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Saint Kasatkin of Japan and the War with Russia
By Stephen Andrew Missick
Christianity has not been very successful in the Far East. The Philippines and East Timur are the only majority Christian nations there and only South Korea and Vietnam have significant Christian minorities. The Christian religion has been particularly unsuccessful on the islands of Japan. Despite initial openness to the Christian message in the sixteenth century, missionaries soon faced opposition and persecution in Japan. The Tokagawa Shogunate pursued a policy of purging the Japanese islands of Christianity. As a result tens of thousands of Christians were brutally massacred in the 1600s and until the Meiji era the practice of Christianity in Japan was a capital offense. Today Christianity accounts for less than one percent of the population of Japan. Despite this indifference and hostility towards the gospel one priest went to Japan and during his lifetime was responsible for the conversion of over 30,000 Japanese to Christianity. He continued to win converts even while his native country and Japan were at war. This man was Saint Nikolai Kasatkin, a Russian, who founded the Holy Orthodox Church of Japan.
The Japanese Orthodox Church is an autonomous body of the Eastern Orthodox Church that keeps an ecclesiastical relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church of Moscow. Its founder St. Nikolai Kasatkin (1836-1912) was sent to Hakodate, Japan in 1861 as chaplain to the Russian consulate. He arrived in Japan intent to preach the Christian faith among the Japanese, even though law forbade it. He baptized his first converts in 1868, officially began the mission in 1872 and ordained the first Japanese clergy in 1875.1 Saint Kasatkin endeavored to establish a uniquely Japanese Church, from the beginning of his mission. Saint Kasatkin's successes were due to his missionary strategy, his dedication and devotion, but were also connected to the intellectual and social climate of the Meiji Restoration. Growth of the Japanese Orthodox Church was checked by the Russo-Japanese War and hindered by the rise of militarism and World War II. During the Meiji Era the Japanese Orthodox Church enriched the culture of Japan in many ways; including art, architecture, and music. Due to Saint Kasatkin's efforts to create a strong native Japanese church the Japanese Orthodox Church has survived to this day.
Religions in Japan
Before the first Christian arrived in Japan most Japanese practiced two religions and a philosophical system with religious elements, often simultaneously. The only indigenous religion in Japan is the animistic Shintoism. Shintoism involves the myth of the sun goddess Ameratsu and the divine origin of the Japanese people. Shintoism means "the way of the Kami". The Kami are believed to be spirits or gods that dwell in nature and are worshiped at shrines dedicated to fertility and abundance. Sexual symbolism, especially that of the phallus, has a prominent place in Shintoism. Shintoism came to be centered on the worship of the emperor. The emperor is believed to be the descendant of the sun goddess Ameratsu and also of Jimmu, the first Emperor. Before the Meiji Era the common people outside the old capital at Kyoto didn't even know whom the Emperor was.2 Shintoism was part of the government effort to create a stronger sense of national identity during the Meiji Restoration. As late as the 1880's the police had to prompt people to honor the emperor and observe Shinto rites.3 Shinto taught that as a descendant of the demigod Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan, the hereditary Yamato inheritor to the throne was a Kami. This belief was held until Emperor Hirohito renounced his claim of being a Kami in 1944.
Buddhism is concerned with reincarnation and achieving non-existence, which is called nirvana. Buddhism was founded by Siddharta Guatama in India during the fifth century BC. Guatama was a prince in what is today Nepal. He abandoned his throne and family to become a hermit and to pursue enlightenment. He supposedly achieved enlightenment and became Buddha, meaning "the Enlightened One". Buddha decided that life is suffering and that the key to escaping the cycle of reincarnation is to embrace moderation, this was his 'Middle Way'. Buddhism is not concerned with God; in fact it has been described as an atheistic religion. Later his followers added on to his teachings. Buddhism reached Japan via China and Korea. For years Buddhism was seen as foreign to Japanese culture but eventually many converted to it. Most Japanese are Buddhist today, and many practice both Buddhism and Shintoism. Buddhism has been able to accommodate a variety of beliefs and practices. Many pantheons have been incorporated into Buddhism and many Bodhisattva, Buddhist saints, came to be worshipped. Buddhism has split into many sects including Pure Land Buddhism, in which one is saved by faith in Guatama, and Zen Buddhism, which stresses mental discipline and personal enlightenment. All Japanese were required by law to register as members of the local Buddhist temple as part of the anti-Christian program. This law was enforced until the beginning of Saint Kasatkin's public ministry. The Japanese government at various times opposed Buddhism. General Nobunga attacked Buddhist monasteries and slaughtered monks because he saw their constant interference in politics as a threat to his efforts to unify Japan. (Buddhist monasteries often served as political think tanks.) During the Meiji era many Buddhist temples were destroyed in the effort to displace Buddhism with Shintoism.
Confucianism is a Chinese philosophical system concerned with loyalty, duty, and the proper structure of society and worshiping ones ancestors. The Japanese had often tried to justify their way of life by arguing that the structure of their society represented the Confucian ideal. Confucianism was founded by Confucius in China around 470 BC. Confucianism stresses correct behavior, reverence to family and loyalty to legitimate authority. Confucius's teachings are collected in The
Analects.
Christianity has a history of over 450 years in Japan. Christianity originated in the Roman province of Judea in the first century. Christianity may be a foreign religion in Japan, but so are Buddhism and Confucianism, originating in India and China respectively. Even Shintoism was foreign to most Japanese until the Meiji era.
The Eastern Orthodox Churches
Christianity is a 2000-year-old Semitic religion that originated in the Middle East.
It concerns one God, who manifested Himself in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was crucified for sedition against the Roman Empire. He is believed to have risen from the dead. Christianity teaches that God loves all mankind and that Jesus had suffered his death for the sins of the world so that anyone who trusts in him as his or her savior may be forgiven of their sins and be given the promise of eternal life in heaven. Christianity has divided into three ways, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant. Roman Catholicism is a western European form of Christianity. They claim the bishop of Rome as the successor of Jesus' disciple Peter. Protestants broke off of the Roman Catholic Church beginning around 1507 over protests against corruption in Catholic beliefs and rituals.
The Eastern Orthodox Churches extend from Finland in the far north to Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa, and from Romania in the west to Kerila, India and Japan to the east. The origins of the Eastern Orthodox churches go back to the apostolic era. Apostles such as Saint Mark, Saint Paul and Barnabas established many of the dominant areas of the Eastern Orthodox Church, such as Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. The Greek Byzantine Roman Empire at Constantinople came to dominate the Orthodox Church. Early in its history the Orthodox Church was a missionary church. The Serbs, Bulgarians, Czechs and Poles all received the gospel from missionaries from Byzantium. The Syrian Orthodox sent missionaries to China and India. The Egyptian Orthodox sent missionaries to Sudan and Ethiopia. St. Cyril and St. Methodius left Byzantium to become apostles of the Slavs in the ninth century. They composed the Cyrillic alphabet that is still used in Serbis, Russia, Bulgaria and Mongolia. Russia adopted Christianity under Prince Vladimir of Kiev in 988. In 1488, the council of Russian higher clergy elevated Bishop Iona to the cathedral of Ryazan of the Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia, independently of Constantinople, making the Russian Orthodox Church autocephalous, meaning an independent Eastern Orthodox Church.4 In 1454 the Muslim Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire. Russia then came to see herself as the inheritor of Byzantium and the new leader and protector of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Moscow was seen as the Third Rome. Rome fell to the Vandals, and now Constantinople, the new Rome, had fallen to the Turks. Moscow was now the new leader, or so the Russians thought.
Brief history of Christianity in Japan
Historical evidence indicates that first Christians to arrive on Japan were probably Mongolian soldiers who participated in Kublai Khans invasion of Japan. A Mongolian helmet bearing a carving of a cross upon it was washed ashore on Japan in the invasion of 1281 and it is preserved in the Nichiren Museum in Fukuoke, Japan. At the beginning of the Mongolian Empire founded by Ghenghis Khan several Mongolian tribes belonged to the Nestorian Christian Church, which is now known today as the Assyrian Church of the East and is centered in Iraq. This warrior represents how most Japanese have viewed Christianity: foreign, aggressive and a threat to Japan.
Roman Catholicism arrived in Japan in 1543 with the arrival of the missionary Francis Xavier. Most of the original missionaries to Japan were Jesuits. The Jesuits focused their efforts on the nobility. After their arrival and that of Portuguese traders Christian art and European dress soon became popular in Japan. Even the General Hideyoshi dressed in Portuguese clothes and wore a rosary. The Catholic Church in Japan grew to approximately 300,000 people by 1614; most of who lived in Kyushu near the city of Nagasaki. Around the turn of the seventeen century Protestants from England and Holland arrived and informed the authorities that the Spanish conquest of the Philippines and Mexico were a true measure of the intention of the Roman Catholic Church in Japan.5 One of these sorry characters was Will Adams who was the model of the character Blackthorne in James Clavell's novel and television miniseries Shogun. When Franciscans arrived from the Philippines and began working among the poor they angered the authorities and the Jesuits. In 1597 the persecutions began as Hideyoshi had 26 Christians, Franciscan missionaries and their converts, crucified. Tokugawa Iemitsu began the earnest systematic effort to eradicate Christianity in Japan. The destruction of Christianity was long and painful. There were over 3,000 recognized martyrs, of whom less than seventy were European.6 The Catholics last stand was the Shimabara Revolution of 1637-1638. The teen age samurai Amakasu Shiro led the Christian resistance.7 Unfortunately the Christians were defeated and 37,000 were massacred. The Dutch provided naval bombardment of the Christian rebels for the Tokogawan authorities. Nagasaki was a center of Christianity and soon became legendary for the torments used there to force Christians to recant. Christians were crucified, tied up in bags and thrown into the sea, dipped repeatedly in boiling hot springs and subjected to what was reputed to be the most agonizing death of all: the torture of the pit, in which they were suspended upside down in a hole half filled with excrement, with a light cut on their forehead, and left to bleed to death.8 The Tokogawan Shogunate came up with new laws to insulate Japan from any Christian influence. These laws were as follows:
1. No foreigners are to be allowed in Japan
2. No Japanese may leave to travel to foreign countries
3. All Japanese who are lost at sea will be executed on their return
4. The Dutch are the only westerners the Japanese may trade with; they are to be confined to the island of Deshima.
The zeal of the government towards the slaughter of Christians is manifest in this edict from the Tokagawa era.
NOTICE- although the Christian sect has been repeatedly prohibited, yet at every change of ruler it is right to issue a decree that rigid scrutiny must be made without cessation. Of course every suspicious person must be informed against. For their betrayal the following rewards will be given: Foreign priest-500 pieces of silver; Native priest-300 pieces of silver; exiles who again believe this religion-300 pieces of silver; Catechists-100 pieces of silver; Even catechists or members who inform against the foreign priests, or members of their own class, will be given 500 pieces of silver, according to the value of their information. In case of concealment, not only the guilty persons, but also the headman of the village...together with all of their relations, will be punished. Signed by the Magistrate, Chief of the Christian Extermination Commission. PS On account of my determination to exterminate this wicked religion, I will duplicate the reward offered by the government to anyone who will give information against those found believing this religion under my jurisdiction.-Yennosuke, Village Headman.
Despite the attempts to obliterate Christianity in Japan tens of thousands continued to practice Christianity in secret, and pass on their religion as a family tradition. The Japanese who secretly practiced Christianity came to be called the Kakure Krishitan, or 'Hidden Christians'. The Kakure Krishitan attempted to reconstruct the Bible from memory. The attempt The Tenchi Hajimari No Koto serves as their holy scriptures. It contains a garbled retelling of the creation, the fall of Adam and Eve, the Christmas story and the miracles, passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 9The Kakure Kirishitan, incorporated many Shinto and Buddhist rituals into their practices. Amazingly when the ban against Christianity was lifted in 1889 50,000 Kakure Krishitans announced themselves. Half rejoined the Catholic Church while half preferred to continue in their traditional practices. Most of the Kakure Krishitan live in the Nagasaki area and on the Goto Islands.10
The Cultures of Japan and Russia
Russia is Japan's nearest neighbor. Russia and Japan had many amazing similarities at the time; both empires with a hereditary emperor, both emerging from feudalism, both struggling to modernize and westernize both nationalist and xenophobic, and both were expansionist. And both saw the other as an obstacle in the pursuit of glory for the empire.
When Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry arrived in Edo Bay in 1854 he began a chain of events that resulted in the formation of Modern Japan. But Japan as Perry found it was shaped by three generals who lived around the turn of the seventeenth century. These men were Odo Nobunga (1534-82), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1542-1598) and Tokogawa Ieyasu (1542-1616). The myth of divine origins of the Yamato imperial family insured its survival. However, as the years passed their authority diminished. Powerful men came to rule in the name of the emperor as a regent. These men were called Shoguns. A powerful lord, or diamyu, would force the emperor to allow him to rule in his name. Eventually the Shogunate would weaken and be replaced by another ambitious family, which would eventually decline and be replaced by yet another. The Shogun would establish a government called a Bakufu, literally a "tent government", to assist in his rule. The Bakufu would rule when the Shogun was a minor or incapable. Before Nobunga Japan was in a state of disorder. There was no strong central government. Each daimyo ruled his domain, called a Han, as an independent kingdom. Nobungo began unifying Japan. He was on his way to having himself proclaimed Shogun when he died. At his death he controlled a third of Japan. His successor, Hideyoshi, was born a peasant and was not qualified to be named a Shogun. Hideyoshi continued on Nobunga's accomplishments. Hideyoshi began important policies that had an impact on the formation of Japanese society for centuries. Hideyoshi disarmed the peasants, and made laws to create a clear-cut class structure similar to the caste system in India. Only the Samarai could carry weapons and serve in the military, and peasants were restricted even from traveling off of their land. A Samurai is a member of the Japanese warrior caste. They made up about 10 % of the population of Japan. Tokagawa Ieyasu succeeded Hideyasu and was proclaimed shogun and founded the Tokugawa Shogunate, which reigned from 1616 until 1868. He continued Hideyoshi's policies that tried to freeze the social order in an effort to stabilize society. The Tokogawa Social Divisions were The Imperial family, the Shogun and Bakafu, the Daimyo, the Samurai,
Russia is Japans nearest neighbor. Russia and Japan had many amazing similarities at the time; both Empires with a heredity. The Russian empire, unlike Japan, who ethnically diverse comprising Ukrainians, Belorussians, Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Finns, Jews, Armenians, Georgians, and Muslim Turkish peoples. The country was kept together only by military force. Half of the population was illiterate. The Japanese mistakenly believed that Russia was a great western power until the Russo-Japanese War. Nicholas II, who ruled as Tsar of all the Russias from 1894-1917, believed he alone was chosen by God to rule the Russian. Only after the Revolution of 1905, which was a result of the war with Japan, did he allow limited democratic reforms.
Russia and Japans opening
Japan was able to restrict western contact until the 1790's when Russian explorers were seen charting the waters off of Hokkaido and Russian trappers began moving into the sparsely inhabited islands of Sakhalin and the Kurile chain.11 The Russian court sent a mission to Hokkaido to open trade in 1792. They were turned away by the Bakufu. Japan restricted European contact until 1854. The first attempt to open a trade relationship with the Japanese was made by the Russians. They tried in 1778, 1792, and 1804. They were politely refused by the Japanese who said a trade agreement would violate their "ancestral customs". Next the British attempted. Their efforts were also rejected. In 1846 America made its first attempt. This expedition, which was led by Commodore Biddle, also failed. America was beginning an interest in the Pacific due to the acquisition of California after the Mexican-American War. Americans were expanding into Hawaii and were involved in the whaling industry. Some Americans had been shipwrecked in Japan and were harshly treated by the Japanese. Their stories were published in the United States and these stories outraged the public. Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry arrived in Japan in 1854 with four gunboats and forced the Japanese government to open to trade with America. After Perry's successful endeavor, other western powers arrived to make similar arrangements. Perry's fleet of "Black Ships" intimidated the Bakufu. They realized they were not prepared for a war with the United States. After America opened Japan, Russia, England, and eventually even France came to sign treaties with the Japanese. The Russian Admiral Putiatin concluded the first Russian-Japanese treaty in the city of Shimoda in 1855. Russia was allowed to open a consulate in Hakodote. After the first consular chaplain, Father Ivan Makov, became sick after serving for a few months he returned to Russia. The consulate was in need of a new Chaplain.
The Early Ministry of Father Nikolai
Ivan Dimitrievich Kasatkin was born on 1 August 1836 in the village of Berezovsk, Belsk district, Smolensk diocese, where his father served as a deacon. At the age of five he lost his mother. In 1857 Ivan Kasatkin entered the Saint Petersburg Seminary.12 When he learned of the opening of the position in Russian consulate in Japan he immediately volunteered. Even though he was only 26 and inexperienced, the church authorities were impressed by his scholarship and piety and ordained him as a monk with the monastic name of Nicholas on June 22,1890. In order to reach his port of embarkation at Nikolaevsk-on-Amur he had to cross the Volga region, the Urals, and all of Siberia, a distance of 6,214 miles, traveling in primitive carriages and sleds.13
Because Christianity was still a proscribed religion and proselytization was illegal Nikolai gave himself over to the study of Japanese culture. He mastered the Kanji, Katakana and the Hiranaga scripts as well as the Japanese language and Mandarin Chinese. He studied the Chinese classics and ancient and modern Japanese literature.
Even by Japanese standards he became considered a specialist. During this time he wrote
"Japan Seen From a Missionary Perspective" which was published in Russky Vestnik (1869, No.9). In the article he states:
Coming to Japan as a priest attached to the Consulate and serving as such for eight years (1861-1869), I have applied myself to the study of Japanese history, religion and national character. This was in order to determine to what extent the enlightening of Japan with the Gospel might be realized. With a deepening knowledge of this land I have become more and more firmly convinced that very soon the words of the Gospel will ring out clearly here and speedily permeate all parts of this empire.14
This article was read by Dostoyevsky whose works Nikolai admired. Dostoyevsky and Nikolai met during on of his visits to Russia after the mission became successful.
Early Converts
The Russian Consul wished his son to take lessons in fencing, and Mr. Sawabe, who had formerly been a teacher of that art, was employed, for an instructor. In his visits to the consulate he often saw Father Nicolai, whom he regarded with special dislike as being not only a foreigner, but also a priest of the European religion. For a long time he refused to have any conversation with the Chaplain, though he took every opportunity to show his aversion by scowling upon him. Believing that the danger of intercourse with foreign lands came largely from their religion, he, as an ardent patriot, desired to do what he could towards warding off the threatened evil. He decided to have a discussion with Father Nicholai and to slay him if it proved impossible to defeat him by argument. Wearing the two swords belonging to the military class, he one day broke abruptly into the Chaplains room, calling out in an angry voice:
" Is it because you wish to get possession of our country that you have brought hither your corrupt doctrines?"
"Are you acquainted with the doctrines that I teach?" quietly asked Father Nicolai.
"I know at least that they are evil."
"How can you be sure of that before making such an assertion, ought you not to examine my religion to see whether or not it is so hateful as you suppose?"
"Well, then, tell me about it and I will listen."15
Eventually Mr. Sawabe opened his heart to Christ. Soon afterwards he began sharing his new experience with his friends. In April 1868 the first converts received the Rite of Baptism, Holy Communion and Christian names from Father Nikolai. They were Pavel (Paul) Sawabe, Ivan (John) Sakai, and Yakov (James or Jacob) Urano. These three men were the beginning of the Holy Orthodox Church of Japan.
Saint Kasatkin put together a mission strategy for his new converts.
Rules
1. The evangelists shall be organized as a deliberative body
2. These evangelists shall teach Christian truth to others, while still continuing to study for themselves
3. There shall be two kinds of meetings. The first are Bible studies for new converts. The second type will be explanation of basic Christian beliefs for the curious and seekers after the truth. They will explain the Creed, the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer...16
Persecution
On February 13, 1872 Pavel Sawabe was arrested along with 140 of his followers. More arrests followed soon more that 140 people were either in jail or under house arrest.
Even though the Japanese Orthodox were harassed, interrogated, and threatened very few renounced their new found faith. Among those interrogated were several children who astonished their examiners by asserting their willingness to suffer punishment for the sake of Christ. 17Nikolai worked to secure their release. Soon the Japanese Orthodox were released from prison. In the National Diet Library in Tokyo there is preserved a letter written by Father Nikolai dated March 2, 1873. It is addressed to Soejima Taneomi, the foreign minister of Japan. The letter is a rebuttal of claims that the Japanese orthodox were blaspheming against the emperor at his instigation Father Nikolai declared that if any of his converts were to speak against the emperor he would personally and immediately excommunicate that person. He also declared in the letter that he and his followers constantly pray for the emperor, the empress and the entire royal family.18 So after this incident in 1873 the public notices prohibiting Christianity were removed. This marked the end of overt persecution of Christians by the government.
The Meiji Restoration
Townsend Harris, America's first consul to Japan, arrived in 1856 and began negotiating a trade agreement that was signed in 1858. This treaty was seen as undermining the sovereignty of Japan and as an insult to the Japanese people. The treaty included new treaty ports, extraterritoriality, and low tariffs. After this treaty Japan entered into a short period of turmoil that gave birth to the Meiji Restoration. Many
The Meiji Restoration began in 1868, when the Tokugawa Shogunate ended. At this time the efforts at modernization were speeded up. Emperor Meiji was a young man when he came to the throne. He lived from 1852 until 1912.His father was the anti-foreigner Emperor Komai.
The Imperial or Charter Oath was written to signify the new direction of the nation. Meiji proclaimed it in April 1868. It promised
1. A national assembly
2. A "unity of all classes"
3. Everyone to "pursue their own aspirations"
4. The abolition of "absurd customs of ancient days"
5. The seeking of knowledge from all over the world.
Reforms began that had an effect on Japanese of every walk of life. The class structure
was abolished, so that even Eta, non-persons, were given rights and a measure of equality. Efforts were once again made to displace Buddhism. The authorities tried to establish Shintoism as the state religion. The biggest change was the abolition of the Samurai caste and the Conscription Law of 1873, which was called the "Blood Tax".
Now everyone was required to serve in the military and not just the Samurai. The peasants resented this. They also resented the Education Regulation of 1872 that required all girls and boys to have an elementary education.
After the removal of the Tokogawa Shogunate in the 1860's there came to be a consensus that Japan should strive to became a rich country with a strong army and thus remove the "national humiliation" caused by the presence of foreigners. The Japanese refused to accept foreign aide, fearing attempts at foreign control. The Japanese bought everything technological that the western powers would sell them. They also hired western advisors and experts to train Japanese technicians. Politically the Oligarchy ruled Japan. They got rid of the old feudal order and introduced a constitutional government. Social change is seen in Shintoism and in the educational reforms. These reforms succeeded in making Japan a strong modern nation.
The first step in making the country strong was the centralization of power. The Emperor was set up as the figurehead of the country. The leaders of the rebellion against the shogun now held power and ruled as an oligarchy.
The first priority of the new government was solidifying their hold on power and crushing all resistance. In 1968 the government set up a new "national deliberative assembly" called the Kogisho. This had an upper house made up of court nobles, Daimyo, and retainers and also had a Lower House made up of representatives of each domain. The real intention of the creation of the Kogisho was to reassure the domains rather than to create representative government. In 1869 the Emperor claimed the territory of each Daimyo's domain, to demonstrate that all land belonged to the emperor and all the people were his subjects. In August 1871 the Meiji Emperor assembled the former Daimyo to announce the abolition of the domains and the creation of new prefectures. Thus the feudal structure is destroyed. The Territory of each Daimyo (which is basically a Lord) was confiscated by the government and made into a prefecture (basically a state). The Daimyo were ordered to leave their castles, which were then destroyed.
The Constitution was given to Japan as a gift of the emperor on February 11, 1889. The branches of government were the Emperor, who is a figurehead and was not to initiate any policies, his cabinet, which held the executive powers, and the Imperial Diet which was a popularly elected assembly. A new aristocracy was also created. Voting rights were severely limited. The Japanese believed that the Meiji constitution had place Japan among the modern civilized nations.
The social reforms include the reforms in education. This is exemplified in the Imperial Rescript on Education. For over fifty years it remained the basic statement of the purpose of education. It attributes the glory of the Empire to the Imperial Ancestors who implanted virtue in the Japanese society. Thus the people of Japan are called on to observe Confucian morality and to pursue learning and cultivate arts for the sake of intellectual and moral development. The Imperial Rescript on Education was promulgated in1890 and provided a statement of what social, political, and moral values the government wished to encourage. Earlier the education regulations of 1872 had revolutionized Japanese society. This regulation mandated universal compulsory elementary education. Schools were opened to girls as well as boys.
Yamagata Aritomo advocated conscription. Every able-bodied male was to serve in the armed forces. He viewed the military as a "great civil and military university" where recruits would be exposed to civilization as well as military training. In January 1873 a conscription law was made that required every young male regardless of social rank to serve three years active duty followed by four years in the reserves. Exemptions were made for government officials, students, adopted sons, household heads, physicians and the physically disabled. For 270 Yen one could buy his way out of military service.
In the early years of the Meiji Era Japan laid the foundations for a modern industrial economy. At first the country was still primarily an agricultural society. In western cultures the industrial revolution was spearheaded by private enterprise however in Japan the government participated in order to catch up with the west. The association of business with government also influenced business ideology in Japan. The ethos of Japanese business focused on its contributions to the Japanese nation; Companies did not exist primarily to make a profit, but to strengthen the power of the country. This also helped to justify the influence of the government on business. Enterprises did not become profitable immediately, but when they did the result was that a small group of well-connected firms enjoyed a controlling position in the modern sector of the economy. These huge financial and industrial combines were called the Zaibatsu's. An example is the Mitsubishi zaibatsu founded by Iwasaki Yataro. He developed a strong shipping business by acquiring government contacts and subsidies. Iwasaki fused his personal ambition and his patriotism. He conceived it as his mission to compete with foreign shipping companies, and he was convinced that whatever benefited his company was also good for the nation.
The Japanese were now much more receptive to foreigners and foreign ideas. This was partly due to the desire of the Japanese to acquire western skills and technical advances. Due to this new openness of the Meiji Restoration Nikolai was able to win converts, through his efforts at that of his converts. He was successful in the countryside and in the urban areas. Most of his original converts came from disgruntled people from the former samurai class.
Cultural Achievements
The Meiji restoration was enriched by Japanese Orthodox influences in graphic art, music and architecture. Yamashita Rin, also known as Irina (Helen) Yamashita, was a great Japanese iconographer and famous female artist. She was one of the first women in Japan to pursue a career in art independently. After being baptized by Father Nikolai she was sent to Saint Petersburg to learn religious painting and became the first Japanese painter of Russian Orthodox Icons. While in Saint Petersburg she often visited the Hermitage. Some of her icons thus show a renaissance influence. When she returned from her artistic education in Russia she was twenty-six, and considered too old for marriage and thus she never wed. Her works can still be viewed in several Japanese Orthodox churches in Hakodote, in the Fukushima Prefecture, in the Shizuola Prefecture, and in Kyoto and Kobe.
Saint Kasatkin invited Iakov Tikhai, a graduate of Kishinev Seminary in Moldavia to come to Japan as a music teacher. He set the entire Japanese liturgy to music. His setting of the Our Father is still popular. The faculty and students of the newly established musical departments came, and still came, to listen to the cathedral choir in Tokyo.19
The Cathedral of the Resurrection
Part of Saint Kasatkin's mission strategy was to build a large ornate Orthodox church in Tokyo. He said, "The cathedral will be a monument, it will teach and amaze many, not for decades, I dare say, but for centuries, since it will be the most remarkable building in the capital of Japan." 20 The work took seven years and resulted in a cathedral unmatched in the Orient for its scale, splendor and beauty. He named it the Cathedral of the Resurrection but it came to be called the Nikorai-do, the House of Nikolai. In the Meiji Period it dwarfed the buildings around it and, dominating the Surugadai bluffs, was visible from anywhere in Tokyo. On May 11, 1891, Russia's crown prince, the future Tsar Nicholas I, was in Japan to celebrate the completion of the Tokyo Cathedral of the Resurrection. A Japanese police escort attacked him. The assassins attacked with a sword and gashed Nicholas' head; a second blow was deflected by Prince George of Greece. The assailant, Tsuda Sanzo, believed the prince was in Japan with the intent to survey for a future military invasion. At the suggestion of Prime Minister Mutsukawa Masayoshi, the Meiji Emperor visited the wounded Crown Prince in Kyoto to protect Japan's diplomatic relationship with Russia. Nicholas cut short his visit and did not continue on to Tokyo. He donated 10,000 rubles to the Japanese Orthodox Church instead. The long-term result of his was a scar on the imperial forehead and Nicholas's hostility to the Japanese, who he refered to as 'monkeys' in private. Because Surugadai Hill, on top of which the cathedral was constructed, was one of the highest spots in the capital, Nikolai's cathedral could be seen from virtually any spot in Tokyo towering over the Imperial Palace. Some people, especially of right-wing conservatives, regarded the cathedral as a symbol of disrespect to the Japanese emperor. Soon, however, the building, with its Byzantine architecture and pealing bell, acquired popular renown and became a favorite subject of poems and paintings. It survived the Great Earthquake of 1923 squatter and solider that it was before and losing only its bell tower. The Nikolai-do has somehow managed to survive earthquakes, U.S. fire-bombings and rapacious real estate development for a century. It still stands and is still in use and is also a popular tourist destination.21
The Russo-Japanese War
Japan became internationalist at the time of the Sinno-Japanese War. The philosophical underpinnings of Japanese expansionist imperialism are found in the ideas of Yamagata Aritomo. Yamagata was the architect of Japan's army. He was striving to achieve the Meiji leaders goals of achieving national security and equality of national status. The argued that it was necessary to maintain national independence by not only protecting the Japanese home islands, which he referred to as "a line of sovereignty", but also by an outer perimeter of ever growing territory he called the "line of defense".
Yamagata and Japan's European military advisors believed that Japans security was dependent on its control of Korea. Japan became involved in the Tonghak Rebellion in Korea and thus went to war with China. This was the Sinno-Japanese War of July 1894 to March 1895. Japan went to war to counter Chinese domination in Korea. The leaders of Japan feared that a weak Korea was open to Western aggression. More specifically, Russian aggression. Russia was interested in expanding into Korea for ice-free ports, resources and prestige. China saw Korea as a tributary state and thus part of the Chinese Empire. Japan saw Korea as a "dagger pointed at the heart of Japan". China was vigorously asserting its control in Korea, by training Korean troops and dominating the court. Hostilities broke out over the Tonghak Rebellion. Tonghak is a religion that is a mixture of Buddhist, Chinese, and Korean beliefs and ritual. It took on a political aspect and served as an expression of popular discontent with the Korean ruling regime. The government of Korea requested Chinese assistance in putting down the rebellion. Japanese soldiers arrived and entered Seoul. They broke into the palace and kidnapped the king and queen of Korea. Hostilities began between the military forces of Japan and China. Japan soundly defeated China on land and at sea. The Japanese army marched north through Korea, crossed into Manchuria, and captured Port Arthur on the Liaodong Peninsula. The Treaty of Shimonoseki ended the Sinno-Japanese war on April 1895. In this treaty China relinquished all claims to Korea and recognized it as an independent nation. China paid Japan an indemnity and awarded Japan Taiwan and the Pesadores, thus beginning to expansionist Japanese Empire.
The Oligarchy turned to imperialism when they saw that their modernization programs were successful. They sought international recognition and equality with the great powers by demonstrating military strength and by acquiring colonies. Economic motivation was also important. Japan has few natural resources and sought security in colonies that would provide resources and new markets. The Sinno-Japanese War was a vindication of all the government's efforts to achieve national wealth and strength. Everyone assumed Japan was destined for defeat and were greatly surprised by the Japanese victory. The outcome should not have been a surprise because Japan was better-equipped, better led and more united than China. Immediately after the Sinno-Japanese War, Russia, backed by France and Germany, pressured Japan to relinquish its control of the Liaodong Peninsula, which it has won on the battlefield and acquired in the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The Japanese government, led by Ito Hirobumi gave in to the European demands. In 1898 Russia secured a ninety-nine year lease on the Liaodong Peninsula and Port Arthur. The outraged Japanese government immediately began a crash program of military expansion in preparation for war. Russia replaced China as the hypothetical enemy in strategic planning.
Both Russia and Japan desired to control Manchuria, which was sparsely populated and rich in agricultural and mineral resources. Japan attacked Russia and began the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Most of the battles were fought in Manchuria. Japan once again amazed the world by defeating Russia. This was the first time an Asian country had defeated a European power. During World War I Japan took Germanys territorial holdings in China and in the South Pacific. Japan began World War II invading and dominating the Manchurian province of China.
The Russo-Japanese war was the first modern war, it introduced a new era in warfare involving the movement of millions of men and weapons of mass destruction, trench warfare, gas, great naval battles, and huge fatalities, it has been called a dress rehearsal for World War I. Tensions began over disputed territories, such as Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands. After the Sinno-Japanese War Russia replaced China as the chief hypothetical enemy in strategic plans. Tensions between the two empires began and many Japanese began to question the loyalty of the Japanese Orthodox Christians. One of Nikolai's assistants defended the Church in the following manner:
From the present political situation of Japan and Russia, since the Japanese Orthodox Church is aided by the Russian Missionary Society, some are led to believe that the Church is necessarily Russianised and given to Russian forms, This is indeed a misapprehension. Such misconceptions have occurred in every age and we rather pity those who thus misunderstand us. It will be evident to one who has observed both the Russian orthodox Church and the Japanese Orthodox Church, that the Japanese Church is not Russianised at all, even though it be aided by Russia. Bishop Nikolai, who is the apostle to Japan, did not introduce customs which were exclusively Russian at all. He only handed down the doctrines and customs of the Eastern Church of the Holy Catholic Apostles.The sole head of the church is Jesus Christ, whose teaching is carefully preserved
in its entirety by the Orthodox Church. The Russian emperor, to the extent that he follows this teaching is as much a son of the church as any other orthodox Christian. At no time and in no place has the church ever given him authority over her teaching or consider him her head. This misconception is widespread in Europe and from there it has spread into Japan, and so now it is widespread here. For us he is no more than a brother in faith as are all Russians who share our faith.22
In December 1903, shortly before the war, persecution began anew. The Rotan Incident was a scandal involving Father Nikolai. In Japanese Ro means Russian and Tan means spy. A low-level government official in a financial crisis approached Father Nikolai with the offer of selling him top government secrets. Nikolai ignored his proposal as the ridiculous joke of a madman. However the police heard of the incident and began an investigation. Nothing was discovered that substantiated the claims of Father Nikolai being a spy. Unfortunately more accusations were made and many people believed the nonsense.23
The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church ordered Father Nikolai to return to Russia out of fear for his safety. However, Saint Kasatkin saw it as his duty to stand with his church and remain with his spiritual children throughout this terrible trial. He publicly addressed them, and said;
I did not make up my mind until yesterday whether I should remain in Japan or
not in case of a Russo-Japanese war, If I returned to Russia, I should still have much
business to attend to on behalf of our missions, but I have decided to remain in Japan. I am very glad to hear your members unanimously decided that I should not return to Russian. I believe this is God's will.
Japan attacked Russians in Port Arthur while a Japanese delegation was negotiating in Russia. The Russians were attacked on Sunday morning during church services. This brutal unprovoked attack has been referred to as the first Pearle Harbor. The Japanese attacked Russia and then declared war. Emperor Meiji declared in the declaration of war,
We, by the Grace of Heaven, Emperor of Japan, seated on the throne occupied by the same dynasty from time immemorial, do hereby make proclamation to all Our loyal and brave subjects as follows: -We hereby declare war against Russia and We command our army and navy to carry on hostilities against that Empire with all of their strength...25
The high morale and enthusiasm for war can be seen in a first hand account of the Russo-Japanese War. Lieutenant Tadayoshi Sakuiai wrote in Human Bullets: A Soldiers Story of Port Arthur:
In the second month of the thirty-seventh year of Meiji, the diplomatic relations between Japan and Russia were severed, and the two nations began hostilities. At the outset our navy dealt a stunning blow to the Russian vessels at Chemulpo and off Port Arthur. His August Majesty issued a proclamation of war. Mobilization orders were issued to different divisions of the army. At this moment we, the soldiers of Japan, all felt our bones crackle and our blood boil up, ready to give vent to a long stored energy. Mobilization! How sweetly the word gladdened our hearts, how impatiently we waited to be ordered to the front!26
Saint Kasatkin was a Russian patriot, but now his primary obligation was to his Japanese church. He addressed his flock saying;
Brothers and sisters, carry out all the duties that are demanded of you as loyal subjects in this situation, Pray to God that he may give victory to your imperial army, thank God for the victories that have been given; make sacrifices to meet the needs of war. Those of you who are called to the field of battle must fight without regard for your own lives, not out of hatred against the enemy, but out of love for your own people...But, in addition to our earthly fatherland, we have another, a heavenly fatherland. To this all men belong without distinction of nationality, since all men are equally children of the heavenly father and brothers one of another. This our fatherland the church, in which...the children of the heavenly father in very truth make up one family. It is for that reason, brothers and sisters, that I do not separate myself from you, but remain in your family as though it was my own.27
The Japanese government planted spies in the Church. They discovered nothing suspicious. Some of the spies ended up converting to the Japanese Orthodox Church.
The victory went to Japan. Despite some hard fighting, Russian troops were driven back on land; while in two separate naval actions the Japanese destroyed virtually the entire Russian navy. The naval war was spectacular. When the Japanese attacked Port Arthur they destroyed the Russian Pacific fleet. Russia's Baltic fleet then embarked on an 18,000 mile trip to Japan. They had to sail around the entire continent of Africa because England refused to allow them to pass through the Suez Canal due to the British-Japanese Alliance. The fleet's destination was Vladivosok. The fleet was demolished in a decisive battle in the Tsushima Straits. Only 4 of the 35 Russian ships escaped destruction.
President Theodore Roosevelt brought the two belligerents together and helped them negotiate the Treaty of Portsmouth. It begins as follows:
The Emperor of Japan, on the one part, and the Emperor of all the Russias, on the other part, animated by a desire to restore the blessings of peace to their countries, have resolved to conclude a treaty of peace...There shall henceforth be peace and amity between their Majesties the Emperor of Japan and the Emperor of all the Russias, and between their respective States and subjects.28
This was actually a fair treaty but it was not warmly accepted in either Russia or Japan. In Russia it produced the revolution of 1905 and prepared the climate for the future revolution of 1917. The Russians were humiliated by their defeat at the hands of the Japanese. The Russians lost their railroads and their lease in Manchuria, and lost the southern half of their territory in Sakhalin. The treaty was also received with rioting in Japan. The Japanese wanted all of Sakhalin and they wanted Russia to pay them a huge indemnity. Most Japanese did not know that the government was unable to continue the war much longer. In the riots ten Christian churches were destroyed.29
The Death of Saint Kasatkin
Nikolai was a man of the Meiji restoration. On February 16, 1912 Archbishop Nikolai died. Only a few months late Emperor Meiji died also. With his death the Meiji period came to a close.
Successes and Failures
In most of the Orthodox Churches religious identity and national identity are fused. To be Russian, Greek, Ethiopian, or Cypriot is to be Orthodox. Nikolai ability to separate being Orthodox from being Russian or Japanese is a major accomplishment. With conflicts in the Balkans and in other parts of the Orthodox world wisdom gleaned from Saint Kasatkin could help bring peaceful settlements.
Saint Kasatkin's diaries were thought to have been destroyed when a fire gutted the Nikolai-do during the Great Earthquake of 1923. However Nakamura Kennosuke, Nakamura Yoshikazu, Yasui Ryohei, and Naganawa Mitsuo have recently discovered his diaries in the Central State Historical Archives in Saint Petersburg and have published portions of them in Japanese and Russian in 1994.
Saint Kasatkin's liturgy and translation of the Bible are still in use. Unfortunately, because he used cultured language and Japanese has changed so much in the past fifty years, these works are almost completely incomprehensible to the common Japanese.
The Current Situation
Unfortunately, after the death of Saint Kasatkin the church he founded stagnated. Today there are less than 10,000 Japanese faithful to the Japanese Orthodox Church.
All denominations of the Christian church in Japan are now declining. Kakure Krishitan, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Japanese Orthodox are all seeing their numbers decline. The Japanese Orthodox Church is dying and will probably disappear within fifty years at the current rate of decline. The epicenter of the 1945 atomic blast in Nagasaki was the Urakami Roman Catholic Cathedral. This church was of course completely decimated but it was rebuilt and now serves as a symbol of the bombing and as a symbol of the anti-nuclear war movement. Today the church in Japan is being decimated once again. In the 1950's Nagasaki was 20% Christian. Today Nagasaki is 5% Christian and declining fast. Christianity in Japan has been able to endure persecution but today freedom of religion is killing off Japanese Christianity. Former Japanese Christians are now turning to televisions, cars, and video games rather than faith in Christ. It is doubtful the church in Japan can be built anew, as the Urakami Cathedral was, unless God sends another Saint Kasatkin. Between 1945 and 1970 the Orthodox Church of Japan was under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Russian metropolitanate of America. In 1970 Nikolai was made into a Saint and named RavnoApostoli meaning "Equal to the Apostles". In 1970 the Japanese Orthodox Church received a permanent autonomous statute from the partriarchate of Moscow, its mother church. The present leader is Metropolitan Theodosius, who is native Japanese who converted from Buddhism.
Conclusion
Nikolai's life sends an important message to the Orthodox Church and all Christians of today. First personal evangelism and missions must occupy a primary place in the work of the church. Secondly we see the need for Christian scholarship. Saint Kasatkin mastered Japanese and studied all aspects of Japanese society and culture before he made his first convert. Lastly we see that even in these modern days that it is possible to be an equal to the apostles.
End Notes
1. Encyclopedia Brittanica
2. Duus, Peter Modern Japan 2nd Edition (New York, Houghton Mifflin Co.) 1998 89
3. Duus, Peter Modern Japan 2nd Edition (New York, Houghton Mifflin Co.) 1998 121
4. The Embassy of Russian Federation in the United States "Religion in Russia' http:www.russianembassy.org/religion.html
5. Duus, Peter Modern Japan 2nd Edition (New York, Houghton Mifflin Co.) 1998 35
6. Schirokauer, Conrad A Brief History of Japanese Civilization (Harcourt Brace & Company, Fort Worth TX, 1993) 137
7. Morris, Ivan The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Hero in the History of Japan (the Noonday Press, New York) 1975 177
8. Morris, Ivan The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Hero in the History of Japan (the Noonday Press, New York) 1975 Morris, Ivan The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Hero in the History of Japan (the Noonday Press, New York) 1975
9. Barrington, Ann M. Japan's Hidden Christians (Chicago; Loyola University, 1993) 77-85
10. Whelan, Christal "Japan's Vanishing Minority: The Kakure Kirishitan of the Goto Islands" Japan Quarterly 41 (October/December 1994): 49-66
11. Duus, Peter Modern Japan 2nd Edition (New York, Houghton Mifflin Co.) 1998 62-63
12. The Orthodox Church in America Feasts and Saints of the Orthodox Church http:www.org/saomts/Feb-o3.htm
13. The Orthodox Church in America Feasts and Saints of the Orthodox Church http:www.org/saomts/Feb-o3.htm
14. Cary, Otis A History of Christianity In Japan: Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Protestant Missions (Charles E. Tuttle Comp., Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan 1976) 375
15. Cary, Otis A History of Christianity In Japan: Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Protestant Missions (Charles E. Tuttle Comp., Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan 1976) 378-379
16. Stalmoolis, James J.Eastern Orthodox Mission Theology Today (Orbis Books, New York 1986) 36-37
17. Bartholomew, Joan Missionary Activity of St. Nicholas of Japan (M. Div Thesis, St. Vladimirs Theological Seminary, 1987)
18. Riner, J. Thomas A Hidden Fire: Russian and Japanese Cultural Encounters 1868- 1926(Stanford University Press, California, 1995) 239-240
19. Bartholomew, Joan Missionary Activity of St. Nicholas of Japan (M. Div Thesis, St. Vladimirs Theological Seminary, 1987) 38
20. Bartholomew, Joan Missionary Activity of St. Nicholas of Japan (M. Div Thesis, St. Vladimirs Theological Seminary, 1987) 46-48
21. Nagal, Scott W. Russian Czarevitch in Japan http:/www.students.haverford.edu/east/meiji/glossary/czarevitch.html
22. Cary, Otis A History of Christianity In Japan: Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Protestant Missions (Charles E. Tuttle Comp., Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan 1976) 414-415
23. Riner, J. Thomas A Hidden Fire: Russian and Japanese Cultural Encounters 1868- 1926(Stanford University Press, California, 1995) 164-165
24. Cary, Otis A History of Christianity In Japan: Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Protestant Missions (Charles E. Tuttle Comp., Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan 1976) 416-417
25. Takayoshi Sakurai Human Bullets: A Soldier's Story of Port Arthur (Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1907) 268-270
26. Takayoshi Sakurai Human Bullets: A Soldier's Story of Port Arthur (Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1907 3-5
27. Cary, Otis A History of Christianity In Japan: Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Protestant Missions (Charles E. Tuttle Comp., Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan 1976) 417-418
28. Martin, Christopher The Russo-Japanese War (Abelard-Schumna, London, 1967) 235-243
29. Seidensticker, Edward Low City, High City: Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake (Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1983) 142-143
Bibliography
Books and Articles
Barrington, Ann M. Japan's Hidden Christians (Chicago; Loyola University, 1993)
Whelan, Christal "Japan's Vanishing Minority: The Kakure Kirishitan of the Goto Isalnds" Japan Quarterly 41 (October/December 1994): 49-66
Shew, Paul Tsuchido Basic Facts: Christianity in Japan at a Glance: Historical Timeline of Christianity http://aaron.fuller.edu/~shew/research/xty.jpn/BasicFacts-Xtyjpn.html http://aaron.fuller.edu/~shew/research/xty.jpn/BasicFacts-Xtyjpn.html
Kondansha Encyclopedia of Japan Tokyo: Kondansha, 1983
Kristoff, Nicholas D. "Lack of Oppression Hurts Christianity in Japan" The New York Times April 3, 1997 Http://www.ishi.press.com/japan-ch.ht
Morris, Ivan The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Hero in the History of Japan (the Noonday Press, New York) 1975
The Economist "Keeping the Faith" August 23, 1997 Http://2gol.com/users/tuc/faith.html Http://2gol.com/users/tuc/faith.html
Nagal, Scott W. Russian Czarevitch in Japan http:/www.students.haverford.edu/east/meiji/glossary/czarevitch.html
Anderson, Gerald H. Ed. Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions (Simon & Shuster, New York)
Barret, David World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Study of Churches and Religions in the Modern World: AD 1900-2000 (Oxford University Press 1982)
Proculus Yasuo Ushimaru "Japanese Orthodoxy and the Culture of the Meiji Period" St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly (1980): 115-127
Steiner, Evgeny "Nikolai of Japan" Monumenta Nipponica 50 (1995): 433-446
Bartholomew, Joan Missionary Activity of St. Nicholas of Japan (M. Div Thesis, St. Vladimirs Theological Seminary, 1987)
Cary, Otis A History of Christianity In Japan: Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Protestant Missions (Charles E. Tuttle Comp., Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan 1976)
Warner, Denis and Peggy the Tide at Sunrise: A History of Russo-Japanese War
1904-1905 (Charter House, 1975)
The Embassy of Russian Federation in the United States "Religion in Russia' http:www.russianembassy.org/religion.html
White, Jeffery M. Orthodoxy Amidst the Japanese (Mstr. Div. Thesis St. Vladimir's Theological Seminary, April 13, 1979
Schirokauer, Conrad A Brief History of Japanese Civilization (Harcourt Brace & Company, Fort Worth TX, 1993)
Morris, Ivan The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Hero in the History of Japan (the Noonday Press, New York) 1975
Neill, Stephen A History of Christian Missions (London, Penguin Books; 1964)
Ware, Timothy The Orthodox Church (London, Penguin, 1997)
Seidensticker, Edward Low City, High City: Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake (Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1983)
Takayoshi Sakurai Human Bullets: A Soldier's Story of Port Arthur (Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1907)
Curtis, John Shelton Church and State in Russia: The Last Years of the Empire 1900-1917 (Octagon Books, New York, 1922)
Riner, J. Thomas A Hidden Fire: Russian and Japanese Cultural Encounters 1868-1926
(Stanford University Press, California, 1995)
Duus, Peter Modern Japan 2nd Edition (New York, Houghton Mifflin Co.) 1998
Takahashi, Matushka Naomi Enlightener of Japan, Blessed Nicholas Kassatkin http://roca.org/oa/17/17e.htm
Gregerson, Edgar Sexual Practices: The Story of Human Sexuality (Franklin Watts, New York 1983)
Parker, Geoffry The Times Illustrated History of the World (new York, NY Harper Collins Publishers 1995)
Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan "Christianity in Japan" http://www.boabab.orpp/~stranger/koch/chrinjap.htm
Ishida, Anthony The Achievement of St. Nicholas: Equal to the Apostles and Evangelizer of Japan (Masters of Divinity Thesis, St. Vladimirs Theological Seminary April 22,1974)
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