Full text of "Japan"
of
(SMjurd)
EDITED BY
T. H. DODSON, M.A.
Principal of S. Paul's Missionary College, Burgh; and Canon of
Lincoln Cathedral
AND
G. R. BULLOCK-WEBSTER, M.A.
Hon. Canon of Ely Cathedral
WITH A GEN KRAI. PREFACE BY
THE BISHOP OE S. ALBANS
of
ISngltsi) (tffjurd) iSipanston
Edited by T. H. DODSON, M.A., Principal of
S. Paul's Missionary College, Burgh, and
Canon of Lincoln Cathedral ; and G. R.
BULLOCK-WEBSTER, M.A., Hon. Canon of
Ely Cathedral.
1. JAPAN. By Mrs. EDWARD BICKER-
STETH.
2. WESTERN CANADA. By the
Rev. L. NORMAN TUCKER, M.A. ,
D.C.L. ; General Secretary of the
Missionary Society of the Church of
Canada, and Hon. Canon of Toronto
Cathedral.
3. CHINA. By the Rev. F. L. NORRIS,
M.A. , of the Church of England Mis-
sion, Peking ; Examining Chaplain
to the Bishop of North China.
I\ PREPARATION
4. AUSTRALIA. By the Rev. A. E. DAVID,
sometime Archdeacon of Brisbane.
5. SOUTH AFRICA. By the Right Rev.
Bishop HAMILTON BAYNES, D.D., some-
time Bishop of Natal.
6. NORTH INDIA. By the Rev. C. F.
ANDREWS, M.A., Fellow of Pembroke
College, Cambridge, and Member of the
Cambridge Mission to Delhi.
of
BY MRS. EDWARD BICKERSTETH
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP
A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. LTD.
LONDON : 34 Great Castle Street, Oxford Circus, W.
OXFORD : 106 S. Aldate's Street
NEW YORK : THOMAS WHITTAKKR, 2 and 3 Bible House
First printed, 1908
GENERAL PREFACE
*T*T was said, I believe by the late Bishop
r^ Lightfoot, that the study of history was the
best cordial for a drooping courage. I can
imagine no study more bracing and exhilarating
than that of the modern expansion of the Church
of England beyond the seas during the past half
century, and especially since the institution of
the Day of Intercession for Foreign Missions.
It is only when these matters are studied
historically that this expansion comes out in its
true proportions, and invites comparison with the
progress of the Church in any similar period of
the world's history since our LORD'S Ascension
into heaven.
But for this purpose there must be the accurate
marshalling of facts, the consideration of the
special circumstances of each country, race and
Mission, the facing of problems, the biographies
of great careers, even the bold forecast of
conquests yet to come. It is to answer some
of these questions, and to enable the general
reader to gauge the progress of Church of
England Missions, that Messrs. A. R. Mowbray
and Co. have designed a series of handbooks,
V
vi General Preface
of which each volume will be a monograph on
the work of the Church in some particular
country or region by a competent writer of
special local experience and knowledge. The
whole series will be edited by two men who
have given themselves in England to the work
and study of Foreign Missions Canon Dodson,
Principal of S. Paul's Missionary College, Burgh,
and Canon Bullock-Webster, of Ely.
I commend the project with all my heart.
The first volume, which I have been able to
study in proof, appears to me an excellent in-
troduction to the whole series. It is a welcome
feature of missionary work at home that we have
now passed into the stage of literature and study,
and that the comity of Missions allows us to
learn from each other, however widely methods
may vary. The series of handbooks appears
to me likely to interest a general public which
has not been accustomed to read missionary
magazines, and I desire to bespeak for it a
sympathetic interest, and to predict for it no
mean success in forming and quickening the
public mind.
EDGAR ALBAN.
HlGHAMS,
WOODFORD GREEN, ESSEX,
November JO, 1907.
EDITORS' PREFACE
*T tKW facts in modern history are more arrest-
"^l ing or instructive than the rapid extension
of the Church's responsibilities and labours in the
colonial and missionary fields ; yet, until recently,
few facts perhaps have been less familiar to those
who have not deliberately given themselves to a
study of the subject.
It has therefore been felt that the time has
come when a series of monographs, dealing with
the expansion of the Church of England beyond
the seas, may be of service towards fixing the
popular attention upon that great cause, the
growing interest in which constitutes so thank-
worthy a feature in the Church's outlook to-day.
The range of this series is confined to the work
in which the Church of England is engaged. That
story is too full to allow of any attempt to include
the splendid devotion, and the successful labours,
of other Missions of Christendom. But, for a fair
understanding either of the Christian advance
generally or of the relative position of our own
viii Editors' Preface
work, a knowledge of those Missions is essential ;
and it is in the hope of leading some of its
readers to such further comparative study that
this series has been taken in hand.
The Editors have tried to keep in view the
fact that, while the wonderful achievements here
recorded have been accomplished in large part
through the agency of our Missionary Societies,
yet these Societies are, after all, only the hands
and arms of the Holy Church in the execution
of her divine mission to the world.
They have directed their work, as Editors,
simply to securing general uniformity of plan
for the series, and have left each writer a free
hand in the selection of material and the ex-
pression of opinion.
T. H. D.
G. R. B.-W.
TO
MY HUSBAND
IN TATRIA CARA
PREFATORY NOTE
/^iRATEFUL acknowledgement is due, and is here
gladly made, to the ready courtesy with which
archives have been opened and information for this
volume given, both by the Editorial Department of the
Church Missionary Society, and by Mr. C. F. Pascoe,
Keeper of the Records of the Society for the Propaga-
tion of the Gospel.
The history of the Christian Church in Japan, and
the opportunities before it in the immediate future,
form a subject as far-reaching as it is inspiring. It can
only be touched in the merest outline in the following
pages, of the inadequacy of which the compiler is
deeply conscious. But they will have done their work,
should any reader be led to consult books more worthy
of the subject, or, better still, be drawn to study on the
spot the problems of modern Japanese life in their
relation to the Faith of CHRIST.
M. H. B.
CONTENTS
I. MODERN JAPAN AS A FIELD FOR MISSIONARY
EFFORT - i
II. CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN - 26
III. THE NIPPON SEI K6 KWAI - 54
IV. PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF CHURCH WORK
IN JAPAN - - 74
V. SOME PIONEERS AND FOUNDERS 99
VI. SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS - - 107
VII. SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS (continued) 135
VIII. THE PRESENT POSITION HINDRANCES AND
OPPORTUNITIES - - 152
GENERAL INDEX - 165
INDEX TO NAMES - 168
BIBLIOGRAPHY - 170
xiii
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
THE REV. J. AND MRS. BATCHELOR AND GROUP OF
AINU 34
GROUP OF CLERGY AND DIVINITY STUDENTS, S. AN-
DREW'S, TOKYO, JULY STH, 1895 58
GROUP OF WORKERS IN A SPECIAL MISSION, S. AN-
DREW'S, TOKYO, i goo 76
BISHOP EDWARD BICKERSTETH, 1893 101
THE BISHOPS OF THE NIPPON SEI K5 KWAI, 1900 107
BISHOP FYSON AND JAPANESE WORKERS IN THE
HOKKAIDO, AUGUST, igo3 143
Handbooks of English Church Expansion
JAPAN
JP
CHAPTER I
MODERN JAPAN AS A FIELD FOR
MISSIONARY EFFORT
" "T'T is not for nothing that a nation rises into
-*- eminence as ours has done. But we feel
that we have been raised by Providence to do a
work in the world, and that work we must do
deliberately and faithfully as opportunity comes
to us. Our work, we take it, is this : to battle for
the right and uphold the good, and to help to
make the world fair and clean, so that none may
ever have cause to regret that Japan has at last
taken her rightful place among the nations of the
world."
Such words as these, taken almost haphazard
from a periodical issued in Tokyo during the war
i?
2 JAPAN
of 1904, and truly indicative of the spirit which
animates the modern Japan statesman, go far to
remove any surprise that may be felt at the
position which Japan occupies to-day in the
opinion of the world.
Ten years ago a certain tone of patronage in
speaking of Japan and the Japanese was to be
noticed among Western people ; there was ad-
miration indeed, but almost always it was such
admiration as is accorded to the qualities of
children by wiseacres on a superior plane. This
has entirely passed, and at last Japan receives
from statesmen and politicians the attention that
she deserves ; the cry of the " Yellow Peril " was
itself surely a testimony to the estimation in which
the Island Empire of the East had come to be
held.
And the wonderful thing about it all is that
even now it is little more than fifty years since
Commodore Perry of the United States Navy
steamed into the Bay of Yedo, and by sheer
persistence forced aside the barriers which for
two hundred years had, of her own deliberate
purpose, separated Japan from the rest of the
civilized world. Ever since, in the seventeenth
century, the patriotism of the Japanese had taken
A FIELD FOR MISSIONARY EFFORT
fright at supposed dangerous intrigues with the
Pope of Rome, and had taken drastic measures
to rid the country of all foreigners and to exclude
all foreign influence, those barriers had been
strictly preserved. Japan was again almost as
much an unknown quantity to the Western world
as it had been before the stories of Marco Polo
had fired the imagination of Europe, and before
S. Francis Xavier began his heroic enterprise to
conquer the country in the Name and to the
service of CHRIST. True, before the middle of the
nineteenth century there were not wanting signs
that the Japanese themselves were beginning to
tire of their seclusion. There was an atmosphere
of unrest when the American captain made his
bold stroke in 1853, and the doors of Japan were
once more thrown open to the people of the West.
A short fifty years has passed, and how com-
plete has been the change in almost every depart-
ment of Japanese life ! The " foreign intrusion,"
at first resented, was soon eagerly welcomed, as
the nation deliberately set itself to acquire of the
West, with one vital exception, all that the West
had to give ; not, however, in a spirit of servile
imitation or mechanical adoption, but of intuitive
choice and wise adaptation.
Govern-
ment.
4 JAPAN
The three hundred years that separated the land-
ing of S. Francis Xavier from that of Commodore
Perry had changed the face of modern Europe, and
Japan at once set herself to cull the fruits of the
intervening centuries ; to remodel her own real
but out-of-date civilization to meet the exigencies
of modern life.
A rapid glance may be given to some depart-
ments in which the change is most apparent.
In 1853 the hereditary Emperor, deeply rever-
enced as the descendant of the Sun-goddess, held
his Court and semblance of rule at Kyoto, a rot
faineant truly, while all the real power lay in the
hands of the Shogun or military ruler, the anti-
type of the maire de Palais of mediaeval France.
In 1907 the immediate successor of this Mikado
reigns at Tokyo as a constitutional monarch, the
legislative power being in the hands of duly
constituted and elected Houses of Parliament, and
the executive entrusted to a body of Ministers
responsible to the Crown. The Japanese rightly
pride themselves on the fact that their constitution
(which dates from 1889) is a free gift from the
Emperor to his people ; it is " the result of
voluntary concession on the part of the sovereign,
in fulfilment of a solemn declaration made at the
A FIELD FOR MISSIONARY EFFORT 5
time of his coronation that public affairs should
be determined by public assembly." l
Before 1853 " learning was not regarded as an Education,
essential qualification of the aristocratic classes,
as knowledge and skill in swordsmanship were
universally acknowledged to be. In fact, in the
eyes of ordinary Samurai, culture was considered
as a sign of physical disability and, therefore a
thing suitable only to weaklings and effeminate
courtiers whose delicate health did not allow them
to attend to the noble practices of the Samurai.
In most places a school existed more for decency's
sake and less from practical necessity." 2
In 1907 there is hardly a village which has not
its Government school for girls as well as boys,
and a notice is in force " that children have to
attend school commencing from the age of full
six years and ending at full fourteen, parents or
guardians being under obligation to send them to
school." That this obligation is, on the whole,
well observed is seen from the fact that in 1903
the rate of attendances per cent, of children of
school age was 96^5 for boys and 89^5 for girls.
The whole country is studded with Middle
and High Schools, where all branches of Western
1 Japan Year Book, 1905. 2 Ibid.
6 JAPAN
knowledge are taught, in preparation for those
Universities of Tokyo and other cities, graduates
of which have achieved no little distinction in the
scientific world. For instance, it is a well-known
fact that it was a Japanese doctor who discovered
the bacillus of plague at Hong Kong during the
outbreak of 1894.
The spirit in which all this modern learning is
acquired is well set forth in the following Imperial
Rescript on Education issued in 1891 and read
annually in every school in the Empire :
" Know ye, Our subjects :
" Our Imperial Ancestors have founded Our
Empire on a basis broad and everlasting, and
have deeply and firmly implanted virtue ; Our
subjects ever united in loyalty and filial piety
have from generation to generation illustrated
the beauty thereof. This is the glory of the
fundamental character of Our Empire, and herein
also lies the source of Our education. Ye, Our
subjects, be filial to your parents, affectionate to
your brothers and sisters ; as husbands and wives
be harmonious, as friends true ; bear yourselves
in modesty and moderation ; extend your benevo-
lence to all ; pursue learning and cultivate arts,
and thereby develop intellectual faculties and
A FIELD FOR MISSIONARY EFFORT 7
perfect moral powers ; furthermore, advance public
good and promote common interests ; always
respect the Constitution and observe the laws ;
should emergency arise, offer yourselves coura-
geously to the State ; and thus guard and maintain
the prosperity of Our Imperial Throne coeval
with heaven and earth. So shall ye not only be
Our good and faithful subjects, but render illus-
trious the best traditions of your forefathers.
" The Way here set forth is indeed the teaching
bequeathed by Our Imperial Ancestors, to be
observed alike by Their Descendants and their
subjects, infallible for all ages and true in all
places. It is Our wish to lay it to heart in all
reverence, in common with you, Our subjects,
that we may all thus attain to the same virtue.
" The 3Oth day of the loth month of the 23rd
year of Meiji."
(Imperial Sign Manual. Imperial Seal.)
In 1853 each noble had his band of feudal . rm Y and
Navy.
retainers the Samurai, or two-sworded men bold
and faithful, but with no knowledge of modern
warfare. During her time of seclusion Japan had
no need of ships.
Since the Russo-Japanese War, it is no longer
necessary to point out that Japan possesses a
8 JAPAN
standing Army which for discipline and organiza-
tion and personal courage holds a remarkable
position among the armies of the world, and a
Navy which has won for itself lasting renown.
But it is not only in material things that the
contrast between 1853 and 1907 is great and
striking.
If we take such an index of national life as the
position of women, the change, if less rapid, has
been no less radical than in other departments of
life. It is true that the women of Old Japan
always held a position unique in the East. In
history, as far back as it goes, we find an honour-
able place given to women. It was an Empress to
whom was attributed the first conquest of Korea.
A woman was the first historian. Artists of rare
skill and scholarship may be counted among their
ranks. The old ideas regarding women were en-
lightened, and it was owing to outside influences
that the old standard was lowered. Among these
influences were the spread of Buddhism, which
regarded woman as full of sin and impurity,
and forbade her to visit holy places because
she defiled them, and held out as her only
hope for the future the possibility of being born
again as a man ; the introduction of Chinese
A FIELD FOR MISSIONARY EFFORT 9
literature ; and above all, the strong influence of
the Confucian scholars with their master's dictum
of the " three obediences " owed by women in
youth to her father, in middle life to her husband,
and in old age to her sons. These and other
causes brought about a gradual but sure change,
until in the sixteenth century the Japanese woman
had fallen from her position of respect and equality.
History has left us little account of women during
the three hundred years that followed. Their
homes were sealed and hidden from outside gaze.
Here, in quiet seclusion, the young girl grew up
under the strict doctrine of the Chinese sages.
Implicitly obedient to her parents in childhood,
when married she served her husband as her
master ; and in old age leaning on sons who took
their father's place, she taught the same doctrines
to her daughters that she had held all her life,
impressing on them her standard of duty and
right, of gentleness, sacrifice, and abnegation.
The women of Old Japan had few educational
advantages. They were not, however, without
some training, and, except in the lowest classes,
received instruction in reading, writing, poetry,
and Japanese history. In addition they learnt
music, the tea ceremony, etiquette, and flower
io JAPAN
arrangement. This limited education was in
keeping with the narrow life of those days.
The special attention paid to etiquette and moral
training, the keen sense of duty, loyalty, and
honour early instilled into the mind, tended to
produce women who, though not intellectually
trained, were not without a sense of moral
responsibility, and possessed a dignity mingled
with gentleness and sweetness. As regards the
social status of woman in Japan during those
three centuries, law and government had little
regard for her ; laws affecting her were very few,
simply because she was a factor not worth con-
sidering. Such vital questions as marriage and
divorce were left to custom, in lack of civil codes
on such matters.
But after a very short contact with the outside
world, the Japanese were quick to see that if their
country was to take the place they desired for it
among those of the West, one of the essentials
was a radical change in the status of their women;
and with characteristic promptitude the leading
men of the Empire set to work to bring this about.
Now, though there are still a number of women
who represent Old Japan, who live their gentle,
self-effacing borne lives just as their grandmothers
A FIELD FOR MISSIONARY EFFORT n
and great-grandmothers did, yet there are also a
large and rapidly increasing number headed by
the Empress, who represent New Japan. They
share in all the new life pulsating through the
country, and have taken advantage of the new
and growing opportunities for education. Many
of these women hold honoured positions in society
and in the educational world, and a further proof
of the changed estimation in which women are
now held in Japan is furnished by the substantial
reforms in the marriage and property laws
effected during the last few years.
It is difficult to write about the religious life of Reli e ion -
Japan, for the intense reserve of the people seems
at every turn to baffle all attempts to penetrate
into the depths of the mind and life, but it seems
true to say that religion has never had any great
hold upon the Japanese people. The religious
observances of Shintoism and Buddhism have
been maintained, but they do not appear to have
had any far-reaching effect upon the life of the
people in any way comparable to the inter-
mingling of Hinduism with every act and thought
of the adherents of that religion.
The following notes on Shintoism, and on
Buddhism as found in Japan, are by Professor
12 JAPAN
Basil Chamberlain, well known for his intimate
acquaintance with "things Japanese":
" Shinto, which means literally ' the way of the
gods/ is the name given to the mythology, and
vague ancestor and nature-worship, which pre-
ceded the introduction of Buddhism into Japan,
and which survives to the present day in a some-
what modified form. It has no set of dogmas, no
sacred book, no moral code.
"It is necessary, however, to distinguish three
periods in the existence of Shinto. During the
first of these roughly speaking, down to A.D. 550
the Japanese had no notion of religion as a
separate institution. To pay homage to the gods,
that is, to the departed ancestors of the Imperial
Family and to the shades of other great men, was
a usage springing from the same mental soil as
that which produced passive obedience to, and
worship of, the living Mikado. Besides this,
there were prayers to the wind-gods, to the god
of fire, to the god of pestilence, to the goddess
of food, to the deities presiding over the saucepan,
the cauldron, the grate, and the kitchen. There
were also purifications for wrong-doing as there
were for bodily defilement, such as, for instance,
contact with a corpse. The purifying element
A FIELD FOR MISSIONARY EFFORT 13
was water. But there was not even a shadowy
idea of any code of morals, or any systematization
of the simple notions of the people concerning
things unseen. There was neither heaven nor
hell only a kind of neutral-tint Hades. Some
of the gods were good, some were bad ; nor was
the line between men and gods clearly drawn.
There was, however, a rude sort of priesthood,
each priest being charged with the service of
some particular local god, but not with preaching
to the people. One of the virgin daughters of
the Mikado always dwelt at the ancient shrine
of Ise, keeping watch over the mirror, the sword,
and the jewel, which he had inherited from his
ancestress Ama-terasu, goddess of the sun.
Shinto may be said, in this its first period, to
have been a set of ceremonies as much political
as religious.
" By the introduction of Buddhism in the middle
of the sixth century after CHRIST, the second
period of the existence of Shinto was inaugurated,
and further growth in the direction of a religion
was stopped. The metaphysics of Buddhism
were far too profound, its ritual far too gorgeous,
its moral code far too exalted, for the puny fabric
of Shinto to make any effective resistance. All
14 JAPAN
that there was of religious feeling in the nation
went over to the enemy. The Buddhist priest-
hood diplomatically received the native Shinto
gods into their pantheon, for which reason many
of the Shinto ceremonies connected with the
Court were kept up. The Shinto rituals, pre-
viously handed down by word of mouth, were then
first put into written shape. The term Shinto was
also introduced, in order to distinguish the old
way of thinking from the new doctrine imported
from India. But, viewing the matter broadly, we
may say that the second period of Shinto, which
lasted from about A.D. 550 to 1700, was one of
darkness and decrepitude. The various petty
sects into which it then divided itself, owed what
little vitality they possessed to fragments of cabal-
istic lore filched from the baser sort of Buddhism
and from Taoism. Their priests practised the
arts of divination and sorcery. Only at Court
and at a few great shrines, such as those of Ise
and Izumo, was a knowledge of Shinto in its
native simplicity kept up ; and even there it is
doubtful whether changes did not creep in with
the lapse of ages. Most of the Shinto temples
throughout the country were served by Buddhist
priests, who introduced the architectural orna-
A FIELD FOR MISSIONARY EFFORT 15
ments and the ceremonial of their own religion.
Thus was formed what is called Ryobu-Shinto
a mixed religion founded on a compromise between
the old creed and the new.
" The third period in the history of Shinto began
about the year 1700, and continues down to the
present day. It has been termed ' the period of
the revival of pure Shinto.' During the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries, under the peace-
ful government of the Tokugawa dynasty of
Shoguns, the literati of Japan turned their eyes
backward on their country's past. Old manu-
scripts were disinterred, old histories and old
poems were put into print, the old language was
investigated and imitated. Soon the movement
became religious and political above all, patriotic.
The Shogunate was frowned on, because it had
supplanted the autocracy of the heaven-descended
Mikados. Buddhism and Confucianism were
sneered at, because of their foreign origin. Shinto
gained by all this. Scholars devoted themselves to a
religious propaganda if that can becalled a religion
which sets out from the principle that the only two
things needful are to follow one's natural impulses
and to obey the Mikado. This order of ideas
triumphed fora moment in the revolution of 1868.
i 6 JAPAN
" Buddhism was disestablished and disendowed,
and Shinto was installed as the only State religion
the Council for Spiritual Affairs being given
equal rank with the Council of State, which latter
controlled affairs temporal. At the same time
thousands of temples, formerly Buddhist or Ryobu-
Shinto, were, as the phrase went, ' purified,' that is,
stripped of their Buddhist ornaments, and handed
over to Shinto keeping. But as Shinto had no
root in itself being a thing too empty and jejune
to influence the hearts of men Buddhism soon
rallied. The Council for Spiritual Affairs was
reduced to the rank of a department, the depart-
ment to a bureau, the bureau to a sub-bureau.
The whole thing is now a mere shadow, though
Shinto is still in so far the official cult that certain
temples are maintained out of public moneys, and
that the attendance of certain officials is required
from time to time at ceremonies of a half-religious,
half-courtly nature,
ii. Budd- Superficial writers have often drawn attention
hism.
to the resemblances between Buddhistic and the
Roman Catholic ceremonial the flowers on the
altar, the candles, the incense, the shaven heads of
the priests, the images, the processions. In point
of fact, a whole world of thought separates
A FIELD FOR MISSIONARY EFFORT 17
Buddhism from every form of Christianity.
Knowledge, enlightenment, is the condition of
Buddhistic grace not faith. Not eternal life is
the end, but absorption into Nirvana, practical
annihilation. For Buddhism teaches that existence
is itself an evil, springing from the double root of
ignorance and the passions. In logical conformity
with this tenet, it ignores the existence of a supreme
GOD and Creator of worlds. There are, it is true,
gods in the cosmogony which Buddhism inherited
from Brahminism ; but they are less important
than the Hotoke or Buddhas men, that is, who
have toiled upward through successive stages of
existence to the calm of perfect holiness.
" Japan received Buddhism from Korea, which
country had obtained it from China. The account
which the native history books give of the intro-
duction of Buddhism into Japan is that a golden
image of Buddha and some scrolls of the scriptures
were presented to the Mikado Kimmei by the
King of I lakusai, one of the Korean States, in
A.D. 552. The Mikado inclined to the acceptance
of the new religion ; but the majority of his
council, conservative Shintoists, persuaded him
to reject the image from the Court. The golden
Buddha was accordingly conferred upon one Soga-
c
i 8 JAPAN
no-Iname, who turned his country house into the
first Buddhist temple existing on the soil of
Japan.
" Chinese and Korean Buddhism was already
broken up into numerous sects and sub-sects when
it reached Japan sects, too, all of which had come
to differ very widely in their teaching from that of
the purer, simpler southern Buddhism of Ceylon
and Siam.
" It is a fact, curious but true, that the Japanese
have never been at the trouble to translate the
Buddhist canon into their own language. The
priests use a Chinese version, the laity no version
at all nowadays, though, to judge from the allu-
sions scattered up and down Japanese literature,
they would seem to have been more given to
searching the scriptures a few hundred years ago.
The Buddhist religion was disestablished and dis-
endowed during the years 1871-4, a step taken
in consequence of the momentary ascendancy of
Shinto : but it still has a hold on the mass of the
less-educated people."
It is impossible that the wave of new ideas and
national aspirations should have swept over the
land, and have left untouched the old systems of
faith. In spite of desperate efforts on the part
A FIELD FOR MISSIONARY EFFORT 19
of the priesthood, few, if any, of the educated class
of either men or women have any belief in, even if
they profess, the faith of their fathers.
Nor has the philosophy of Confucius proved J 11 : c ? n -
* fucianism.
more able to bear the strain of modern life. Its
admirable code of ethics brings to its votaries
no offer of divine help in the daily struggle with
temptation and sin.
Professor Chamberlain writes : " To describe in
detail this Chinese system of philosophy does not
belong to a work dealing with things Japanese.
Suffice it to say that Confucius, called by the
Japanese Koshi, abstained from all metaphysical
flights and devotional ecstasies. He confined
himself to practical details of morals and govern-
ment, and took submission to parents and political
rulers as the corner-stone of his system. The
result is a set of moral truths some would say
truisms of a very narrow scope ; and of dry
ceremonial observances, political rather than
personal. This Confucian code of ethics has for
ages satisfied the Far-Easterns of China, Korea,
and Japan, but would not have been endured for
a moment by the more eager, more speculative,
more tender European mind.
" Originally introduced into Japan early in the
2o JAPAN
Christian era together with the other products of
Chinese civilization, the Confucian philosophy lay
dormant during the Middle Ages, the period of
the supremacy of Buddhism. It awoke with
a start in the early part of the seventeenth
century, when leyasu, the great warrior, ruler,
and patron of learning, caused the Confucian
classics to be printed in Japan. During the
two hundred and fifty years which followed, the
whole intellect of the country was moulded by
Confucian ideas. Confucius himself had, it is true,
laboured for the establishment of a centralized
monarchy. But his main doctrine of unquestion-
ing submission to rulers and parents fitted in
perfectly with the feudal ideas of Old Japan ; and
the conviction of the paramount importance of
such subordination lingers on as an element of
stability."
Perhaps the most potent moral influence in
Japan at the present day is the code of Bushido,
of which so much has been said and written
during the last three years. Bushido is a system
of ethics based on the ancient chivalry of Japan,
a system which has grown up spontaneously and
naturally among the people, and is indigenous
to the soil. As such it speaks to the Japanese
A FIELD FOR MISSIONARY EFFORT 21
with a force and authority which there is no
gainsaying.
Bushido is more potent in Japan to-day than it
has been at any time in the history of the country.
The reason of this is not far to seek; it depends
upon the altered circumstances of the nation.
.Under the feudal system, which lasted practi-
cally to fifty years ago, the military caste was
entirely separate from the rest of the nation, and
as Bushido was the ethical rule of that caste
entirely, it was extremely limited in its applica-
tion. But modern Japan has changed all that.
Now military service is universal, as well as com-
pulsory, and the lowest coolie is bound to serve
his country under arms exactly in the same way
as is a gentleman in whose veins flows the blood of
a long line of Bushi ancestors. Like all unwritten
systems of thought, Bushido is of such a nature
that it almost defies classification and analysis,
but its main teachings may be summarized as
follows :
1. The Bushi must be loyal to his sovereign
and his master.
2. He must cultivate personal courage, and be
well trained in fencing, archery and horsemanship,
or their modern equivalents.
22 JAPAN
3. He should be honest and chaste, simple and
temperate, a keeper of faith and true to his word.
4. He should be polite in his behaviour and
never intentionally rude to others. This can only
be done by a constant cultivation of tact and
good heart.
5. He should be pitiful and ever ready to help
the weak and those who are in distress.
6. He should cultivate literary tastes and never
despise the claims of learning. 1
It is, perhaps, hardly surprising that teaching
such as this, together with the practical exhibition
of its result in the recent war, should have so
captivated the imagination of the West that
a sense of proportion has been lost, and the
pendulum has swung far in the direction of flattery
and adulation. There are not wanting those who
are ready to say that Japan at least can do with-
out CHRIST, that here at least is a people among
whom Missions are a mistake, or at all events a
superfluity. The problem touched in these words
is a very deep one, but perhaps a few lines of
thought may be indicated along which we may
seek for its solution.
1 The above account of Bushido is almost verbatim
from a paper written by a Japanese in 1904.
A FIELD FOR MISSIONARY EFFORT 23
1. There is no doubt, and those who love
Japan most should shrink least from saying it,
that there is the reverse side of the picture. Not
only is there failure to attain ideals (in this what
Christian nation or what Christian individual could
venture to throw stones ?), but there are failures
and gaps in the ideals themselves. In a country
where the ideal of purity for men hardly exists, 1
where reverence for women as such is practically
unknown, where life is a thing of naught, and
where truthfulness comes low down in the scale
of virtues, it can hardly be said that the code of
ethics is complete; and again, surely of a nation as
of an individual, the word perfection can hardly be
used, when one whole side of the nature, and that
the spiritual, is practically undeveloped.
2. But if we turn to the other side, and thank-
fully acknowledge all that is best and highest in
the Japanese character, surely we must not fall
into the danger of forgetting that if this has been
attained without the knowledge of the truths of
Christianity, it has not been attained without the
1 This is practically true in spite of the apparent contra-
diction of clause 3 of the Bushido code. It is only right
to add that for women there is a very real standard in this
matter.
24 JAPAN
CHRIST. We must attribute these gifts and
graces of character to the same LORD in Whom
the Fathers of Alexandria saw the source and
inspiration of all the truth that underlay the
Platonic school of philosophy.
3. And therefore, just because of the gifts and
the attainments of the people of Japan, we are
bound to win them for the King of kings, to point
them to the Light by which in ignorance they are
walking. The Church cannot afford to do with-
out the contribution of Japan. We are certain
that this nation has a real treasure of her
" desirable things " to bring into the city of GOD.
4. And there are not wanting signs that the
Japanese themselves are unsatisfied with the
present state of things. The terrible annual roll
of suicides in Japan is one of the many evidences
of the unsatisfying nature of ancient heathenism
or modern agnosticism. There is at present
a spirit of inquiry throughout the Empire, dif-
ferent from anything that has been known
before ; there is a stretching out towards truth
and righteousness which is very striking to those
who knew Japan ten or fifteen years ago.
It is without doubt the Christian character
which is primarily attracting those Japanese who
A FIELD FOR MISSIONARY EFFORT 25
are being drawn towards the Faith : the character
of Christians first leading them on to study, value,
and admire the Life of the CHRIST. And
with admiration comes the characteristic desire
to imitate ; it would be difficult to estimate the
number of those who deliberately set themselves
to-day to copy the Christian character, to adopt
it as they have done with other acquisitions of
the West. And then as they find one by one
that they have set themselves an impossible task,
that the fruit of the Spirit is not thus to be culled
without its root ; then there comes a sense of
failure, an awakening of a desire for a life mightier
than their own, and so they come to the Cross
and to the Person of the risen and living LORD.
26 JAPAN
CHAPTER II
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN
*T*N strange conjunction with the present almost
"^ exaggerated estimate of the power of Japan,
we still constantly meet with the old assertion
that Japan cannot become a Christian nation ;
that this laughter-loving, pleasure-seeking people
skimming lightly over the surface of life with
no desire to penetrate its mysteries, treating all
things alike (suffering, death, sin) with a lightness
and indifference incomprehensible to the Western
mind, with no philosophy of its own, no apparent
seeking after GOD is incapable of the Sacrifice
of the Cross. To such pessimism a sufficient
answer is to ask the critics whether they have
ever read the history of the early Christian
Missions in Japan.
It was in 1549 that S. Francis Xavier and his
companions landed on the shore of the Empire,
and were welcomed with the utmost cordiality by
noble and peasant alike. Such rapid progress was
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN 27
made, that it seemed as if Japan was then going
to take its place among the Christian nations of
the world. Fifty years after the coming of
S. Francis the number of Christians was esti-
mated at nearly one million. In the early years
of the seventeenth century the attitude of the
Government changed, and in place of a dead
toleration came a fierce persecution, perhaps the
most terrible which has ever had to be faced by
any Church in any age. The foreign teachers
were all martyred or banished, and the Japanese
Christians were hunted down with a malignity
and ferocity which were only equalled by the
steadfastness and the heroic endurance of the
converts. Surely a people who three hundred
years ago were capable of such heroism would
not fail if the like test were again applied.
It certainly seemed as if for once the Church
had failed, the Cross had been defeated. As far
as was known, not a single Christian was left in
Japan ; and in every village there were notice
boards, forbidding, under pain of death, any inter-
course with the outside world, and specifically
any intercourse with Christian people. The
notice ran thus : " So long as the sun shall warm
the earth let no Christian be so bold as to come
28 JAPAN
to Japan, and let all know that the King of Spain
himself, or the Christian's GOD, or the great GOD
of all, if He violate this command, shall pay for
it with His head." But when in 1859 Roman
missionaries again began to make their way to
Japan, they were cheered and encouraged by the
rallying round them of the descendants of the
former Christians, and then it proved that " a
small and faithful band still continued to practise
their religion in secret, handing down from gen-
eration to generation the rite of Baptism, the
Apostles' Creed, the LORD'S Prayer, and the main
elements of the teaching they had received." l
It was not long before some five thousand of
these descendants had rallied round the Roman
missionaries. Even then persecution was not at
an end, for most of the newly-discovered Christians
were torn away from their homes and exiled to the
bleak north coast. But in a few years an entire
change came about, the denunciatory edicts
against Christians were removed, the exiles were
allowed to return to their homes, and it became
known that no one need fear to profess Christi-
anity.
This toleration has been taken full advantage
1 Sir Ernest Satow in The East and the West, April, 1907.
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN 29
of by Western Christendom. Every branch of
the Church, and separatist bodies innumerable,
have sent workers in greater or fewer numbers,
till the keen minds of the Japanese have become
confused by the variety of Creeds offered to them,
and their moral sense is offended by the unedify-
ing sight of the dissensions of Christendom. Still
" every way " we may say with S. Paul, " CHRIST
is preached," and it must be a cause of rejoicing
that souls are won from heathenism or agnosticism
to some form, imperfect or encumbered though
that form may be, of the Faith of CHRIST.
But this sketch is concerned only with the
work of our own communion ; and here, while
there is much to grieve over in the paucity of
workers and means, yet there are many causes
for thankfulness.
To the Church of America belongs the honour
of sending the first representative of our com-
munion to Japan. The Rev. C. M. Williams with
one companion arrived at Nagasaki in 1859.
Ten years later the Church Missionary Society
sent its first representative, and in 1873 the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel began
its work.
The year 1873 seems to have marked the
30 JAPAN
beginning of a new epoch. Many influences
tended to make the official and educated classes
regard religion with favour. To many Japanese
the Christian religion had by this time come to
be looked on as part of the system of the West,
which they were endeavouring to understand and
adopt. In 1884 it was even publicly urged that
Christianity should be adopted as the national
religion. We cannot but be glad that this mush-
room growth was checked, partly by the opposition
of the Buddhists, and partly, we may feel sure,
by its own want of depth. Among individuals,
however, the work went steadily on, and by 1886
there were some fifteen hundred converts through-
out the Empire, gathered in during the preceding
years by English and American Churchmen.
Some accounts of these early years, as far as
the English Missions 1 are concerned, may be of
interest it being remembered that similar work
was being carried on by the sister Church of
America. It was on January 23, 1869, that the
Rev. G. Ensor, representing the Church Missionary
Society, landed at Nagasaki, the southern port of
Japan. At that time Christianity was still pro-
1 These accounts (pp. 30-53) are borrowed from the
publications of the C.M.S. and the S.P.G.
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN 31
scribed, and the ominous notice confronted the
missionary that " the laws hitherto in force for-
bidding Christianity are to be strictly observed."
Mr. Ensor wrote : " I read those words, and
I realized at once the excessive difficulty of our
task. What were we to do ? I could not gather
the little ones into the Sunday school or stand
and preach in the streets. The only opportunity
I had was simply to receive the visits of any
inquirers who chose to come to me to my own
house ; and would a Japanese venture thus ?
They did venture. Before a month had passed,
day by day, hour by hour, my house would be
thronged with Japanese visitors, all curious to
know something about England and her science
and art and progress, but most of all about her
religion ; they knew that she was a power among
the nations, and believed that religion and power
in a State are inseparable. More serious inquirers
would wait till the darkness of night, and then
steal into my house ; and we used to have the
doors closed and the windows barred, and as
I bade them farewell when they left, I scarce
ever expected to see them again for I was
informed that an officer had been specially
appointed to keep watch at my gate." After
32 JAPAN
four years of zealous labour, Mr. Ensor's health
failed and he was obliged to return to England ;
but he had had the joy of baptizing some ten or
twelve Japanese, and as the spirit of toleration
grew, his companion and successor, Mr. Burnside,
was able to work more openly, so that when he in
his turn had to resign, the Rev. Herbert Maundrell,
who took over the work in 1875, found a small
church built and about to be opened. From this
time the work in Nagasaki became promising,
and it soon spread to other towns in the southern
island of Kiushiu, e.g., Kumamoto, which is the
garrison town for the southern portion of the
Empire. Mr. Maundrell paid his first visit there
in 1876, and two of his Nagasaki students
followed during a vacation in 1879 and did
some quiet evangelistic work. The result was
an earnest request for a resident catechist, and
when Mr. Maundrell went there in July, 1880,
he was able to admit to the fold of CHRIST
twelve adults and four children. During the year
1 88 1 the work was carried on in the midst of
opposition. Again and again the preaching-
place was stoned ; but (a curious feature of the
progressive character of the times) the advanced
Liberals of the town, not themselves Christians,
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN 33
determined to put down the opposition with a
high hand.
On September 25, 1873, the two first mission-
aries of the English Church reached the main
island of Hondo. They were also the first
missionaries of the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel to be sent to Japan, both having
offered as a result of the first great Day of Inter-
cession, the funds to establish the Mission being
also a fruit of that day. Their names, well-known
and honoured, are the Rev. Alexander Shaw- and
the Rev. W. Ball Wright. With them landed
a deacon of the American Church, and the three
proceeded to Tokyo (or Yedo as it was then
called), and for a time lived together.
On the last day of the same year work was
begun by the Church Missionary Society in
Osaka, where the Rev. C. F. Warren was
warmly welcomed by the American Church-
men already at work (since 1869) in that
important city, soon to become the Manchester
of Japan. Within a year Mr. Warren was
joined by the Rev. H. Evington, 1 and in 1876
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
began work in the neighbouring city of Kobe
1 Since 1894 Bishop of Kiushiu.
D
34 JAPAN
under the Rev. H. J. Foss 1 and the Rev. F. B.
Plummer. In 1874 the forces of the Church in
Tokyo were strengthened by the establishment
of a C.M.S. Mission under the Rev. J. Piper, and
the Rev. P. K. Fyson. 2
In the same year the Church Missionary
Society stretched further afield and opened
work in the northern island of Yezo. This
work was first among the Japanese, but in 1877
Mr. John Batchelor began those efforts on
behalf of the Ainu, the aboriginal race, which
have been so signally marked with GOD'S
blessing.
All the names mentioned above, (together with
many others whom space forbids to mention)
deserve to be had in special honour in the roll of
the Japanese Church as in a very real sense
"pioneers and founders." In December, 1873,
Bishop Williams of the American Church (con-
secrated in 1866 with jurisdiction both in China
and Japan, and relieved some years later of the
China work) came to reside in Tokyo, and
in June, 1874, he baptized the first fruits of the
Anglican Missions in the capital, while on
1 Since 1899 Bishop of Osaka.
2 Since 1896 Bishop of the Hokkaido.
D
C
C
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN 35
S. Andrew's Day of that year Andrew Shimada
was admitted to the flock of CHRIST by the
Rev. W. B. Wright.
Some of the early letters are full of interest.
The following is dated August 4, 1875, and is
from Mr. Wright :
" I hope (ixv.) to baptize a young man who is
very earnest, and, I think, honest-minded, but his
family are staunch idolaters. He has now gone
home for a fortnight to see them.
" I have taken a small house for preaching at
seven dollars a month, and Shimada, having got
Government permission, has made a contract with
me to teach, as I can neither rent a house nor
hold school (except in my own house) in my own
name. We began just a month ago, in spite of
the thermometer being at 93 degrees in the shade.
I have already nearly thirty scholars, of whom ten
are boarders, or rather lodgers. They are prin-
cipally young men of from seventeen to thirty
years of age. New ones are coming in every
day. I have been obliged to engage John
Masuda as manager and assistant-teacher. I
baptized him on Whitsunday. Both he and
Shimada are earnest men, and Shimada has
helped me for a good time. I have told them
36 JAPAN
that while I pay for the secular school work, they
must consider it a blessed privilege to teach and
preach the Gospel free of charge. I think this is
better than having paid catechists. These ought
to be provided by a native Church.
" Every night at eight we have short Evening
Prayer, which the scholars attend. John Masuda
reads a chapter of the Bible and explains it in
the colloquial. I feel sure that a blessing will
attend the school. Last night about eleven, while
I was trying to sleep, I heard a great talking,
which I found in the morning was John exhorting
some of the scholars to believe in CHRIST.
" It is impossible to say how valuable some of
the copies of the S.P.C.K. Commentary on the New
Testament have proved. Masuda and Shimada
have each a copy which they diligently study, and
others are working hard at English so as to be
able to read the commentaries. This morning,
in the middle of school, in came an old Shinto
priest, named Shiratori, or White Bird. I had
given him the Gospel according to S. Mark and
S. John to read, and now he wanted the other
two, also a prayer to say. He and a young man
to whom I had given the English Testament came
up to my house, and in my study we had a long
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN 37
talk on Christianity. His son lives about eight
miles out of Tokyo, and he is going to try to
arrange that Andrew and I shall go out to meet
his neighbours and talk to them."
Later accounts tell of the prosperity of the
school. On September 27th, Mr. Wright says :
" I have now about forty scholars, of whom four-
teen or fifteen are boarders. For the increased
number our little house was too small ; so, as one
very suitable was found in the neighbourhood,
Andrew has rented it, and we here combine
church and school, and many of the scholars come
to service."
In the Mission Field for December, 1875, we
read :
"In Japan, as elsewhere, work of one kind leads
to other work of quite a different description. Still
it has been felt by some persons that school work
takes time and strength, which the missionary
might devote first to learning the language, and
then to labours more directly evangelistic than
are possible in a school where most of the instruc-
tion is of necessity secular. On those grounds
the Rev. A. C. Shaw has adopted a system some-
what different from that hitherto followed by
English missionaries in Japan, as will be seen by
38 JAPAN
the following letter which he wrote from Yedo
(Tokyo), on August 30, 1875 :
" ' I am still living with the Japanese, and may
continue to do so indefinitely. Mr. Fukuzawa
has done much for education in Japan, and his
name is more widely known throughout the
country than perhaps that of any one else, so
that my connection with him gave me a position
which I should not otherwise have. I have also
gained admission into the large school number-
ing about three hundred boys of good family from
all parts of Japan which he has established here.
In it I hold a class twice a week, to which about
fourteen boys come for the purpose of being
taught moral, which is really Christian, science.
From among these, I have on two evenings in the
week an inner class of boys who wish for fuller
instruction in Christianity. Some two or three of
these are, as far as I can judge, sincere believers,
and I trust that, GOD working with me, I may
baptize them.
" ' I have hired a small room in a house situated
in one of the principal thoroughfares, where I have
been delivering weekly lectures on Christianity.
The attendance here is very unequal sometimes
large, but generally rather small. This I attribute
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN 39
to my want of facility in speaking, more than
anything else. However, I am not discouraged ;
I have already baptized one of the most regular
attendants, who was formerly a teacher of mine,
and two or three others have spoken to me about
Baptism ; these, however, I shall defer.
" 'Another branch of work which I consider of
considerable importance is that of writing apo-
logies for Christianity, for publication in the native
newspapers in answer to the numerous attacks on
our religion which they contain. I have written
several for the principal paper here, which the
editor has inserted, and I am about to write a
connected series, commencing with an appeal to
the Government for the toleration of Christianity.
'"It is easy to see, in spite of the hostile attacks
continually made, the Gospel is making steady-
progress ; and this not altogether, nor perhaps
even chiefly, through the labours of the mission-
aries, but from the independent reading and
thought of the people themselves. There are,
I believe, thousands in Japan favourably disposed
to Christianity, who have never spoken to a
foreigner in their lives.
l<< Knowing the people, especially the country
people, intimately, I have no doubt as to the
40 JAPAN
future of Christianity, if the work be carried on in
a wise manner. It is not difficult to believe in
the marvellous success which is reported to have
attended Francis Xavier's preaching. He came,
not only in the power of GOD, and of a holy life,
but at a time when the people had not learned to
dislike and despise foreigners, with the power of
the higher Western civilization at its back, and
bringing the Gospel with all its force of novelty ;
and the consequence was that this people, so
curious, and who sit lightly on all things, flocked
in multitudes for Baptism. It was the history of
the introduction of Buddhism over again.
"' Circumstances have changed since then.
Christianity is no longer new, supposed immoral
tendencies have been discovered in its teaching,
and a dislike and contempt of foreigners has been
instilled into the minds of the great mass of
Japanese from childhood. The evangelization of
Japan can, therefore, only be successful if we
train a native ministry for the work, for multitudes
of the people would willingly receive the Gospel
from their fellow-countrymen who would not
listen to the teaching of foreigners.'"
In August, 1876, Mr. Shaw writes:
"In the two months which have elapsed since
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN 41
the opening of my chapel, fifteen persons have
been admitted as catechumens, and several more
will probably be admitted next Sunday. A most
hopeful feature is that these converts are, almost
without exception, elderly people, or the children
of converts. Our Sunday school prospers ; it
numbers over twenty children, who are both
regular in coming, and attentive. By the Sunday
after next we shall move into a larger room over
the chapel, which is now being fitted up for a
school."
In 1878 a Missionary Conference, the first of
its kind ever held in Japan, met at Tokyo in May,
and was attended by all the missionaries of the
English and American Church, the president
being Bishop Burdon from China. Of this Con-
ference the Rev. A. C. Shaw writes : " To my
mind far the most important work done was the
agreement arrived at that there should be but one
translation of the Book of Common Prayer to be
used by the English and American Church in
Japan. This promises to be a lasting blessing
to the Native Church."
The Rev. H. J. Eoss wrote from Kobe in June,
1878:
" Our regular work has been preaching. As
42 JAPAN
you know, since late in September James Mizuno,
of Mr. Wright's flock, has been living with us.
He has developed into a clear and powerful
preacher, and I trust also into an earnest and
steady young man. With his help we have been
able to hold services on Surfday evenings since
September /th. Our congregations have been
very various, though never as large as in the
summer, ranging from ten or eleven to no out-
siders at all.
" The second means of propagating the Gospel
is by receiving and instructing visitors ; and I am
happy to say we have had quite a large number
of visitors lately. Some two or three policemen
have been coming regularly, and another young
man, who is a teacher of no less than three
foreigners, and shows great intelligence. During
the business and the other interruptions incident
to the close and opening of the year, they have
not been here for some little while, but I trust
they may begin to come again after this first week-
is over. The questions of the policemen at first
were very good, in connection with the tract on
The True GOD, by Mr. Piper, of the Church
Missionary Society, and were hard for me, with
my slender command of language, to answer fully;
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN 43
but with the help of Mizuno's presence and ex-
planations, they expressed themselves satisfied ;
and, after stating their intention to read the books
themselves before raising further doubts, they
told me they did not raise these objections
because they did not believe, but because they
wished thoroughly to understand what they
believed on other accounts to be the truth. My
new teacher, Hirayama by name, himself an
inquirer, has been the means of bringing these
policemen to us, he himself having been engaged
in official duties which made him connected with
the police. The receiving of visitors is a very
important and interesting, and at the same time
a difficult and delicate part of our work.
" I am thankful to be able to report the first
Baptism of our Mission, and I very earnestly
hope that this convert, who was baptized under
somewhat exceptional circumstances, may remain
faithful and become strong in the LORD. I may
have mentioned in my letters to you Iwata, my
teacher from the first. He is a very thoughtful,
quiet, and earnest man, and we have grown to
like him very much, and for a long time he had
seemed to be becoming more and more impressed
with the truth of Christianity. Plummer, who
44 JAPAN
took him as his teacher in June or July, had very
great hopes that before he went to study, as he
intended to do at the end of September, he would
have become fully a Christian ; but he seemed to
stop long on the threshold, convinced of the false-
hood of other religions, believing in the One true
GOD, but yet not able to satisfy himself as to the
fact (so marvellous as indeed it is) that JESUS was
verily and indeed the SON of GOD. It was so
ordered that, owing to the illness of a friend (for
Japanese are most kind in friends' illnesses), he
was prevented from leaving Kobe till far into
November, and he had even settled the day of his
departure, when one Sunday a Christian friend of
his came in, and, after a long talk, Iwata said that
all his difficulties were cleared up, and that he
was persuaded that JESUS CHRIST was the SON
of GOD, and was determined to walk in His
paths. I was very glad to hear this indeed, and
mentioned the matter to Mizuno, with whom he
was about to go on a little trip of a couple of
days to Arima. Acting on this knowledge,
Mizuno had some talk with him on the matter,
and finding him settled in his mind, reminded him
of his journey away from Christian influences, and
offered to be his witness if he wished to be
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN 45
baptized. He was apparently overjoyed at this,
and on his return he came to me, and on his clear
expression of the meaning and blessing of Baptism,
I determined to accede to his request, knowing
him as well as I did from our year's intercourse
together, and believing that he thoroughly
understood and believed the main simple facts
of the Gospel as expressed in the Apostles'
Creed, and that he had resolved to keep
GOD'S holy will and commandments, and to walk
in the same all the days of his life. May GOD
help him to do so, for His dear SON'S sake! He
was baptized by the name of Masachika (just and
affectionate), which had been an old name of his,
discarded when the Government insisted upon
persons keeping to a single personal name. The
date of Baptism was November 26, 1877, fifteen
months to a day after we came out."
From Tokyo, Mr. Shaw wrote brightly and
hopefully in December, 1878:
" S. Andrew's Day was a profitable one to us.
" A Celebration in the morning ; and in the
afternoon all our Christians met together for a
prayer meeting at Bishop Williams's new church;
over sixty attended, brought together from the
three American stations, Mr. Piper's, Mr. Wright's,
46 JAPAN
and my own, and the gathering was a very
interesting one. It was conducted almost entirely
by the Japanese themselves, and just before the
close we all stood and repeated the Apostles'
Creed together. Over thirty of my own Christians
attended, though the distance was five miles.
" Christmas Day has been also a blessed day
with us. Our little church was beautifully de-
corated, the Christians working with much zeal.
We had an early Celebration at 8 a.m., and the
regular service at 9 ; there was hardly standing
room in any part, even the stairs were lined, and
yet in all the throng there was scarcely one who
was not either a Christian or a catechumen. It
was certainly a sight to make a missionary's heart
glow with thankfulness and joy, so many simple,
earnest souls gathered in, let us pray for ever,
into CHRIST'S fold. After the lesson it was my
great joy to admit twenty-three new members
into our little flock by Baptism. Most of them
were middle-aged people, some quite old, and the
sexes were almost equally divided, the number of
women being in the preponderance by one, rather
an unusual fact. Among the number were two
doctors and one blind man; the latter during his
probation as a catechumen learnt nearly the whole
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN 47
of the Gospel by heart. He is the second blind
man I have baptized, and I have two more as
catechumens."
And again in 1879 :
" It is three years on the 4th of last June since I
first began publicly to preach the Gospel in Japan.
On that day I opened a little chapel in a house
I had procured not far from where I then lived.
Goo blessed my work there, and gradually a little
company of Christians was gathered together and
a Sunday school was commenced. In the course
of two years our congregations had increased to
such an extent that it was necessary to find some
larger room for the services. The prospects of
my work were so good I thought it would be
better to build at as moderate a cost as possible a
substantial church, where the full service of the
Church of England could be exhibited without
any of the inconveniences necessarily attaching to
a small room. And I felt the need of doing so
was the greater because the Greek Church, and
the Roman, as well as many of the dissenting
bodies, had been long before me in this matter.
I also believed that it would in some ways be
beneficial to my work to hold the English and
Japanese services in the same church, for the
48 JAPAN
natives would attach some importance to places of
worship at which the members of the English
Legation, and the other principal residents, at-
tended.
" The Mission buildings comprise, besides the
church, a large schoolhouse, used for a boys' day
school, a Sunday school, and various congrega-
tional purposes ; and a house where some of the
day school scholars live under the care of my
catechist. On June 4th, the anniversary of my
first service in Tokyo, we held our opening
service."
In 1880 the S.P.G. Annual Report says:
" At the end of the seventh year of their work
in Japan the Society's missionaries thankfully
report themselves in fair health, and although less
sanguine of rapid progress than on their first
arrival, yet encouraged and much better qualified
to judge of the character of the people with whom
they have to deal, and of the prospect of mis-
sionary efforts. There has not been during the
last twelve months much out of the ordinary run
of quiet work. The Rev. W. B. Wright continues
his city work in Tokyo, and with part of the
results of a bazaar has built a nice day school
in the Mission compound. Goodly numbers still
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN 49
come to hear his preaching, and from time to
time one and another places himself under more
definite Christian instruction. The trials of a
missionary to the Japanese are enormous : among
them may be mentioned the prevailing jealousy
of foreigners, the restrictions of free travelling and
residence in the interior, and the peculiarities in
the language. Nevertheless in many ways the
work is spreading wonderfully. The transla-
tion of the Scriptures is progressing well. In
country districts matters are still more encourag-
ing. A grant of the Society goes to the building
of a new chapel at Nakatsu, where two young
men were baptized in May in the river, and a
Buddhist priest became an inquirer, remaining
from morning to night with the catechist, reason-
ing about Christianity. Many other deeply
interesting results might be recorded, but one
must suffice, that of a Shinto priest, who, coming
to Tokyo from a market town in which Mr.
Wright had preached year after year without
apparent result, presented himself at the mission-
house and begged to be received as a catechumen.
Since then his son has thrown open a hospital, of
which he is the proprietor, as a preaching place,
and both father and son do their best themselves
E
50 JAPAN
to explain Christianity to the patients. The
hospital is a large building, formerly a Shinto
temple.
" The Rev. A. C. Shaw is assisted by four
catechists and two school teachers. Four divinity
students are being trained in his school, where
also the son of one of the chief nobles of Japan is,
at his own request and with his father's consent,
being prepared for Baptism."
From Osaka early and vigorous attempts were
made to carry the Gospel message into the
surrounding villages. Short journeys were made
on foot, groups were addressed at the wayside tea
houses ; and, when possible, companies of people
were gathered for preaching in the inns where the
nights were spent.
In Osaka itself the first church connected with
the English Mission was opened in June, 1878,
and in the following year came the opening
of a boarding and day school for girls. After
eight years' earnest work by Mr. Warren and
Mr. Evington a theological class was opened in
Osaka, the nucleus of the future Divinity School.
The year 1881 was one of marked progress. In
Osaka fifteen adults and eight children, and at
Tokushima (in the island of Shikoku, worked at
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN 51
first as an out-station of the Osaka centre) three
adults were baptized.
During all these early years the English mis-
sionaries in Japan had been under the episcopal
jurisdiction of the Bishop of Victoria (Hong
Kong). This arrangement had marked disadvan-
tages, and as early as 1878, at the conference of
English and American missionaries already re-
ferred to, there was a unanimous sense of the
need of an English Bishop.
In 1882 it was arranged that an episcopal
stipend should be provided by the two great
English Missionary Societies, and that the appoint-
ment of the Bishop should be in the hands of the
Archbishop of Canterbury. On S. Luke's Day,
1883, the Rev. A. W. Poole (formerly a missionary
of the Church Missionary Society at Masulipatam,
in South India) was consecrated Missionary Bishop
for Japan. He was warmly welcomed by all the
workers, and there was great sadness when, after
a short but very fruitful period of service, during
which he had won all hearts, the Bishop's failing
health compelled him to leave Japan, and in 1885
he passed to his rest. During Bishop Poole's short
episcopate there was admitted to the diaconate
one of the catechists trained by the Rev. E. C.
52 JAPAN
Hopper. 1 This great event in the history of the
infant Church took place on S. Matthias' Day,
1885, and is thus recorded by Mr. Hopper:
" Having got through all our preliminaries in
the week before, so as to allow a short time for
spiritual exercises, the service began at 10 a.m. in
little Ushigome Church. 2 Prayers were read by
Messrs. Tai and Kanai, 3 who, as you know, were
ordained deacons two years ago, Mr. Shimada
reading the first lesson, Mr. Tai the second.
The sermon was preached by the Rev. A. C.
Shaw from Revelation iii. 1 1 , ' Hold that
fast which thou hast, that no man take thy
crown.'
" I was ' archdeacon,' and presented ; and, after
the Bishop had said the Litany, Mr. Lloyd took
the first part of the Communion Service, Mr.
Yamagata of course reading the Gospel.
" I cannot but think that Mr. Yamagata's
ordination is an immense step in our work in
Japan. It is only about twelve years since the
first S.P.G. missionary arrived there, and at that
time there were, I believe, some ten baptized
Christians of all denominations in the whole
1 Of the S.P.G. 2 A district of Tokyo.
3 Of the American Mission.
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN 53
country. Now we have in our own Church three
deacons as the nucleus of a Japanese ministry."
Bishop Poole's successor was the Rev. Edward
Bickersteth, who, after five years' service at Delhi
as first head of the Cambridge Mission, had been
invalided home. He was consecrated on the
Feast of the Purification, 1886, and at once
started for the scene of his labours.
54 JAPAN
CHAPTER III
THE NIPPON SEI Ko KWAI
the Church Missionary Society in Japan
is due the honour of the suggestion of
corporate union amongst the scattered congrega-
tions gathered in during twenty-five years by
missionaries of the Church of England and the
sister Church of America. At a Conference
held at Osaka in May, 1886, the following reso-
lution was passed : " That taking into considera-
tion the existence of three Episcopal Missions
in this country, two of which are in connection
with the Church of England, and one with the
Episcopal Church of America, and being convinced
that co-operation between these Societies, and
visible union amongst the Christians connected
with them, is necessary to the establishment of
a strong Episcopal Church and a necessary pre-
liminary to any wider union of Christians in Japan
on a permanent and satisfactory basis, the annual
Conference of the Church Missionary Society now
THE NIPPON SEI Ko KWAI 55
sitting in Osaka, wishes to suggest to the Bishop
and clergy of the American Church, and the
clergy of the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel the desirability of holding a General Con-
ference of the three Missions on this subject at
an early date."
This aspiration towards unity found a ready
response in the second English Bishop in Japan,
who had reached his diocese on April 15, 1886.
The proposal was also warmly welcomed by the
American clergy ; and the Conference met a few
weeks later, and resolved " to try and weld
together into one body the various scattered
congregations of our respective Missions."
Bishop Williams of the American Church pre-
sided, and it was decided to hold a second Con-
ference on July 8th and the following days, each
Society sending their representatives.
" This Conference," Bishop Bickersteth wrote
in his diary, " lasted four days, with sittings of
about three hours twice daily. The proposed
Synod and the code of canons, on which Bishop
Williams and I have been at work, were our chief
subjects of discussion. I speak of discussion, but
the whole was most harmonious, everybody, I
think, trying to contribute rather than disperse,
56 JAPAN
to build rather than overthrow. If our plans can
be carried through, I trust by GOD'S grace they
will give a great stimulus to GOD'S work, which
is here mainly missionary work."
The aims of the Conference were further set
forth by Bishop Bickersteth in his opening sermon,
from which the following quotation may be given:
" It can scarcely be doubted that, with an accepted
Christianity, Japan will adopt no mere Western
idea of the Faith ; and though receiving, as is
necessary, the framework of the Church from
abroad, will complete her ecclesiastical organiza-
tion on her own lines. If this be so our aim is
sufficiently clear. It is to form in this country
during the brief period of transition a Christian
society which will itself be constituted in all
necessary things on the lines of the historical
Church, and retain every essential element of the
Faith, but will not be bound any longer than is
needful by Western use or formulae, or be tram-
melled by the predominance of the foreign ele-
ment in its councils."
The Conference thus held was not long in
bearing fruit, for in February, 1887, there met at
Osaka the first Synod of the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai, 1
1 Literally, " Japan Holy Universal Society."
THE NIPPON SET Ko KWAI 57
This Synod consisted of many of the missionaries,
American and English, and also of Japanese
Christians chosen as delegates by their respective
congregations. At this Synod the draft of the
Constitution and Canons was adopted, of which
the first three articles may be quoted :
" Article i. The Church shall be called the
Nippon Sei Ko Kwai.
" Article ii. This Church doth accept and
believe all the Canonical Scriptures of the Old
and New Testaments, as given by inspiration
from GOD, and as containing all things necessary
to salvation, and doth profess the Faith as summed
up in the Nicene Creed, and in that commonly
called the Apostles' Creed.
" Article iii. This Church will minister the
doctrine, and Sacraments, and discipline of CHRIST
as the LORD hath commanded ; and will maintain
inviolate the three Orders of Bishops, Priests, and
Deacons in the sacred Ministry."
At the close of 1887, Bishop Bickersteth
wrote :
" Japanese Christians in future days will look
back, I believe, with pleasure to the first Synod of
their Church in February of this year. It was
a freely elected body, in which Europeans and
58 JAPAN
Americans were greatly outnumbered by Japanese.
Of the Japanese delegates the majority were men
of education. In consequence, questions were dis-
cussed on their merits, not results merely accepted
on authority. The main decisions arrived at were
unanimous. A Japanese Church .was organized.
A constitution was laid down on the basis of Holy
Scripture, the Nicene Creed, the Sacraments and
the Three Orders. The Anglican Prayer Book
and Articles were retained for present use. Regula-
tions were made for the regular meetings of a synod
and local councils. A Japanese Missionary Society
was set on foot. The meeting was looked forward
to with some serious apprehension, perhaps, by
every one. With the more thankfulness we now
admit that, through the guidance of GOD'S HOLY
SPIRIT harmonizing the opinions of various minds
in accordance, as we trust, with His own will,
a large step forward was taken in the outward
progress of the Church."
On this broad, strong foundation the Nippon
Sei Ko Kwai has grown and developed, until in
1906 it had 13,000 members, of whom 6,880 were
communicants, with a Japanese ministry of forty-
two priests and twenty-two deacons.
Successive meetings of the Synod have added
THE NIPPON SET Ko KWAI 59
to the Canons as they were required, have
adopted the Japanese Prayer Book, and have
ratified the division of the Empire into six
missionary jurisdictions.
In 1886 there were no dioceses properly so
called, but the two Bishops, one American and the
other English, had the oversight respectively of
their own congregations gathered throughout the
Empire. In practice this was found to be in-
convenient, and gradually territorial subdivisions
have been made, until now the whole land has
been mapped out into six dioceses, four of which
are under the care of the English Church, and two
under that of the Church of America, until the
time when, in the Providence of GOD, the whole
can be handed over to a Japanese episcopate.
That this happy consummation has been in
view from the beginning is seen by the following
interesting memorandum drawn up in 1891 by
Bishop Edward Bickersteth and Bishop Hare of
South Dakota (the latter being in temporary
charge of the American Mission in Japan after
the resignation of Bishop Williams) :
" Having regard to the work which lies before
the Anglican communion in Japan, and to the
special qualifications of each branch of the com-
60 JAPAN
munion for conducting it, we, the undersigned,
entrusted by our respective Churches with epis-
copal jurisdiction in Japan, are of opinion that it
is better that the Church should be presented to
the Japanese in its composite form, as exhibited
in its English and American branches, than in the
specific form in which it would be represented by
either branch alone.
" Neither Church will be adequately exhibited,
unless, as at present, its organization has been
completed by the presence of a Bishop. Hence
we regard the presence in Japan of a Bishop of
each Church as highly desirable.
" We regard the work of such Bishops as pro-
visional. The whole state of thought and feeling
among the Japanese forbids the introduction into
Japan, as permanent institutions, of branches of
either the English or American Church, and
nothing would so offend the national feeling and
so hinder the extension of the Church as the
giving the Japanese just cause for suspecting that
we desire or intend to impose upon them a per-
manent foreign episcopate.
" Every wise principle of propagating the
Gospel in Japan demands that our work should
be regarded as that of so directing the Missions
THE NIPPON SEI Ko KWAI 61
of the American and English Churches that a
Japanese independent and self-supporting Church
shall be the result. The English and American
Bishops are not regarded by the Japanese, and
should not be regarded by us, as having juris-
diction over dioceses finally delimited, but rather
as forerunners in the episcopate of Japanese
Bishops who will exercise jurisdiction over such
permanently defined dioceses as the expansion of
the Japanese Church may in the future demand."
And in this work of building up the Nippon
Sei Ko Kwai all members of our communion,
be they American, Canadian, or English, whether
sent out by the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel or the Church Missionary Society, or sup-
ported by the efforts of private friends, have
worked and are working side by side and shoulder
to shoulder. As far as Japan is concerned, there
is no difference of race or of society. The Church
throughout the Empire is one ; our Christians can
go from north to south, from east to west, and
everywhere find the same forms used in the wor-
ship of GOD, the same organizations at work for
the regulation of their life.
From the very beginning this little Church has
been a Missionary Church. As soon as it was
62 JAPAN
organized it formed a Board of Home and Foreign
Missions, and as soon as possible stretched out
beyond the limits of Japan itself to Formosa and
to Korea. On S. Andrew's Day, 1897, the present
Bishop of South Tokyo wrote :
" The great day is to-day when I ordained the
Rev. D. T. Terata to the priesthood as the first
missionary sent by the Japanese Church to
foreign parts. He is to leave for Formosa the
day after to-morrow. He is to go for a couple
of months through the island, and then to return
and report to the Japanese Missionary Society
his impression as to the place and methods for
his Mission. I hope that this vigorous effort
abroad may be well maintained, and may also
stimulate the Church to more vigorous efforts
for self-support at home. Bishop McKim came
to join in the laying on of hands, and said
the Litany and helped us in the administration."
Still small in numbers, there is no question that
the influence of the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai is
strengthening and deepening. In 1904 two of
its Japanese clergy could write :
i. " The Christian work of 1904 was narrow
but deep, just as that of the year before was wide
but shallow. All workers seem to have learnt
THE NIPPON SEI Ko KWAI 63
that it is important to teach people thoroughly
to make them consistent Christians. . . . Brothers
of other denominations are strongly feeling the
necessity of making divine worship more orderly
and solemn, and at the same time more hearty.
So if we who are trusted with an important
heritage of the Catholic Church remain faithful
to what we profess, we shall be able to draw our
brethren in CHRIST nearer, and to restore at last
unity among Christians in this Empire." Rev.
M. Kakuzen.
2. "If we compare the opinions of people
about Christianity at the present time with those
of fifteen years ago, when it was making rapid pro-
gress in Japan, we must be very thankful to feel
that their ideas about it now are much deeper.
Whereas formerly their motive for inquiry was
largely due to the desire for Western civilization,
now it seems that they have come to learn by
their external and internal circumstances . . .
how short and feeble is human life, how valuable
the soul is, and how essential Christian morality,
if the nation is to take its stand among the highly-
civilized peoples. . . . Again, not only is the idea
of religion deepening among Christians in Japan,
but they are inclining to appreciate the solemnity
64 JAPAN
of the service of our Church, even though they are
members of other bodies." Rev. H. Yamabe.
Again, in the C.M.S. Japan Quarterly for April,
1906, we find a letter describing what is rightly
called "a notable day in Osaka Church history":
" A stranger visiting Osaka on Sunday, March
nth, and wishing to attend a Japanese Church
service, might have been surprised to find all the
churches closed. If he had thought that this
showed indifference on the part of the Christians
he would have made a serious mistake, for never,
perhaps, has any one day stood out more remark-
ably in the history of the Church in Osaka than
did last Sunday. There are seven churches in
this large city, three of them connected with the
American Church, under Bishop Partridge's super-
vision, and four churches belonging to the C.M.S.,
under Bishop Foss. It is true that last Sunday
the Morning Service was not held in them ; their
pastors were absent and the church doors closed.
But why? Some time beforehand it had been agreed
that on that day all the seven congregations should
meet in the large Y.M.C.A. hall and hold one great
united service. The object was to try and bring
more clearly into the minds of the Christians that
they were not simply members of Holy Trinity or
THE NIPPON SEI Ko KWAI 65
of the Church of the Resurrection, but that they
formed part of one Catholic and Apostolic
Church, acknowledging the same LORD and using
the same prayers and order of service. It was
thought that such a service would not only
strengthen the sense of unity but would also act
as a stimulus towards independence and self-
support, and would hasten the days when Osaka
might be able to claim its own Japanese Bishop.
" The congregations attended in good force, and
each church sent its pastor, with the exception of
Jonan, which was represented by Mr. Fujimoto,
a catechist, who hopes to proceed immediately
to Deacon's, and as soon as possible to Priest's
Orders. Three of these seven churches are self-
supporting ; three support their own pastor with
assistance from the Pastorate Fund, and the
other Jonan is in charge of the writer the
only church in Osaka with a foreign pastor. . . .
" After a reverent and hearty service, two
sermons were preached. First, the Rev. P. G.
Kawai, preached on the necessity of a firm
faith in CHRIST as the basis of any scheme of
progress. He was followed by the Rev. Y.
Naide, who, taking for his text S. Paul's
words, ' Knowing the time,' traced out the
F
66 JAPAN
history of the Japanese Church, and exhorted
the Christians to be alive to their opportunity.
Just as the American Church had sprung up as a
result of missionary work from England, and had
become a sister or a daughter Church, so was
Japan. In 1887, at the celebrated Synod held in
Osaka, the Church had come into being. It had
been growing stronger and stronger, but so long
as it had to have six foreign Bishops, it could not
be said to be independent. England and America
were waiting, full of expectation, for the day
when the Japanese Church could be entrusted to
its own Bishops. They did not wish to hinder,
they only longed to confer their independence.
When he (Mr. Naide) was ordained priest, the
American clergyman who had prepared him for
Baptism and led him step by step up to that day,
took him by the hand, and held it affectionately,
while, with tears in his eyes, he said, ' I have
been waiting for this day.' Just in the same
way, the Church of England and the Church of
America were waiting to take the young Church
of Japan by the hand. The day on which a
Japanese Bishop should be consecrated would be
a day of rejoicing, not only in the Church of
Japan but in England and America also."
THE NIPPON SEI Ko KWAI 67
In 1905, the Bishop of South Tokyo (Rt. Rev.
W. Awdry) wrote :
" In the action of the Synod of this year it has
been for the first time fully and practically recog-
nized that measures for self-support must go side
by side with measures for the extension of self-
government."
In April, 1907, the Bishop of Osaka (Rt. Rev.
H. J. Foss) bore the following testimony to the
growth of the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai :
"It is now twenty years since the first Synod
met in Osaka, and inaugurated the Nippon
Sei Ko Kwai (the Church in Japan), and from that
time the Church Missionary Society, the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel, and American
Churchmen have been working together as one
body for the cause of CHRIST, and for the
advancement and edification of His Church in
the land. Hitherto there has been remarkable
unity of action ; in work, each section and
country have learnt much from one another ;
and in council, very few votes have been taken
in a party spirit.
" It is time to take breath and to try to realize
what has been done by thus planting a branch of
the Holy Catholic Church in Japan. We believe
68 JAPAN
that as CHRIST our LORD did not content
Himself with teaching the truth about GOD and
man, and leaving that truth to make its way, but
was entrusted by His FATHER with the task of
founding a Society which should be the depository
of that truth, and should, in its turn, be entrusted
by Him with the task of propagating and dis-
seminating that truth throughout the world, so
He has ordained in His Providence, that a very
special task should be given to the Nippon
Sei Ko Kwai, as a true and loyal branch of His
Apostolic Church, in witnessing for His truth
in Japan, and her dependencies and colonies.
Among duties that devolve upon us as helpers
in this work are these : To take heed to stability
of doctrine, and to order and reverence in wor-
ship ; to maintain continuity of the main rules of
discipline, and to maintain close union with the
Apostolic Church as established by CHRIST
Himself. The Japanese themselves, by GOD'S
leading, are learning more and more to value all
these things. They can point to our Prayer Book
and Articles, and especially to our Creeds and the
value we put on the reading and study of the
Holy Scriptures : they see that here is a Church
which has a foundation in doctrine to rest upon.
THE NIPPON SEI Ko KWAI 69
As one of their own presbyters said as he saw the
falling away of others from the Faith : ' I have
come to see that we cannot neglect even the least
of the Articles of the Faith without danger of
shipwreck of the soul.' Or as another, a new
catechumen, said the other day, ' For the first
few times we think the sermons in another com-
munion more interesting than yours, but when
we get further on we find yours help us most.'
" So, too, they value more and more the dignity
and reverence of our services. The tendency
seen at the present time to lay more stress on
reverence and orderliness in the services of other
bodies, is avowedly owing to the reverence seen
in our own : for when a thoughtful man begins to
consider what is meant by prayer and praise and
the still more sacred rites, from his very soul he
desires that there should be awe and reverence
displayed in the approach to the Living GOD, and
in this it is better to err, if err we must, in too
great reverence than in too great slovenliness.
Not unfrequently, those whose children have died
in the heart of the country have wired for a
clergyman, and offered to pay all his expenses,
that so they might have a solemn and reverent
funeral with the rites of the Church. Only to-
jo JAPAN
day a bereaved parent wrote 'Thus even our
dead become evangelists.' Much remains to be
taught no doubt in respect of reverence in wor-
ship, and of the value of assembling together for
prayer and praise, but in these twenty years very
much has already been learnt, for which we may
well thank GOD."
In its constitution, the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai
appeals to the sense of history, the love of order,
the patriotism of the Japanese ; it is not in
any sense alien, it is essentially their own. The
power of this is felt at the centre, as for instance
at the meetings of the General Synod, when the
imagination must be slow indeed, which is not
fired by the sight of those men, foreigners and
Japanese, chosen as representatives of their fellow-
communicants, sitting side by side and deliberat-
ing and legislating on matters which vitally affect
the life of the Church. One feels that the Book
of the Acts is being re-written in the East, and
that Church history is being made before one's
eyes. The same power is also felt at the ex-
tremities, as for instance at a Confirmation in
the house of a catechist in a small fishing village
in one of the numberless islands in the Inland
Sea, when the sense of the isolation of those few
THE NIPPON SEI Ko KWAI 71
Christians would be almost overpowering were it
not for the corresponding sense of the bond of the
Communion of Saints. Or again, as when a poor
old woman in Tokyo gave a present, minute in
money value, to a lady missionary whom she
loved, writing on the gift " from an humble
member of the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai."
At the Bicentenary Meeting of the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel in Exeter Hall, on
June 21, 1901, a striking testimony was borne
to the growth of the Japanese Church and to its
feelings of gratitude to the Society as one of the
main instruments by which the Church of Eng-
land has sought to extend to the Island Empire of
the East the blessings which she herself so richly
enjoys. On this occasion the Rev. John Imai
took his place on the platform as Japan's repre-
sentative specially appointed and accredited by
her six Bishops, and he presented to the Arch-
bishop an address, of which the following is a
translation :
" We, the undersigned, being clergy and cate-
chists and representatives of the congregations
in connection with the Society in Japan, beg to
congratulate the Society on having carried on
continuously during the last two centuries, under
72 JAPAN
the protection and blessing of the Almighty, the
work of propagating the Gospel throughout the
world, and having thereby conferred extraordinary
benefits on humanity at large, and accomplished
the salvation of immense numbers of mankind.
We also beg to express our deep sense of thank-
fulness and gratitude for the evangelistic work
done in our own country through the agency
of the Society. At the same time we entreat
the still greater sympathy of your Society for
the salvation of our fellow-countrymen in the
future."
And if the retrospect of twenty years since the
organization of the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai gives
cause for deep thankfulness, so also it is with
great hopefulness, and with a certain widening
of the outlook, that the mind turns to the
future. There rises before the imagination the
picture of a Church, Catholic in Apostolic
Order, Orthodox in historic Faith, Evangelical
in love and zeal, National in constitution and
in its hold on the people and the thought of
the power such a Church would prove in the
evangelization of the whole Far East becomes
a prayer that may be expressed in words written
for members of the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai by
THE NIPPON SEI Ko KWAI 73
Bishop Edward Bickersteth within a few months
of the close of his ministry :
" And when we turn to ourselves, we shall do
well to ask from Him Who gives every good and
perfect gift, a larger and deeper sense of our
responsibility, a spirit of fuller thankfulness for
the great goodness which He has shown to us, a
wider charity and a truer devotion to our Master's
service. And if these graces be granted to our
prayer it will not be presumptuous to hope that
in GOD'S good time, here, and elsewhere, our
communion may be counted worthy to win many
souls for its hire in the dark places of the earth,
and also, it may even be, prove a rallying point
once again of the divided children of GOD."
74 JAPAN
CHAPTER IV
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF CHURCH
WORK IN JAPAN
NOUGH has already been said to make it
clear that one essential principle of work in
Japan is that the Church there must be national ;
the Japanese must feel that it is their own, and
in no sense an alien product. The fountain head
of authority cannot permanently be outside the
Empire ; and it is mainly for this reason that
neither the Church of Rome nor the Orthodox
Eastern Church are likely to become the dominat-
ing religious force in Japan. The various Pro-
testant missionaries are finding since the war of
1904 a strong anti-foreign element amongst their
converts. At present this difficulty has been
avoided in the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai owing to
the foresight and statesmanship which from the
first gave to the Japanese so large a share in her
counsels, and yet reserved in the hands of the
episcopate a power of veto which prevents any
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 75
premature dealing by inexperienced hands with
vital matters of the Faith, or of Church order, or
with questions touching the foundation of morality.
For the permanence of any system in Japan
another essential is that it must appeal to the
love of order, and to the historic sense of the
people. There has been more than one instance
of thoughtful Japanese Christians passing on from
Nonconformity to acceptance of the fuller teach-
ing of the Catholic Faith, simply as a result of
their own reading of Church history.
If we turn our thoughts to the presentation of
the deeper aspects of the Faith, we are confronted
with the absence of a sense of sin amongst the
Japanese. They are fond of asserting that Shin-
toism has no moral code, for such a code is
unnecessary among a people with an instinctive
sense of right ; and when they are addressed
as sinners they simply resent the term as an
insult, and retort that they are not criminals.
And so the Christian missionary has to base
his teaching on the strength and beauty of the
Japanese ideals themselves, leading the hearers
to acknowledge that they fail to attain even these;
and then to pass on to hold up the immeasurably
higher standard of the CHRIST, till in its presence
j6 JAPAN
there begins to come a sense of failure, which by
degrees deepens into realization of personal sin-
fulness.
Then, too, it must be remembered that the
spiritual sense among the Japanese is latent rather
than patent ; it has to be evoked before it can be
satisfied ; speaking generally, there is not a seek-
ing after a Power outside themselves. Though
in a sense the world for them is peopled with
unseen beings, the spirits of the departed, yet
their thoughts about them are vague and shadowy
and have no connection with divine life ; the
eyes of their heart as well as their understanding
have in a very special sense to be opened. And
therefore it is that in the face of the spirit of
inquiry and of the stirring of many hearts, of
which since the war of 1904 there can be no
doubt, the workers of longest standing and deepest
devotion can only stand aside in reverent awe,
saying, " It is nothing to do with us, it is GOD
the HOLY GHOST working in our midst." The
reverence for ancestors, alluded to above, is deeply
rooted in the Japanese mind ; and it is very
important that the Christian Faith should be so
presented that this instinct may find its full
satisfaction in the Communion of Saints.
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 77
With these preliminary principles in mind we
can consider shortly some of the methods of
Church work in Japan.
I. METHODS OF EVANGELIZATION
We think naturally of public preaching ; but * Preach-
ing.
though this, of course, has its place and use, yet
unquestionably that place is far less prominent
than in corresponding work in India, where men
of the highest culture have to gird themselves for
long hours of argument in the bazaars and lecture
halls. Of recent years, however, in Japan, when
an interest in the Faith has been aroused by
other means, more success has attended preach-
ing, and in several large towns a plan has been
tried called by the familiar term of a special
mission. In Japan the speciality consists in
concentrating for several days or weeks in one
great city a number of evangelists, who are
usually working separately, in making known for
some time beforehand the meetings and addresses,
and in begging the prayers of all Church Missions
in the Empire during the time the mission is
going on.
An account of two of the earliest of these
special missions may be of interest :
7 8 JAPAN
(a) The following is an almost literal transla-
tion of an account written by the Rev. John Imai,
Priest-in-charge of S. Andrew's Church, Tokyo,
and senior Japanese priest in the Diocese of South
Tokyo, of a special " mission to unbelievers "
organized by him during the summer of 1897
in the district under his charge. It need hardly
be said that active evangelization is continually
being carried on ; but it had been felt for some
time by Bishop Bickersteth and by his fellow-
workers that there was danger of the non-
Christians living near a Mission centre becoming
so accustomed to the sight of missionaries passing
along their streets and to the sound of the church
bells, that all sense of curiosity was dulled, unless
some special effort were made to make them
realize that the message was for them. Such an
effort was planned and carried out during the
first fortnight of July, 1897, in connection with
S. Andrew's, Shiba, the mother church of the
Diocese of South Tokyo. Every detail of the
preparation was followed with eager interest
by the Bishop during an enforced absence in
England, and during the days of the mission
special and earnest were his prayers on its
behalf. Before news of the wonderful blessing
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 79
vouchsafed by GOD could reach England his
call to rest had come.
It should be mentioned that the Rev. John Imai
spent a year in England (1892), and had the
advantage of studying the principles of mission-
work as practised by the clergy of the Pusey
House, Oxford; All Hallows, Barking; and others.
This is his account as published in a Japanese
Church magazine :
" Since the spring of last year the need was felt
of an aggressive movement in mission work, so
that in the course of a year special witness to the
Gospel might be borne by the Church to the
whole of the great city of Tokyo, with its one
and a quarter millions of inhabitants. My plan
was that a band of mission clergy, catechists, and
other workers should be organized, and that a ten
days' mission should be held in each quarter of
the city. Unexpected difficulties (especially as to
lack of funds and workers) arose. I then proposed
that the effort should be made at S. Andrew's
Church and in the surrounding districts of Azabu
and Shiba. Our late beloved Bishop took special
interest in the scheme and often asked about it.
Owing to my illness and mission journeys it could
not be undertaken for many months ; but this
8o JAPAN
year I thought much about the matter, and after
consultation with my brother clergy, Mr. Yoshi-
zawa and Mr. Yamada, decided on a plan of action.
" Without GOD'S power and blessing work can-
not be completed, so many days were spent in
prayer for the stir of missionary spirit, for guid-
ance in the work, and for the opening of men's
hearts. Whitsunday and the two following days
were specially set aside for public prayer, and the
congregations were asked to use special prayer for
a blessing on the mission.
" Some practical difficulties still remained, but
the sympathy of the congregations helped us
greatly. They made a collection for expenses,
towards which also contributions were received
from unbelievers during the course of the mission.
Those who promised to teach came readily in
spite of their own heavy work and the unusually
hot weather. Several catechists also came to
help, and many of our Christians willingly offered
themselves as mission workers for the time. Thus
sympathy became a real power and encourage-
ment ; and we, having experienced the abundant
blessing of GOD, rested from care, trusting GOD'S
Providence, and we awaited the day with courage
and expectation.
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 81
" On June 3Oth all who wished to join in the
work came together. After the opening prayers
I explained our plan of work, and assigned to
each band of workers their own district, giving
them careful directions as to the distribution of
leaflets, tracts, etc. This committee was followed
by a prayer meeting, and after a short interval we
all went to S. Andrew's Church for Evensong.
The sermon was preached by Archdeacon Shaw,
who (in the absence in England of our Bishop)
dismissed us with his blessing.
" On July 1st we all came together for a celebra-
tion of the Holy Communion at seven o'clock, the
archdeacon being celebrant. After nine o'clock
Mattins they came back with joy and courage,
and related their various experiences welcome
or rejected, cold reception or eager inquiry, etc.
On the whole they found many willing to accept
their invitation. After the one o'clock confer-
ence they went out again, and returned in the
evening with hope and encouragement worthy
of their toil.
" On July 2nd and 3rd the workers diligently
visited in spite of continued bad weather.
" July 5th came, the day round which our hope
and anxiety settled, for it was the first day of
G
82 JAPAN
preaching. The workers visited as usual, after
Mattins, and met for conference at one o'clock.
At 1.30 there was the first preaching, specially
intended for women. To our joy the church was
filled with middle-class women, as well as a good
number of men. After the meeting many came
to the S. Andrew's Boys' School for further teach-
ing, and (after Evensong) the church was literally
packed with men, many having to be turned
away for want of room. Those two meetings
were continued daily until the iith. In spite
of the unusually hot weather the congregations
listened eagerly ; and now and then expressed in
ejaculatory words their conviction of the truths
preached.
" We cannot but see the special blessing of GOD
upon this enterprise, the most encouraging mission
held for twenty years and more.
" The following is a list of the subjects of the
preaching :
" July 5th, ' The Existence of GOD : of the
Creation of Heaven and Earth ' ; ' The true
Mission and Responsibility of Man.'
" July 6th, ' GOD'S Righteousness and Holi-
ness ' ; ' The Fall of Man and its Results.'
7 tn > ' Failure of all earthly means of
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 83
Salvation ' ; ' The Incarnation of the SON of GOD,
the Saviour.'
" July 8th, ' The Teaching and Life of CHRIST';
' The Death and Resurrection of CHRIST '
" July 9th, ' The Church of CHRIST the Home
of Salvation ' ; ' Repentance and Faith.'
" July loth, ' Death ' ; ' Resurrection.'
"July nth, 'The Last Judgment'; 'Eternal
Life.'
" The leaflets distributed each day were tracts
on the subjects to be treated on that day.
" Thus ended our week's work. At the last
service on July iith we were like conquering
soldiers, full of thanksgiving and joy.
"On July 1 2th all the workers and the Chris-
tians of S. Andrew's came together for Mattins
and a special thanksgiving celebration of the Holy
Communion. We have calculated that in the
course of the mission 4,000 houses were visited,
and some 2,500 tickets were issued. Though
' there be many called but few chosen,' yet I
believe we may find many who may become
Christians. That depends greatly on how we
water the seed planted in the mission. It is too
early yet to forecast the result, yet there is much
cause for thankfulness in the fact that over 10,000
84 JAPAN
people heard something about Christianity by
preaching, visiting, and giving of leaflets, and that
the doors to some seven hundred and eighty houses
are now open to us. Since the mission every
Sunday night the church is well filled, the class
for unbelievers has largely increased in numbers.
" I have given this detailed record because we
hope for the spread of this systematic, aggressive
work. Everywhere the door is open for the
Gospel, and men are longing for salvation. The
field is white for the harvest, but the labourers
are few."
(ft) The Rev. W. P. Buncombe 1 gives the
following account of another special mission held
in Tokyo in the spring of the same year :
" The special mission at the Shimbashi Kyo-
kwan (" Teaching House ") began on Monday
morning, May ist, and we were able to carry it
on without intermission till the last day of the
month. We began each morning with a Bible-
reading and prayer-meeting. I gave all the read-
ings, and found it a daily delight to meet with the
fifteen to twenty workers and Christians who came
together. The LORD unfailingly met with us and
blessed us ; and we asked and received from Him
1 Of the C.M.S.
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 85
the salvation of souls, whom He gave us day by
day. It would be no exaggeration to say that
our morning meeting with GOD was the secret of
the power which always attended the Word.
" Then in the afternoon at three, or later on at
four o'clock, there was a preaching in the hall on
the ground floor, at which the attendance varied
from fifteen to seventy or eighty, according to the
weather and circumstances. Again in the evening
we had a preaching with two addresses, at which
the attendance varied from thirty to one hundred
and fifty. After each of these meetings we invited
those who were interested to come upstairs, where
we held a Bible-reading, lending all who came
Bibles or Testaments so as to follow the reading.
These I always took myself when present.
Through all we kept one aim and object in
view, viz., to bring men to a definite decision to
take CHRIST to be their Saviour, then and there.
We therefore spoke chiefly of sin and judgment,
and of GOD'S great love in redeeming mankind by
JESUS CHRIST ; and any address which was not
on these lines we felt to be wasted time. So in
the Bible-readings afterwards we took passages
which the HOLY SPIRIT uses to bring men to
CHRIST. After reading the passage and exhort-
86 JAPAN
ing all to receive the grace of GOD then and there,
the workers as far as possible got hold of each
one individually and with open Bible talked with
them and answered their difficulties and prayed
with them, and if possible got them to pray for
themselves. The names and addresses of those
who professed to ' repent and believe ' were taken
and entered in a book. After the first few days
there was hardly a meeting at which some did not
definitely decide for CHRIST ; sometimes as many
as eight or ten new names would be received in
one day.
" By the end of the second week we had over
seventy names on our list. As it was impossible,
even if desirable, to visit these at their homes or
lodgings, we wrote a letter and had it printed and
a copy sent by post to each. In this letter we
exhorted them to continue in the Faith, and told
them of the services and meetings for Christians,
and asked them specially to come to the Sunday
morning service. The total number of names
taken during the month was one hundred and
sixty. Some of these were the fruits of the work
at the other places where, simultaneously with the
central Mission House, we were holding daily
preachings i.e., the church and two small preach-
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 87
ing places we have in other parts of the city.
The men were chiefly young men, either clerks
or students, but there was a good sprinkling of
older men, though these were, as a rule, harder
to lead than the young.
" Was the work real? will naturally be asked by
many. In a large number of cases we know that
it was, as they have come again and given evi-
dence that their decision was quite sincere, and
there are very few, so far, of whom we have any
reason to doubt. The Sunday morning congrega-
tion itself bears witness to this ; during the month
it increased from the ordinary fifty or sixty to a
hundred, and so far the number has kept up. A
few of the most forward (ten up to the present)
have already been baptized, others are asking for
baptism soon. We keep in touch with all by
means of the weekly letter, of which we send out
a hundred and thirty weekly.
" We have had letters from several saying what
a wonderful change has come in their hearts and
lives, and one young man concluded a long letter
by penning a thanksgiving to GOD for His great
mercy. As might be expected, some have also
begun to bring their friends, and in this way the
work will still further spread. There is no reason
88 JAPAN
to suppose that the work of ingathering is going
to cease with the month of special work."
tionfi d work Of educational work Bishop Bickersteth spoke
as follows at the Church Congress at Birmingham
in 1893:
" The percentage of the educated classes in
Japan is large. It was so formerly when Chinese
methods prevailed. It is so now when European
methods have so largely taken their place. The
present educational system of Japan has widely
extended. It tends to become more thorough
and less exotic than it was when first introduced
a few years ago. In range it covers the whole
field of knowledge from the subjects taught in
the village schools to the curriculum of an English
University, theology on\y excepted. Theology
cannot be taught, because the educated Japanese
mind is as yet in a state of indecision and
uncertainty in reference to the whole subject of
religion. The number of educated men who
believe in the old faiths is few, and the class tends
to become extinct. It seems specially the duty
of the English and Americans, whose literature
and science have been the main agencies in
bringing about the changes out of which emerged
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS
the modern Japan, to make sure that those who
have proved so receptive in other ways should
at least have the opportunity of learning what
their faith is."
In spite of the rapid development of the
educational system in Japan, some of the long-
established Mission schools still hold their own
in numbers and estimation on account of (i) the
special facilities they hold for teaching English ;
(2) the excellent moral tone which the Japanese
know to be ensured there.
In 1899 new Government educational enact-
ments affected the standard of all private schools,
and also seemed specially to threaten educational
Mission work, by their prohibition of all religious
teaching. But it was soon found that if the letter
of the law was kept no objection was made. If
the definite Christian teaching is given out of the
regulation school hours and in another part of the
building from the ordinary lessons, not only is
there no frowning down of Mission schools, but
to those which are educationally efficient Govern-
ment licences are freely given, so that the
graduates of these schools are exempt from
severe entrance examinations in passing on to
higher Government colleges.
90 JAPAN
The work of these Mission schools both for
boys and for girls has been unquestionably
fruitful. There have been many baptisms (and
these in every case with the consent of the
parents, most of whom are non-Christians) ; and
in a far larger number of instances prejudices have
been removed, barriers broken down, and seed
sown in faith and prayer which must surely in the
future bear a rich harvest.
Again, in addition to work in these Mission
schools, there are many openings for English
masters and mistresses in schools which are
entirely managed by the Japanese. " The vast
educational departments of India and Japan are
among the phenomena of our day ; they are
effecting a silent revolution in the East of which
the Church must needs take account. Any plan
which directs the force which they control in
right channels is worthy of consideration. Among
such plans I unhesitatingly count the acceptance
by sincere and consistent Christian men and
women of educational posts under the Govern-
ment in these lands. Let them count the cost
beforehand, in Japan probably loneliness, un-
certainty of tenure, and limitations (which must
be loyally adhered to) which oblige them not
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 91
to teach doctrinal Christianity during school
hours. Still, if, notwithstanding all these dis-
advantages, they are prepared to throw real
enthusiasm on the one hand into the work of
secular education, and on the other into the
opportunities of making known the truth which
these posts afford, then I believe such education-
alists are to be counted among real and effective
allies of the regular missionary staff." 1
Since these words were spoken opportunities
for this particular form of work have very largely
increased, and the following testimony to its value
may be of interest. It is given by the Rev. G. W.
Rawlings. 2
" Up to the summer holiday I taught ethics in
English at the Higher Technical School every
alternate Saturday after school hours. But in
September last, at the invitation of the principal,
I began teaching two classes, of from sixty to
seventy students each, every Saturday morning
during school hours. I have taken such subjects
as pride, avarice, sloth, luxury, etc., and what I
should say to a class of English boys in one
lesson I find takes me four Saturday mornings.
1 Bishop E. Bickersteth at Birmingham, 1893.
2 Of the C.M.S.
92 JAPAN
But though it is slow work, it is distinctly profit-
able, and I thoroughly enjoy it. I make a point
of illustrating from Holy Scripture, with the result
that the Bible has come to be looked upon as the
text-book of my lessons, and numbers bring their
Bibles and carefully study the references. I am
allowed a perfectly free hand, and these students
have learnt something of what Christianity stands
for, and the power there is in CHRIST to save men
from sin. Five of these boys have lately begun
to come to my Sunday Bible class, which is
a sort of general class, and is attended by
teachers and students from various schools. The
Bible class for Normal School students has not
been so successful as the others in point of atten-
dance, but a teachers' class held at my house one
evening a week is well attended by a very
thoughtful and intelligent set of men. It is
impossible to estimate the results of this work ;
but I feel myself that much of its value lies in
the natural and friendly intercourse we have
together. Once a week we have an 'at home
evening,' at which we have games, music or hymn
singing, Bible-reading, and prayer, and it often
happens that a young fellow opens his heart much
more freely at such times than at the actual classes."
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 93
In girls' schools at the present time these
opportunities are specially marked. For the last
seven years one of the women workers x in
Tokyo has been the only "foreign" (non-Japanese)
teacher on the staff of the Peeresses' School, which
is probably the most influential educational institu-
tion in the Empire, and is under the direct patron-
age of H.I.M. the Empress.
A member of the same Mission has recently
been given a similar appointment in another
important girls' school, known as the Shorei
Kwaisha or familiarly the Tora-no-Mon School.
At its first beginning this school, under the name
of the Ladies' Institute, had been specially open
to Christian influence, and Bishop Bickersteth
wrote of it as follows at the close of 1887 :
" This year has also seen another very im-
portant work entrusted to English Churchwomen.
Some eighteen months ago several University pro-
fessors originated a scheme for establishing a large
Ladies' College or Institute in the capital, and
by the help of the chief ministers of the Govern-
ment and several wealthy merchants, have since
raised a sum of about ;iO,OOO to carry it out.
This college is to be an educational, not a
1 Of the S.P.G.
94 JAPAN
missionary institution. At the same time it is
the desire of the promoters that the entire control
and teaching should be in the hands of Christian
ladies. The teaching of Christian doctrine is
prohibited within certain official hours, but it is
recognized that all lessons may and will be given
from a Christian standpoint, and outside the
official time no restriction will be placed on the
missionaries. The scheme includes a boarding-
house under the entire management of the college
staff. This and other matters were arranged on
the basis of an able minute on the subject drawn
up by H.E. Count I to, the Prime Minister."
It was a great disappointment when difficulties
arose, and for a time the opening for direct
Christian influence in this school came to an
end. Their recovery is a cause for great thank-
fulness.
Again, in the Women's University, two ladies
one a member of S. Hilda's Mission, and the
other an American Churchwoman hold the posts
of teachers of English, and a very great number of
girls pass through their hands.
An important branch of educational mission
work is the establishment in Tokyo of hostels
for the large number of students, boys and girls,
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 95
who come from the provinces to attend one or
other of the great Japanese schools in the capital.
Primarily these hostels are for Christians, but
their doors are thrown open to non-Christians
also, and many parents thankfully avail them-
selves of the safe home and moral influence thus
offered to their children.
But unquestionably the greatest factor of evan- in. Private
Intercourse
gelistic work in Japan is private intercourse.
Those who know Japanese life will appreciate the
force of the dictum that " the best missionary
agency in Japan is the hibachi " (the charcoal
stove over which the Japanese will sit for hours
smoking, and talking). It is in long private talks
with one who has come to be regarded as a friend,
and perhaps in such talks alone, that the intensity
of Japanese reserve will yield, and glimpses be
given of the real self beneath. For this work the
Christian graces of patience, tact, and sympathy
are needed in no small degree.
It is wearisome to the Western mind to have
to pay or to receive interminable visits bound
round with etiquette and lengthened by meaning-
less ceremonials ; it is wearisome to go through a
round of polite nothings and elaborate courtesies
before the real point of the interview can be
96 JAPAN
reached. But it is infinitely worth while. Again
and again souls have been won to CHRIST by the
attractive force of the simple Christian life, lived
in their midst. Appreciation of such lives is
found in unexpected quarters ; for instance, the
wife of a provincial official once gently checked
her husband in his courteous expression of con-
cern at the loneliness of a missionary's wife in the
absence of her husband, saying, "Oh no, Christians
are never lonely " ; and again, the head man of a
village was overheard expressing his appreciation
of the modest bearing and ready helpfulness of
some young Japanese nurses during an epidemic
of fever, and adding, " I wonder whether it can be
because they are Christians."
In Japan, even more perhaps than elsewhere, mis-
sionaries need to have the humbling but yet inspir-
ing recollection that they themselves are " epistles
known and read of all men," and that it rests with
them to commend or to discredit by the lives they
lead the Faith of which they are the ambassadors.
II. METHODS OF EDIFICATION
But in Japan as elsewhere not only have the
non-Christians to be won, but the sheep already
in the fold have to be tended and fed. Already
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 97
in many towns and villages there is opportunity
and need for pastoral work, with constant visit-
ing of scattered Christians ; for frequent oppor-
tunities for worship in church or preaching-room ;
for meetings of Christian men and women for
instruction and intercession. Some of the Mission
schools mentioned above have now as their chief
raison d'etre the Christian education of the children
of Christian parents.
In all this side of the work nothing can com-
pare in importance with the training of the
Japanese workers, men and women, clergy and
laity ; for, as was foreseen from the foundation of
the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai, it cannot be long before
the work which was begun by foreigners will pass
wholly into the hands of the Japanese. The
Divinity Schools for the training of catechists
and clergy are therefore the very core and centre
of the work ; and it is of special interest and
importance at the present time that in one of
the Divinity Schools at Tokyo the principalship,
and in that at Osaka the vice-principalship,
should be in the hands of Japanese clergy.
In 1905 Bishop Awdry (of South Tokyo)
reported that the three Divinity Schools of the
Nippon Sei Ko Kwai had been registered as
H
98 JAPAN
Technical Schools, with the hope that by group-
ing them together for a post-graduate course
there may be something hereafter in the nature
of a Theological University. 1
The training of women workers also is of great
importance, and special attention has been given
to it in Japan. The S. Hilda's Divinity School for
women has been in existence many years, and is
well known through the Empire for the thorough-
ness and excellence of its training. The course
lasts for four years, and comprises not only careful
instruction in Scripture and theology and in the
theory of work, but also opportunities for practice
under experienced workers, and courses of cooking,
needlework, etc., so that the graduates are well
qualified to become, as they often do, wives of
catechists and Christian schoolmasters. At the
close of the course there are examinations, and
the women workers receive the Bishop's licence as
the men catechists do. There are other Training
Schools for women on similar lines.
1 Since the above sentence was written, the Bishop's
most interesting scheme for a Theological Faculty in
Tokyo has been set forth in the Church papers. (See
Guardian, July 24, 1907.)
SOME PIONEERS AND FOUNDERS 99
CHAPTER V
SOME PIONEERS AND FOUNDERS
Church in Japan is fortunate in having
still in her fighting ranks many of the
pioneer workers, American and English, to whom
she owes so deep a debt for her very existence,
and for the fostering care of her early years.
Such are (i) the veteran Bishop Williams, the
first missionary of our communion to reach Japan,
who, in 1889, resigned episcopal charge of the
American Mission, but only to resume the evan-
gelistic labours which he began in 1859, and
which are so dear to his heart. Beloved by all
for the beauty of his character, and revered for the
saintliness of his life, Bishop Williams lives on in
Kyoto " a model of all missionaries, a lesson to all
Christians, and a pillar of the Church in Japan."
(2) Bishop McKim, of North Tokyo, who,
after many years of strenuous work in Japan,
succeeded Bishop Williams in 1893, in the
episcopal charge of the American Mission.
ioo JAPAN
(3) Bishop Foss, 1 of Osaka, who as has already
been stated, joined the Mission in Japan in 1876.
His long ministry at Kobe has been fruitful of
many souls, and was fitly recognized by his call
to the episcopate in 1899.
(4) Bishop Evington? of Kiushiu, who reached
Japan in 1874; and who since 1894 has given
wise and loving care to the Christians of Kiushiu
as their father in GOD.
(5) Bishop Fyson? of the Hokkaido, who
laboured in Central Japan from 1874 till, in 1896,
he was called by the Archbishop of Canterbury to
take episcopal charge of the northern island.
(6) The Rev. John Batchelor* whose apostle-
ship among the Ainu, will be described in a
later chapter.
(7) Miss Alice Hoar^ one of the pioneers of
women's work in Japan. She reached Tokyo in
1875, and laboured there for more than twenty
years with singular patience, single-heartedness
and devotion until, worn out with toil, she had to
yield her post to younger hands and to return to
England, where she still lives in honoured retire-
ment, one fruit of her work being seen in several
1 OftheS.P.G. 2 OftheC.M.S. 3 Of the C.M.S.
4 Of the C.M.S. 5 Of the S.P.G.
BISHOP EDWARD BICKEKSTETH, 1893.
To face page 101.
SOME PIONEERS AND FOUNDERS 101
faithful and zealous Japanese women workers who
owe to her their inspiration and their training.
These names and lives are bound up with the
Church in Japan, but the very fact that those
who bear them are still amongst us, precludes
more than a passing reference. There are, how-
ever, others, who have passed within the veil, the
memory of whose earthly ministry is an inspira-
tion to their successors. We cannot doubt that
their service of Japan still continues as they bear
her on their heart before the Throne.
Of a few of these pioneer workers some little
account may be given :
( i ) Bishop Edward Bickersteth was consecrated
on February 2, 1886, as the second Bishop of the
Church of England in Japan. At the age of
thirty-six, the Bishop had already behind him five
years of strenuous work in Delhi as first Head of the
Cambridge Mission; and so he brought to his new
charge some experience of missionary problems
and sympathy with Eastern modes of thought, as
well as a mind and spirit trained at Cambridge in
the days of Dr. Lightfoot and Dr. Westcott. He
entered into rest on August 5, 1897.
During his eleven years' episcopate the Nippon
Sei Ko Kwai was organized, the Empire was
IO2 JAPAN
divided and subdivided into less unwieldy mis-
sionary jurisdictions, the Prayer Book was revised
and re-translated, the English Missions were largely
reinforced, and the number of Japanese clergy
increased twenty-fold. The Bishop would be the
first to desire that, as far as human instruments
are concerned, the credit for these signs of advance
should be shared with his fellow-labourers. As
for his own personal share, the present writer
cannot do more than quote the following resolu-
tion of the South Tokyo Diocesan Synod at its
first meeting after the Bishop's call to rest in
1 897 : " This Synod desires to place on record
its sense of the eminent services the Bishop has
rendered to the Church of Japan during the
eleven years of his episcopate, by the single-
minded devotion to her service of his great
intellectual gifts and powers of organization, and
by the high and noble example of piety, holiness
and zeal which he has left to her as a precious
memorial and inheritance."
And these words of Bishop Westcott, of Durham,
who was the revered " master " of the younger
Bishop: "Edward Bickersteth at once recognized
the greatness of the unique opportunity in Japan.
His life was spent sacrificed as we speak in
SOME PIONEERS AND FOUNDERS 103
unwearied labour. . . . And he has left a Church
in Japan in closest fellowship with our own,
already fully constituted, and only waiting for
native Bishops to be completely self-governing
and independent. . . . He has left to the people
whom he served, his example and his counsels,
and to us the memory of one more faithful witness,
through whom it can be seen that the power of
the apostolic spirit is still alive in our Church."
(2) The Ven. Charles F. Warren' 1 reached
Japan in December, 1873, taking up work
at once in the city of Osaka. That city was for
twenty-six years the scene of his labours, evange-
listic and pastoral, till, in 1899, through an acci-
dental fall, he was suddenly called to rest, leaving
the memory of large-hearted devotion, burning
zeal, and remarkable linguistic attainments.
One of his fellow-workers has stated that the
archdeacon (as he became in later years) had
" gained a place in the confidence and affection
of the Japanese Christians such as has been
given to very few ; and thus the opportunity
was afforded him of exercising a powerful influ-
ence in promoting the progress and peace of
the Church."
1 Of the C.M.S.
IO4 JAPAN
(3) The Ven. Alexander Croft Shaw? as has
already been stated, landed in Japan in 1873.
He settled at once in Tokyo, and it is with
the capital that the life of the archdeacon (as
he became in 1888) was bound up for more
than eight-and-twenty years. When, in 1902,
full of years and of honour, he passed to his
rest, it was written of him, " There was no
Englishman better known, no one better loved,
no one more associated with the life of the
foreign community in Tokyo." And a few
months later one of the leading Japanese clergy
stated, " Besides his affectionate nature (not to
speak here of his deep devotion to his LORD
and Master, and his loyalty to the Church),
which won the hearts of his Japanese friends,
the late archdeacon's personality was such that
he was able to love and take pride in this people
and country as much as in his own nation. We
all know he was an Englishman, but at the same
time we also know that he was one of us, and
before the Anglo-Japanese Alliance had shown its
first sign, the archdeacon's personality was the
living type of the Alliance itself."
(4) Elizabeth Thornton came to Japan in 1887
1 Of the S.P.G.
SOME PIONEERS AND FOUNDERS 105
in response to an invitation from Bishop Edward
Bickersteth, to be one of the first members of
S. Hilda's Community Mission, and for seventeen
years 1 she poured out with unsparing hand the
rare treasures of her heart and mind at the feet of
the Master to Whom her whole-hearted devotion
was given, and in the service of the people whom
in Him she loved with an ever-increasing love.
Intellectual interest, a passionate love of truth
and reality, quickness of perception, power of
organization, bright flashes of humour, untiring
energy in work : all these were marked character-
istics of Elizabeth Thornton ; but that which
beyond all else stands out in her character is her
wonderful gift of loving. It is that which gave
her her unique power with the Japanese workers
whom she trained : and it is the S. Hilda's
Training School for Japanese Women Workers
which is her abiding memorial.
(5) Beatrice Allen 2 ' was already ripe in experi-
ence of Christian work when she came to Japan
in 1895. During the ten years of her labour in
the southern island her rare personality won for
her, in a remarkable degree, the confidence and
1 At rest, November, 1904.
a Of the C.M.S. At rest, 1905.
io6 JAPAN
allegiance of her fellow -workers foreign and
Japanese and, for this was the object of her life,
led on many of the Japanese among whom she
lived from herself to the Master Whom she served.
A passionate love for souls, a burning desire to
make known the treasures of the Gospel, labours
which seemed untiring, but which wore out her
earthly frame it is for these that the memory of
Beatrice Allen is loved and honoured in Japan.
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 107
CHAPTER VI
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS
*T*N this and the following chapter an attempt
"^ will be made to describe the work now going
on at a few of the principal Mission stations.
By way of preface, it may be noted that the
following is the present distribution of the various
representatives of the Anglican communion which
are working together to build up the Church of
Japan :
1. The northern island of Yezo forms the
Diocese of the Hokkaido, and all the Church work
there is supported by the Church Missionary
Society.
2. The same may be said of the southern
island of Kiushiu which forms a separate
diocese.
3. The main island of Hondo is divided into
four missionary jurisdictions :
(<7) The Diocese of North Tokyo extends from
Tokyo (including a portion of that city) to the
io8 JAPAN
north of the island, and is under the care of the
American Church.
(b) The Diocese of South Tokyo extends
from Tokyo (including also part of the capital)
to the south and west. The bishopric and
several of the Mission stations are maintained
by the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel. The Church Missionary Society also
is strongly represented in the diocese, as is the
Church of Canada.
(c) The Diocese of Kyoto is to the west of
that of South Tokyo, and includes the old
capital of the Empire. Like North Tokyo, it is
under the care of the American Church.
(d) The Diocese of Osaka comprises the
south-western portion of the main island, and
the island of Shikoku. The bishopric is main-
tained by the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel, which is also responsible for the
work in Kobe and its out-stations, and for that
in Shimonoseki ; but the larger part of the
Church work in the diocese is supported by the
Church Missionary Society.
In connection with these various agencies it is
pleasant to record the cordial words of the revered
Secretary of the Church Missionary Society :
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 109
" I know no place like Japan for the comity of
Missions." The vigorous growth of the Nippon
Sei Ko Kwai is stimulated rather than impeded
by the harmonious co-operation of different
schools of thought, and the manifestation of
various racial characteristics, all united within the
bounds of the historic Church, and all contributing
to the service of her living LORD.
The following illustrations of work are drawn
indifferently from the various Missions.
The modern life of Japan is focussed in Tokyo Tokyo.
that great city, under its old name of Yedo
long the centre of military rule, and since 1869
the capital of the Empire, the seat of government
having been removed there from Kyoto. There
Old and New Japan jostle each other in strange
juxtaposition : almost under the shadow of the
old castle of the Shoguns, its moat surmounted by
mediaeval turrets, there run the electric trams of
the twentieth century ; and within a stone's throw
of the symbols of absolute rule are the Houses of
Parliament, where the representatives of a loyal
and grateful people work out the constitution
freely given by its sovereign.
In this city also is the centre of intellectual life;
the University of Tokyo is well known throughout
iio JAPAN
the world for the excellence of its scientific and
medical schools, and the streets are thronged with
students who come from the provinces to attend
these, or some one of the numerous colleges only
less distinguished than the University itself.
In the words of Bishop Bickersteth and Bishop
Hare (of South Dakota) written in July, 1891, but
as true to-day as they were sixteen years ago,
"Japan is almost 1,700 miles in length, and has
a population of 40,000,000 : but the government
of the whole Empire is highly centralized, and
there is practically but one great centre of thought,
life, and influence Tokyo, the capital."
The Church, therefore, is but following the lines
of Pauline strategy in making Tokyo the object
of an organized and concentrated attack, and so
far as any quarter of the city or any section of its
population has been won, making that a base for
further operations. Other communions have real-
ized and acted on this, but they and their work
cannot be described within these few pages, and
we must dwell only on our own.
In Tokyo are the residences of one of the
American and one of the English Bishops, the
one working from the capital to the north, and
the other to the south and south-west.
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS ill
Here in both Missions are seen perhaps the
most highly developed examples of parochial life :
e.g., S. Andrew's, Shiba, has a full staff of Japanese
clergy with a strong body of workers, and
a congregation which now overflows into the
neighbouring pro-cathedral, while its daughter-
church ministers to the despised and outcast eta,
the leather-workers and tanners. The Sunday
school for Christian children is of many years'
standing, and there are regular meetings for
teachers and for district visitors, all of them
Japanese workers. The present pastor, the Rev.
P. Yamada, had only just assumed charge of the
congregation in 1904 (in succession to the revered
and beloved J. T. Imai, who was required for
wider diocesan work) when he was called to the
front as a reservist. In kindly consideration for
his sacred calling Mr. Yamada was employed in
the commissariat department, but this did not
preserve him from danger, and for many months
he was a prisoner in the Russian lines, while his
family and friends in Tokyo mourned him as
dead.
In Tokyo also are two out of the three Divinity
Schools of the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai, and two
Training Schools for women workers. Archdeacon
ii2 JAPAN
Shaw's early connection with Mr. Fukuzawa has
always given the Mission a foothold in the famous
school (the Keio-gi-jiku) founded by that eminent
educationalist, and many friendships have been
formed and useful work done.
The American Mission has a school for boys
much frequented and esteemed on account of the
excellence of its teaching. And there is more
than one Church hostel for students where Chris-
tians can be nurtured in the Faith, and where
non-Christians can find a safe home and the
influence of Christian principles.
It is natural that it should be in Tokyo that we
find the greatest evidence of progress in women s
education ; and in the numerous schools and col-
leges for girls there are splendid openings for
Christian English and American ladies as teachers
of English language and literature.
It has been already mentioned that in the
Peeresses' School are two women missionaries,
appointed on their own merits by the Japanese
authorities, and treated with generous confidence
by their fellow-teachers. Strictly adhering to the
unwritten rule of no religious teaching in school
hours, the opportunities for personal influence out
of hours are boundless, specially as the Mission
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 113
House 1 is within a stone's throw of the school,
and some of the pupils use it as a boarding
house, while many others, past graduates and
present students, come to it freely for social
intercourse, for more advanced English classes,
and (of their own free will) for Christian teaching.
S. Hilda's Mission has opened a boarding house
for students close to the Women's University, the
Japanese Christian lady who acts as vice-prin-
cipal being herself the first-fruits of the work.
Nor does the Church neglect her own daughters.
There are two Mission schools in Tokyo which are
more and more becoming Church High Schools
for the children of Christians i.e., S. Margaret's
School, under the care of the American Mission,
and the school of S. Hilda's Mission.
Direct evangelistic effort is well represented
(as a type of much similar work) by the Whid-
bourne Hall, 2 a preaching-room situated on the
Ginza, the most frequented thoroughfare in
Tokyo.
In philanthropic work the Church is represented
in Tokyo by :
(a) An Orphanage and School for feeble-minded
children, under the auspices of the American
1 Of the S.P.G. 2 Of the C.M.S.
ii4 JAPAN
Mission, but founded by the zeal and maintained
by the energy and Christian love of a Japanese
gentleman, Mr. Ishii, and his noble-hearted wife.
(3) S. Hilda's Home for aged and destitute
women, started to provide for a particular case,
and maintained as a practical exhibition of
Christian loving-kindness.
(c} The Orphanage of the Widely-Loving
Society, established by two Japanese brothers
connected with the American Mission.
(d} During the war with Russia in 1904, the
Japanese Church took an active part in work for
the wounded, and in care for the families of those
at the front. The congregation of S. Andrew's,
Shiba, began this latter work simultaneously with
an effort on the part of some of the best-known
Tokyo ladies, and the smaller Christian society
was cordially welcomed by the larger national
association and affiliated to it.
In Tokyo also are the two Community Mis-
sions of S. Andrew and S. Hilda, both founded by
Bishop Bickersteth in 1887, the former on the
lines of his old well-loved Mission at Delhi, and
the latter the outcome of his own musings over
a scheme for women's work which should be
thoroughly in touch with modern needs and
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 115
practical possibilities, where yet the ideal should
be always maintained of the work being the out-
come of the life, and not vice versa. Most of the
principal activities of that Mission have been
already mentioned ; they comprise a Training
School for mission women, a High School, an
Orphanage, an Embroidery School to give employ-
ment to Christian girls, a hostel for University
students, etc. ; and in the Community House itself
there are several Japanese Christian ladies who
have thrown in their lot with the Mission, one as
a full member.
The following general report of the Mission was
given in August, 1905, by Miss Rickards, the
member in charge :
" In the Training School the pupils worked well
to the end of their school year in July. The big
examinations are held then, an anxious time for
which they have a week of special preparation.
. . . They are all keen about their work and
well deserve their holiday, and warm thanks are
due to the three Japanese clergy and Miss Pea-
cocke (of the C.M.S.), whose excellent teaching
has done so much to produce good results. From
September we are to begin training a promising
worker for the American Mission. H. San, the
n6 JAPAN
first holder of the scholarship founded in memory
of Miss Thornton, will also then begin regular
work. She has been with us since April, and is
one of those living in the house. She is a
graduate of the Women's University, and was
Miss Philipps' right hand in the hostel from the
time it was started. 1 She is a girl of sterling
character, exceptionally capable, of good family
and attainments, and she won universal liking and
esteem from both teachers and students during
her college career. She is an earnest, healthy
Christian, and has twice overcome the determina-
tion of her relations to marry her to an un-
believer. . . .
" The school is flourishing, and the Koishikawa
Hostel is full. This is certainly at present the
most diffusive part of S. Hilda's evangelistic work;
a cheering thought. For these girls come from
everywhere in Japan, and are training for all kinds
of work. . . . The Orphanage is also full, and we
have been able to take in some unhappy little
waifs. In June we lost the matron of the Embroi-
dery School, but our need was supplied in a most
unexpected and delightful way. Rather more
1 H. San has now (1907) returned to the hostel as vice-
principal.
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 117
than a year ago Miss Thornton allowed an oldish
woman, K. San, to come and live in the Training
School. She was too old for the regular course,
but wished to know more of the Bible, and took
a few of the easier lessons. Every one liked her,
she was often useful, but no one credited her with
much power. Last spring, however, she took
charge informally of the Embroidery School while
the matron was away, and it went like clockwork.
Later she took charge of the Training School on
a similar occasion and with a like result. She
thus came to know the pupils in both houses, and
was quietly getting initiation into S. Hilda's
methods and rules. When we were suddenly left
without an Embroidery School matron, we asked
K. San to try her hand on the strength of this
experience, and she has proved a born matron,
with a strength of character and a fund of common
sense and tact, and a motherly interest in the girls,
that have revolutionized the internal arrangements
of the school, and won the hearts of all. Just at
the end of the term, one of the happiest events
that has ever befallen us took place the Baptism
of one of our school pupils, together with her
mother, a lady we have known and taught for
many years. It took long for the light to make
n8 JAPAN
its way into her heart, but ever since she and her
two little daughters were admitted catechumens
soon after Miss Thornton's death, her faith has
shone more and more brightly, and her joy and
peace at the time of her Baptism were a lesson
to us all."
The clergy of S. Andrew's Mission undertake
the charge of several " parishes " in Tokyo, and
the superintendence of some of the country
stations.
Osaka. Three hundred and fifty miles to the west of
Tokyo there is the city of Osaka, the fame of its
historic castle now eclipsed by the growing reputa-
tion of the town for manufactures and for com-
merce.
Here also is a vigorous centre of Church life,
the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai being represented by
the American Mission and by the Church Mis-
sionary Society. There are several self-supporting
congregations; the central C.M.S. Divinity School;
a newly-revived Training Home for Bible-women ;
the excellent Poole Memorial Girls' School, 1
where the work both of education and of evan-
gelization has been signally blessed of GOD, and
of which the following account has been recently
1 Of the C.M.S.
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 119
given by Miss Tristram, its revered and beloved
principal :
" It was a great joy to us when, on February
24, 1905, our new wing was opened by a dedica-
tion service in the chapel, conducted by Bishop
Foss, and attended by the whole school and as
many friends as there was room for.
" We soon wondered how we had ever con-
ducted the school without the increased accom-
modation, for every room seems essential : The
dining-room, where all can now dine together
after singing their grace ; the drilling-room, so
that physical training can be carried on regularly,
independent of weather, and singing also, without
disturbing the rest of the school ; the needlework
room, specially adapted for the purpose, and
leaving the old room as a much-needed extra
class-room ; the small museum and library, by
which we hope to develop the natural history and
literary tastes of the pupils ; and last, and chiefly,
the chapel, kept sacred for the worship of GOD
and Bible-study, a most practical and real help in
the spiritual work of the school, and where we
have the glad sight every morning of 300 pupils
gathered for prayers before the Bible-classes, for
which they separate.
I2O JAPAN
" One of the first uses to which the chapel was
put was the holding of a mission by Mr. Kawabe,
who was so much used by GOD among us last
year.
" The effect of the revival a year before had, far
from evaporating, steadily continued and deepened,
and souls were, one after another, being brought
into the light, through the influence of the daily
Bible-teaching, of schoolfellows, and of teachers,
and the Christians were many of them showing
signs of growing in grace. They were all the
more ready for the mission.
" One of these, though she had obtained her
parents' consent for her Baptism, had feared to say
much to them about her faith, but now wrote to
her father, telling him that she was going to be
altogether for GOD, and of the great joy that had
come into her life, and urging him and her mother
to think on the subject and become Christians.
Her father wrote her a short note, telling her to
return home immediately. She wrote very humbly,
asking him to let her stay a little longer, and, if
possible, to finish the course; but he simply replied,
saying, now she need never return, nor consider
his house her home, and he would send her no
more money. It was a great blow to her, but
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS ill
a friend has made herself responsible for her
expenses, and she promises to be a very efficient
worker, and for this we hope to train her, for she
has real ability, and strength as well as sweetness
of character, and seems as though true love for
CHRIST were constraining her.
" One marked feature as a result of this mission
was the missionary spirit among the girls towards
schoolfellows and their own relatives, and another
result that gladdened us was the spirit of prayer
pervading the school. That, we know, means
much of future and continued blessing.
" You may be interested to know that of the
five who finished the school course last spring, one
was a Christian when she entered the school, and the
other four were baptized when at school, and are the
only Christians in their families. Of these four, one
is staying on with us for further English, another
has gone to the Women's University in Tokyo,
and, with her father's glad consent, to a Christian
boarding-house, another has entered the new
Women's Medical School, and the fourth has gone
to a Bible-school in Tokyo, for training mission-
workers, her non-Christian parents paying for her
there, for they say it is evidently what she likes
best to study."
122 JAPAN
In the C.M.S. Japan Quarterly for April, 1906,
there is the following interesting account of work
in Osaka among the factory " hands," who form
a new and somewhat startling feature in the
industrial life of modern Japan :
" Two nights ago we had a meeting of seven
hundred girls gathered in the dining-hall of a factory
to which we have long wished to gain admission.
They listened quietly, and the officials expressed
themselves as pleased with the effect, and intimated
that they would like frequent repetitions of similar
magic lantern meetings. We feel encouraged, for
we have in this case won a special point. No
stipulation concerning religious instruction was
made to us, except that the first time it should
not be long or difficult, and to this I readily
agreed. The officials of this factory wanted
simply educational lectures, but we have waited,
and have, through GOD'S grace and His guidance,
gained unconditional entrance and won our point.
One girl out of the crowd came eagerly up to me
after the meeting and told me she was a Christian.
" The general condition of the factories and the
care of the girls seems to have considerably
improved. Schools have been built in many
instances and dormitories enlarged. There has
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 123
been some movement towards legislation with
regard to hours and those employed. I am sorry
to say that in this direction nothing practical
seems to have been done. Night work on alter-
nate weeks with day work is the rule, though
there are some few cotton factories where there is
no night work. Very small girls are employed.
Children of only eight years are often engaged in
work all night. Their tired, pale faces and un-
prosperous-looking physique betray to even a quite
casual observer the strain this is to them. We
have had meetings inside eight factories, in some
of them repeatedly ; of these, four were formerly
difficult of access, but are now open to us. We
have been refused admission repeatedly to six
factories ; the excuses made have been various,
sometimes true, but often, I fear, false. We have
occasionally met with rudeness. Some of the
officials are Buddhists and opposed to Christian
teaching. Some, I think, are afraid of the girls'
parents objecting and withdrawing them from the
factories. Some are bad themselves and do not
care for the tone of the girls to be raised. Some
few, again, really care for their welfare and take
pains to give us a welcome, hailing with joy any
teaching that will help them in keeping in order
124 JAPAN
the crowds of uneducated girls and children
entrusted to their care. Wherever there is a
Christian in any good position in a factory office,
our way is soon open. At one factory we have
been to recently we are told that they are trying
both Buddhist and Christian teaching to see which
has the best result. This shows us that it is no
time to draw back and lose the foothold we have
gained through continual effort and prayer. There
is a sameness about the work and a lack of oppor-
tunity for leading individual souls which causes it
to be tiring at times, and I have often had to
cheer up workers and encourage them to perse-
vere ; and true and faithful they have been.
" Besides our meetings inside the factories we
go regularly to some lodging-houses, and some of
the people have certainly been impressed. They
nearly always seem glad to welcome us, though at
times they have even to get up out of bed and roll
up their mattresses to make room for the meeting.
The houses are not over large for the numbers
who inhabit them, and the night-workers sleep in
the daytime. The rooms are often dirty and have
not too fresh or pleasant an odour; men and women,
girls and boys, sometimes live in the same houses.
I try at times to limit my horizon of life to what
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 125
that of some of these little girls must be, but
imagination fails at the task. They work for
twelve hours at a time, and alternate weeks at
night. After the work hours are over they go to
the bath, then have supper, then go to bed. Next
morning they get up before daylight and do the
same again. They work, eat, bathe, and sleep
in a crowd, the faces are pale, the eyes weak.
They are accustomed to a low moral atmosphere.
They are always tired, and yet they love to see
the pictures we take, views of moonlit scenery or
pictures of happy, prettily-dressed Japanese chil-
dren draw from them many appreciative remarks
and smiles. They like the pictures of our Saviour's
childhood and of His blessing little children. They
remember the hymns we sing, and some have even
copied them to sing in their short intervals of rest
when in the factories. The Christmas-tree we
decorated for them last year seemed like a glimpse
of fairyland to them that they must gaze and gaze
upon in sheer delight. I have tried to simplify
the teaching we give more and more, it is so very
little they can really grasp and understand ; and
I have also added some Japanese pictures to my
slides, as they are more easily comprehended than
the pictures in Judrean and European style.
126 JAPAN
" The factory hands form an almost distinct
uneducated class of society. Unless I had gone
in and out among them as I have done during the
past years, I could never have believed or realized
what I now know. Crowds are living in weariness
and sin, and the little ones are growing up con-
taminated by their surroundings. Gambling, drink,
and immorality are only too common. Many who
have seen better days are among them. We who
go to seek the women and girls inevitably meet
with many men and boys. There is work enough
here for many an earnest, Spirit-filled Japanese
worker. Within ten minutes' walk from this Con-
cession where so many of us live there is an
enclosure of lodging-houses, where I think perhaps
a thousand girls may live, and also numbers of
men and boys employed in a factory near. There
is free access to this place at any time, and any
one who will go may speak openly out of doors
to numbers who, though rough and dirty, willingly
listen. I pray GOD that our Japanese men-
workers may not lose, but buy up, this glorious
opportunity of bringing living waters to thirsty,
sin-stricken souls. On the Emperor's birthday
we had an open-air meeting there, and some fifty
people listened quite quietly for two hours to the
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 127
addresses given by some of the Divinity College
students who went with us.
" We have sometimes met with Christians, but
not often. We have several times met with people
who have remembered meetings or hymns from
last year, or even before; and there is no doubt
that the factory hands themselves appreciate the
meetings, to some extent at least. We have just
lately gained admission to a house where eighty
boys, from thirteen to twenty years of age, live.
They work, like the girls, in relays by night and
day, and so eighty at a time come to a lantern
meeting. The old man in charge seems very glad
of our help. He finds it difficult to teach and
keep in order his large family. One of the boys
is a Christian from Kagoshima, and he has shown
special fortitude of character in remaining at his
post when all the companions who came up with
him from the country have left, finding the work
or life too hard. This boy has been specially
commended. He comes sometimes for a reading
and prayer with me, but has few opportunities of
spiritual help besides, except the occasional times
he can go to church."
The following description of the American Church
work in Osaka was given by Dr. Abbot in 1901 :
128 JAPAN
" The premises of our Mission here occupy
a strip of land between two streets, accessible
from both, and parallel with the banks of one of
the streams, giving expansiveness to the prospect
in that direction. At one end of the strip
stands S. Barnabas's Hospital, which Dr. Laning
has made a house of cure for so many years,
where the beautiful charity none more beauti-
ful of surgical and medical care of the sick
and injured is dispensed without money and
without price to those in need under Dr.
Laning's personal supervision, with the co-
operation of trained native assistants. Next in
range to the hospital comes one of the Mission
residences, one occupied by Mr. Page and more
recently by Mr. Tyng ; after this the house now
used for the Bible-women's School ; and last of all
Dr. Laning's own residence, closing the group at
that end.
" A day spent in visiting the points of Christian
interest in Osaka reminds one of the pictures
painted to the imagination by the accounts in the
Book of the Acts of the Apostles. We go to
S. John's Church of a Sunday morning, find
a Sunday School in session before the morning
service, and join with the Rev. Mr. Minagawa in
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 129
the Holy Communion which follows. Then to
the Orphanage maintained by the Women's
Society of this parish, with its nineteen children
in the house, who went without their breakfast
every day one Lent as a part of their self-denial,
sending half of the amount thereby saved to the
Japanese Missionary Society's work in the Island
of Formosa. We are tendered one day a recep-
tion at Christ Church Parish House, and meet in
informal worship and friendly intercourse forty or
fifty men, women, and children, whose affectionate
interest and hospitality are affecting. Later in
this day there is another reception at the house of
one of the missionaries, to which all the Christian
missionaries in the city are invited, and which is
a delightful occasion of the one communion and
fellowship in the mystical body of ' GOD'S SON,
CHRIST our LORD.' One morning is devoted to
a series of visits in turn to the Training School for
Bible-women, to a service and instruction for them
at Christ Church, under the direction of the Rev.
Mr. Tyng and the Rev. Mr. Naide, to an impromptu
service, address, and reception at S. Paul's Church,
under the care of Mr. Chickashige, who makes
a warm address of welcome ; and then to one
after another of a number of Christian schools
130 JAPAN
and centres connected with the various mission
boards."
Kyoto. Kyoto, the old capital of the Empire, is also
an important centre of American Church work,
and here again we are indebted to Dr. Abbot for
its description :
"The missionary district of Kyoto was set apart
from that of Tokyo by the action of the General
Convention at Washington, D.C., in the autumn
of 1898. It embraces thirteen provinces and part
of a fourteenth, and contains a population of about
5,000,000. From almost every point of view
Kyoto is a more attractive place than Tokyo.
Without the immensities of the newer capital,
without its vastness of population, without its
broad spaces and infinite distances, without its
public buildings and official aspects and adminis-
trative activities, it has nevertheless a dignity,
a completeness and repose, a suggestion of anti-
quity with touches of freshness, which invest it
with a peculiar charm ; while its spacious palace
and even noble castle, their surrounding grounds,
its numerous Buddhist temples amidst their luxu-
riant groves, the beauty of the mountain barrier
behind, the rapid stream which flows through its
business quarter, the endless attractions of its
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 131
shops and bazaars, and, most of all, to the Chris-
tian stranger, the variety of its religious institu-
tions and agencies, make it a place where one
loves to linger and which one is loth to leave.
The diocese or jurisdiction of which it is the centre
is compact and most conveniently disposed for
work. It is for this field that Dr. Partridge, late
of the China Mission at Wuchang, was consecrated
Bishop on February 2nd, 1900; and well may
Bishop McKim of Tokyo say, as he does say in his
Report of the Board of Managers for 1 898-99, that
the Bishop of Kyoto will have, in his opinion, ' the
best diocese of the six into which this Empire
is divided.'
" To place ourselves at the centre of Christian
Kyoto, and so at the centre of the jurisdiction, we
take our kurumas in the pleasant courtyard of
the hotel, and are trotted away in a diagonal
direction, first down through street of shops, then
across the palace grounds, then almost into a little
Buddhist temple, turning swiftly past which we
' fetch up ' around the corner on which stands the
handsome, modern, attractive edifice known as
Holy Trinity Church, the gift of Holy Trinity
Church, Philadelphia, and the cathedral church
of the newly-consecrated Bishop of Kyoto. This
132 JAPAN
is worthy of its name, its donors, its builder, its
situation, its function. It is of brick, with appro-
priate trimmings, and has the look of a well-
designed, and well-built church transported from
any one of our prosperous American cities. It
seats perhaps 300 or 350 persons, and its interior
fulfils the expectations which its exterior awakens.
Some criticisms have been passed by writers in
their American homes, who have never been in
Japan and who know nothing of the Japanese
people, for building Japanese churches in the
' American style,' as if it were an affront to
Japanese preference. As a matter of fact the
Japanese preference is that their new public
buildings, both civil and ecclesiastical, shall be
built in the ' foreign ' style, a preference which is
attested on every hand ; and any one who has
been in Japan and studied the conditions on the
spot can readily see that to follow the lines and
features of native architecture in the construction
of houses of Christian worship would be a mistake
for various reasons. Holy Trinity Cathedral at
Kyoto, like Trinity Cathedral at Tokyo, is a
worthy and creditable structure, and destined to
become more and more the centre of forces of
organization and administration, which means
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 133
great things for the city and its part of the
Empire.
" Hard by the church, and architecturally con-
nected with it, is the equally handsome building
of S. Agnes's School for girls, already, however,
outgrown, and requiring an immediate enlarge-
ment of its accommodation, if the work which it
houses is not to be hampered. S. Agnes's School,
like S. Margaret's at Tokyo, is one of the
Christian institutions of Japan, and it is a novelty
and a delight to meet its hundred or more
bright-faced girls with their devoted head master,
Mr. Tamura, and the other teachers, to join with
them in Christian worship, to witness the exhibi-
tions of their proficiency, and to receive the
expressions of their affectionate and interested
hospitality. What a picture is presented by the
group of their figures and faces gathered around
the door of their beautiful building, ' living stones '
that they are, being wrought into fitness for places
in the spiritual temple, a ' house not made with
hands.'
" Daily services for the girls are the order in
the cathedral, and Christian instruction is also
systematically given.
" S. Agnes's School had only six teachers and
134 JAPAN
six students when this building was erected.
' But don't be disappointed,' said Bishop McKim
at that time. ' By and by you will have ten
times six.' In less than five years twice that
number, namely, one hundred and twenty, has
been realized in the membership.
" The school year at S. Agnes's begins in April
and lasts eleven months, August being taken for
vacation. Instruction is given in Japanese,
Chinese, and English ; in mathematics, physics,
science, metaphysics, ethics, physiology, music
and drawing, and etiquette, which is always a
great point in Japanese education. The teach-
ing is done mostly by text books. On the
whole the Japanese girls are fond of study.
There is no trouble about discipline. There are
no examinations except at entrance, and no
systems of prizes ; rank is determined by the
daily record. These particulars of S. Agnes's
may be taken as more or less true of other
Christian schools in Japan."
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 135
CHAPTER VII
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS
(continued)
FU and Nagoya are important provincial
centres of Church work.
The distinguishing feature of the work at Gifu Glfu<
is the Blind School, which was started soon after
the great earthquake of 1891, and of which the
principal is Mr. J. K. Mori, 1 an earnest Christian
catechist who had lost his sight, and who greatly
desired to devote himself to the well-being and
evangelization of his fellow-sufferers. Mr. Mori
spent six months in the Government Blind School
in Tokyo in order to qualify as instructor in
massage, the great occupation for the blind in
Japan ; and he has had no lack of pupils. It is a
touching sight to see him among the inmates, with
his unfailing cheerfulness and trust in Goi), lead-
ing them to CHRIST by example even more than
by precept.
1 Of the C.M.S.
136 JAPAN
wo"k try Some typical work in country districts is thus
described by the Rev. W. P. Buncombe : x
" By GOD'S grace the Church at Yokaichiba
(Shimosa Province) continues to grow rapidly
both in numbers and in grace and zeal. Since
coming back from the summer rest and the
' Summer School ' for the workers, I had the
privilege of baptizing there, in two groups, thirty-
five persons, i.e., nineteen adults and sixteen
children. These are the results of the mission
work carried on by the members of the Church
under the direction of the lay pastor, Mr. Katada.
The majority of these come from small villages
within half an hour's walk of the town. In one
of these villages there are only fourteen houses,
all farmers. Five of these families have become
Christian, and their ambition is to get in the
remaining families as soon as possible. From one
family three generations were baptized. The old
grandfather and grandmother were baptized in
their own house, being unable to get to the
mission church. Their Baptism Service was held
at 7.30 in the morning, as many of the Christians
wanted to be present ; so, including the recently-
baptized members of the family, about twenty of
1 Of the C.M.S.
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 137
the Church assembled to take part in the service.
They are well-to-do farmers, and have a large and
extensive farm compound. It was in this that
the Baptism took place. The old man was
seventy-eight, and his wife seventy-one. After
the service his son, who had been baptized the
previous evening, asked if he might read a state-
ment he had written : it was in the form of a
prayer, or thanksgiving, to GOD for leading them
all into the light, and especially the old couple
who had then been baptized. I was glad to mark
the evident joy of the whole party.
" The Church realizes also the importance of
visiting and helping the new Christians, and they
have a visiting band, who go two and two and
visit them from time to time. They make a rule
of not talking about ordinary things on this visit,
but at once to get their Bibles out and read and
exhort and pray, and then go without waiting
for 'tea.'
" As I mentioned once before, they are formed
into companies according to the day of the month
on which their Baptism took place, and there are
now five or six of these companies ; it is the duty
of each company to meet on their Baptism day
and exhort and encourage one another. They
138 JAPAN
carry on regular evangelistic work in almost every
part of the town, and in a good many villages
near. Mr. Katada told me that sometimes he has
hardly time to get his meals in between seeing
the people who come for teaching.
" I have previously mentioned a work GOD was
doing amongst the men of the lighthouse near
Choshi. There are generally four or five men
stationed there, and these change rather frequently,
except the head man. Those who had become
Christians have been endeavouring to lead any
new men who come into the lighthouse, and GOD
has blessed their work and testimony, so that in a
little over a year nine men have been converted
there. On my recent visit to Choshi I baptized
one man from the lighthouse, the latest convert.
The head man is most earnest in his efforts to
preach CHRIST. Numbers of visitors come to see
the lighthouse during the summer months, and
are taken up the lighthouse in batches of eight,
the others waiting till the first party have come
down. He utilizes the opportunity often by
speaking to the waiting ones about the Gospel.
The men who have become Christians and have
been transferred elsewhere are all doing well.
Three of them are in or near Tokyo, and we often
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 139
see them here. One has gone to the other side of
Japan, but he writes frequently to Mr. Sakuma,
the catechist at Choshi.
" GOD has been blessing the work in Choshi,
and altogether seventeen adults have been bap-
tized there this year. This would have been
regarded as remarkable, but for the great increase
in the neighbouring town of Yokaichiba, noted
above. During the summer many of the Chris-
tians joined the catechists in their preaching tours,
and gladly testified by speaking to the country
folk in the villages around. Among those who
thus helped were two or three of the school
teachers, who were of course at leisure during the
holidays. I am so thankful for the work and
witness of the private Christians ; GOD owns it by
bringing many to salvation wherever they thus
work together and do not leave the preaching to
be all done by the catechists.
" The lighthouse here is the first point of
Japan seen by steamers coming from Vancouver
to Yokohama, and, if their signals can be seen,
the lighthouse men telegraph the steamer's arrival
to Yokohama."
The Province of Shinshiu has been assigned as work of
the special sphere of the Canadian Church. The church*
140 JAPAN
two chief centres are Nagano and Matsumoto.
Nagano is noticeable for its double representation
of Old and New Japan ; the former in its famous
Buddhist temple, still an object of pilgrimage for
the surrounding district, and the latter in the
young and progressive population growing up
around the railway station. The Church workers
have always succeeded in maintaining singularly
friendly relations with this section of the people
and with the officials of the town, and there is
very real and vigorous Christian life in the con-
gregation.
The vvork in the southern island of Kiushiu is
thus summarized in a publication issued in 1905 :
" The work amongst the soldiers, especially in
the hospitals, claims our notice first. That of the
Y.M.C.A., as carried on in the field of Manchuria,
has led to results which are full of promise and
whose effects are already widely perceived.
" The work in the great military hospitals at
Kokura, with their six thousand patients, has
largely absorbed the time and attention of Mr. and
Mrs. Hind and their fellow-workers, who have
been cheered by the decision for CHRIST of some
three hundred and sixty souls.
" At Kumamoto, as at Kokura, the opportunity
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 141
has been given of access to these hospitals by
Christian military doctors, who use the influence
their position gives them for their Saviour.
"In other places access has been obtained with
difficulty and after long waiting ; but once the
doors have been opened, there has been a glad
response from the men.
" New work has opened out amongst the girl
employees of the post and telephone offices, and
from one class of twenty-five members, five have
confessed CHRIST as their Saviour.
" Classes for children in various places are
reported as full of promise. Some hundreds of
children thus each week take to their homes
something about JESUS. We hear of one boy
kept away by his parents because he was getting
too earnest. Many of the scholars are indeed
believers, but too young yet to be baptized.
" There has also been much quiet, happy work
clone in classes for nurses, also in preparation of
women for Baptism and Confirmation; and as the
fullness of the blessings treasured up in CHRIST
JESUS comes to be realized, there is such an
experience as that reported from Kagoshima in
the words of a confirmee, ' The house is lighted
up with the LORD'S Presence.'
142 JAPAN
" Evangelistic work has received an impetus
and much help from a mission held in October
and November last. One report says, ' GOD sent
two earnest Japanese evangelists. 1 They com-
menced work at Oita, and several came out there.
Many also at Beppu decided for CHRIST. At
Kokura and Wakamatsu the same results followed.
At Fukuoka they held a three days' mission for
the Christians, and three days for inquirers and
heathen. Those who were already believers
were stirred up to definite consecration to the
Master's service lingerers became decided. One
said, ' I seem to have seen GOD face to face
to-day,' and she beamed with joy as she said it.
' Before I believed in GOD I used to worry ; now
I leave it all with Him,' was the happy testimony
of another. Much prayer was called forth for
relatives, and earnest endeavours to reach out-
siders were commenced. A man kept back by
slavery to drink was set free, and has been
baptized ; others have become catechumens. In
some cases complete reconciliation took place
between those previously estranged and offended.
In others, idols have been given up and thrown
away. Several hitherto undecided ones have
come forward in each place visited by the
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 143
evangelists as catechumens, thus crowning the
quiet preparation work of many months past."
A point of special interest in this diocese is the
Leper Hospital at Kumamoto, opened in 1895,
under the auspices of the C.M.S., and now main-
tained in direct connection with the Nippon Sei
Ko Kwai by the two ladies (Miss Riddell and
Miss Nott) to whose devotion it owes its origin.
The special interest in the Diocese of Hokkaido Diocese of
centres round the work among the Ainu, although
among the Japanese also the Church Missionary
Society has been zealously labouring since 1874.
The Ainu, the aboriginal inhabitants of the
Japanese islands, are now almost entirely confined
to the northern island of Yezo. They are hunters
and fishers, and live in the mountains and on the
sea coast. They have no written language, few
traditions, and their life is concerned with very
little but the animal side of existence. The vice
to which they fall the most easy prey is that of
drunkenness. Their religion is a rude and
primitive form of nature worship, and their chief
festival is the sacrifice of the bear.
To this people, outwardly so unattractive, the
Rev. John Batchelor has given himself, not
only with devotion but with enthusiasm. In
144 JAPAN
1 88 1 he first visited Piratori, the old Ainu
capital, and made an attempt to preach the
Gospel. In 1883 he returned and spent six
months among the Ainu, sharing a hut with the
chief Penri ; and for successive years he continued
to spend many weeks at a time in Ainu huts,
winning the friendship of the people, and reducing
to writing their language and their folk-lore. In
1892 he and his devoted wife settled at Sapporo,
a town on the west coast of Yezo, which became
the headquarters of the Ainu work. The year
1893 was one of special blessing, there being more
than two hundred baptisms among the Ainu ; and
from this time the work went steadily on till,
when Mr. Batchelor went to England for furlough
in 1900, he could look with thankfulness on 1,157
baptized persons in the district of Sapporo alone.
The Bonin Islands form a little-known outpost
of the Japanese Empire, but the work of the
Church there has an interest of its own.
The following account of its earlier stages was
written in May, 1898, by the Rev. Armine
F. King 1 :
" As Mr. Cholmondeley left Japan at the end of
January for a year's furlough in England, it fell to
' OftheS.P.G.
Bonin
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 145
me for the second time to take his place as visit-
ing missionary to the Bonin Islands. We of
S. Andrew's Mission have practically pledged
ourselves to arrange that one of our number goes
there every spring, and this has been done since
1894. Previously to that date no clergyman,
except Mr. Plummer in 1877, had ever visited
the Islands.
" The story of the Bonins has often been told,
but to restate it in a few words the Islands
had long been uninhabited, and in 1832 some
settlers went there from Honolulu. These were
joined by others from time to time, but the
numbers were never large, and in 1853 those on
the main island were reported as being only
thirty-one, all told. To-day they number nearer
sixty. These are of various nationalities, but
English is the 'vulgar tongue.' In 1875 the
Islands were formally handed over to Japan on
account of its claim to ancient proprietorship ;
and since then a large number of Japanese,
numbering to-day about three thousand, have
gone to settle there. Between them and the
English-speaking settlers, who also in 1875
became Japanese subjects, an attitude of friendly
neutrality prevails.
146 JAPAN
" I left Yokohama on January 29th, and landed
in Chichijima, or Peel Island, on the morning of
February 3rd. The distance from Yokohama is
only 530 miles, but the steamer stops at two
islands on the way, for cargo and passengers.
We did not leave for the return journey till
February 27th, so I had over three weeks to
spend in Chichijima, where the English-speaking
settlers almost all reside. This island is about
five miles across in the widest part."
Mr. King continues :
" Mr. Joseph Gonzales is our duly appointed l
catechist for the Bonin Islands, and is himself a
native of the islands. In 1897 he wrote down
the following history of himself and his work :
'" My first visit to Kobe was in the year 1881.
There I and two other boys were put under the
care of Mr. Henry Hughes, teacher of the English
Mission School. We remained there under his
care and teaching for about three years, and
returned again to the Islands. As we were all
under the age of fifteen at our return, none of us
knew much about reading and writing, nor about
the blessed book the Bible. Soon after we had
returned I was requested by Mr. T. Minami, who
1 Mr. Gonzales was admitted to the diaconate in 1906.
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 147
was then the Governor of the Islands, to teach
English in one of the village schools. This I
promised to do, but after having continued my
teaching for about two years I began to find the
work very difficult, and I plainly saw that I was
in need of more education myself ; so, after having
spoken to my father about my difficulty, he
promised to send me to Kobe once more.
"'Preparations were made, and on the I5th of
November, 1889, I bade them all good-bye, and
went on board, taking with me nothing but a
small trunk, and a part of the money which I had
earned by teaching. Owing to a very high wind
and sea we did not arrive in Kobe until the
morning of the 25th. I did not wait for Mr.
Hughes to come and receive me, but went on
shore about seven o'clock. When I got to his
house he received me with great delight, and as
it was Sunday we went to church soon after we
had had our breakfast. The first hymn that was
sung was ' Rock of Ages.' I enjoyed the singing
very much, but ^as the sermon was preached in
the Japanese language I did not understand it
very well. I must say that day was a very happy
day to me, and although it is now eight years ago
since this event took place, I remember the day
148 JAPAN
well as if it were but yesterday. Not only that,
but I always feel and think that that hymn was
the key which unlocked the door of my heart,
because it was then that I felt I was in need of a
Saviour, and it was then that I began to seek
Him. On Monday I went to the schoolhouse
with Mr. Hughes and began my work with the
history of Greece, grammar, the Fifth Royal
Reader and geography. I did not do any Bible-
reading during the school hours, but I received
about an hour's instruction every evening from
either Mr. or Mrs. Hughes.
" 'After having been there for about five months
I was confirmed by Bishop Bickersteth. I returned
to the island in August, 1891. Having returned
I was very much displeased with the life my
fellow-islanders were leading, for they were quite
ignorant of our Saviour and His love. They did
not seem to know the least thing about that
happy home above the bright blue sky. The
first thing I did was to open the Sunday
School for the children. At first only four or
five came, but after a short time the number
gradually increased, and some of the women
began to come. I saw then that the work was
promising, and so I wrote to the Rev. H. J. Foss,
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 149
in Kobe, requesting him to visit the island. This
I did two or three times, and I at last got a letter
from him saying that he would come if possible.
Unfortunately he was not able to come, and sent
a young Japanese catechist to visit the island.
In the year 1894 the Rev. L. B. Cholmondeley
visited the island, but I was away seal-hunting.
On my way back I paid a visit in Tokyo to the
Rev. L. B. Cholmondeley, and had a talk with
him about the island. To my delight he told me
that he had baptized my aunt, several children,
and also Mrs. Gonzales.
" ' I began my teaching again as soon as I got
back to the Bonins.
'"A few months after this I received a licence
to work under the directions of the Rev. L. B.
Cholmondeley. In December of the same year,
1895, a widow and her daughter (Mrs. and Miss
Black, who are now residing in Taka Nawa,
Tokyo, and who are well known to some of the
settlers) visited the islands. They did not stay
more than four months, but during this time they
were of great help to me in teaching the Bible.
They also taught some of the women and elder
girls to do other useful works. Before they left
the island they were no longer called Mrs. and
150 JAPAN
Miss Black, but Mother and Sister, owing to their
very kind and tender love towards the people.
In February of the following year the Rev. A. F.
King visited the island and made acquaintance
with many of the settlers. During his short stay
he gave several addresses which I think all who
were present listened to attentively and enjoyed
very much.
" ' During his stay we had several meetings with
regard to the building of a church, and it was
settled to have it built. So on his return to
Tokyo he kindly had the plans drawn and sent
to me; but owing to various reasons I am
sorry to say the building was put off.
"'During the year 1895 money being raised
amongst the islanders and some missionary
friends in Tokyo, among whom were the Rev.
A. F. King and the Rev. L. B. Cholmondeley, we
had a little school erected. Here I do a little
teaching every day, and on Sundays I hold a
regular service in English from ten o'clock to
eleven ; and although there were only a few who
would come to my Bible-class at first, I am glad
to say now the little room is quite filled up every
Sunday. Not only children, but their fathers and
mothers. Such is the contrast ! In the afternoon
SOME TYPICAL MISSION STATIONS 151
I have a Bible-class for the children of the settlers
from 1.30 to 2.30, and from three o'clock to four a
class for the Japanese. I am sorry to say I have
not been able to do much work among the
Japanese, chiefly because I cannot speak the
language very freely.' "
1 52 JAPAN
CHAPTER VIII
THE PRESENT POSITION HINDRANCES
AND OPPORTUNITIES
IN the foregoing pages a most inadequate
attempt has been made to sketch in outline
some of the main features of the history of Chris-
tianity in Japan, so far, at least, as the Anglican
communion is concerned.
This chapter will endeavour to deal with the
present position : with the special hindrances and
difficulties which beset our workers, and with the
special openings and opportunities now before us.
HINDRANCES
(i) Unquestionably a stumbling-block in the
progress of the Gospel in Japan is the spirit of
materialism and of absorption in commercial and
political progress which of late years has possessed
the people. A few years ago some of the most
experienced missionaries were saying sadly that
HINDRANCES AND OPPORTUNITIES 153
it almost seemed as if Japan were deliberately
closing her ears to the message of the Cross, as if
the good seed were being choked in its earliest
growth by the thorns of the cares and pleasures of
this world. But, in the Providence of GOD, there
came to Japan the great crisis of the struggle with
Russia ; and to those who watched with sympathy
and insight there was deep truth in the simple
words of a Japanese lady, " The war is making
my people think."
(2) Another difficulty has been the wide pre-
valence of modern scepticism not only the
indifference to spiritual things, but the deliberate
doubt of their existence engendered largely by
the popularity of the writings of Western agnos-
tics. Here, again, the war came to the Japanese
as GOD'S messenger, and there was apparent a
remarkable stretching out in this time of stress
and strain towards a Power outside themselves.
(3) The immediate effect of this change of
attitude was a distinct revival of Buddhism and
Shintoism notably the latter. The temples
were crowded with worshippers, soldiers going to
the front clamoured for charms to protect them
from evil, victories were deliberately attributed to
the " divine attributes " of the Emperor, and the
154 JAPAN
addresses to the spirits of the departed heroes
showed a very real sense of the unseen world.
The immediate effect of this recrudescence of the
ancient faiths is naturally hostile to Christianity,
but ultimately this reawakening of the spiritual
sense may be found to have been a real prepara-
tion for its only possible satisfaction in the
knowledge of the true GOD.
(4) A hindrance that touches Western Chris-
tendom very closely is the fact of our own " un-
happy divisions " ; not only the actual clashing of
rival sects, and even of distinct branches of the
Church Catholic, but also the waste of power and
spiritual force which result therefrom.
(5) Even more to our shame is the stumbling-
block caused by the reports brought back by
Japanese travellers of the condition, moral and
spiritual, of so-called "Christian" countries. It
requires very real insight to say (as Japanese did
say about the misdeeds of some of their Russian
enemies during the war), " They are Christians
who are doing these things : but this is not
Christianity."
OPPORTUNITIES
But if there are hindrances which sadden, there
are also special opportunities which rejoice the
HINDRANCES AND OPPORTUNITIES 155
hearts of Christian workers in Japan at the present
time.
Of these perhaps the most remarkable are :
(1) The deepening which has come to the
people through the recent war. It was impossible
to be in Japan during the critical months of 1904,
and not to notice the increase of purposefulness
and steadfastness in the faces of those whom one
met in casual intercourse, or in even more casual
companionship in railway train or steamer. The
spirit of inquiry which has resulted from this
is deeper and more real than anything that has
been known in the present era of Missions in
Japan.
(2) The national character itself, both in its
essential features, and in its more modern ideals.
There is a basis and a foundation of natural
endowment, on which, when touched and re-
moulded by the divine fire, there may be built
a fair superstructure of Christian grace. As was
well said recently by a Japanese Christian, '"For
country and Emperor ' is good : ' For GOD and
truth ' is better : ' duty ' is a high ideal, but ' duty
inspired by love ' is even higher.' " The courage
of soldiers was a marked feature of the war, but
far more remarkable was the simple way in which
156 JAPAN
that courage was expected by the country at large.
Deeds of heroism in the field and on the seas were
taken as a matter of course, and were equalled, if
not surpassed, by quiet acts of devotion and self-
sacrifice at home. When once duty has been
recognized as indeed the "daughter of the voice of
GOD," and when principle becomes the ruling
force of individual conduct and personal life as
well as of political action and of corporate ideals
to what height may not Japanese character rise ? *
(3) The opportunities, direct and indirect, of
Christian influence in connection with education,
have been already noted.
1 It may be well here to notice a frequently-made
assertion that the Japanese are essentially untrustworthy.
This assertion can generally be traced to those whose
intercourse has been confined to commercial dealings
only and here there is unquestionably failure. The
Japanese standard of commercial morality is lamentably
low ; but the reason is that in the feudal days commerce
was looked upon as a thing base and unworthy not to be
touched by either the nobility or by their retainers:
ranking far below agriculture in the social scale. Hence,
naturally, those engaged in this despised occupation have
lived down to its reputation. Of recent years, however,
some of the best Samurai families have taken to commerce,
and they are deliberately setting themselves to raise the
standard, and to make the name of Japan respected for
honour and probity in the commercial, as it already is
in the political and social, world.
HINDRANCES AND OPPORTUNITIES 157
(4) Among special classes of Japanese people
there are at the present time special openings.
(a) The soldiers. There were vigorous efforts
made during the war by the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai,
as well as by other bodies, to bring Christian
influence to bear on the soldiers, whether in
barracks or in the hospitals. The result has been
a remarkable cordiality on the part of military
authorities, and a real spirit of inquiry among
the men. The opportunities thus created, as well
among the reservists as in the regular army, are
too numerous to be followed up with the present
staff of Christian workers.
(b) The police. For some time members of the
police force have shown a marked readiness to
receive the Christian Faith. They are all Samurai,
men of good stock and of sterling character.
Both in Tokyo and in Osaka lady missionaries
have been asked to start English classes for these
men, and in no instance has the accompanying
condition of a Bible-class in Japanese been
refused. Already the firstfruits of this work have
been gathered in, and there seems a rich harvest
ready for the reaping.
(5) Work among Japanese sailors, as among
our own, is perhaps most hopeful when carried on
158 JAPAN
away from their own shores, when as strangers in
strange lands they are singularly susceptible to
friendly influence. For more than eight years
past there has been in London a Committee for
Church Work among Japanese Seamen in British
Ports. 1 Under the auspices of this committee
there is a club at North Woolwich for the exclu-
sive use of Japanese seamen, and the Japanese
worker in charge of this club is a catechist of the
Nippon Sei Ko Kwai, specially lent for the work
by the six Bishops in Japan, who, in 1902, ex-
pressed their sense of its importance in the
following terms :
" We the Bishops of the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai
desire to commend to benevolent and Christian
people the Mission to Japanese Seamen, which
is carried on under the direction of a committee
of clergymen and others on the Thames, and
also on the Tyne.
"In regard to the work at Tilbury and in
London of the Rev. H. Yamabe, 2 the Japanese
priest employed in the Mission, we hear a very
1 Further particulars can be obtained from C. E. Cox,
Esq., 55 Brook Green, W., or from Miss M. Snowden,
25 Carlton Road, Putney Hill.
2 Succeeded in 1906 by Mr. P. S. Uchida.
HINDRANCES AND OPPORTUNITIES 159
favourable report from England ; while no better
testimony to its value could be given from the
Japanese side than the considerable increase this
year of the already liberal subscription given to
the Mission by the principal shipping company of
Japan.
" Further evidence of the Value of the work may
be found in the fact that we are endeavouring at
this moment to set on foot at Yokohama a
corresponding missionary agency, in order that
the good which is done for the Japanese seamen
in London may not be lost on their return to
their native country, and to place this agency in
direct connection with the London Society."
(6) The recent development of the life of
Japanese women in itself constitutes an oppor-
tunity and a responsibility. It is not too much
to say that the womanhood of Japan found its
feet during the recent war : for the first time
women took a recognized and honoured place by
the side of men in public work. The Red Cross
Society, and the relief of the families of those at
the front, were admirably planned and executed
by women of every rank. The steady education
of the last thirty years has borne rich fruit, and
never a^ain can the women sink to their old
160 JAPAN
position. The time is a critical one: there is
real danger lest on the one hand they should too
eagerly cast aside their old restraints, should pull
down before they are quite ready to build up,
should, in a word, mistake licence for liberty. On
the other hand there is danger lest they should
become so absorbed in material progress that they
should crowd out the thought of GOD from their
lives, and should deliberately close their ears to
the message of the Gospel. It seems, as far as
human eyes can see, that the next few years are
of immense importance in the life of Japanese
womanhood, and in this crisis they surely claim
the deepest sympathy, and the most effective help
which Christian women can give.
(7) The already widespread and rapidly de-
veloping influence of Japan in the neighbouring
Empires of China and Korea sets another " open
door " before the Christian Church. That Church
is bound both to see to it that the Japanese Chris-
tians who go to those Empires in the service of
their country are welcomed in the name of
CHRIST, and also so to redouble its efforts on
behalf of Christianity in Japan that many of these
" missionaries of Empire " may become " mission-
aries of CHRIST."
HINDRANCES AND OPPORTUNITIES 161
If the present condition of Japan constitutes
a resposibility for Christendom as a whole, surely
to the English Church the call comes with special
and even irresistible force. The Anglo-Japanese
Alliance has aroused an enthusiasm for England,
a predisposition to attend to what comes from
English sources and with this there is for us a
corresponding responsibility. There are those
who would urge the claim that Church and
Empire should be conterminous. Even if the
missionary charter of the Church of England
could be thus curtailed, Japan would still come
within the scope of its responsibility, for it is the
Empire that has forged the close bonds of alli-
ance. Are we to admit the Japanese to fellow-
ship in all else, and to refuse them even the
chance of sharing the "life that is life indeed"?
If this were so, the only possible inference would
be, either that the gift itself is of no importance,
or that our allies are unworthy to receive it.
Again, we have responded in the past to Japan's
request for teachers : the mark of England is set
deep on her Navy, on her engineering colleges, on
her schools of medicine, on her railway system.
Are teachers of Christianity alone to be unrepre-
sented ? The country has been flooded with our
M
i 62 JAPAN
sceptical literature. Does this involve us in no
responsibility ?
It is not exaggeration to say that to England,
and to England's Church, there is offered at the
present moment a unique opportunity of influence.
No one can say how long this opportunity will
continue. The spirit of independence and of
eclecticism is rapidly developing : the work of
other Christian bodies (to whom all honour) is
markedly successful. It was said, not long since,
by one well qualified to speak, "Japan will be
Christian, but whether or no that Christianity is
on the lines of the historic Church, depends,
humanly speaking, on the action of English
Church people during the next ten or twenty
years."
Among the questions we must face are the
following :
Are we prepared to send of our best to Japan ?
Are our best prepared to go ? prepared to learn
as well as to teach ? prepared patiently to study
the history, and the mind, and the character of
this great people ? prepared, if need be, to live
the Christian life for long years before they expect
an opportunity for teaching the Christian Faith ?
prepared to stand aside and allow the Japanese
HINDRANCES AND OPPORTUNITIES 163
Church to develop (within certain limits) on its
own lines ? prepared to sacrifice many cherished
traditions? prepared to recognize whole-heartedly
that the object is not to graft an exotic, but to
nourish and water a plant springing indeed from
the divine seed but in a real sense indigenous to
the soil ?
Humility ; large-heartedness ; a sense of pro-
portion a spiritual life so deep that it can dare
to be broad ; a sympathy that has its root in
selflessness ; these seem to be the ideals to be
kept before those privileged to represent the
Christian Faith in Japan: the special charismata
which they will seek Where alone they can be
found.
On the Anglican communion, as a whole, there
rests the responsibility of responding to its voca-
tion in the Far East ; and to individual members
is given the privilege by prayer, by almsgiving,
by personal service of making that response
possible.
If that privilege is claimed, and to that vocation
a whole-hearted response is made, then it shall be
that " in after years when Japan shall long have
been numbered among the Christian nations, men
shall look back with gratitude to those who, in
1 64 JAPAN
divine providence, have brought to them the truth
of GOD ; and still more often, as we pray, shall
return with thanks and praise to Him, the
FATHER of unchangeable power and eternal
light, through Whom all things which were cast
down are raised up, and things which had grown
old are being made new ; Whose revealed purpose
it is, at some second meeting-point of the ages,
when again the fullness of time has come, to
regather all things unto Him from Whom, at
the first, they took their origin, even unto His
SON JESUS CHRIST our LORD." 1
1 Sermon by Bishop Edward Bickersteth.
GENERAL INDEX
Ainu, work among, 34, 143,
144;
American Church, its work
in Japan, 29, 34, 59. 94.
99, 108, 112, 118, 127-134.
Anglo - Japanese Alliance,
104, 161.
Blind, work among, 135.
Bonin Islands, work in, 144-
151-
Buddhism, 16-19.
Bushido, 20-22.
Canadian Church, its work
in Japan, 139.
Characteristics of Japanese,
23-25, 155, 156.
Choshi, work in, 139.
Church of Japan. See
Nippon Sei Ko Kwai.
Church Missionary Society,
29, 33, 54, 107.
Community Missions, 114.
See also S. Andrew's and
S. Hilda's Missions.
Confucianism, 19, 20.
Country work, 136-139.
Dioceses in Japan, 59, 107.
See also Episcopate.
Divinity Schools, 50, 97,
in, 118.
Edicts against Christianity,
28.
Education in Japan, 5-7,
88 ff.
Educational work, 35-39,
88-94, II2 118-121, 133,
156.
Episcopate in Japan, 51, 59,
99. See also
Dioceses.
,, Japanese, pre-
paration for,6i,
66.
Evangelistic work, 77-88.
Factories, work in, 122-
127.
Formosa, work in, 62.
Gifu, work in, 135.
Government in Japan, 4.
Hindrances to progress of
Christianity, 152.
Hokkaido, The, work in.
See Yezo.
Hostels for students, 94,
113, "5-
165
i66
GENERAL INDEX
Japanese characteristics.
See Character-
istics, Japanese.
Church. See Nip-
pon Sei K6
Kwai.
ministry. See
Ministryjapan-
ese.
women. See Wo-
men, Japanese.
Kiushiu, work in, 107, 140.
Kobe, work in, 33, 41-45.
Kumamoto, work in, 32, 140,
143-
Kyoto, work in, 108, 130-
134-
Lepers, work among, 143.
Ministry, Japanese, 40, 52,
58.
Missions, special to un-
believers, 78-87.
Nagano, work in, 140.
Nagasaki, work in, 30-33.
Native ministry. See Minis-
try, Japanese.
Nippon Sei Ko Kwai
organized, 56 ff.
national, not alien, 70.
growth of, 58, 62, 67.
Orphanages, 113, 114, 129.
Osaka, work in, 33, 50, 54,
56, 64, 103, 108,
118-130.
conference at, 55.
Parochial life, in.
Philanthropic work, 113,
114.
Poole Memorial Girls'
School, 118-121.
Police, work among, 157.
Rescript on Education, Im-
perial, 6.
Religions of Japan, 11-19.
Roman Catholic Missions,
3, 26-28, 40.
Russo - Greek Church in
Japan, 47.
Russo - Japanese War, 7,
"4. 153-
S. Agnes's School, Kyoto,
133-
S. Andrew's Mission, 114^
118, 145.
S. Barnabas's Hospital, Os-
aka, 128.
S. Hilda's Mission, 94, 105,
113, 114-118.
S. Margaret's School, Tok-
yo, 133-
Sapporo, work in, 144.
Seamen, work among, 157.
Shintoism, 12-17, 153.
GENERAL INDEX
167
Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel, 29, 33, 71,
108.
Soldiers, work among, 157.
Synods of Nippon Sei Ko
Kvvai, 56, 70.
Tokyo, work in, 33-40, 45-
50, 78-87, 93, 108, 109-
118.
Training Schools. See
Divinity Schools, and
Women-workers, training
of.
Training of workers, impor-
tance of, 97.
University of Tokyo, 109,
no.
University for women, 94,
TI3, Il6, 121.
Women, Japanese, 8-1 1, 93,
112, 159.
Women - workers, training
of, 98, 105, in, 115, 118,
129.
Xavier, S. Francis, 3, 4, 26,
4 o.
Yedo. See Tokyo.
Yezo, work in, 34, 107, 143.
Yokaichiba, work in, 136.
INDEX TO NAMES OF PERSONS
MENTIONED IN THE TEXT
Abbot, Dr, 127, 130.
Allen, Miss Beatrice, 105,
106.
Awdry, Bishop, 62, 67, 97.
Batchelor, Rev. J., 34, 100,
143. H4-
Bickersteth, Bishop, 53, 55-
57. 59. 73. 78, 87, 91, 93,
IOI, 102, IO5, IIO, IJ4,
145. 164.
Black, Mrs. and Miss, 149.
Buncombe, Rev. W. P., 84,
136.
Burdon, Bishop, 41.
Burnside, Rev. H., 32.
Chamberlain, Professor
Basil, n, 19.
Cholmondeley, Rev. L. B.,
144, 149, 150.
Ensor, Rev. G., 30-32.
Evington, Bishop, 33, 50,
100.
Foss, Bishop, 34, 41, 64, 67,
100, 119, 148.
Fukuzawa, Mr., 38, 112.
Fyson, Bishop, 34, 100.
Gonzales, Rev. J., 146.
Hare, Bishop, 59, no.
Hoar, Miss Alice, 100.
Hopper, Rev. E. C., 52.
Hughes, Mr. H., 146, 147,
148.
Imai, Rev. J. T., 71, 78,
79, in.
Ishii, Mr., 114.
Ito, Count, 94.
Kakuzen, Rev. M., 63,
Kanai, Rev. Mr., 52.
Katada, Mr., 136, 138.
Kawabe, Rev. Mr., 120.
Kawai, Rev. P. G., 65.
King, Rev. A. F., 144,
150.
Laning, Dr., 128.
Lloyd, Rev. A., 52.
McKim, Bishop, 62, 99, 131,
134-
Maundrell, Rev. H., 32.
MLzuno, Rev. J., 42-44.
iGS
INDEX TO NAMES
169
Minagawa, Rev. Mr., 128.
Mori, J, K., 135.
Tai, Rev. M., 52.
Tamura, Mr., 133.
Terata, Rev. D. T., 62.
Naide, Rev. Y., 65, 66, Thornton, Miss Elizabeth,
129. 104, 105, 116, 117, 118.
Tristram, Miss, 119.
Page, Archdeacon, 128. Tyng, Rev. T., 128, 129.
Partridge, Bishop, 64, 131.
Perry, Commodore, 2, 4. Uchida, Mr. P. S., 158.
Piper, Rev. J., 34, 42, 45.
Plummet, Rev. F. B., 34, 43, Warren, Archdeacon, 33, 50,
145-
Poole, Bishop, 51, 53.
Rawlings, Rev. G. W., 91.
Rickards, Miss, 115.
Riddell, Miss, 143.
Satow, Sir E., 28.
Shaw, Archdeacon, 33, 37,
103.
Williams, Bishop, 29, 34,
45, 55, 59, 99.
Wright, Rev. W. B., 33, 35,
37, 42, 45, 48, 49.
Yamabe, Rev. H., 64, 158.
Yamada, Rev. P. S., 80,
in.
40, 41, 45, 50, 52, 81, 104, Yamagata, Rev. Y., 52.
112. Yoshizawa, Rev. C. N., 80.
Shirnada, Rev. A. O., 35, 36.
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JAPAN AND ITS PEOPLE
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Oxford
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