Part II. The Three Dioceses under American Administration
THE Diocese of North Tokyo extends from the city of Tokyo to the southern boundaries of Fukushima and Niigata. It contains about four hundred square miles and has a population of approximately seven million people. Although since the creation of the Diocese of Tokyo it does not include the city itself, some of the most important institutions of North Tokyo are in that city.
Tokyo with a population as large as Philadelphia, and two-thirds the size of Chicago, with its smaller neighbor, Yokohama, was practically wiped out of existence by the fire which followed the earthquake of 1923. Seventy per cent of the urban population, or two million people, were rendered homeless, and a million or more were reported as killed, injured, or missing. The material loss to the Church was staggering. Of the twelve American churches of the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai situated in various sections of Tokyo only one, St. Timothy's, escaped serious damage. In all other cases the churches were either shaken to the ground or destroyed by fire. Only the front wall of the Cathedral remained standing after the earthquake, and piles of brick alone indicated the spots where on the previous day had stood the fine buildings of Christ Church and All Saints'. A similar fate met most of the mission property. Bishop McKim's house was split in two; the mission residences and offices were destroyed; only the foundations of St. Paul's Middle School were left; St. Paul's University sustained heavy damage; St. Margaret's School, St. Luke's Hospital, the Nurses' Training School were all destroyed. But though the material [39/40] loss was thus exceedingly great, yet, not a single life was lost among the Japanese workers, the foreign members of our mission staff, their families or servants. Many were injured; all lost their entire property; but throughout the horror of the disaster our people were animated by an extraordinary spirit of endurance. The courage and energy of the hospital staff, for example, was so untiring that every one of the six score patients in the hospital at the time of the disaster was carried out to a place of comparative safety; a record for efficiency unequaled by any other hospital in the city. It was extraordinary when it is remembered that the whole hospital plant was rapidly and completely destroyed.
Hardly was the disaster over when plans for the restoration were on foot. The Church in the United States responded to the call and gave more than $1,500,000 to restore the equipment of the Church's mission in North Tokyo. This splendid gift was the result of the love, devotion, and sacrifice of many members of the Church in the United States, in this way expressing their sympathy for the Japanese Christians and the oneness of the Church of Christ throughout the world. One church in an eastern city whose spire had never been built, contributed the cost of this spire ($35,000). It was through this generous offering of American Church people that the mission in North Tokyo was enabled with courage and determination to take up its task again.
One of the most important works in all Japan is that carried on by St. Paul's University, Tokyo. This university was begun in 1874 as a middle school by Bishop Williams. Though from 1917 until the earthquake in 1923, it had splendid, well-located buildings, such was not always the case. Beginning in a small rented house in Tsukiji, the school was destroyed (1876) by fire. Inability to find a new building, and the laws restricting the residence of foreigners to certain limited districts, forced the school to shut its doors until 1878, when Mr. Quimby reopened it in connection with the divinity school. Thenceforth, the school [40/43] grew; a boarding department was added, and a new schoolhouse built.
In 1887, St. Timothy's in Osaka closed its doors, and many of its students were transferred to Tokyo. There St. Paul's was raising its standards, so that its instruction was beginning to approach the standard of that given in American colleges. After making various changes in its curriculum in order to meet changing conditions and the stipulation of its Government license as a middle school, its life was seriously threatened, in 1899, when the Minister of Education issued the following edict:
It being essential from the point of view of educational administration that general education should be independent of religion, religious instruction must not be given or religious ceremonies performed at Government schools, public schools, or schools whose curricula are regulated by provisions of law, even outside the regular course.
As religious instruction was not part of the regular curriculum at St. Paul's, but was given only in the dormitories where, together with chapel attendance, it was compulsory, the authorities felt that the school did not come within the scope of the restrictive edict. They appointed a committee consisting of the Rev. Arthur Lloyd, the Rev. J. S. Motoda, and the Rev. C. H. Evans to investigate the matter, and to request the Educational Bureau to permit St. Paul's to retain its license. This permission was granted.
The school continued to grow. In 1907, a college department was opened which did encouraging work, though its establishment necessitated the use of several of the middle school classrooms. This, of course, cramped the school; but it struggled on, as so many missionary schools do, ever becoming more useful. In 1921, there were enrolled in the school 887 pupils, but only 70 of these could be cared for in the dormitory. At the same date 467 students were enrolled in the college department. The obvious course under these [43/44] circumstances was to separate the college from the school. To this end the school was left in its old quarters in Tsukiji, while the college was removed to a recently purchased tract of land in Ikebukuro, a suburb of Tokyo, where suitable and substantial buildings were erected in 1919. Almost immediately the college had to face a fresh difficulty. All Government institutions of the type of St. Paul's had a university status under the Ministry of Education; hence St. Paul's with only the grade of a college was at a serious disadvantage. But to secure higher rating the law required that the institution have an endowment of Y.600,000. Faced by this urgent need, the National Council arranged for the college to borrow the sum required, and made an annual appropriation of $50,000 until the loan was repaid.
In the great earthquake of 1923 St. Paul's University and Middle School suffered a great temporary setback. The university buildings at Ikebukuro were badly damaged and the middle school buildings in Tsukiji were entirely destroyed, necessitating the closing of both schools for three months. Necessary repairs were rushed on the university buildings and these buildings used in double shifts--forenoons by the middle school and the afternoons and evenings by the university, until January, 1926, when the middle school moved into its new quarters, a reenforced concrete building erected on the university campus with accommodations for five hundred students, it being deemed wise to limit the middle school enrollment to that number, so as to increase scholastic efficiency and permit of more careful selection for intensive character building and spiritual training than was possible when the enrollment was over 850.
At the same time the enrollment for the university was fixed at eight hundred for the university preparatory course and seven hundred for the university regular course, composed of the Colleges of Arts and Economics. The enrollment limit for each school was soon reached and annually only a third of the applicants for admission can be accommodated.
[47] The high standards attained by the middle school and university have been recognized by the Department of Education by granting permission to fourth year students of the middle school to stand for entrance examinations for the preparatory departments (Kotoka) of universities, and to university graduates to receive licenses as teachers without further Government examinations.
The university was honored also by an annual grant from the Government for a period of sixteen years to total Y.250,000 and which was added to the endowment fund.
After 1931, there was a marked and steady deepening of the spiritual life at the middle school and university. Three virile student organizations, St. Andrew's Brotherhood, the Rikkyo Young Men's Christian Association, and the University Mission, among others, were responsible for this. The Brotherhood had twelve chapters on the campus: three in the middle school, and nine, including the chapter of professors, in the university. Through the activities of these student chapters seven other chapters of the Brotherhood were organized throughout the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai, with university graduates as the nucleus of each of these chapters. Each chapter on the campus had an American professor as counselor and a Japanese professor as chaplain. In 1934 the membership of the Brotherhood on the university campus was about two hundred. The University Mission about fifty, and the Rikkyo Young Men's Christian Association about one hundred fifty. The baptisms on the campus for 1932 were ninety-nine, and the confirmations ninety-two.
In this story of St. Paul's, no mention has been made of its spiritually-minded and statesman-like founders, Bishops Williams and McKim, and of its inspiring presidents and teachers who were so largely responsible for its success. Among these should be mentioned J. McD. Gardiner, the Rt. Rev. Henry St. George Tucker, the Rev. T. S. Tyng, the Rev. Arthur Lloyd, the Rt. Rev. J. S. Motoda, the Rt. [47/48] Rev. Charles S. Reifsnider, and the Misses McKim and MacAdam.
It may be asked why the Church troubled itself with the maintenance of schools when the Government schools were so very efficient, well equipped, and adequately staffed. The answer is exceedingly simple: the Government schools were absolutely secular; from a religious point of view they were always negatively, and sometimes positively, anti-Christian; their spiritual influence was nil. A census of the student body of the Imperial University of Tokyo, a Government school, showed: 15 Shintoists, 40 Buddhists, 60 Christians, 1,500 agnostics and 2,500 atheists!
In the early days of the American Mission, Bishop Williams opened Trinity Divinity School in Tokyo, for the training of catechists and the preparation of candidates for Holy Orders. Later it became advisable to separate these two functions. The Church of England and the Canadian Mission also had each a theological seminary. It was felt by all concerned that one theological seminary could and should meet the needs of the Sei Ko Kwai for theological training and also tend to greater unity and economy. In time the bishops in Japan were able to convince the missionary societies in England and America of the desirability of the union institution. The opportunity for bringing about this consummation was given by the PanAnglican Missionary Conference held in London in 1908 coincident with the meeting of the Lambeth Conference. At the close of this impressive conference, a thank offering was presented from all parts of the Church throughout the world. This fund was committed to the bishops of the Lambeth Conference for distribution. The bishops from Japan, after consultation with each other, made a request through the Archbishop of Canterbury, that a grant of thirty-five thousand pounds ($165,000) be made for a theological college in Japan to be organized and controlled by the bishops of that Church. The committee on distribution of this thank offering resolved to give $150,000 of which $50,000 was to be spent for lands and buildings, [48/51] and the remaining $100,000 was invested and set aside as endowment.
The first president of the college was the Rev. J. T. Imai, a well-qualified theologian, modest, very devout, and a man whose personality made a lasting impression on all students committed to his care. The faculty consisted of two English professors, one American, and four Japanese, three of whom had been graduated from the General Theological Seminary. Dr. Imai was succeeded by the Rev. J. K. Ochiai, D.D. Upon the retirement of the Rev. Alan W. Cooke there was no American representative on this faculty until the Rev. Lawrence Rose went out in the spring 1934.
Mention has been made of the founding in 1877 of St. Margaret's School, Tokyo. A feeling among the Japanese during one of the intense nationalistic waves, that Japanese schools for the Japanese were needed, led Bishop Hare, in 1892, to place the management of this school at the outset under Japanese Christians. Under this regime the school prospered, modifying its curriculum from time to time in order to conform with Government regulations and to obtain a Government license. In 1910, the teacher of English, C. Gertrude Heywood, was made "lady principal" at the request of the pupils themselves, while the Rev. J. H. Kobayashi was made the headmaster.
In 1911-12, St. Margaret's erected new buildings in Tsukiji, Tokyo, next to St. Luke's Hospital. During the next decade, despite such handicaps as were occasioned by the World War, the growth of the school was most encouraging.
St. Margaret's together with St. Luke's Hospital and the Nurses' Training School was entirely destroyed in the great earthquake of 1923. It was a dark moment for St. Margaret's until Mr. Ishii offered the use of the buildings of Holy Trinity Orphanage while more permanent arrangements could be made. A few weeks after the earthquake the girls started back to school.
In 1924, land was bought and temporary buildings erected in a suburb of Tokyo with money given through the Japan Reconstruction Fund, the Gold and [51/52] Silver Offering, and the United Thank Offering. The temporary buildings were gradually being replaced with permanent structures which are among the best in Japan and educators come from many parts of the country to see them.
In 1934, the enrollment was 495, five hundred being set as the maximum. The educational work was of high standing and the religious work was strong. Daily service in the beautiful new chapel was attended voluntarily by ninety per cent of the student body. Bible classes were held once a week with practically one hundred per cent attendance. Special classes for inquirers were held by request. In 1932, there were fourteen such classes with 235 students in attendance. Sunday services were also held. At the morning service a choir of forty girls led the singing and the congregation numbered between fifty and one hundred. Most of the pupils were day pupils and lived at long distances from the school. Of the alumnae about fifty per cent were Christians and at least twenty per cent were engaged in Christian work.
It is the aim of St. Margaret's to set an example of a Christian school, holding to its high scholastic standing while striving to develop in its students strong Christian character.
In April, 1931, the first class was taken into St. Margaret's attached primary school, the only school of its kind in our mission. This primary school was opened after some years of thought and planning, largely in response to popular request. Many people wished to send their children to a private primary school where classes would be smaller and more attention could be given to individuals. Some definitely wished to have their children in a Christian school, although they were not Christians themselves.
The primary school occupied the renovated "barrack" building in which the high school was temporarily housed for five years. In 1934, there were two classes of about twenty pupils each. Daily Christian teaching, lessons in English from the beginning, and class piano teaching were some of the distinguishing [52/55] features. If trained teachers could be obtained, it was hoped to do educational work along the most progressive lines. The Christian character and work will be maintained.
The only medical mission in Japan is the great work of St. Luke's International Medical Center, Tokyo, and its sister institution, St. Barnabas' Hospital, Osaka.
St. Luke's Hospital, founded in 1891, was built on the mission property in Tsukiji, adjoining Holy Trinity Cathedral, St. Margaret's School, and the Bishop's House, just across the street from St. Paul's Middle School. For ten years, it had a checkered career under American and Japanese doctors, until, in 1900, Dr. Rudolf B. Teusler, a promising young physician of Richmond, Virginia, took hold. Even with the totally inadequate buildings and equipment of its early days, the hospital acquired the reputation of being the best institution of its kind in the Orient. By the Japanese, it became recognized as a visible expression of America's good will, and a bond of international friendship. When a movement was started to purchase additional land in the same neighborhood, and erect a new and thoroughly modern hospital, the Imperial Household showed its interest by making a gift of Y.50,000 toward this object even though well aware of its character as a Christian institution.
The hospital and every building connected with it suffered total destruction in 1923; but work had already been begun on the new building, and the solid foundations successfully resisted the shocks of earthquake. Dr. Teusler was on furlough in America at the time, but he sailed at once for Japan, taking with him a quantity of supplies of all kinds. Immediately upon his arrival, arrangements were made for the erection of temporary buildings on the new foundations, and here the former patients were cared for and a system of emergency relief work was carried on which won the gratitude of the whole population. In the meantime the work of raising the money for the permanent buildings and the expansion of the hospital [55/56] into an international medical center went steadily forward under Dr. Teusler's leadership.
Two of the four new buildings for St. Luke's International Medical Center were completed in 1933. The dedication and formal opening took place, June 4 and 5. It was a deeply impressive occasion marked by the presence of the Presiding Bishops of the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai, the Rt. Rev. John McKim, and of the Church in America, the Rt. Rev. James DeWolf Perry, and the many other friends who came to rejoice in this culmination of many years of patient effort induced by the broad vision of Dr. Teusler.
The central unit included space for approximately 275 in-patients receiving wards; an isolation section and kitchens, refrigeration, heating and electrical equipment for the whole plant. Space on the roof, with special glass to allow penetration of the sun's rays, and ample open air deck space, was provided for one hundred patients.
The buildings reflected the high standards developed in the United States during the past several years, and in arrangement and organization the Japan Society of Architects and Engineers, which inspected the building recently, conceded that it was by far the best built and appointed hospital and college of nursing in Japan.
The activities of the medical center were steadily expanding. In addition to the regular services for two hundred in-patients, there was developed a number of clinics in public health, which promised an even wider field of service than the work to be done within the actual walls of the new buildings. The city ward in which St. Luke's is situated, containing approximately 130,000 people, was assigned by the municipal authorities as the urban training center of the public health program and St. Luke's was designated to have practical control of the field training and nursing procedures. In preparation for this splendid opportunity for the expansion of the usefulness of St. Luke's, special efforts were made to build up a satisfactory corps of public health nurses. In 1934 there were thirty-one public health nurses visiting within this ward. This [56/59] was probably the first intensive systematic program for concentrated municipal ward service attempted in Japan.
Unique opportunities for investigation and study, as well as assistance to the poor were furnished through cooperation with the city, in maintaining a free maternity ward. This service was provided with facilities for prenatal care, and as soon as the baby was born, it automatically became a member of St. Luke's Infant Class. The mother was required to bring the baby at regular intervals to the Well Baby Clinics held in one of the old barrack buildings of St. Luke's, and this medical supervision and direction in hygiene continued until the child entered school. Under an arrangement with the Government Department of Education, the eleven schools in this ward were in direct contact with the public health efforts in St. Luke's. There were approximately thirteen thousand children in these eleven schools, and an added health protection was afforded by the school clinic held each afternoon in the out-patient department of the hospital.
The maternity ward operated in connection with the municipal authorities was such a success that the hospital was asked to allow the city to rebuild the ward, to contain fifty beds, rather than the present twentynine, and provide room for prenatal and postnatal clinics, practical demonstrations in teaching baby feeding to mothers, and an assembly room for lectures.
In 1934, there were 57 doctors including 4 Americans on the staff of St. Luke's. Most of these doctors gave full time service on salary and turned in their fees to the hospital. There were 86 graduate nurses; 61 student nurses in the College of Nursing. In addition there were 31 public health nurses, and 10 midwives sent by the city for a six months' period of training in our maternity ward. The personnel totaled 390.
Organizing a large medical center with its many contacts with the general public as a practical demonstration of applied Christianity, had no parallel in Japan. Japan had diligently searched for and acquired modern medicine from the best centers in Europe, and [59/60] in more recent years in England and the United States. The whole purpose, however, had been strictly scientific and the ends sought were more the technical education of the specialist rather than the cultural training of the Christian physician as we know him at his best in our Western civilization. In the whole work of St. Luke's Medical Center Christianity is made to infiltrate and cement all the activities as they arise and are developed. The Christian interpretation of medical science is kept in sight in the wards through the work of the full time Japanese chaplain, in the Nurses' Training School, in the Sunday school, and in the various avenues of contacts with the staff and patients.
A great work of love and mercy has been carried on in the different centers of the slums in Tokyo for many years by the Rev. Yoshimichi Sugiura, the Rev. Peter Goto, and the Rev. Yakabu Yamaguchi.
The slums of Tokyo, before the earthquake and the rebuilding of the city, were in extent and degradation unparalleled in any modern city. Here were gathered the outcasts of humanity. The narrow alleys lined with filthy hovels, were crowded at night with the poorest class of coolies, with degraded women, and little children in swarms. American liquor found its way into this region, and drunkenness added its terror to the surroundings. Into the purlieus of these regions, neither the police nor the Salvation Army dared penetrate after nightfall.
On the outskirts of one of these sections of the city, in the district of Honjo, Mr. Sugiura began work about 1890. His efforts were at first centered in the True Light Church (Shinko Kyokwai) which he called his "Lighthouse." A small hospital followed, known as the Good Samaritan Dispensary. A notable organization, the Laborers' Reform Union, was formed in 1907, and from this came a creche for the care of children, and the Kodomono Sono or "Children's Garden." So grew the work of redeeming a slum, until in 1923, the earthquake wiped out all material signs of the work.
[61] After the earthquake, Mr. Sugiura found his congregation had widely scattered into different parts of the city, but he bravely started in again, undaunted by the calamity. At this time he wrote:
"My only course is to concentrate all the energies of my declining age to my life's work in Honjo and Fukagawa slums and once more start in building a new and second True Light Church in that dark quarter among the poor people who look to me as their friend. I must go forward on the way God points out to me until I die on my own battlefield, for ] firmly believe the Lord's Name must be glorified by the poor!"
Writing later, in 1926, he said:
"To give mere material help to the poor is nonsense, if we do not try hard to lead their souls to the Lord and save them from their spiritual poverty. With this hope we are now taking care of six ex-criminals, two cripples, three depraved young men, whom their fathers have entrusted to us to convert, two helpless children, one poor Korean boy who is going to a night commercial school taking work in the day time, and thirteen artisans giving them work to support themselves at the Sendagaya Branch of the Union.
"In Honjo, our former parish, we now have a restaurant to provide the people in the poorest district of this city with cheap food, and to give it for nothing to the hungry by means of tickets distributed in the slums. We also started a dormitory for homeless working men in April, this year, which can accommodate two hundred of them, and now from sixty to a hundred are coming to take refuge there every night. We are also helping three old, helpless persons who are unable to work on account of age. Sunday services are held in the chapel of the Union, which is in a room over the restaurant, and the new True Light Church is springing up again from this little room, performing its special mission as the true light in the darkness of society."
[62] Thousands of those who counted themselves down and out, and hundreds of criminals have been helped back to happy and honorable living through NIr. Sugiura's work. He died in November, 1930, after forty years of service that it is given to few to render their Master. His life's ideal was the example and life of his old teacher and friend, Bishop Williams, who built the first True Light Church, the first church in Tokyo, in the midst of a vast sea of restless and needy human life. Since Mr. Sugiura's death the work of the new True Light Church has been carried on in the fine spirit of its founder.
In another quarter of the city, Shitaya, the Rev. Peter Goto worked among a poverty stricken community of small shopkeepers and charcoal burners. Disinherited and cut off by his father when he decided to study for the Christian ministry, he early became interested in the very poor and when he became of age determined to give his life to them in the slums. For twenty-five years he witnessed to the love of God among the lowly. Here he established his Sunday Observance Society and built up a faithful congregation which met for years in an old Japanese house, or in the homes of the members. The rule of these remarkable Christians, with an average income of $3.50 a week, was to give at least one-seventh to their Church. Some gave one-fifth and had to be forbidden to give more. Through Peter Goto's influence hundreds of people found the Light and thirteen people including four who became priests gave themselves to the service of God as Church workers. Upon the foundation of such men as these was the Kingdom being built in Japan.
The Rev. Yakabu Yamaguchi, the son of a wealthy man became a drunkard at the age of fifteen. He was converted in a tent where evangelistic services were being held at a great international exhibition in Osaka. After a hard fight, God enabled him to conquer his appetite and two words became his aim for life: witness and service. Following his ordination he devoted himself to work in the slums of Senju, a section of [62/65] Tokyo. There he and his wife served the poor and outcast in the name of Christ for twenty years. They determined from the outset to look to no one but God to supply their needs. Often after preaching and visiting the people Mr. Yamaguchi and his wife worked at the neighborhood industries to secure funds desperately needed for his work. Friends became interested, a kindergarten and creche were started and later a school. This was followed by a simple dispensary and the development of a church of nearly one hundred members. It became the one bright spot in a huge district of want, sickness, and filth. No longer was Christianity feared and hated in Senju, it was honored and respected. The Church had won the heart of the whole neighborhood.
Possibly the most interesting work outside the city of Tokyo was that carried on by Mary H. Cornwall-Legh among the lepers in Kusatsu, a little town twenty-five miles from the nearest railroad station, Karuizawa. For a century or more, this village, situated in a beautiful ravine among the mountains, had been a resort for people suffering from all manner of loathsome diseases including leprosy drawn thither by the hot springs impregnated with mineral salts. It was a place of horror and despair, of unspeakable immorality and frequent suicides. Then, in the graphic words of one who knew the appalling conditions, "Christ came to Kusatsu."
In 1913, Miss Riddell of the Leper Hospital at Kumamoto, on the island of Kyushyu, had sent a Japanese Christian of her staff to visit Kusatsu. Two years later a permanent work was begun by a young Japanese Christian from Honolulu, himself a leper. The results were most encouraging and in 1917, Miss Cornwall-Legh who knew the need placed herself and all, that she had at the service of the leper colony under the direction of Bishop McKim. She purchased four acres of land lying between the leper village below and extending to the healthy village at the top. This land was then a jungle of dwarf bamboo and of ghastly memories of the suicides of days only just past. [65/67] She changed the name to Inori no Sono, the Garden of Prayer.
St. Barnabas' Mission was presently established, with a chapel and later a dispensary on the steep flank of the ravine. In 1917, St. Mary's Home for women was opened in the village with one inmate in a single room. By 1920, the home had its own building, accommodating sixteen women. St. Stephen's Home for men was established in 1919, twelve miles from Kusatsu; and, two years later a similar home, St. Philip's, was opened in the village, to be followed by St. Lucy's for married couples.
While the emphasis of the work among the lepers has been to bring spiritual hope and comfort, the physical side has not been neglected. A fine dispensary with room for two in-patients is maintained. This is the gift of a Japanese gentleman, Mr. Matsumoto who also pays the salary of the Japanese physician.
Work among the untainted children is carried on in the upper village portion of the Garden of Prayer under the direction of Miss Mary Magill. The activities of St. Barnabas' Mission embrace a Brotherhood of St. Andrew, the Girls' Friendly Society, a Church school and kindergarten, a Woman's Auxiliary, and other societies. The beautiful church is the center of the mission and a fine parish hall makes possible many happy activities.
The marvelous results of this work are seen in the fact that in 1934 the number of communicants of this leper colony was nearly five hundred. It is doubtful if anywhere in the mission field there is to be found a more devout or zealous or joyous body of Christians than among the lepers of our mission at Kusatsu who with scarcely an exception have given triumphant witness to the power of faith to conquer suffering and death.
DIOCESE OF KYOTO The Diocese of Kyoto was established in 1898. It comprises the prefectures of Kyoto, Osaka in part, [67/68] Wakayama, Nara, Shiga, Mei, Fukui, Ishikawa, and Toyama; and contains a population of about eight million people. Its area was slightly decreased in 1923 through the establishment of the Diocese of Osaka which was formed from this section of the Missionary District of Kyoto and a part of the English Diocese of Osaka. In handing over that part of the diocese, Kyoto lost the strongest churches in the diocese. While the establishment of the Diocese of Osaka in a way weakened the Diocese of Kyoto, yet the vision and faith of those responsible for cutting off Osaka from Kyoto has been more than justified. The work in both these dioceses has gone forward and at the end of ten years the work in them was stronger than before the division.
The first Bishop of Kyoto was the Rt. Rev. Sidney C. Partridge, who for nineteen years had been one of the leading missionaries in the China mission. In 1912, after his translation to the Diocese of West Missouri, the Rev. H. St. George Tucker was elected to succeed him. The new Bishop had been for thirteen years in Japan and much of this time he had been president of St. Paul's College.
Bishop Tucker was obliged to leave Japan in the summer of 1923, and his resignation was accepted by the House of Bishops. For a period of two years Kyoto was left without a bishop, but the diocese had been so well organized under Bishop Tucker's leadership that the Standing Committee and the Council of Advice were able to carry on the work of the diocese faithfully and courageously under the episcopal direction of Bishops McKim and Reifsnider. In 1925, the Rev. Shirley Hall Nichols was elected Bishop of Kyoto at the General Convention. He was consecrated on April 13, 1926, in Holy Trinity Church, Kyoto.
A misfortune fell upon the work in the Diocese of Kyoto in March, 1927, just a year after Bishop Nichols' consecration, when an earthquake struck the Tango District of the diocese. While its force was said to have been even greater than that of the great earthquake of 1923, yet because the district was less [68/71] populated, the loss of life and property was less. Our Church, however, suffered much loss; a number of Christians lost their lives and others lost much of their material possessions. Thanks to the generous response of the Church in America, the Bishop was enabled to rebuild the damaged churches and other buildings so that today the equipment is better than it was before the catastrophe.
A secondary but vitally important missionary objective was the attainment of self-support in the Japanese Church. During Bishop Tucker's regime constant attention was given to this in the Diocese of Kyoto. A movement called the Baika Undo was inaugurated, the purpose of which was to double Church membership and contributions. It would be difficult to tabulate the results of this movement, but a strong impetus toward greater effort in working for self-support and self-government was given the whole diocese. Year by year progress was made in this respect. Every congregation paid its own local expenses, except the pastor's salary, and contributions toward this increased in almost every case. In 1934, two churches, one in Kyoto and one in Nara, paid the pastor's entire salary.
It is not an easy thing to maintain the proper balance between the primary objective of preaching Christ and this secondary objective of self-support. Nevertheless, clergy and laity throughout the diocese understood the relation of the two objectives and gave them the emphasis due each. Progress toward self-support was noticeable even before financial difficulties compelled the Church in the United States to diminish its aid to the diocese. In organized congregations a gradual reduction of the support gave wholesome incentive to the spirit of self-support. Aid must be continued, however, for the pushing forward of the work into areas as yet untouched. Kyoto Churchmen, seeing the excellent work of the Tokyo and Osaka dioceses, were working toward the establishment of a self-supporting, self-governing Japanese diocese with Kyoto as its center.
[72] Since 1928, a short summer conference for Church school teachers has been held at St. Agnes' School, Kyoto. The conference has been well attended, the teaching has been done by clergymen specially trained in Church school work. The Diocesan Church School Committee has been in charge and has built up a fine interest in the conferences.
In 1928, the Rev. Roderick H. Jackson organized a summer camp for the young men of the diocese. Although the number attending this and the subsequent camps were not large they came from all parts of the diocese. In 1933, it was decided to reorganize this group making it a diocesan branch of the All Japan Sei Ko Kwai Young Men's League. Since 1928, this movement proved stimulating to the development of young men's parochial groups.
With the help of some American friends and of Mr. T. Takeba, who worked for the Government among the outcasts of Japan, work for these people was started in 1927 by the Rev. J. H. Lloyd in the city of Wakayama. A small group of Christians was formed as a nucleus for a promising work. One of this group has been accepted as a candidate for the ministry.
One of Bishop Tucker's last acts before retiring from Japan was to lay the cornerstone of the new St. Barnabas' Hospital on St. Barnabas' Day, June 11, 1923. Because of the rapid development of the Kawaguchi area into a factory district the original site had become quite unsuitable for hospital purposes. The property had been sold to good advantage, and with the proceeds a new site was purchased in Tennoji District. Under the direction of Dr. Joseph L. McSparran a new three-story reinforced concrete building was constructed. The building was nearly completed when, in 1924, Dr. McSparran resigned and the work was brought to a standstill pending a decision as to the future of the hospital. Meanwhile Dr. John D. Southworth, who had arrived in 1923 as assistant to Dr. McSparran, carried on in a small building in the rear of the property. Miss Van Kirk assisted Dr. [72/75] Southworth, and here for a number of years they did a very notable piece of work, although on a very small scale. In this tiny building Bishop Motoda was cared for after the attack of illness which finally caused his death.
Upon Dr. McSparran's resignation Dr. Teusler was requested by the National Council to survey the whole situation in Osaka and make recommendations concerning the continuance of St. Barnabas' Hospital. Dr. Teusler found that there was need for St. Barnabas' to continue its work and recommended that it be reopened and that it specialize in work for women and children. On June 26, 1928, the new hospital was opened with loyal and enthusiastic Japanese support. By the end of 1933 Y.30,000 had been contributed to hospital maintenance.
The opening years of the new institution were beset with many difficulties and disappointments. The Resident Director (Dr. Southworth), returned home. The Japanese staff, necessarily chosen in a hurry, did not adapt itself to the work of the hospital. In addition an entirely new form of hospitalization was being demonstrated to the Osaka public. Naturally the fear of the new and strange made progress slow and at times almost hopeless.
In 1929, a new director, Dr. Frank M. Jones, arrived. He was handicapped by the sudden change to new conditions, new people, and by lack of knowledge of the language. As matters showed little tendency toward improvement, it was decided after careful study of the situation, to take drastic action and to try the effect of a new Japanese staff. Accordingly, Dr. Nichizaki, a specialist in gynecology and obstetrics, was appointed to that department. When the rejuvenation of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics had shown itself a success, the Department of Pediatrics was reorganized under Dr. Ikebe.
St. Agnes' School begun in Osaka in 1875 was transferred to Kyoto in 1895. In 1934 it was housed in three buildings, each one named after the reign in which it was built. The latest of these buildings, [75/76] completed in 1929, was the gift of the Woman's Auxiliary from the United Thank Offering of 1925. The school offers a full high school course and two years of college work.
The high school department is always full to its capacity of five hundred girls. Its continued good work commands the full confidence of the educational authorities and of the community. In its earlier days there was a large group of students in this department from the country districts surrounding Kyoto, but with the passage of the years girls' high schools have been established in large numbers throughout the country sections and in consequence the number of girls coming from long distances to attend St. Agnes' has decreased, but this decrease has been fully counterbalanced by the steady increase in the number of girls in the city who attend.
The college department, established in 1918, offered three courses: English, Domestic Science, and Kindergarten Training. In 1931, the Government recognized the excellence of the English course and extended to students in that course the privilege of taking Government examinations in St. Agnes' School. Students who pass satisfactorily are licensed to teach highschool English. The department enrolled about one hundred girls and covered two years of college work.
The kindergarten training department restricted its enrollment to fifty-five and was obliged annually to reject many applicants for admission. Graduates were licensed and were in great demand in kindergartens both within and outside mission circles.
In the high school, which is under Government license and Government regulations, no Christian instruction was given in the school hours. Once every week, however, Bible classes were held immediately after school and practically the whole student body was enrolled for these classes. In addition to those specifically charged with missionary work in the school, many of the Christian teachers coöperated gladly in the work of these Bible classes. In the college department the Bible instruction was a regular [76/79] part of the curriculum and was included in school hours. In the dormitory there were many more opportunities for Christian instruction and Christian influence. These opportunities were well used and a very large proportion of those who lived for any time in the dormitory became Christian.
In addition to these activities within the school itself, work was carried on for the girls in St. Agnes' Church which stands in one corner of the school grounds. Here voluntary daily morning services were held before the opening of school and were on the whole well attended. On Sundays regular morning and evening services were held. Students of other schools were always to be found in the congregation. In 1931, by the removal of Holy Trinity Church to its new site in the western part of the city, St. Agnes' fell heir to the full use of this church building. From that time on teachers and students of St. Agnes' School conducted an excellent Sunday school for the children of the neighborhood. For many years past individual students were sent to churches in the city and in the vicinity of the city to help in Sunday school work.
The fine results accomplished by St. Agnes' School were due, of course, to the Christian men and women, Japanese and American, who had had a part in its work. The principal, Dr. Hayakawa, had also served for many years as rector of St. Agnes' Church. His successor as chaplain, the Rev. Umetaro Uda, and the Bible-woman, Miss Harsuko Matsuyama also made their deep impress upon the religious life of the school. The American missionary teachers have made splendid contributions in the scholastic work of the school, particularly in English, music, physical culture, and kindergarten training, and by their example and interest in the girls as well as by their direct teaching and leadership have greatly strengthened the various kinds of Christian activity.
An important social service work was begun by the Rev. T. K. Morris of the Church of the Resurrection in Nishijin, a crowded section of Kyoto largely occupied by weavers who produce the beautiful silks and [79/81] brocades for which Kyoto is famous. Supported by interested American friends the program includes a health clinic with a full time public nurse (a recent graduate of St. Luke's Hospital College of Nursing), three doctors, and three other helpers working in close coöperation with the Municipal Social Service Bureau and Public Health Department. Another part of the program is a large Sunday school. This interest in the daily life of the people considerably increased the Church attendance and made possible preaching missions for people outside the Church.
For years past, using her own house as a center, Miss Helen Skiles conducted a Sunday school in Matsugasaki and neighboring villages. A new parish house soon became the center of a flourishing kindergarten, Sunday school, and various other meetings for children and adults in that rapidly growing part of the city. This was a new venture and it did great things for the village people.
DIOCESE OF THE TOHOKU Tohoku, which means northeast, is the name given by the Japanese to that part of the main island of Japan lying to the north and east of the central and southern sections of the island. In 1920, the District of North Tokyo was divided by setting apart this northern section. Its administration, however, remained in the hands of Bishop McKim until the Rev. Norman Spencer Binsted, a missionary in Japan, was elected its first Bishop in 1928. This new district included at its organization thirty-two stations. The southern boundary of the district crosses the main island a little north of Nikko, while on the north it is bounded by the Straits of Tsugaru which separates the main island from Hokkaido. It comprises the six prefectures of Fukushima, Yamagata, Miyagi, Iwate, Akita, and Aomori; a total of 30,000 square miles. From north to south the length of the Tohoku is about three hundred miles and the average width about [81/82] one hundred miles. Of this area more than one-half is mountainous and unsuitable for agricultural purposes.
The rugged nature of the country, its severe winters with abundant snowfalls, the distinct dialect of the people, and the flora and fauna of the region, have caused this part of the Empire to be called the Scotland of Japan. In many respects it bears strong resemblance to the northern part of the British Isles. It is a country of mountains and lakes. Each prefecture has its guardian mountain, within the shadow of which is usually found the prefectural capital, so situated as to command the most beautiful view. The ancient feudal lords were lovers of beauty no less than great strategists, and gave much thought to the location of their castles. These feudal strongholds later became the centers of prefectural activities. Among the lakes, Towada and Inawashiro are the most famous. Towada is the second largest and without exception the most beautiful lake in the Empire, while Inawashiro in Fukushima Prefecture probably ranks second. The latter derives some of its fame from the little village of the same name on its shores, which was the birthplace of the man who gave his life in an effort to isolate the yellow fever bacteria, Dr. Yonejiro Noguchi.
The people of the Tohoku are much less sophisticated than their fellow countrymen to the south. Their struggle for existence in a rigorous climate, their isolation from the cultural influences of the southern and western currents of civilization, which poured in through the open doors of the port cities, discrimination against them by the "Restoration Government" because of their tenacious loyalty to the shogunate has left its mark upon the character of these people. They are of sterner stuff than their more favored brethren in the districts surrounding the ancient centers of Japanese civilization, such as Nara, Kyoto, Kamakura, and Tokyo. They have a rugged honesty, straightforward manner, alert minds, and a keen sense of loyalty which inspires confidence. What they lack [82/83] in suavity of manner is more than compensated for by their innate strength of character.
Like Scotland, which has given to Great Britain many of its most illustrious statesmen, literary men, and scientists, so the Tohoku can take pride in the political, intellectual, and religious leaders which it has given to the Empire of Japan. Essentially a virile people, they have often been called upon to furnish leaders in times of national crises. The Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance in the national Government in 1933 were both Tohoku men. Premier Hara, the first commoner to attain such high rank, was a citizen of Morioka, which is also the birthplace of Dr. Inazo Nitobe, a Christian statesman and scholar of international reputation.
The larger portion of the population of the Tohoku is engaged in agricultural pursuits, although the country produces some coal, copper and iron. While citric fruits cannot be grown in such a cold climate, the Tohoku supplies the markets of the Empire with the best apples, pears, grapes, cherries, and persimmons. Rice here, as elsewhere in the Empire, is the principal crop, although its cultivation is fraught with great climatic hazards, in consequence of which the Government, through its agricultural department and schools, is constantly urging the Tohoku farmers to a diversity of crops. But tradition is stronger than precept, and the admonitions of the Government have for the most part gone unheeded, in spite of frequent droughts and cold summers, resulting in disaster for the already impoverished farmers.
Japanese Shintoism, Chinese Confucianism, and Indian Buddhism are all elements in the civilization brought from the south by the pioneer settlers of the Tohoku as they gradually pushed northward, driving before them the Ainu aborigines and conquering the land in the name of the Mikado. Like Rachel, these early settlers brought with them their household gods and erected shrines and temples for them in the new land. While the temples of the Tohoku cannot rival in beauty those of the more ancient and affluent parts [83/84] of the Empire, still, they stand upon the hills among the stately cryptomerias a silent witness to the faith of the early settlers, and here and there in the fertile villages you may see the Fox Shrines keeping watch over the crops. But of greater interest to the Christian Church are the graves and relics of the early martyrs of the faith, who fled from the south in the time of the Tokugawa persecutions, hoping to find religious toleration in the outskirts of the Empire, only to be met by the instruments of torture and death awaiting them in the new land. Thousands of the disciples of St. Francis Xavier and his successors suffered martyrdom in the Tohoku. Relics of those stalwart Christian men and women of an earlier age are constantly coming to light. So Tohoku has its strong Christian traditions lingering still in spite of more than two centuries of unparalleled persecutions. Here, too, "The noble army of martyrs praise thee, O God."
Due perhaps to the lack of communication between their new home and the centers of Buddhist life and thought and again to the type of priest willing to exile himself from the easy and more effete life of the south, as well as for lack of leisure in the life of the early settlers, who of necessity must first subdue the aborigines and bring a virgin land under cultivation, the Buddhist civilization, which so decidedly left its mark upon the rest of Japan, does not seem to have left its influence so strongly upon the people of the Tohoku. The missionary has always found them less bound by tradition than people in other parts of the Empire and more ready to accept the teaching of the Christ. Perhaps the passive philosophy of the Buddhist religion was found inadequate to cope with the pressing problems of life in the newer part of the Empire. At any rate, the Tohoku has proved to be a fertile field for Christian evangelization.
The population of the Tohoku is about 6,300,000. Of this number about one million reside in seventeen cities ranging from thirty to one hundred eighty thousand. Another million are in towns from five to ten thousand while the great mass of the population are [84/87] sons of the soil, living in small hamlets or on isolated farms. The first missionary work centered in the cities, in almost all of which we now have creditable church buildings with vigorous growing congregations, each of which has its own vestry, pays its diocesan and general Church assessments, cares for its running expenses, and each year assumes responsibility for more of the pastor's salary.
These city churches are the spiritual centers from which the activities of the Church radiate to the larger towns and from thence to the villages and rural districts. In many of the larger towns there were flourishing congregations cared for by resident catechists working under the priest in the nearest city. The work in the villages and farming districts was in its infancy. One of the most successful attempts at rural work was done by Deaconess Ranson at Isoyama. She lived in a small cottage on the side of a mountain, while her Japanese assistant lived in an adjoining cottage, which was also the center of mission activities. She won a warm place in the hearts of the farmers. Men, women, and children came from miles around for Christian instruction. This work is under the supervision of the rector of Christ Church, Sendai.
In a number of villages young men, converted while attending school in the cities, returned to their homes and organized groups for the study of Christianity. Such groups were visited regularly by the nearest clergyman for instruction. This type of work was done most successfully by the Rev. Paul Murakami of Morioka.
Another activity was the Farmers' Gospel School held annually in different sections. To these schools many of the young farmers came for both agricultural and spiritual instruction.
The mission for financial and strategic reasons concentrated its energy and resources on the work in the urban centers, believing that the churches in such centers, when they become strong, will take over the evangelization of the rural areas. The effort to make the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai a strong, self-supporting [87/88] branch of the Catholic Church dictated this policy.
When Church work was started in the Tohoku, the foreign missionary as elsewhere necessarily took the lead. The foreign priest was usually assisted by a native catechist and the foreign woman worker by a Japanese mission woman. Too much credit cannot be given to those pioneer workers, both Japanese and American, who under the statesmanlike leadership of Bishop McKim laid the foundations in the Tohoku. With the increase of well-trained Japanese. workers one church after another was turned over to the care of Japanese priests until in 1934 there were only two foreign priests in the diocese.
The Japanese clergy are men of character and intellectual ability. For the most part they are good preachers and excellent pastors. Generally speaking, they are lacking in aggressive missionary zeal, with a tendency to "dig in" rather than push forward. There are, however, many excellent exceptions. Here and there are men and women who are courageously standing in the front of the Christian movement and blazing the trail over which others will follow. There is a steadiness and dependability about the present-day Japanese Christian leadership which augurs well for the future. If to this can be added, within the next few years, a little more of the aggressive spirit of St. Paul, St. Columba, Bishop Williams, Bishop McKim, and other founders of Christian missions, we can look forward with hope to the not distant future when the growing body of Japanese clergy can take over the present work and with success push forward the evangelization of their own country.
Another encouraging feature of the work in the Tohoku was the increasing sense of responsibility on the part of the men and women of the Church. Here, as elsewhere in Japan, Christianity made its strongest initial appeal to the educated classes. For many years the Church had no difficulty in securing able men and women for positions on vestries, diocesan committees and councils. The Woman's Auxiliary had the benefit of the wise and consecrated leadership of devoted [88/89] Japanese women; while the work among young people was developing rapidly. The Sunday schools and kindergartens were well attended and depended upon Japanese Christians for their teaching staff. There was an increasing interest among the laity in direct evangelization, and from year to year greater use was made of the lay men and women of the Church for mission speakers and group leaders.
Each congregation was responsible for its current expenses, exclusive of the pastor's salary. The latter was paid from a fund to which the congregation and the mission contributed. The mission subsidy for this fund was annually decreased. Christ Church, Sendai, was self-supporting, and all the congregations within the diocese were working towards this goal. It was hoped that most of the present congregations would be entirely self-supporting within a quarter century. This would not mean a lessening of the need for aid from America, as there are large unevangelized areas yet to be occupied.
Simultaneously with the movement to make each congregation self-supporting, an effort was on foot to raise a diocesan endowment fund, looking forward to the time when the present missionary district shall become a native diocese. Already about Y.4,000 has been contributed for this purpose.
Dr. Tamikichi Imaizumi, a communicant of Christ Church, Sendai, gave to the Missionary District of Tohoku his estate, valued at Y.300,000. One-half the income from this will come to the diocese at his death and the full income after his wife's death and the completion of his children's education. The purpose of this gift is for the spread of the Gospel in the Tohoku through education of Japanese clergy and the building up of a diocesan endowment fund.
Japanese Christians have always given generously in proportion to their means 'for the support of the Church's work. Another gift of note was made by Mrs. Takeko Sato, a communicant of All Saints' Church, Hirosaki. Mrs. Sato, distressed by the necessity of burying Christians in Buddhist cemeteries, [89/90] bought and presented to the Church six hundred tsubo of land in the suburbs of Hirosaki, to be used as a Christian cemetery.
Sunday schools were maintained in connection with each mission. Their work was coördinated under a committee of three Japanese priests elected by the Synod and directly supervised by the diocesan director of religious education, who included among her duties the conduct of training classes for Sunday school teachers.