Japanese Christian Research Articles

Spirit Matters: The Transcendent in Modern Japanese Literature (review)

Reviewed by: Spirit Matters: The Transcendent in Modern Japanese Literature Kevin M. Doak (bio) Spirit Matters: The Transcendent in Modern Japanese Literature. By Philip Gabriel. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2006. ix, 207 pages. $48.00. Philip Gabriel has written a welcome book that fills a much-needed gap in our knowledge about some key writers in modern Japanese literature. But it may also prove to be the "groundbreaking work" it is described as being on the book's dust jacket. Gabriel's vision cuts against the grain of the most influential, if often only implicit, assumptions of the field of Japanese studies [End Page 486] and in the study of non-Western cultures more broadly: to wit, "they" cannot share "our" religious values, but nonetheless "we" can and must learn something from "their" exotic spiritual practices. Moreover, there has been a long-standing unease within literary studies in general about dealing with overtly religious, especially Christian, themes, an unease that is often expressed as a conflict between "art and religion," with echoes of an earlier debate over "art and politics." The assumption is that religion (or politics) can only dilute the inherent dignity of the artistic work, since it presumably acts as an external restriction on the freedom of the artist's hand. Gabriel's book confronts these questions directly and allows us to see how Christian themes continue to animate some of the very best literature being written in Japanese today. The first two chapters treat in detail the most explicitly Christian authors of the volume. Chapter one provides close textual analysis of Miura Ayako's well-known novel Hyōten (Freezing point, serialized in the Asahi shinbun, 1964–65) and its sequel Zoku hyōten (serialized 1970–71) around the theme of sin and forgiveness. In Gabriel's analysis, Miura signals the necessity and possibility of forgiveness that comes from someplace outside of nature: the images of the ice floe on fire, the "freezing point," must be interpreted as an image in the mind's eye, not an objective, natural phenomenon. The miracle of forgiveness is then pursued in chapter two through a discussion of self-sacrifice in two Christian works. The first is Sono Ayako's nonfiction Kiseki (Miracles, serialized from 1972–73), which explores the case of Father Maximillian Kolbe, the Polish Catholic priest with ties to Japan who was martyred at Auschwitz after he volunteered to take the place of another man who had been selected for death. Sono is drawn to the nature of miracles that are offered as evidence for Kolbe's canonization, and her reflections on miracles are worth repeating here (especially since she does so even while confessing her own weakness of faith): "Whether you see it as a miracle or not depends entirely on your way of thinking . . . . And at that point, I'm back to where I began. Is everything that happens in the human world a result of human power, or not? And if miracles are not simply miracles, but 'coincidence,' then what is coincidence, and where does it come from?" (p. 62). Gabriel then returns to Miura Ayako, discussing her Shi-okari tōge (Shiokari Pass, serialized 1966–68), a historical novel about a Japanese Christian railway worker, Nagano Nobuo, who appears to offer his life in an effort to save his passengers. Conceding Asai Kiyoshi's point that Miura writes "evangelical literature," Gabriel then presents Shimao Toshio as an example of a Christian writer at the other extreme, someone whose texts deal with Christian themes so subtly that many readers may not realize it is Christian literature at all. Although the discussion on Shimao is only a few pages, it is extremely valuable since no less an authority than Karatani [End Page 487] Kōjin has declared Shimao as one of the major writers of postwar Japanese literature, even better than Mishima Yukio.1 The next two chapters explore religious themes in two well-known writers who are not normally thought of as authors of Christian literature. Chapter three deals with Murakami Haruki's post-Aum literature, beginning with Andāguraundo (Underground, 1997) through Umibe no Kafuka (2002; translated...

The Brotherhoods (Confrarias) and Lay Support for the Early Christian Church in Japan

By the end of the sixteenth century, the Japanese mission had become the largest overseas Christian community that was not under the rule of a European power. Its uniqueness was emphasized by Alessandro Valignano since 1582, who promoted a deeper accommodation to Japanese culture. It was also understood by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who issued the first national anti-Christian laws while he was unifying the Japanese empire. The main reason the religious success of the Catholic Church in Japan was, undoubtedly, the engagement of many converts and their descendents. This article deals with the role of Japanese lay people within the Church, analyzing how individuals gave support to daily activities and how the communities strengthened themselves through the formation of brotherhoods. Japan was then the sole overseas country where all members of those confraternities were locals, in spite of the presence of a colonial elite. KEYWORDS: Portuguese - Japanese Christianity - local communities - brotherhoods (ProQuest-CSA LLC: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) The Portuguese sustained contact with the Japanese nearly a century (1543-1639).1 The main reason the regular visits of the nanbanjin ... (southern barbarians) to the islands was trade, since the Portuguese controlled much of the Sino-Japanese commerce several decades and founded two new and distinctive cities in the China Sea region: Macao and Nagasaki.2 The ships that sailed between those cities, however, did not carry only goods trade. They also brought men of different races, animals, many objects (such as glasses, chairs, buttons, or firearms), and scientific knowledge in areas such as geography, medicine, astronomy (see Nakayama 1969) and mathematics (Leitao 2000), which opened a new era in Japan. After centuries of isolation from Europe, Japanese civilization acquired a more accurate understanding of Earth and an awareness of contemporary technological developments.3 The Portuguese, in turn, were initially received by a medieval and anarchic society in the mid-sixteenth century, and were subsequently expelled a century later by a modern and centralized empire. The sengoku had been replaced by the taihei-an evolution that cannot be explained without reference to the nanbanjin contributions (Nosco 2003), who exhibited for once [...] a genuine international dimension in a period of Japanese history (Elison 1981, 60). Along with European trade goods and Western cultural influences a new religion also came to Japan. The propagation of Christianity was always one of the motivations which pushed the Portuguese during the Age of Discoveries.4 There was a sincere desire that Christendom would profit from those voyages, enlarging the areas and the populations under the leadership of the Catholic Church, and by the 1460s the Portuguese Crown acquired absolute control of overseas ecclesiastic activities. Later, from the middle of the sixteenth century, when private traders became more autonomous, pushing Portuguese influence to areas where state authority was weak, those adventurers also brought with them clergymen, just as the king's representatives had done before.5 Therefore, the arrival of Portuguese explorers to Japan in 15436 opened a new field to missionary activity, and the first clerics of the Society of Jesus landed in Kagoshima in 1549.7 Christianity in Japan A SUCCESSFUL MISSION The Jesuits were able to found a sizable community in Japan, which had about three hundred thousand baptized by the end of the sixteenth century. It was at the time the largest and most important overseas Christian community not under the control of a colonial power, as was the case with Christian missions in Mexico, Peru, Brazil, the Philippines, or India.8 Most Japanese Christians lived in Kyushu, but Christianization was not a regional phenomenon and had a national impact. By the end of the sixteenth century it was possible to find baptized people in virtually every province of Japan,9 many of them organized in communities. …

Tamura Naoomi’s The Japanese Bride: Christianity, Nationalism, and Family in Meiji Japan

In 1893, Christian minister Tamura Naoomi provoked a heated debate among his contemporaries when he published an English-language book on Japanese family practices titled The Japanese Bride. While the book made no controversial or radical theological arguments, and mentioned Christianity only as a framework that could assist in reforming Japanese family practices and the position of women within the home, Tamura was censured for behavior considered unbecoming a Japanese Christian minister. Published immediately following the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution and the Imperial Rescript on Education, and on the eve of Japan's entry into war with China, the book contradicted and countered many Japanese leaders' claims that Japan was a modernized and civilized empire. This curious and often overlooked controversy provides an interesting window into the complex ways in which ideas such as the proper family, and the link between the family and the state, were considered and defined in this period. KEYWORDS: Tamura Naoomi - The Japanese Bride - Japanese women - family - nationalism - Nihon Kirisuto Kyokai (ProQuest-CSA LLC: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) In 1893, Christian minister Tamura Naoomi ... published a slim volume in English titled The Japanese Bride. The seemingly innocuous book was published by Harper & Brothers and received favorable reviews in the United States.1 In Japan, however, it was met with condemnation. First the secular press, then the Japanese Christian press, denounced Tamura for daring to expose the Japanese people and nation to ridicule by describing traditional Japanese family and marriage practices to an American audience. Later that year, the Tokyo Presbytery (Tokyo daiichi chukai ...) of the Nihon Kirisuto Kyokai ... (Church of Christ in Japan) took the drastic step of initiating disciplinary proceedings against Tamura. The following year, when Tamura refused to issue a public apology, the General Conference (taikai ..) revoked his ordination for defaming the Japanese people, behavior deemed unbecoming to a Christian minister. At first glance, the conference's reaction seems extreme and inappropriate, since Tamura's book made no controversial or radical theological arguments, and mentioned Christianity only as a framework that could assist in reforming Japanese family practices and the position of women within the home. Furthermore, since it was published in English, it was largely inaccessible to the Japanese public, as well as to many of the Japanese Christian leaders who criticized him. Also, much of the content was not new, since it was based on a book Tamura published in 1889 titled Beikoku no fujin ... [American women], in which he had also advocated reforming Japanese family practices according to an American Christian model, but for which he had not been criticized (TAMURA 1924, 208).2 But Tamura published The Japanese Bride at a critical time. In the four years between the publication of his earlier book and The Japanese Bride, a number of historic political events occurred: the establishment of the Meiji Constitution (Meiji kenpo ...) in 1889, the promulgation of the Imperial Rescript on Education (kyoiku chokugo ...) in 1890, and Christian leader and educa tor Uchimura Kanzo's ... forced resignation from his teaching position for failing to show the Rescript proper respect in 1891.3 Additionally, by 1893 it was apparent that Japan was about to enter into war with China over Korea,4 and this impending conflict increased the stakes for defining and regulating the nature and form of what constituted the proper imperial subject, the foundation of the nation-defined as a family-state (kokka ..),5 under the emperor-and Japan's reputation among Western imperialist powers. In this atmosphere, while Christians were not the only ones scrutinized and considered suspect by nationalist ideologues such as Inoue Tetsujiro ..., they were particularly vulnerable because their religion was considered foreign and Western, and they maintained close, if somewhat difficult, relationships with foreign missionaries. …

Journey to the West

What is often called the first Japanese embassy to Europe was actually a publicity stunt conceived in 1582 by Alexandro Valignano, the inspector of the Portuguese-sponsored Asian missions of the Society of Jesus. Four teenagers from Kyushu were paraded through Portugal, Spain, and Italy-performers and audience at the same time in a theatrical production designed to display the capabilities of the Japanese before influential circles of Catholic Europe while imbuing the Japanese with the idea of the superiority of European civilization under the aegis of the Catholic Church. After returning to their native country in 1590, all four joined the Jesuit order. Three served the cause of Christianity faithfully. The fourth, Miguel Chijiwa, apostatized and derided all that he had been taught to hold sacred. He is the narrator of the scurrilous piece of anti-Christian fiction Kirishitan kanagaki, a fantasy novel avant-la-lettre that deserves much greater attention than it has received. Its multifaceted deployment of European legendary materials makes it a challenge to students of comparative culture. KEYWORDS: Miguel Chijiwa - Mancio Ito - Martinho Hara - Juliao Nakaura - Alexandro Valignano - Dialogue about the Mission of the Japanese Ambas-sadors- Kirishitan kanagaki (ProQuest-CSA LLC: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) ON a June day in 1585, an exotic group paid the Umbrian hill town of Montefalco a visit. What was billed as a Japanese embassy was passing through. Four teenage boys from Kyushu were the stars of this traveling show-Mancio Ito, cast in the role of the ambassador of the King of Bungo; Miguel Chijiwa, assigned the part of the envoy of the King of Arima and the Prince of Omura; and Martinho Hara and Juliao Nakaura, featured as the noble companions of the other two. Members of the Society of Jesus, acting in the indispensable capacity of the youths' mentors and chaperons, accompanied them. An account of these country boys' journey to the West and back to Asia, composed some years later in the form of an elaborate colloquy among them and two of their Japanese Christian friends (actually, it is not much of a colloquy, as the dialogue is dominated by long speeches scripted for Miguel Chijiwa), sums up the object of this brief visit as follows:1 We passed through a town called Montefalco, where we were gladdened extraordinarily by the sight of the sacred cadaver of...Saint Clare, who bears a cognomen derived from the name of that town. Not only is her venerable cadaver uncorrupted and intact to the present day, but her heart is marked by the images of Christ crucified and other mysteries. Moreover, in her heart were found three globes, similar in the highest degree to one another, which are endowed with a supernatural property, so that the weight of all three together is exactly the same as that of each by itself, and there is no difference whether you place one of them on one dish of a balance and two on the other or, then again, put all together in the same dish. In this we perceived the manifest sign of the most holy Trinity, each person of which singly, no less than the three persons jointly, is replete with the same nature, power, and majesty. This supreme mystery of our faith is what this Saint (Diua haec) revered above all in her soul. Clare of Montefalco (1268-1308) was not yet a saint, properly speaking, at the time of the Japanese youths' call at her shrine, as her case for canonization, formally initiated the year after her death, failed for obscure reasons to make progress and was not to be brought to a successful conclusion until 1881. She was, however, the object of a substantial local and regional cult. As a child, she had entered a religious community headed by her sister, whom she would eventually succeed as abbess. Her life in the convent was not circumscribed, however, by the routine practice of monastic virtues. Clare was known for her intense asceticism, her ecstatic mystical experiences, and the ardency of her identification with the crucified Christ. …

Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions

In the past couple of decades, there has been a vast amount of new scholarship on topics related to religion in Japanese history. The Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions is an excellent reference work that ‘guides’ the readers through the entire field of Japanese religions, both thematically and chronologically. The volume is divided into five sections—Traditions, History, Themes, Research and Chronology—of which the first three constitute the basic framework of the book. The first section, ‘Traditions’, contains chapters on Japanese religions, Shinto, Buddhism, Folk Religion and Japanese Christianity. Each of the chapters in this section introduces the chronological development of each respective tradition, thematic and theoretical issues and new findings in the field. The second section, ‘History’, contains chapters that portray the chronological development of religion in Japanese history. The history is divided into six periods—ancient, classical age, medieval, early modern, modern and contemporary. Section three, ‘Themes’, represents some of the recent trends in the study of religions. Topics covered are as follows: ritual culture, literature and scripture, state and religion, geography, environment, pilgrimage, history of thought and gender issues. Though each chapter deserves a careful review, this essay will mainly focus on a few of the key issues brought forth by the volume.

Modern Japanese Christian Leader's Viewpoints on Chosun(朝鮮觀)

Modern Japanese Christian Leader's Viewpoints on Chosun(朝鮮觀)

The influence of governmental control and early Christian missionaries on music education of Aborigines in Taiwan

There has been little research conducted on Taiwanese Aboriginal music education in comparison to Aboriginal education. C. Hsu's Taiwanese Music History (1996) presents information on Aboriginal music including instruments, dance, ritual music, songs and singing, but information on music education practices is lacking. The examination of historical documentation shows that music education was used by both the Japanese government and Christian missionaries to advance their political and religious agendas. This paper will examine the development of the music education of Aborigines in Taiwan from the mid nineteenth century, when Christian missionaries first came to Taiwan, until the end of the Japanese protectorate (1945). I shall discuss how the missionaries from Britain and Canada successfully introduced Western religious music to Aboriginal communities by promoting various activities such as hymn singing and religious services. The paper will then look at the influence of government policy on Aboriginal music education during the colonial periods. These policies affected both the music taught in elementary schools and the teaching materials.

Jerusalem in the Mind of the Japanese : Two Japanese Christian Intellectuals on Ottoman and British Palestine (<Special Issue> Facing the Other: Israeli Identity and Palestinians in a Jewish State)

Jerusalem in the Mind of the Japanese : Two Japanese Christian Intellectuals on Ottoman and British Palestine (<Special Issue> Facing the Other: Israeli Identity and Palestinians in a Jewish State)

H. Unuma: Faith and Thought of Modern Japanese Christian Thinkers

H. Unuma: Faith and Thought of Modern Japanese Christian Thinkers

The Telegraphers Mission in Modern Japanese Christianity

The Telegraphers Mission in Modern Japanese Christianity

A World of Crisis and Progress: The American YMCA in Japan 1890–1930. By Jon Thares Davidann. Bethlehem, Penn.: Lehigh University Press, 1998. 207 pp. $37.50.

In May 1880, Kanda Naibu, Kozaki Hiromichi, and other young Japanese Christians, inspired by the example of YMCA in the United States, established the Tokyo Kirisutokyo Seinenkai (Young Men's Christian Association). As Jon Thares Davidann points out, Japanese Christians saw "Christianity as a set of precepts and the YMCA as an institution that could save and uplift the entire nation" (p. 63). By 1899, when the first American YMCA missionary arrived at the request of the Tokyo Association, the Seinenkai, together with its journal, Rikuge7zasshi (Cosmos), was already playing a significant role in the development of Meiji Protestantism. The beginning of American YMCA work in the 1890s coincided with a period of retarded growth for most Christian groups (with the notable exception of the Anglican Nippon Seikokai), demands for independence from foreign supervision as witnessed in the crisis over control of Doshisha College in Kyoto, and an impatience among Japanese Christians of liberal theological persuasion with the conservative theology of many missionaries, including YMCA ones. YMCA difficulties eased with the RussoJapanese War during which it gained widespread approval in official Japanese circles because of its program for providing comforts for the troops in the field. Following the war with Russia, the Japanese YMCA, supportive of Japanese imperialism, expanded its work into Korea where, "like the American YMCA moving into Japan in the 1890s, Japanese Christian leaders assumed that Christian progress could take place in Korea only if it was inspired by Japanese Christianity" (p. 131). As for American YMCA missionaries working in Japan or in Korea, they came "to identify themselves with the nations they served. They did not see themselves as representatives of a universal religion that could remain above the competition of nations" (p. 150). However, even in the 1920s, when doubts about their effectiveness in the face of nationalist reactions had led to a serious review of YMCA overseas missions, YMCA supporters in Japan like Yoshino Sakuzo still "returned to the hope of Meiji Christian nationalists that Christianity would become the guiding spirit of Japan" (p. 162). In this short book, Davidann set out "to examine the history of the intercultural interactions between two groups of modern Christians: American YMCA missionaries posted to Japan and Japanese Christians who became interested in YMCA activities and participated in the YMCA from 1890-1930" (p. 111). The cultural relations between the two groups were not without their difficulties. The author divides his book into six major chapters: The American YMCA and the Missionary Revival, Japanese Christians and Cultural Nationalism; The Struggle for Independence; Social Problems and the Russo-Japanese War; YMCA Postwar Imperialism in Korea and Manchuria, and The Crisis of Christian Nationalism. Among other things, Davidann

A Case Study on the Rites of the Dead in Japanese Christian Churches

A Case Study on the Rites of the Dead in Japanese Christian Churches

Arimasa Mari’s Concept of the Experience of ‘Keiken’: The Ultimate Reality and Meaning of a Japanese Christian

Find information about UTP Journals. University of Toronto Press is Canada’s leading academic publisher and one of the largest university presses in North America, with particular strengths in the social sciences, humanities, and business. The Book Publishing Division is widely recognized in Canada for its strength in history, political science, sociology, Indigenous studies, and cultural studies. Internationally, UTP is a leading publisher of medieval, Renaissance, Italian, Iberian, Slavic, and urban studies, as well as studies in book and print culture.

What About the Ancestors? Some Japanese Christian Responses to Protestant Individualism

What About the Ancestors? Some Japanese Christian Responses to Protestant Individualism

What About the Ancestors? Some Japanese Christian Responses to Protestant Individualism

What About the Ancestors? Some Japanese Christian Responses to Protestant Individualism

Sustaining otherness: Self, nature and ancestralism among contemporary Japanese Christians

Ideological minorities in Japan have received rather less sociological attention than ethnic ones. This paper explores some central facets of the position of one of these less studied minorities — Japanese Christians — in their relationship to the mainstream society. Japanese Christians are located within the tensions created by their unclear relationship to the major religious traditions of Shintō and Buddhism as cosmological systems and as elements in Japanese politics. The nature of scholarship on Japanese Christianity is briefly introduced and an alternative perspective based on an analysis of Japanese Christianity's relationships to three important cultural themes — selfhood, nature and ancestralism — is proposed. Japanese Christians are examined as a self‐selected minority, distinguished not by ethnicity or language, but by voluntary adherence to a system of religious beliefs and practices at substantial variation with those of the vast majority of the population. This gives rise to problems about the location of Christians within the networks of reciprocity vital to the functioning of everyday Japanese social and cultural life. Finally, Japanese Christians are located in relation to the pressures of internationalization and globalization on Japanese society and on the shifting boundaries of Otherness and deviance in their society.

Japan and Christianity: Impacts and Responses

List of Illustrations - Chronology - Editors' Preface - Acknowledgements - Notes on the Contributors - Translations of Christian Terminology into Japanese 16-19th Centuries: Problems and Solutions S.Kaiser - Early Western-Style Paintings in Japan M.Cooper - New Perspectives on the Christian Prohibition O.Sachiyasu - Acculturation among the Kakure Cirishitan: Some Conclusions from the Tenchi Hajimari no Koto S.Turnbull - Beyond the Prohibition: Christianity in Restoration Japan J.Breen - Christianity Encounters Buddhism: A Historical Perspective N.Thelle - The Religion of the West Versus the Science of the West: The Evolution Controversy in Late Nineteenth Century Japan H.Ballhatchet - Written and Unwritten Texts of the Kakure Kirishitan C.Whelan - The Social Forms of Japanese Christianity M.Mullins - From Out of the Depths: The Japanese Literary Response to Christianity M.Williams - Select Bibliography - Index

Book Review: New Wine: The Cultural Shaping of Japanese Christianity

Book Review: New Wine: The Cultural Shaping of Japanese Christianity

New Wine: The Cultural Shaping of Japanese Christianity. By David Reid. Berkeley, Calif.: Asian Humanities Press, 1991. 199 pp. $45.00 cloth; $15.00 paper

New Wine: The Cultural Shaping of Japanese Christianity. By David Reid. Berkeley, Calif.: Asian Humanities Press, 1991. 199 pp. $45.00 cloth; $15.00 paper

New Wine: The Cultural Shaping of Japanese Christianity

New Wine: The Cultural Shaping of Japanese Christianity