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By Margaret Ritchie
I GREW UP in Japan as a ‘missionary kid’ of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and I retain a clear memory of my
father’s strong reaction to news of the name change.
“American Lutheran Church!” he nearly
shouted. “What kind of a message is that to the Japanese?”
I also recall a rather hushed conversation between my
parents, in which I gathered that a respected convert had gone over to the Mukyokai, an indigenous Christian
movement – roughly translated, I understood, as ‘No-Church
Movement.’
These remembrances gained poignancy as I read Japan’s Modern Prophet: Uchimura Kanzo 1861
– 1930 (UBC Press, 2005)– a
dense, meticulously researched and highly readable work by Dr. John F.
Howes, professor emeritus of Asian studies at the University of British
Columbia.
Uchimura is described as one of the first Japanese
Christians to “differentiate Christianity from Western culture”
– and to write extensively, explaining Christianity to the ordinary
Japanese citizen.
Through Uchimura’s experience studying in the U.S.
and his relationships with missionaries, he came to believe that few
American Christians would ever be able to accept Japanese Christians as
equals. Uchimura ran afoul of missionaries when he invited a follower of the
Nichiren sect of Buddhism to speak to the student body of a Christian
school.
He also displeased conservative Japanese, when his
Christian scruples prevented him from endorsing the Confucian-based
‘Rescript on Education’ – which had been signed by
the Emperor Meiji, making it into a kind of religious relic.
Uchimura responded by writing. His first book, Consolations of a Christian,
written in and for Japanese, was intended as an evangelistic work. It was
followed quickly by How I Became a Christian – written in English, to explain to Western
readers the difficulties Japanese converts encountered.
His passion was to see Japan become a Christian nation,
and then demonstrate to the rest of the world how a Christian nation should
behave. With Japan’s move toward militarism, Uchimura withdrew
from the more political and public arena to focus his attention on teaching
the individual – through Bible study lectures and magazines –
what it meant to be a Christian.
To this day, there is no more prolific evangelistic
Japanese writer than Uchimura. His Bible study magazine reached beyond the
highly educated in the major cities, into small towns throughout Japan. He
expressed distaste for what he considered negative foreign influences,
writing: “We pray that, in Japan, the Christian denominations that
arose in the West will disappear.”
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He eventually eschewed organized Christianity –
and insisted that even his Mukyokai movement, the Bible study lectures and his magazine
should be discontinued after his death.
This book’s author is a recipient of the Order of
the Rising Sun. Howes was also honoured by his North American peers with
the prestigious Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award.
While in Japan as a member of the American occupation
forces, Howes – who now attends Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver
– became involved with a Japanese church as organist and music
director, and learned first hand of the tensions between foreign
missionaries and Japanese Christians.
His sympathies and respect for Japanese Christian
self-determination date from those days.
Returning to Japan on a Fulbright scholarship, Howes
discovered – through discussions with intellectual Japanese leaders
– how deeply influential Uchimura had been in their lives.
His biography exudes both respect for and honesty about
Uchimura. Using the prophet’s perspective, Howes illustrates how crucial
respect is, and how damaging condescension is, when crossing cultural
divides.
For anyone interested in Japan's development with
reference toward the West – and its struggle to maintain its own
identity, while internalizing what it deemed worthwhile – Japan’s Modern Prophet is
a fascinating read.
February 2009
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