its full share in the forma
tion, in 1887, of the Sei Kokwai, and in the legislative
work of its synods and the compiling and revising of the
Prayer Book. The C.M.S. evangelistic work in Tokyo
during the last seventeen years may be briefly described
in connexion with (i) the Church of St. Paul s, Kyo-
bashi, and of Immanuel, Kojimachi ; (2) the Mission-halls
in the Ginza and Fukagawa districts ; (3) the hostels for
young men and for girls.

(i) St. Paul s Church, Kyobashi.Ey 1898 the little
church, dedicated to St. Paul, in Tsukiji, had become
too small and too dilapidated ; its plaster had fallen
off in consequence of earthquakes and from damp during
the rains. It was therefore erected upon a larger
scale, and later as the newly built American episcopal
cathedral was also situated in Tsukiji St. Paul s was
removed outside the foreign concession to another
quarter of the same city division, Kyobashi. Here the
numbers and the Christian influence of its congregation
have progressed steadily. Until the formation of a
Church congregation in Kojimachi, St. Paul s received
all the converts resulting from the various evangelistic
agencies of the C.M.S in Tokyo. In 1900 its congre
gation contributed 55 in the year, although the mem-

THE WORK OF THE S.P.G. AND C.M.S. 53

bers were principally confined to the less wealthy classes.
In 1902 the Society s grant-in-aid was dispensed with,
and the Church became self-supporting, with the Rev.
M. Tomita as its pastor and priest-in-charge.

Meanwhile a second and distinct congregation was
growing up near the Mission-hall in Kojimachi, which
is an important district on the opposite side of Tokyo. 1
The Rev. V. H. Patrick was placed in charge of it in
1902, when a certain portion of the hall was set apart
for divine service. Mr. Patrick and his catechist are
assisted in their Sunday schools, district visiting and
other evangelistic work by the Society s lady mission
aries living in Kojimachi. Like many other Japanese
Church centres, the Church of Immanuel, Kojimachi,
possesses a small but vigorous congregation. It is
already contributing towards the support of its catechist,
but as yet the Mission-hall has to serve both as preaching-
house for evangelistic purposes and as a church for
Christian worship. Funds are gradually being col
lected, however, and it is hoped that before long a more
ecclesiastical building will be provided for this congre
gation.

(2) The Mission-hall in the Ginza and at Fukagawa.
The Mission-hall, or Whidborne Hall, in the Ginza
occupies " an ideal position." It is situated in the
middle of the most important thoroughfare of Tokyo,
a street traversed from end to end by electric trams,
that follow each other momentarily. It is one of
the few in the entire city that can boast of a raised

1 Kyobashi may be said to be in the business and Kojimachi
in the residential section of the city. Kojimachi stands on much
higher ground and contains, besides its public buildings and
palaces, many handsome residences of the nobility and foreign
diplomats, and some of the more important government and
private schools of the capital. Of these may be mentioned the
Peeresses School under Imperial patronage, and the flourishing
private school for English, established by Miss Tsuda
a Japanese lady and member of the Sei Kokwai.

54 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

pavement on either side for foot-traffic. In the Ginza
are some of the largest and most up-to-date of the Tokyo
shops, which cater for the daily needs of Japanese and
foreign residents. In trams and on foot crowds pass
along the Ginza at all hours of the day, and many stay
to listen for a while to the missionary or catechist in
the Whidborne Hall.

In one year (1902-3) 300 meetings were held in this
hall, which were attended by at least 25,000 people.
Even if the number of those who are convinced of the
Truth and become baptized members of the Church
appear few in comparison (in that year twenty), yet
one may feel assured that what they hear must bear
fruit in after years. The hall is rarely empty on any
preaching-night ; it is often filled with passers-by, who
come in for a while from idle curiosity, but still there
are always those who come again and again to listen
eagerly to the divine message.

In Fukagawa, a much poorer and very low neighbour
hood, and at some distance from Tsukiji, there have been
living, for several years, some families belonging to St.
Paul s congregation. Miss Peacocke held for about
three years, 1896-99, a class in this district for men of
the police -force. This work has since been carried on
and developed at the police headquarters, Kojimachi,
by Miss Palmer upon lines suggested by similar work
at Osaka. A small Mission-hall has been owned in the
Fukagawa district since 1885. It was rebuilt and im
proved in 1902. Preachings are held there two or three
times each week and every Sunday evening. Classes
for inquirers and children are taken weekly by the
catechist, assisted by ladies of the Mission. There
is consequently a small congregation of baptized
Christians growing up in this district.

(3) Hostels for Young Men and for Girls. The plan
of opening " hostels " for students attending public

FIRST AID TO THE INJURED
Ladies Volunteer Nurses Association, Tokyo 1905.
By kind permission of G. Palmer.

THE WORK OF THE S.P.G. AND C.M.S. 55

colleges was adopted some years ago and has been
proved a successful means of evangelization. By the
action of the Government in recent years in the regula
tion and licensing of schools, grants were refused to
schools which gave religious teaching in their curriculum,
and thus Christian instruction in school hours became
impossible in schools that desired the grant. Mission
work has been hampered by these regulations and by
the difficulty of maintaining the level of educational
efficiency which has made competition with non-
Christian schools more severe. However, no Sei Kokwai
Mission schools have been closed, and they have gradually
become stronger.

Meanwhile, Christian " hostels," or boarding-houses,
have been welcomed by guardians and parents who
appreciated Christian influence and the moral advan
tages of a Christian family life. What little has been
lost by the restriction of Christian teaching in Mission
schools has been more than counterbalanced by pro
gress in this direction. The establishment of Christian
hostels has proved a means of bringing Christianity within
the reach of some of the large number of students
who attend the ordinary public and private schools of
Tokyo.

The men s hostel for Christian students was opened
in Yushima, on the borders of the Kanda and Hongo
divisions of the city, in 1899. Its object is to provide
a Christian home for Christian students during their
time of study in Tokyo. Most of those who have
entered have been members of the Sei Kokwai.

The hostel is always full, and has ten or twelve
students in residence. Such a hostel is rendered the
more necessary by the deplorable state, morally and
otherwise, of the ordinary students lodging-houses for
men.

The Hostels in Kojimachi and Kanda for Girls. A

56 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

similar work to that which was begun in a small way by
Miss Weston and Miss Hasegawa, and afterwards de
veloped by the W.M.A. of the S.P.G., was undertaken
in 1898 by the C.M.S. Tokyo committee. In the
autumn of the year Miss Carr and Miss Brownlow opened
a Hostel for Girls in the district of Kanda. Students
from the High School attached to the Higher Normal
College attended their Christian classes, and they averaged
about nine girls as boarders, all belonging to upper-
class families. The house, which was convenient and
roomy, was unfortunately not the Society s property,
and therefore in 1900 Miss Carr and Miss Worthington
were obliged to seek fresh quarters for their hostel. A
permanent habitation was specially desirable in Tokyo,
but the state of the society s finances imposed stringent
conditions. After a few weeks spent in temporary
quarters a move was made in June, 1900, to the present
house in Hirakawa Cho, Kojimachi. This, which was
taken on a lease with right of sale, is partly Japanese
and partly foreign, and fairly convenient, being near to
the Peeresses School. It was thus able to take in a
few students who attend this school, as well as some
belonging to other schools ; but, on the other hand, it
could no longer meet the requirements of the former
students and friends living in Kanda.

It was to supply this deficiency, and because the board
ing-house system was already giving encouraging results,
that in 1902 a second hostel was opened at Misaki Cho,
Kanda, under the charge of Miss Reid. Her house was
excellently situated, but was cramped for space. She
has had many applicants, and there was great sorrow
this summer when it was known that the hostel might
be given up. In December last (1904) Miss Worthing
ton, who has been in charge with Miss Langton of the
Kojimachi hostel since Miss Carr s breakdown in health
and return home in 1901, was to go home on furlough.

THE WORK OF THE S.P.G. AND C.M.S. 57

This house was the larger, and was the Society s
property. It was therefore deemed advisable for Miss
Reid and Miss Langton to join, and for a time at least
to give up the second hostel in Kanda. A class-room,
however, near to her old house, has been secured, where
Miss Reid can still give her English and Bible classes.
She will therefore keep in touch with most of her
former pupils and friends.

Evidence has been forthcoming during these years of
the spiritual value of these boarding-houses. To those
who come from non-Christian homes, the Bible is an
unknown book and Christian teaching is not desired.
But many learn to take a heartfelt interest in the new
teaching. They prove eager to learn, and anxious to
discontinue at home the observances which they recog
nize as wrong. From time to time individuals profess
the Faith and receive Baptism. In many other cases
it may confidently be believed that the seed of eternal
life once sown in their hearts will spring up and bear
fruit in the years to come.

Both in Kojimachi and in Kanda the Mission ladies,
in addition to the superintendence of the boarding-
houses and the giving of secular and Christian instruc
tion to boarders and outside pupils, assist greatly as
" parish " workers of the Mission churches in their
neighbourhood. In Kanda, Miss Reid and her house
hold attended the services of All Saints of the American
Episcopal Church, this being the church nearest to them.
In the " parish " work of this church she was also able
to give some assistance. Indirect evangelistic work has
been carried on by friendly intercourse with the friends
and relatives of past and present pupils, who tend to
gather round each hostel.

The war has done much to bring together teachers
and pupils, friends and acquaintances, and the hostels
have become centres of sympathy and help to Japan in

58 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

her terrible crisis. In Tokyo the war was brought
continually before the eyes of all. Soldiers were con
stantly to be seen entraining for the front, full of en
thusiasm for their country s cause, and hundreds of
the same brave men were seen returning to fill the
hospitals. The impressive spectacle of the military
funeral was a constantly recurring sight.

The war came home to each class. From the princes
and nobles of the highest rank to the working-man
with children and relatives dependent upon him none
are exempted. Kipling s lines would excite a smile
here of pity for our poor idea of duty. ..." Duke s son
cook s son," etc. Why, they one and all go as a matter
of course, the Emperor needs them ; no one, neither
old mother, nor wife, far less an employer, would dream
of holding them back.

Priests are not excused from military service, be they
Christian, Buddhist, or of the state religion, Shintoism.
This is only to be expected, yet it seemed a strange thing
to witness the seeing off and wishing " God-speed "
to a Christian clergyman departing, with his detachment
to the front, as a sergeant in a line regiment ! The
Rev. P. Y. Yamada is on the South Tokyo diocesan
committee, and is priest-in-charge of the Japanese con
gregation of St. Andrew s church. He is one of the
senior clergy of the Sei Kokwai, and has for some years
had the care of the St. Andrew s boys school in his
house ; but he is also upon the reserves, having already
served, as a corporal, in Kumamoto barracks during the
war of 1894-5. It was hoped that he would not be called
on again for service, but in October last he was sum
moned to barracks.

The Missions of the Sei Kokwai all took a share in the
work of succouring the returned invalids from the war,
or in that of providing necessaries and comforts for
those in the field, or joined in the work of seeing after

A SOLDIER OF THE LINE

In the same detachment as the Rev. P. Y. Yamada.
Mr. Palmer s Police class and is also a Christian.

is dark blue with yellow facings.
By kind permission of G. Palmer.

This man was in
The uniform

THE WORK OF THE S.P.G. AND C.M.S. 59

the needs of the families left behind. Sometimes the
members of the missions assist with Japanese and foreign
ladies to roll bandages in schools or elsewhere for the Red
Cross Societies ; and everywhere missionaries, teachers,
residents, students and school- children alike are to be
seen knitting the woollen cholera belts and socks which
are demanded in wholesale quantities ; in trains and
trams, at social gatherings, at drawing-room lectures,
in no place and at no time were the knitting needles
absent. Many of the women missionaries in Tokyo
were members of the " Imonkwai," a very large Japanese
society with Princess Mori as president, which provided
for the due visiting and relief of every family left behind
by the soldiers and sailors. Every household which
had sent a man to the front received regular visits of
inquiry and sympathy, and where monetary help was
needed it was given without delay.

Hospital visiting and lantern shows for the convales
cent were carried on systematically, and in Tokyo, as
elsewhere, they were the means of conveying Christian
sympathy to many a wounded man. The worst cases
did not come so far as Tokyo ; the men who returned
as wounded or sick were already on their way to
recovery.

In Kojimachi hospital, which was visited two or three
times a week by ladies of the C.M.S. , there were thirteen
wards, with about forty men in each. The hospital
was always full, owing to the constant stream of in
valids which came up from Hiroshima and Kiushiu and
passed on later, as they get better, to the Toyama
hospital or to others in the country. During the sum
mer flowers and illustrated papers were taken to the
men, but no direct Christian work could be done. Later
on the singing of hymns in the wards became a regular
feature of the visits. The authorities also willingly
allowed the missionary clergy, foreign and Japanese,

60 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

to go with the ladies and talk to the men of each ward.
The patience and good temper of the men were most
striking.

The lantern pictures were welcomed with delight.
These consisted of a few royalties or celebrities, some
amusing pictures, pictures of flowers and scenery, one or
two English cathedrals, and then Bible pictures were
shown. The stillness that came over the ward when
the Story was told was most impressive. At Christmas
time the catechists of the Society in Tokyo and all over
the country helped to write a private letter to each
inmate of the hospital. Thus the 500 men each re
ceived a Christmas letter, a Christmas card, and a
prayer-card (from England), together with bunches of
flowers for each ward.

Another scene might have been witnessed at the
Toyama hospital, which was visited by Miss Ballard
and Miss Pringle. Here the men were convalescent,
and already waxing rather boisterous with returning
health and the long ennui. Two large rooms were full
of men sitting upon their heels in native fashion, with
the lantern sheet hung in the open doorway between
the two wards, and keen interest was shown on every
face. The Emperor s portrait came first, for which all
stood as they sang with vigour the national hymn.
The foreign scenes of Gibraltar, Egypt, with the Suez
Canal, and other places on the line of the route of the
Baltic Fleet excited interest and amusement ; the two
or three pictures which followed, of Christ s Life and
Death, were received in reverent silence. Then the
lights were put up, tracts were given out and then a wild
rush was made for the leaflets. The wistful looks of
those who asked if we had no more, testified to the wel
come with which the Christian literature was received.
The tracts consist, for the most part, of extracts from the
Bible, or are the Gospels bound separately.

THE WORK OF THE S.P.G. AND C.M.S. 61

The war did not check the Missions, but it changed
some of the methods by which it was sought to reach
the people ; and though the missionaries could not but
lament the misery that it brought in its train, they were
thankful for the great wave of mutual sympathy which
carried away some of the barriers of prejudice and in
difference. They could thank God also for the spirit
of earnest inquiry into the Christian teaching relating to
human life and death, which was conspicuous in many
different quarters.

CHAPTER VI

ST. ANDREW S AND ST. HILDA S COMMUNITY MISSIONS
AT TOKYO

The need for Educational Missions Bishop Bickersteth s desire
for Community Missions The aims of the two Missions
The members of St. Andrew s Mission to-day (and dates of
joining) The work of St. Andrew s Mission as carried on
to-day : i. St. Andrew s Church, Shiba 2. The Japanese
Pro-Cathedral, also St. Andrew s Mission-rooms, boys
school, and hostel for Divinity students 3. St. Barnabas
Chui ch, Ushigome 4. Church of Good Hope, Mita 5.
Holy Cross Church, Kyobashi 6. St. Stephen s Church,
Azabu 7. Mission-room and " Ragged School," Shina-
micho 8. St. Mary Magdalen, Shinagawa.

THE Missions of S. Andrew and St. Hilda were
founded by Bishop Bickersteth in 1887 and were the
outcome of his scheme to establish in Japan communities
of both men and women after the manner of the Univer
sity Missions in India. St. Andrew s he designed to be
for graduates of universities, and St. Hilda s for ladies of
culture as well as of devotional life and zeal. For this
end the Guild of St. Paul was inaugurated in England,
and has since maintained through its subscribed funds
the work of these communities. Since 1900 these
Missions have been formally associated with the S.P.G.
The object of the Bishop was to reach by means of
these Missions the educated classes of Tokyo, which
would also form a useful centre for general Mission work.
He had proved the good results of establishing University
Missions in India, and thought that the labours of the

63

ST. ANDREW S AND ST. HILDA S MISSIONS 63

C.M.S. and S.P.G. could be supplemented by like
Missions in Tokyo, where educational problems were
coming to the fore. It may be well to consider briefly
the educational conditions then prevalent in this new
capital.

In 1886 an offer of educational work in Mr. Fukuzawa s
celebrated Japanese school had been made to the Rev. A.
Lloyd. As an individual he felt that he could only take
partial advantage of this opening for Christian influence,
and before the Bishop left England he wrote to him
a letter in which he urged the desirability of establishing
in Tokyo a University Mission.

The needs of the new generation of Japanese women
were equally pressing. Japanese history as far back as
it goes has given an honourable place to women. Five
Empresses have ruled in their own right. A woman was
the first historian. Artists of skill and scholarship have
been found among Japanese women. The spread of
Buddhism, the introduction of Chinese literature, and,
above all, the strong influence of the Confucian scholars
brought about a change, and in the sixteenth century
the Japanese women lost their former positions of
respect and equality.

Since then the women of Japan have had few educa
tional advantages. The Restoration of 1868 brought
rapid and startling changes in the lives of all classes
of women. The establishment of public primary
schools, of government middle and high schools, of
higher normal schools, of the Peeresses school in Tokyo
for the daughters of the nobility and upper classes,
altered within a generation the whole condition of
female education. These changes have brought per
plexing problems in their train. One is " the difficulty
of keeping the beauty and refinement of the old system
along with the broader and newer ideas and the freedom
of thought and action which come from the culture of

64 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

the intellectual powers." Other problems again are
connected with the social position of women. Questions
of marriage and divorce have been left to custom, through
lack of civil codes upon such matters, though education
has done much to change public opinion ; the lessening
influence also of the Buddhist religion, which looked
down on woman and regarded her as full of impurity,
has resulted in the raising of her position in society.

Christianity has done, and is doing, much for the
elevation of woman, and will undoubtedly do more.

In view of these needs the Community Mission of St.
Andrew is endeavouring (i) by means of a divinity
school to train up men for the native ministry of the
Church ; (2) to organize other lectures and classes, e.g.
night schools for " the inquirers " and younger baptized
members of the Church ; (3) to evangelize by itinerating
preaching, and by meetings in and near Tokyo ; (4)
to open out, as opportunity affords, fresh centres of
work.

The Community Mission of St. Hilda is endeavouring
(i) to provide schools for the young ; (2) to undertake
hospital work and evangelistic visiting ; (3) to train
Japanese women missionaries and helpers for the evan
gelization of their country people.

The Rev. L. B. Cholmondeley, who had come out as
the Bishop s chaplain, was the first (in 1887) to join the
St. Andrew s Mission. During the next three years
the Revs. A. F. King, F. E. Freese, 1 and Herbert Moore
joined the Mission. In 1890 the Rev. C. G. Gardener
joined. He had already been working in Japan under the
S.P.G. He resigned from St. Andrew s in 1898. Between
1891 and 1894 the Mission was re-enforced by the Revs.
L. F. Ryde, 2 W. F. Madeley, and A. E. Webb. The
response to Bishop Bickersteth s appeal, although he

1 Took charge of St. Andrew s, Yokohama, in 1892.

2 Resigned in i8gq.

ST. ANDREW S AND ST. HILDA S MISSIONS 65

was himself a Cambridge man, came at the beginning
from the sister university, which was represented by
these first seven members of the newly established
mission. However, in 1896 Mr. Basil Woodd, of
Trinity College, Cambridge, joined the Mission as a lay
associate. Mr. Woodd returned to England in 1899
and has since returned to Japan, after taking Holy
Orders, to undertake work in Osaka under the C.M.S.

From the Church in Canada, and from Trinity College,
Toronto, in particular, have come the further rein
forcements. In 1895 the Mission was joined by the
Rev. William C. Gemmill, and in 1901 by the Rev. W.
H. Mockridge.

The members of St. Andrew s Mission are in charge
of various Church centres and other spheres of Mission
influence both in Tokyo and the surrounding neighbour
hood. Besides the work originating with this Mission
they have since Archdeacon Shaw s death, in March,
1902, undertaken the superintendence of the whole of
the work connected with the S.P.G. in Tokyo. In con
sequence, the Society now gives grants in aid of the
stipends of these missionaries, pending a more per
manent arrangement.

The present work of the two Missions may be sum
marised as follows :

i. St. Andrew s Church, Shiba, Tokyo. This church
was first built in 1879 for the Japanese congregation
in charge of the late Archdeacon Shaw of the S.P.G.
It was a pretty red brick structure, towards the building
of which the English residents, through Sir Harry Parkes,
the British Minister, made a generous contribution.
Covered with creepers and occupying an elevated
position at one corner of the Shiba park in the midst
of the city, it soon became a picturesque landmark for
that quarter of Tokyo. But unfortunately this first
church was destroyed by the severe earthquake of 1894,

F

66 CHURCH WORK IN JAPAN

and had to be succeeded by a temporary one of wood,
which occupied the same ground. The flower beds and
closely clipped lawn of St. Andrew s Mission House
surrounding it make a pretty enclosure ; but those who
remember the former building are ill content with its
present substitute.

Since 1881, when Archdeacon Shaw was made first
chaplain to the British Legation, 1 it has been used also
as the English Church in Tokyo, the Rev. A. F. King
having charge of the English services. Until the Easter
of this year the services for both Japanese and English
congregations were conducted in St. Andrew s ; now, as
the Japanese Sunday congregation is too large for the
church, their Sunday morning services are held by the
Bishop s permission in a large building called the
" pro-cathedral."

From time to time the Japanese and English congre
gations have added to the internal fittings of the Church
of St. Andrew s.

2. The Japanese " pro-Cathedral." This is a wooden
structure built upon ground adjoining St. Andrew s
Church, and known as " the cathedral ground " at Shiba.
Its purpose being to provide larger room for diocesan
needs until a permanent church can take its place, it
has been built according to the most feasible design for
the space at command. Apart from the chancel, which
ends in a slightly raised apsidal recess that forms this
sanctuary, the measurements are practically square ;
yet the lofty open roofing gives a satisfactory sense of
proportion. The interior is well lighted and ventilated,
and in spite of its manifestly temporary character, its
simple, spacious proportions induce a certain feeling of
restfulness.

Outside the two churches look well together as seen

i Upon his death, in 1902, the Rev. L. B. Cholmondeley was
appointed Legation chaplain,

ST. ANDREW S AND ST. HILDA S MISSIONS 67

through the separating trees and shrubs ; neither
dwarfs the other, nor are they in too close proximity.

Closely connected with the church are St. Andrew s
Sunday schools, night schools and English club ; at the
Mission Rooms, St. Andrew s hostel, and St. Andrew s
boy s school :

(i) The Mission Rooms, attached to St. Andrew s
House, and formerly known as St. Andrew s " divinity
school." The "school" was started soon after the
Mission was founded, and ceased about five years ago
through the lack of students. The rooms in the school
house were kept empty for two years, and were then
placed in the charge of the Rev. William C. Gemmill and
used as a boarding-house for Christian young men going
to college or business.

In this boarding-house there is a constant change of
members. Eleven men can be housed at a time, and
it has already proved most successful in giving a Chris
tian home to many an isolated young Christian man
living for the time in Tokyo. The lower rooms of the
building are used as Mission rooms, for Sunday schools,
the night school, and English club, etc. The Church
and parish meetings are likewise held there.

The " night-school and English club," which has
been going on for many years, is a prominent feature
of St. Andrew s Mission work, and exercises an influence
for good among an increasing circle of students and
younger men of Tokyo. Students from the higher
government schools and the higher commercial