QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
A brief account of the origins and development of the
Religious Society of Friends in Japan
I. Historical Background
II. Religious Background
III. Educational Period
IV. Quaker Service and Work for Peace
V. Church Union and After
Appendix
Prepared by
Edith F. Sharpless
The Friends World Committee for Consultation
is publishing a series of short studies of the development
of Quakerism in various countries in the hope that they
will help Friends of different nations, cultures and out-
look to know and understand one another.
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN is the second of these pamph-
lets to be published; it was made possible by the return
to this country of Edith F. Sharpless, who served as a
missionary in Japan from 1910 to 1943.
In the future the Committee hopes to publish records
of the life of Quakerism in India, China, Germany,
Canada, the U. S. A., and other countries. We trust
that these publications will show ways in which national
groups have adapted the Quaker testimonies to their
varied cultures and backgrounds and will also reveal the
unique contribution each group is making to the Quaker
movement throughout the world.
Thomas E. Jones.
Chairman of the American Section of the
Friends World Committee for Consultation
20 South Twelfth Street, Philadelphia 7, Pa.
Foreword
The writer has taken great pleasure in living
again with Japan Yearly Meeting, as she has pre-
pared the manuscript for this little book. And yet
she knows that by every consideration it should have
been prepared by a national of that country. She
has tried to look at the whole subject with as
Japanese eyes as she could, but if in places some
American viewpoints have peeped through, she hopes
they will be forgiven. At least she can say that her
main source has been Japanese, — Seiju Hirakawa’s
book, entitled “Fifty Years of Quakerism in Japan.”
Since there was no recourse to other sources than
those to be found in this country, it has been impos-
sible to verify certain statements, and mistakes may
thus have crept in.
The work in Japan has been an instance of inter-
national cooperation. The Mission Boards of Phila-
delphia and of Canada Friends have been permitted
to extend a hand in an especial way, but others from
across the seas have given support to Quakerism in
Japan. God grant that the days may soon come
when we can again join hands in enterprises for a
spiritual Kingdom.
E. F. S.
Haverford, Pa.
6 - 8 - 1944 .
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2016 with funding from
Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
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QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
On June 28tli, 1885, a small group of devoted women
Friends were holding a parlor meeting in the city of Philadel-
phia. They had been moved by the newly awakened evangel-
istic fervor of the times, and were deeply concerned to share
their joy and satisfaction in the new life with their “sisters” (1)
in non-Christian lands. They had been meeting under this
concern for some three years but as yet had not found just the
direction they sought for their endeavors. In this June meet-
ing, two young men “of education” (1) from Japan, met with
them and encouraged them to believe that the door was open
in their country for such religious teaching as that of Friends.
These two youths, in America at that time for study, became in
later years, each in his own way, men of very great significance
to the Christian movement in their country. Their names were
Inazo Mtobe and Kanzo Uchimura. It was they who first defi-
nitely linked together the names of Friends and the Japanese.
In the fall of the same year the first emissaries of the Womens
Foreign Missionary Association of Friends of Philadelphia,
Joseph and Sarah Ann Cosand, started across the Pacific.
But before we dip into their experiences we must know
something of the Japan which they were to find on arrival. It
was only thirty years since it had grudgingly let down the
bars for the life of the world to enter. For well over two
hundred years before that, the policy of its rulers had been one
of absolute exclusion of Western influences, based on fear of
Western aggression. A few Dutch traders only were suffered
to linger on under rather humiliating conditions in Nagasaki,
but otherwise life in Japan had been an introverted one. The
cultural gifts previously received from China were polished
and perfected, but without new material to work on, the spirit
of man becomes stale. Society was static, and it was the delib-
O) Third Annual Report of the Womens Foreign Missionary Association of Friends
of Philadelphia, 1886.
6
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
erate policy of the military shoguns who ruled, to make it so.
Members of the Tokugawa family had held that position since
1603, and kept a firm hand on their feudatories, many of whom
were strong enough to make trouble, if given an opportunity.
In the society of that time there were knights, the Samurai
class who fought for their overlord, and were fed by him ;
farmers who held their land in fief from the knights, and raised
rice for the whole nation ; and merchants who were almost out
of the picture. The pattern of life was surprisingly like that
of Europe in Feudal times.
Although the organization of society was essentially a
military one, and the law, martial law, yet the strong rule of
the shogun at its center insured long years of enforced peace,
and the result was effeminacy among the fighting class. In the
felt need for new stimulus, and in curiosity about the West,
coupled with the decay of military strength, the stage was set
for Perry when he came in 1853, representing the government
of the United States.
The unilateral character of the treaties that were signed
at that time, entered deeply into the consciousness of the
Japanese nation. The whole force of the people was directed to
a self-discipline, that would make them able to meet the West
on its own plane and to deal with it on the level. Hence there
followed two decades of intense and deliberate European-
ization.
Changes followed each other rapidly. In 1868 the Shogun
resigned, and the Emperor whose functions had been purely
ceremonial, was now restored to the center of the picture.
The oath that he took at the beginning of this era was demo-
cratic in outlook. The next year feudalism was abolished, and
a parliamentary system was later inaugurated. The capital
was moved from Kyoto to Tokyo, (2) to symbolize a new policy.
A public school system was set up in 1872. Science and
(2) Called “Yedo” at that time.
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
<
Western learning were encouraged, and all old usages and
policies were reexamined. Japan intended to keep abreast of
the nations of the modern world. And with it all, as Or.
Anesaki says, there was a sense of exhilaration like that after
a thunder storm.
There is no doubt that this movement was carried to an
extreme. Young men came almost to idolize those who could
give them this “new knowledge”. The study of English or
“horizontal writing” as it was called, became the rage, and the
ways of the West were thought of as almost equivalent to
civilization.
As a dynamic force in Western life, Christianity also
came in for its share of popularity, and its missionaries were
given a ready hearing. It had been forbidden under pain of
A COMMITTEE ROOM IN THE HIJIRIZAKA MEETING HOUSE
8
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
death until 1873 but in the new treaties signed with foreign
powers, it was expressly allowed. That stream of Christian
influence with which our story is concerned, began in Yoko-
hama under the teaching of American missionaries. Having
once obtained a foothold there it spread like wild fire to other
parts of Japan. Statistics of those years tell us that in 1878
there were 44 churches and 1617 believers ; in 1885 168 churches
and 11,000 believers. There were even some who said that
Japan would be Christianized within ten years.
This reception of their message must have been very heart-
ening to the missionaries, but looking at it from later times,
we know that it was not altogether healthy. Reaction had to
come, and then those who had joined from political or social
motives fell away.
The Problem Faced by Quaker Missionaries
The Christian movement was at the crest of the wave
when the Cosands landed in Japan. It was a recognized force
in the life of the capital. The New Testament had been trans-
lated five years previously ; Christian schools had been started,
foremost among which was the Doshisha in Kyoto, recognized
as a university in 1884. And now Quakerism had come to seek
roothold in the soil of Japan. It was a necessarily different
procedure from that by which it got its start in European
centers. There the soil had been prepared by centuries of
Christian thought and life, and growth was a natural result
of juxtaposition. As Howard Brinton has said, “Quaker
missionaries in Japan face a peculiarly difficult problem. Be-
ginners in the faith must be sought and taught through a
teaching ministry largely confined to the historical and ethical
basis of Christianity. To get beyond this introductory stage
to the establishment of conditions in which a transforming
experience of the Quaker type can be attained, is by no means
easy”. ***** “After the World War when our service work
in war-stricken areas developed finally into the establishment
QUAKERISM IN JArAN
9
of Quaker embassies in a number of European cities, a pro-
cedure more congenial to our essential doctrines, ***** some-
thing peculiarly our own, suited to the genius of our Society,
was developed”.* 1 *
Difficult it was, and in some sense uncongenial to Quaker-
ism, but no other way has yet been devised for “the publishing
of truth” under such circumstances, except this beginning from
the ground up. With the religious background which Quaker-
ism found in Japan, there was nothing for it but to confront
the ideas and the faith established there with those which it
believed were of more eternal value. Time would be the judge.
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND
In a short study of this kind, there is not time to analyze
the soil of the religious world of Japan, in the eighties of the
Nineteenth Century. But some understanding of it is neces-
sary before we can go on with our story. Over against the
Quaker emphasis on the value of the individual, and his privi-
lege and obligation of finding guidance for himself from an
inward Monitor, comes Confucian teaching with its emphasis
on obedience and loyalty to one’s superior, — the vassal to his
lord, the wife to her husband, etc. Shinto which stood in the
highest place among the Japanese religious systems at that
time, emphasized the exaltation of the theocratic state above
the individuals who composed it. Buddhism was to get fresh
life later on, partly at least through the impact of Christianity
upon it, but at this time it seems to have “collapsed”, to use
Sir George Sansom’s word. Confucian scholars had more in-
fluence with thinking people than Buddhist priests, although
Buddhist observances had become the habits of everyday life
among the common people. In any case the popular manifes-
tation of Buddhism was a mass of superstition and mate-
rialism.
<i> The Friend (Philadelphia) 9th Month 10, 1936.
10
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
It is true that certain resemblances are often traced
between the philosophical thought of the Zen Sect of Buddhism
and that of Quakerism. Both are religions of experience. Both
seek an inner transformation through silent and expectant
waiting. But while the Quaker sees as his objective, a person-
al^ which is the Father God as revealed by Jesus Christ,
the Zennist conception is extremely vague. He looks forward
to a kind of Cosmic Ego of which he is a part, as are the waves
a part of the ocean into which they sink and are lost. The
meditation of the Zennist is directed by a teacher who gives
him subjects on which to meditate, and to whom he must report
later; that of the Quaker like “the wind which bloweth where
it listeth”, is directed by the Spirit of God within him. Noble
as are some of the philosophic conceptions of Buddhism, yet it
seems obvious that much effort would be required to prepare
such soil to receive Quaker roots.
There was another element in the religious soil of Japan,
that had its influence on the situation. The Nineteenth Century
brand of Christianity was not the first to reach Japan. In
1549 Francis Xavier had landed at the southernmost point of
the island of Kyushu, and after a stay of slightly over two
years, left with an amazing record of success, as judged numer-
ically. Other priests from other orders continued the work
begun by Xavier, and by 1605 there were estimated to be
750,000 converts or 4% of the whole population. Perhaps its
very success was its undoing. At any rate the rulers of Japan
came to fear it as an advance agent of European powers with
aggressive designs against Japan, and a period of terrible per-
secution followed, which came to an end in 1637 with the cap-
ture of Hara Castle, where the remaining Christians had
intrenched themselves. It was believed at the time that they
had been exterminated, but twenty-five years before the arrival
of the Quaker emissaries in Yokohama, communities of these
Catholic Christians were found, who had kept alive their faith
and practice through two centuries without being discovered
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
11
by the authorities. This highly dramatic episode in Japanese
history influenced our story in at least two ways. One was
that the Christian faith had come to be associated with foreign
aggression, — how justly can not now be known. The other
was the creation of a sense of pride, not altogether limited to
Christian people in Japan, at the extraordinary steadfastness
and heroism with which these people had held on to their
ideals and their faith, in the face of devastating persecution.
Even today, I think, the thought of it gives the Christian
Church in Japan confidence in the national character.
Quaker Beginnings
There are many localities in Tokyo today, where we might
almost fancy ourselves in New York, or in some other modern
city, but it was not so when Joseph and Sarah Cosand walked
down the gang plank to terra firma in Yokohama, and climbed
into jinrikishas. They would doubtless have felt themselves
considerably at a loss as to how to proceed, had it not been
for the cooperation of one from their own country, who had
preceded them by some years. Dr. Willis N. Whitney took
them into his home in Azabu, a ward of Tokyo, and later intro-
duced them to Sen Tsuda, (1) with whom they lived, and made
a temporary center for their work. A piece of land was soon
procured however, in the ward of Shiba, on high ground in the
southern part of the city, looking out over Tokyo Bay on the
east, and with a fine view of Mt. Fuji on the west. There the
Girls School was built in 1887, and a meeting house in 1890.
The Cosands meanwhile had been joined by other friends, Wil-
liam V. and Isabel Wright, sent by the Mission Board of
Canada Yearly Meeting. English Friends also had associated
themselves with Dr. Whitney in Azabu, and the two groups
consulted together about the prosecution of the work in Shiba.
As mentioned before, it was a period of eager assimilation of
European culture, and we may imagine the compound buzzing
(D To the modern reader, Sen Tsuda is best known through his daughter, Ume
Tsuda.
12
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
with activity. Young men came in considerable numbers to
learn English, and to inquire about Western ways and the
Western religion. They were from good families for the most
part, — modern people, students and officials. Their sisters
came to learn knitting and English. The school girls, although
still few in number, were made part of the family life of the
compound. Those who attended the meetings on Sunday,
organized and called themselves the “Shiba Friends Church”.
They began to look for avenues to carry the message into other
centers. A school for training Christian workers was estab-
lished in 1890, and although it was not long-lived, yet at one
time in these early days, it enrolled as many as 25 students.
One of them, C. Suzuki, is still active in Friends’ work. An-
other was Chuzo Kaifu who continued to serve with Friends
through a long life, which ended two years ago.
But it was not granted Friends to attain Christian stature
with such ease. A day of testing came. In 1894 the Sino-
Japanese War broke out, accompanied as always by strong
national feeling, and much civilian activity in the expression
of that feeling. Hot arguments arose among the young people
who had been gathering in the Shiba Meeting House, and at
last they began to use their organization there as an agent for
supporting the war effort. This presented a grave problem to
the mission personnel. After milder means had been tried
without success, they decided they could no longer cooperate,
and withdrew all support, and the group scattered. Thus came
to an end the first period of Quakerism in Japan (1885-1894).
It is not surprising that the little group was not yet ready
for the severe testing that came. The advent of war has led
to similar rending asunder of the Christian body in other
lands, and at other times. But perhaps also its growth had
been too mushroom-like. The oak tree grows slowly, but its
fiber is strong to resist the winds that blow upon it. By this
time the eager acquisition of Western learning had in great
degree subsided, and all gains must now be made through
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
13
patient work. Men do not enter the Kingdom of Heaven
except through much tribulation.
Joseph Cosand and his wife stayed on in Japan until the
end of the century. They and the other missionaries and the
Japanese Friends who remained with the work had to make a
new beginning, and with the difficult experience they had just
been through in mind, a more centralized organization was
effected. Matters were now decided in a central committee of
responsible people made up of both Japanese and American
workers, rather than in the open meetings as previously. During
this time four meetings were recognized, — that in Shiba, Tokyo
( The local name is Saints Hill, (1) and the Tokyo meeting is still
known as Saints Hill Monthly Meeting) ; in Yokohama which
was later given up; in Mito and in Tsucliiura, two country
meetings to which we will now turn our thoughts.
Quakerism in Ibaraki Province
Northeast of Tokyo is a province largely devoted to agri-
culture, the name of which is Ibaraki. The meaning of the
first of the two characters which make up the word is “thorn”,
and one is reminded of Scotland’s thistle, with its “Nole Me
Tangere”. Ibaraki people in somewhat the same way have
been jealous of the entrance of influences from the outside.
Mito is its capital city, and being on the trunk line of the rail-
road going north, is at present reached from Tokyo in two
or three hours. But in the days of which we are thinking, the
railroad had not yet been built, and one had to take a tiring
journey of two or three days by boat and jinrikisha to get
there. It was through pleasant country however. The two-
peaked mountain of Tsukuba <2) rose from the low plain around
it, and was visible for a large part of the journey. Little
thatch-roofed homes nestled in among the trees, and looked
almost like islands, surrounded by a broad expanse of rice
O) Hijirizaka.
( 2 ) cf. Cover.
14
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
fields, where men and women worked bent over, protected from
the sun by their umbrella-shaped straw hats. The intervals of
woodland were probably more frequent then than they are
now. Occasional tea-houses along the way gave opportunity
for refreshment to both jinrikisha man and rider. But having
arrived at Mito, one was not at all sure of a welcome. The
Jesuit movement had come to Ibaraki also, and the traditions
that followed it meant sometimes a shower of stones for the
intruding foreigner.
Mito was not just one of many towns in Japan. It had had
a very special history and a very special character of its own.
It had been the seat of one of the most powerful feudal lords
or “daimyo”, and parts of their castle still remain surrounded
by a deep moat. They were a branch of the Tokugawa family,
and at times when there was no direct heir in the shogunate
branch of that family, a scion of the Mito family might be
grafted into it. Moreover the Mito Tokugawas had been rather
remarkable men, cultivating Confucian learning in their lands,
and endowing an institute which wrote a manv-volumed and
authoritative history of Japan. At the time of Perry’s arrival,
the Lord of Mito was very active in opposing the signing of
treaties with foreign powers, and fortified the coastline of his
own domain to be ready for possible invasion. It was the
thought of this Mito school which more than any other, was
responsible for the final restoration of the Emperor to power
in 1868.
George Braithwaite, an English Friend from the Azabu
group made the trip to this province in 1889. The glories of
the feudal period had passed by that time, and the best blood
of the surrounding country had been spilled in the civil war
that accompanied the Restoration. But the pride in its past
remained, and has made Mito people conservative in religion
as well as politics.
A Friend named Kansen Yoshioka had been there since
the previous year and it was his influence that secured an invi-
QUAKERISM IN JAI*AN
15
tation to George Braithwaite soon after his arrival, to visit
a village about twelve miles from Mito. Some fifty people
gathered to hear him and Yoshioka San. They began their
meeting at eleven in the morning and continued until mid-
night, without food, the speakers spelling each other. That is
one of the early memories of the Mito work.
The committee in Tokyo felt that a certain standard of
intellectual attainment was necessary for anyone trying to
work in Mito, with its scholarly traditions, and finally chose
Manji Kato who went there in 1894, and continued there as one
of the main workers, until his death in 1932. His figure, with
benign face and long white beard, was a well known one in the
streets of Mito. He was much interested in work for peace,
and published a little periodical, called “Peace”. (1)
Gurney and Elizabeth Binford from the Mission Committee
joined the Mito staff in 1899 and the work went on actively.
One of the early members was Mika Katogi, a bank president,
who interpreted for Gurney Binford, and did much to break
down the prejudice to the new-old teaching. His spirit has
come down to modern days through his daughter and her hus-
band, Seiju Hirakawa. Others came and added their strength
to the work. Edith F. Sharpless, Senjiro and Yasuno Kame-
yama, Herbert and Madeline Nicholson, — the names of all are
linked to the Meeting here. These people were not simply
preaching the Gospel. They tried to include all the normal
interests of life. There have been cooking classes, English
classes, an old people’s home, a kindergarten, two student dorm-
itories, a night school, groups of women for relief sewing, and
many other forms of activity, as well as Bible classes and meet-
ings for worship. A brick meeting house was built in 1912,
and the Monthly Meeting was recognized in 1917. The group
has always been a small one, but Christian character has come
out of it. Mito Meeting as well as other country meetings, has
O) “Heiwa”.
16
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
QUARTERLY MEETING IN MITO
fed the meeting in Tokyo, as many of its young people moved
to the capital.
Work was started at other centers within the province, —
in 1891 at Tsuchiura, a prosperous town between Mito and
Tokyo; in 1899 at Ishioka; in 1902 at Minato, on the seacoast;
in 1906 at Shimodate; in 1909 at Takahagi; and in 1922 at
Shimotsuma. In this list as given above, only those groups
which attained the status of Monthly Meetings are included.
Openings generally came through some personal or chance
connection, which gave foothold in new territory. Perhaps
someone’s friend lived there and opened his home for an evening
meeting, to learn more of the new teaching which had come
from abroad, and there were some among those who listened
who desired to know more particularly, and so an invitation
to come and start work there would be received. Or perhaps
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
17
business would take a family from one town to another, and
the new faith would go with them. Minato was a hotbed for
such publishers of the truth. A printer, named Tokuzo Osaki
moved from there to Takahagi, and opened his house for gath-
erings of children and adults. When for some reason it be-
came inconvenient to use the house, the children met outdoors,
holding up umbrellas when climatic conditions made it neces-
sary. That continued for four years, but finally in 1924 they
succeeded in building a meeting house, and the next year were
recognized as a Monthly Meeting. There has never been any
resident worker there, but the proved integrity and Christian
grace of the printer has made its way for the Word in the town.
One of the reasons for local acceptance of the Christian
group in Tsuchiura was the fact that the town, being very low-
lying was subject to floods. The meeting house has a second
story, and has been able to harbor many flood refugees on
several occasions. Mansaku Nakamura who has been in charge
of the work in Tsuchiura for over thirty years, and his wife
and daughters, did valiant service for refugees, feeding and
clothing them for days at a time. Indeed his daughter gave
her life to the work during an especially severe flood in 1938.
Overwork at that time led to her early death. Two of the lead-
ing merchants of the town joined the meeting, and the confi-
dence that their townsmen felt in them, did much to dispel
prejudice. One of them, Tasuke Nomura, a wholesale sugar
merchant, became the first clerk of the Yearly Meeting.
Getting a meeting house was a struggle for all the groups.
In one locality outside Ishioka, the principal gift of money for
that purpose came from a young man who had grown up in the
Sunday School. From the time when lie decided to join the
Christian group, he stopped smoking and also eating between
meals, depositing an equivalent amount of money in the postals
savings. From this fund, he made a contribution which made a
little building possible.
18
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
-S-HIMOTSUMA KINDERGARTEN
Kindergartens have given a start to the work in other
places. In Ishioka, which was a very conservative center and
absorbed in the manufacture of soy sauce and sake, the work
was uphill for a long time. But the opening of a center where
their little children were lovingly and intelligently cared for,
proved a sesame to the townspeople’s hearts. Chiyomatsu
Suzuki who carries on the work at Ishioka, has been with
Friends practically from the beginning of their history in
Japan. His wife, Katsu Suzuki, also gave devoted service
until her death.
The meetings were grouped into Quarters, depending on
their location relative to Mt. Tsukuba. Its form is the dom-
inant feature on the eastern horizon of Shimodate and Shimo-
tsuma, which are therefore known as the Western Quarter.
They are off the main line of the railroad, and are centers of an
agricultural district. Juen Ouchi and his wife gave long
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
19
years of service to the meeting at Shimodate, and both died
while in active work some three or four years ago.
Gurney and Elizabeth Binford came to Shimotsuma to
live in 1922. There were connections in the town which they
had formed in Mito many years before, and no other Christian
work was being done in that vicinity, at the time. Young
farmers came into the meetings from the surrounding country ;
shopkeepers took time off from their counters; children gath-
ered in Sunday Schools and kindergarten ; mothers gladly
listened to modern theories of child training, and a real Chris-
tian fellowship was formed, which was singularly like a family
group. They are still worshipping there in their little thatch-
roofed meeting house, of a Sunday morning, sitting in a circle
on the straw mats on the floor. Saburo Kakuya whose Chris-
tian. life began, in their midst,, and who felt the call to work
among them, graduated from his Christian training school just
as the war began, and was soon thereafter called to the army.
So the group has had to carry on with little trained leadership.
Work in Rural Communities
From the beginning Friends felt an interest in the farm-
ing villages which hold such a large proportion of the inhabi-
tants of Ibaraki Province. In the very early days in Mito,
Manji Kato tried experiments with tomato and strawberry
plants, hoping thereby to increase the farmers’ resources.
From all the established meetings, trips were made into the
surrounding villages to take the message to them. One could
always begin with the children, who were eager listeners.
From them it was not hard to move to the adults in whose
lives in those early days there was little that could be called
recreation. With a set of stereopticon views one could call
together most of the village. Gradually the work came to be
done on a larger scale. Beginning with 1914 a large tent was
carried to some country district, and set up in a vacant lot
loaned by some of the villagers. With a portable organ, hymns
20
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
were taught to the people who gathered. A very simple expo-
sition of the Gospel was made. With faces tanned and wrinkled
by exposure to all weathers, and backs bent by long hours of
work in the fields, these men and women had now come into a
very different realm of thought, and were struggling to under-
stand it. The method was one of sowing seed broadcast. Some
little of it would return to the sower, but there was slight
opportunity fot following up the work thus begun. A better
way was found as the result of a concern felt by Kyuhei
Kikuchi for the rural community in which he had grown up.
As principal of its primary school, he knew its life intimately,
and was depressed by its meagerness. He had known Gurney
Binford during his Normal School days in Mito, and now sought
him out in Shimotsuma. The two cooperated in forming what
were known as “New Life Societies”. Their aim was to train
and inspire young men who could go back to their own villages
and work there for a more abundant life in the agricultural,
a farmer’s institute
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
21
economic, social, and spiritual fields. They held ten-day con-
ferences, in the farmers’ off-seasons, in different centers, wher-
ever they could find an opening. They chose a limited number
of young men to train intensively. Agricultural specialists
and experts in cooperative buying and selling were called to
come and talk to them. While they tried to regulate com-
munity life during those ten days as nearly as possible on
Christian lines they did not begin with a religious appeal. But
before the conference was over the young men themselves
would realize that back of all the new methods, there must be a
basic insight into a higher spiritual Power, which they
glimpsed, but could not clearly see. This opened the way for
definite teaching. After the conference was over, most of its
young men desired to continue as members of a permanent or-
ganization. They met at regular times and Ryuhei Kikuchi
circulated around among the different branches, interesting
himself in their personal and local problems. An annual
meeting when all the branches met together, was held for ex-
change of experiences, and for fresh inspiration. This work of
course has to a great degree been interrupted by the war,
but the “new life” has had a real leavening power in more than
one community. Kikuchi San often consulted with Toyohiko
Kagawa in this work, and sent some of his choicest young
men to attend Kagawa San’s short term institutes.
Itinerant Friends
As in the early days of Quakerism, there have been itin-
erant Friends in Japan, but their pattern is Japanese rather
than Occidental. I am thinking of Ikichi Ishizuka, a Friend
in his eighties now, (if he is still living) who has spent most
of his life on the road. At first it was Bibles that filled the
heavy pack on his back, or the cart which he pulled after him,
and found buyers in all parts of the empire. But as he grew
older, he came to have a more specialized concern for spreading
the Word. He wanted to be able to write so skillfully that men
of taste would buy his Bible texts for the sake of the writing,
22
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
even if they had no interest in the Bible itself. Calligraphy is
a fine art in Japan, and two or three Chinese characters, writ-
ten large by some well-known hand with brush and India ink,
are often the sole decoration of a room. With this idea he spent
long hours day and night practicing at his desk. His magnum
opus is the entire Bible written on a scroll about six feet long
and two and a half feet wide, which can be hung up on the wall.
A magnifying glass is necessary to decipher it. He has refused
offers of thousands of yen for it, because he could not bear to
part with it, but this last year, owing to the exigencies of old
age and wartime, he at last sold it.
Then there is Unpei Tozuka, a Friend who started the
itinerating habit when, as a young man, he worked on the
Imperial Railroads. Now an old man, but full of youthful
zeal, he continues on the road. With friends in every town, he
leads a busy life, visiting and bringing them cheer, and build-
ing them up in the faith. His specialty is lepers, and truly
there are none who need the consolation that he can bring
them more than they do. Another Friend is an agent of a drug
manufacturing company and as he goes about the country,
dispenses medicine for the spirit of man as well as for his body.
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
23
EDUCATIONAL PERIOD
Later Developments in Tokyo Quakerism
Our excursion into Ibaraki Province has taken some time,
and we must now return to the capital. The period of rapid
expansion, of easy gains, was over, and progress came now
only through patient effort. The years from 1900 to 1917 when
the Yearly Meeting was finally set up were years of emphasis
on stabilizing work at its center, more than in reaching out
into new fields. Perhaps the break up at the time of the Sino-
Japanese War had taught its lesson. Change in personnel too
may have had its influence. Gilbert and Minnie Bowles had
now come to fill the places left vacant by the withdrawal of
the Cosands. The years that followed might be called an edu-
cational period. The meetings of the Executive Committee
were times of thorough and free discussion, where everyone ex-
pressed his opinion, and received a thoughtful hearing. Laymen
as well as the recognized workers were appointed to represent
their meetings in this committee. Perhaps more than any other
one influence these meetings were the occasion for seeing how
Quakerism works, and for the development of the Quaker type
of character.
Besides these business meetings, summer conferences were
held regularly, sometimes at Minato on the seashore, some-
times at the foot of Mt. Tsukuba, where Friends worshipped
together, held Bible study courses, and listened to inspira-
tional addresses. Women Friends also frequently held similar
conferences for themselves at different times, as it was hard for
them and their husbands to be away from home together. The
sense of fellowship was strong at such times. Much emphasis
was put on work for young men. Horace E. and Elizabeth
Coleman opened their home to them and summer camps were
regularly held. After the Coleman’s retirement, Thomas E. and
Esther B. Jones continued this work.
24
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
Japan Yearly Meeting was finally set np in 1917. Its
formation had been urged by the Mission Committee as a
symbol of independence from any authority emanating from
abroad. Japanese Friends were now to take the weight on
their own shoulders. Financial support from abroad too was
to be considered subsidiary to self-support, and was to be on
a decreasing scale. This critical moment in the history of a
“mission-propagated” Quaker group is one that Quaker em-
bassies in Europe have perhaps escaped to great degree. That
Japanese Friends weathered the danger with a growing sense
of common purpose and harmony between the two national
groups, speaks well for the forebearance and patience of both
sides.
For the first few years after the establishment of Yearly
Meeting, in pursuance of the independence aim, no missionaries
were appointed to committees, but gradually the need of more
cooperation was felt, and the pendulum swung back to a more
normal relationship. At last in 1923 the great earthquake
made all work together to relieve the suffering of that time,
without any consciousness of difference in nationality. This
matter will be treated later under the head of Quaker Service.
In 1925 Seiju Hirakawa became clerk of the Yearly Meet-
ing, and two years later in answer to a felt need, he resigned
his principalship of the Friends Girls School, and was ap-
pointed to the position of General Secretary of the Yearly
Meeting. From then on he gave the greater part of his time to
the coordination of work within the Society, and when oppor-
tunity offered, to the furtherance of its leavening power in the
outside world.
HiraRawa San’s first contact with Friends in Mito has
already been mentioned. He came into Quakerism from a
Buddhist background, and had been accustomed to the practice
of silent meditation in the Zen manner before he joined
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
25
Friends.' (1) But he himself feels that although the outward
form has certain similarities to a Friends meeting for worship,
the meaning of the whole process is so different that it can
hardly be considered a stepping stone to the silent worship of
Friends. He had come during his years at the school to feel
a real concern for the Yearly Meeting, and it was through it
that he felt he could give his best service. The years that fol-
lowed his appointment as secretary, were a time of real prog-
ress in the functioning of that body. Its life ran more and
more through distinctively Quaker channels.
Before then however, there had been an earnest and in-
creasing desire to know what Quakerism was. In 1924 special
gatherings were held in all the Meetings in commemoration of
the Tercentenary of George Fox’s birth. A visit to Japan by
Rufus M. Jones in 1926 was utilized for a four-day conference,
and Friends from all parts gathered in Tokyo. Some of them
knew his books already, and were eager for this opportunity
to meet him and hear his interpretation from his own lips.
Four years later, Takeo Iwahashi, a member of London Yearly
Meeting, living in Osaka, came north and spoke to Friends in
their local meetings, on Quakerism. The fact that he had been
denied the outer, physical light made all the more impressive
his emphasis on the Inner Light. Japan Yearly Meeting sent
representatives to the two World Conferences of Friends that
were held in London, England, in 1920, and at Swarthmore,
Pennsylvania, U. S. A., in 1937.
The adoption of a Statement of Faith in 1928 may not
sound like a distinctively Quaker step, but when the circum-
stances are considered, it should be granted that there was
more reason for defining their position in the face of the vague
conceptions commonly held of Christianity, and the almost
absolute ignorance in regard to Quakerism, than there would
be in some other quarters. It was drawn up by a committee
< x > Cf. p. 10 for Zen and Quaker resemblances and differences.
26
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
THE COMMITTEE THAT FORMULATED THE STATEMENT OF FAITH
of the Yearly Meeting, after long and prayerful thought. An
entirely unofficial translation of its five clauses follows : —
1. We believe that God is our Father, and that his Spirit
is within us.
2. We believe that the spiritual nature of man is of infi-
nite and absolute value, and we look for its highest
realization in the experiences of daily life.
3. We acknowledge our tendency to fall into evil, but we
believe that through sincere repentance, we may obtain
saving purification and new life.
4. By the coming together of personalities so purified by
faith, we confidently expect the establishment of the
Kingdom of God.
5. Relying upon our Lord Jesus Christ, the teachings of
the Holy Bible, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit,,
we believe this faith may be realized.
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
27
Quaker Literature in Japan
The monthly publication of “The Japanese Friend”, (1) an
eight-page periodical, began in 1906, and through the succeed-
ing years has helped to give solidarity and an understanding of
Quakerism to the groups. The publication of other Quaker
literature has perhaps not had the emphasis it should have had.
Just at the beginning, the lives of George Fox, Elizabeth Fry,
Stephen Grellet, and William Penn had been translated into
Japanese. Daniel Wheeler and John Woolman came later, but
all were done under mission auspices, and perhaps it was too
early. The foundations which made possible a true evaluation,
were not yet well established. Later Rufus Jones’ tercentenary
“Life and Message of George Fox” was translated and pub-
lished by “The Japanese Friend”. Two other manuscripts have
been prepared, — one a translation of George Fox’s Journal
(abridged), and one a historical account of Mysticism and
Quakerism, but wartime rationing of paper, and censorship
have not permitted their publication. Following the example,
set by London Yearly Meeting with its “Swarthmore Lecture”,
and by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting with its “William Penn
Lecture”, Japan Yearly Meeting has of late years established
an “Inazo Nitobe Memorial Lectureship”. It is the intention
of the committee to publish these lectures in book form at a
more convenient season. We must look to a later generation,
however, for a distinctively Japanese interpretation of Quaker
thought.
The Friends Girls’ School
Our story really began with the Girls’ School, but after
seeing it built on Saints Hill in 1887, we turned from it to other
matters. We must now take up again the thread of its develop-
ment. Since that beginning more than fifty years ago, it has
been sending out its young women into society, in gradually
increasing numbers. At present these amount to about one
“Tomo”, i.e. “The Friend”, since 1921. Before that “Ai no Tomo”, meaning the
“Friend of Love”.
28
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
BUILDINGS OF FRIENDS GIRLS’ SCHOOL
hundred every year, each one going out equipped with the regu-
lar five years’ course of High School education, given by con-
cerned and well trained teachers; a knowledge of English
considerably above that given by the government schools ; prac-
tice in governing themselves through a self-government associa-
tion^ 1 ’ and health of body and mind, gained from properly
directed sports and exercises. But they have more than this.
The windows of the spirit world have been at least partly
opened for them by weekly, systematic study of the Bible. Some
attempts at applying its truths to the problems of life have
been made. Something of the joy of fellowship on Christian
lines, therein set forth, has been experienced. Beyond that
some of them have come into direct contact with the Father
O) It was Edith Newlin, a teacher in the Friends Girls School from 1918 to 1927
who first realized the importance of the principle of self-government for Jap-
anese girls, and who, with the cooperation of Japanese teachers and pupils*
worked out the details of the present system.
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
29
of their spirits, in a way that will go through life with them.
They go out, some to enter higher schools, some to prepare for
married life, to business positions and to school rooms. Many
of them become parts of the organized Christian movement.
Some have served loyally in the Friends meetings, and become
integral parts of them. But whether they do make such con-
nections or not there is a serious purpose among most of them
to live worthily of the light received.
During its fifty years the school has had three principals :
— Chuzo Kaifu, 1887-1912 ; Seiju Hirakawa, 1912-1927 ; and Toki
Tomiyama who is still in office. It is one of the few “mission-
schools”, so-called, which has never had a foreign principal.
There has been great harmony between the Japanese and the
Americans working together for the school. Whether it was
in the time of Chuzo Kaifu when Mary Ann Gundry and Minnie
Pickett and Sarah Ellis and others were associated, or in the
time of Seiju Hirakawa when Alice Lewis was teaching there,
or of late when Esther B. Khoads worked with Toki Tomiyama,
there has always been a spirit of cooperation. Indeed one of
the glories of the school is that, in this way, it has been a kind
of international experiment, and has born international fruit
in the plastic hearts of the young people who attend it. Toki
Tomiyama was one of its graduates, and later attended a
Quaker School in America. She lias had other opportunities
to travel and to observe Quaker education in the West. Surely
now if ever she has need of all the wisdom that comes to heart
and mind, for she holds the principalship at a very difficult
time.
The school received government recognition in 1912, so
that its graduates have the privilege of going up to higher
schools. It is well thought of by the public and has loyal
patrons and teachers. Dr. Mtobe lent his name to it as chair-
man of its Supporters Association, while he was living. It
was during this time that the Princess Chichibu who had her-
self once been a pupil at the Friends School in Washington,
visited the school, a red-letter day for all connected with it.
Setsuzo Sawada is now chairman of the Board of Trustees.
30
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
QUAKER SERVICE AND WORK FOR PEACE
Quaker Service
Friends have ever been mindful of suffering bodies, as well
as darkened souls, and have labored to bring relief to both. In
Japan so many sudden catastrophes occur. A bit of thought-
lessness in the manipulation of the charcoal fire, and a high
wind, may wipe out half a town in a few hours. And one
never knows where the tremors of earthquakes that are of such
frequent occurrence will end. Under such circumstances the
habit of sharing is well developed. Bureau drawers are made
to disgorge out-grown clothes; an accumulation of tea pots
comes out of the corners of closets ; a cup full of rice from the
family supply, combined with those of the neighbors’ makes a
filling meal for people who have just lost everything. Already
we have spoken of relief to flood sufferers. In some degree
relief has been administered to victims of such natural catas-
trophes by all the Friends’ groups, as occasion has demanded.
Friends have done yeoman’s service too in the cause of
temperance. From the very beginning Temperance Societies
were formed in all the localities where Friends were working,
and great earnestness for the cause was displayed. Friends co-
operated too with the national Temperance Society and the
W.C.T.U. One result was a village not far from Tsuchiura
whose village organization absolutely banned the use of sake,
and kept it up for years. Many personal efforts to help friends
escape from the habit were also made.
One member of the Mito Meeting tells of walking to his
home outside the city, after dark at night, when only a young
boy, and soon after he had joined the Meeting. On the way
he saw a man intoxicated, lying in the ditch by the side of the
road. He trembled with what seemed to him the enormity of
his responsibility under these circumstances. At first he
started to walk on and leave the man there, but he heard a
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
31
voice say to him very clearly, “If your Christian faith has any
meaning, you will go back and help him”. He did, and the
incident stays in his memory as one of the turning points in
his spiritual life.
But some moments are too tremendous to be handled by
any small group, and one of them was the noon hour on Sep-
tember 1st, 1923, when the great Tokyo earthquake occurred.
This is not the place to go into detail on the sufferings, or the
activities to relieve them, in the days that followed. But
Friends did rise to the emergency, and gave organized and
effective relief. They began almost immediately giving personal
help to their own members, but when money was cabled them
from the American Friends Service Committee, they set to
work in earnest on a larger scale. A Service Committee (1) was
formed on September 10.
This committee weighed the possibilities carefully, and
eventually received permission from the city to build 28 small
dwelling houses and an assembly hall, in one corner of a city
park. These houses were rented to families who had lost their
homes, and a democratic organization was effected. Meetings
for entertainment and uplift were held in the assembly hall.
Two years later they were moved further out of the city, and
set up again in a group that was called “Friends Village”.
Gradually the householders bought their homes and the group
was liquidated.
Another project was for more distressed people in one of
the slum sections of the city. Here barracks were erected and
food and clothing distributed. A program of music, movies,
talks on hygiene, a medical clinic, Christian talks and hymn
singing, attempted to minister to the whole man. This was
carried on for four years after the earthquake.
m its members were Tetsuro Sawano, Setsuzo Sawada, Thomas E. Jones, Alice G.
Lewis, Esther B. Rhoads, Tatsunosuke Ueda, Seiju Hirakawa, Minoru Maeda,
and Mansaku Nakamura.
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
In addition to the assistance given at the time of the
earthquake the A.F.S.C. sent Hugh and Elizabeth Borton to
Japan for a three years’ period, to work with the mission and
to give especial attention to Japan- American relations.
Work for Peace
As early as the autumn of 1889 a Japan Peace Society had
been formed, Akasaka Friends taking the initiative. Its pur-
pose was to study the problems of war and peace. A little
later the magazine “Peace” was issued, under the editorship
of Manji Kato. But this beginning was cut short by govern-
ment order, at the time of the Sino- Japanese War in 1894, as
was also another beginning made in Yokohama, just at the
eve of the war. Both of these attempts were made not by or-
ganized Friends Meetings, but by individual Friends. Non-
Friends were admitted, and the activities of these societies,
however short their duration, represent the beginning of the
Christian Peace Movement in Japan. By the time of the
Russo-Japan War in 1904, although there was no organization,
the pacifist position was widely recognized, and many promi-
nent people were associated with it. Among them was Kanzo
Uchimura, with whom our story began. Friends seem to have
lost their lead to some extent, during this time.
An interest in the movement had reached many public
spirited men, outside of the Christian church, and was fanned
by Hilbert Bowles. He was assisted by a young man, named
Setzuzo Sawada, (1) who later became prominent in the diplo-
matic world. As a result of their efforts an organization called
the Japan Peace Society was again formed in 1906. At first
its leadership was prevailingly Christian, but later under the
presidency of Count (later Marquis) Okuma, its scope and
influence became broader. Anti- Japanese agitation on the
Pacific coast made their work difficult, and after a quarter of
U) Cf. also last paragraph of section entitled Friends Girls School, p. 29.
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
a century of effective service, war, this time in Manchuria
(1931), again nipped the promising bud. The two Christian
organizations, — World Alliance for International Friendship
through the Churches and the Fellowship of Reconciliation
were hardier plants, with which Japanese Friends continued
to cooperate. Seiju Hirakawa served as secretary of the latter
for a long period of years.
The Yearly Meeting had from the beginning a Peace Com-
mittee, and it was by its recommendation that representatives
were appointed to the London All-Friends Conference of 1920.
They brought back a report that very much stirred up enthusi-
asm for peace in the Yearly Meeting, when it was made at its
1921 sessions. A minute was adopted, giving expression to
their renewed sense of loyalty to the cause. In 1924 when feel-
ing was very strong about the Immigration Law which the
American government had enacted, the Yearly Meeting Peace
Committee issued a declaration, challenging the attention of
the Home and Foreign Ministers of the government. Again in
1931 after the beginning of the Manchurian Incident, Friends
cooperated with other Christian sects of peace principles, in
the following declaration to the Prime Minister and other mem-
bers of the Cabinet : “We deeply deplore the international strife
with our neighbor, China. Desirous of attaining lasting peace,
based on the broad way of love for humanity, not only between
our two countries, but among all the nations of the world, we
confidently look to you for efforts to that end.”
On several occasions Peace Retreats were planned by the
Standing Committee of the Yearly Meeting, when for two or
three days, those especialty interested, would withdraw to some
place where they could be uninterrupted, and there discuss
quietly the implications of peace and war. It was mental and
spiritual gymnastics such as this that helped to produce the
internationalism of such men as Seiju Hirakawa and Yasukuni
Suzuki, head resident of the young men’s dormitory in Tokyo.
Opportunities for its expression come to them often in per-
34
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
sonal relations with Chinese and Korean students in the
capital; in service rendered to European Jews who drifted to
Japan without any economical support for the present, or hope
for the future; and in propagating the spirit of international-
ism among the students of the universities in Tokyo. A trip to
Shanghai after 1932 helped Suzuki San further to realize the
true results of war and an imperialistic policy.
Friendly personal relationships between the nationals of
the two countries may be of more significance than any number
of declarations made by organizations. One example was the
visit of S. H. Fong of West China Yearly Meeting, to Japan.
He was on his way home after a year or two spent in England,
and was urged to see Japan. He was very much averse to doing
so, having received most unfavorable impressions of Japanese
character. With the feeling of taking his life in his hands,
he finally introduced himself to Japanese Friends. Some of
their leading spirits spent two or three days with him in inti-
mate and frank exchange of views, and in worship together, in
a quiet hotel on the seashore of Ibaraki Province. He was
entirely disarmed in the course of it, and the whole group
entered into deep fellowship together. One Friend remarked
that to see Mr. Fong wearing a Japanese kimono about the
hotel, had given her quite a new feeling for China, and before
he left, he bought Japanese trinkets to take home to his
family, although he had previously advocated the boycott
against Japanese goods. Later his home in Chengtu was de-
stroyed in a Japanese air-raid. When the news of it came to
Hijirizaka Meeting, a collection was made, and a gift of money
was sent through safe hands, as a mark of penitential brother-
hood.
Other visits back and forth have been made in the inter-
ests of mutual understanding. Gilbert Bowles, Mansaku Naka-
mura and Seiju Hirakawa were such emissaries, at one time
going as far as West China. Letters of Christian good will
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
35
were exchanged between the two Yearly Meetings, even after
feelings in both countries were running high.
One very good place to see the peace movement in Japan
in its practical workings, was at the Bowles’ dinner table, at
which Minnie P. Bowles presided with her inexhaustible spirit
of hospitality. Gilbert Bowles at the other end of the table,
would be directing the conversation into channels that made all
the guests assembled there from many quarters, feel at home
and enlightened.
Westerners often ask about the conscientious objector
movement in Japan. If there is such a movement, it is not
allowed to become public. It will not become a widespread
movement, I think, because Japanese ways of thinking are
different from those of the West in so many respects. In the
first place they have been taught in the feudal days of the past,
as well as in imperialistic times in the present, the duty of
absolute obedience on the part of the subject to his overlord.
Because tlie whole is more important than any of its parts,
there is nothing to do but to sacrifice the individual judgment,
even at such times as it repudiates the demands made on it by
that whole. In such cases they feel that this is not sin for
them, because it has been taken out of their hands and is there-
fore no longer their moral responsibility.
Then again the family organization is so much stronger
with them than with Anglo-Saxon people. A family conclave,
including parents and uncles, is held to determine the young
man’s future steps in life. Of course he has a chance to express
his own desires, but he certainly does not have the freedom to
choose his own way that the young men of the West have.
Besides, the consequences of his deeds come back not only to
himself, but to his whole family. The conscientious objector
stand comes out of a more individualistic society than obtains
in Japan, I believe.
36
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
Quaker Strains from Other Sources
Lest it be thought that Japanese Quakerism is one of
which the Philadelphia Mission was the sole purveyor, an
account should be given without more delay, of the many con-
tributions that have been made from other sources, and which
have helped to preserve its cosmopolitan quality.
From the very beginning there was Dr. Whitney whose
name has already been mentioned. He was the first American
student at the medical school of the Tokyo University, and
after he had taken his degree, he founded a hospital in Akasaka
Ward of Tokyo, neighboring Shiba. That was in 1886. Dr.
Henry Hartshorne was another who came to Japan on a pro-
fessional medical errand, but who gave concerned counsel to
the little group of Friends in its beginning days. His daughter,
Anna C. Hartshorne, remained its friend through her long
years of educational service in Tokyo. Meanwhile George
Braithwaite had come from England, and Dr. Whitney had
married his sister, Mary, and brought her to Japan. Thus a
new center of Friends was formed. A little gathering of very
zealous believers grew up around the hospital. At first they
did not call themselves Friends, but as time went on the need
for some connection with a Christian group was felt, and
gradually its members and those at Hijirizaka came to know
each other. Individuals from the older group took responsi-
bilities from time to time for the Akasaka group, and finally
in 1939, after much conference on the subject, the Akasaka
Meeting was recognized as a Monthly Meeting of the Japan
Yearly Meeting, — the ninth and last to be set up. Teiko Kudo
a very earnest and consecrated woman, ministers to it.
The group of English Friends was represented in the Mis-
sion Committee by the son of George and Lettice Braithwaite,
G. Burnham Braithwaite, and his wife, Edith Lamb Braith-
waite. Burnham’s knowledge of the language, learned as a
child learns it, was of great value to the work. Canadian
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
37
Friends have also served on the Mission Committee, and their
Board has shared in the financial as well as the spiritual sup-
port of the work.
Among the Japanese Friends are some who have had
broad international experience, and who have brought back
to the little Quaker group in their own country some of the
air of that bigger world. Foremost among these was Dr. Inazo
Nitobe, a member of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, which he
joined when a student at Johns Hopkins University. His
marriage to a member of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting made
the tie with America stronger. Later, seven years in the
Secretariat of the League of Nations, taking an active and
highly valued part in the solving of world problems, confirmed
his international viewpoint. At such times as he could be in
Japan, he was in demand on all sides and led an almost un-
believably busy life. Friends will therefore never forget the
occasions when he took time for them, — attending and address-
ing their Yearly Meetings, conducting a conference group
one winter on Sunday mornings for the members of Hijirizaka
Meeting, or occasionally dropping in unannounced to their
meetings for worship. His weightiness, his simplicity, his
lovable qualities, left a deep impress on all he met. Portions
of his view of Quakerism are appended to this account.
Then there is Iwao Ayusawa, a one-time student of Haver-
ford College, whose years in America were followed by a long
residence in Geneva, and work in connection with the Interna-
tional Labour Office. His Quaker home in America, together
with friendship with Dr. Nitobe, and connection with the
Friends’ group in Geneva, were the formative influences in his
Quaker faith. He joined Japan Yearly Meeting on his return,
and has been a most concerned member. His work as execu-
tive secretary of the World Economic Research Institute in
Tokyo, still takes him into international fields. Like so many
people in the West of late, he has been especially interested in
encouraging the study of post war economic organization.
38
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
Takeo Iwahaslii and his wife came to us from London
Yearly Meeting, joined during years of study in Edinburgh.
Pendle Hill, a school near Philadelphia, has done great service
for Japanese students, who have come back to their country
to share the catholicity of view, and the sense of responsibility
for service, acquired there. Among these are Kikue Kurama,
Ryurnei Yamano, Masa Uraguchi, and Tane Takahashi.
CHURCH UNION AND AFTER
In 1936 Japan Yearly Meeting celebrated the Fiftieth
Anniversary of Quaker work in Japan. Fraternal delegates
came from Philadelphia to share in the occasion, and it was a
feast of good-will and hope. Whatever the subsequent devel-
opments, it was a bright spot in the memories of all concerned.
But the international sky was already dark, and the storm
broke the next year, — in north China. With war came a height-
ening of nationalistic feeling. What had begun as a struggle
between China and Japan, soon became a whirlwind that drew
the whole Pacific area into its vortex. To drive Western im-
perialism from the Orient was the Japanese slogan. There fol-
lowed a time which was especially lacerating to the feelings of
Japanese Christians, as well as to those of the West. Its
connections with Western churches did Japanese Christianity
no good in the eyes of the public. Missionaries found them-
selves in an embarrassing position, and by 1940 a large propor-
tion of them had returned to their home countries. The year
before that the Religious Organizations Bill passed the Diet,
and became law. By it Christianity was recognized as one of
the three religions of Japan, but it had to pay its price for
recognition, which was, — union of all the denominations into
one organization; severance of financial and other relations
with missions from abroad; and an acceptance of a degree of
government supervision. The union clause was not unpopular
among many Japanese Christians. There had been a more or
less well-developed agitation for it before that time anyhow.
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
39
It was harder however for some churches than for others. The
Episcopal Church held out against it until the fall of 1943,
and then yielded because continued existence as a separate
entity had practical difficulties that seemed insuperable. If
that were true for such a strong organization, we may believe
there would have been no hope for the little group of Friends.
But is was a wrench to give up its independent existence. It
meant accepting the whole ecclesiastical program, — ordained
ministers, sacraments, creeds, etc. At its last Yearly Meeting
in 1941 the decision was made, however, and the Japan Yearly
Meetings of Friends ceased to exist soon thereafter.
It is not true that the government of Japan has adopted an
attitude of persecution toward Christianity. It has recognized
the service to J apanese society that Christianity has made, and
it desires its help in the present crisis. But it wants the kind
of Christianity that it can manipulate and make useful in its
own way. In this sense it is a time of grave danger to the
“Church of Christ in Japan.”
What is left of Japanese Quakerism? Let us recognize
first of all that spiritual values exist in the hearts of men, not
in organizations. To the extent that members of Friends have
been able to carry over into the new organization, the spiritual
values received from their Quaker faith, let us give thanks.
They will not die. There is a type of character which is of more
importance than any organization, and it will go echoing down
the ages. It needs no denominational tag.
But there is a “remnant”, a stock from which fresh growth
may sprout when a more favorable time comes. Let us attempt
an inventory of the more tangible results from Friends’ fifty
years in Japan. To begin with material assets, — the meeting
houses of course go with the meeting members to the union
church. Besides them there is in Tokyo a furnished residence,
a dormitory for young men, and the well-appointed buildings of
40
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
the girls’ school ; in Mito some property on the main business
street, and the buildings of an old peoples’ home. These are
all held by a Japanese Holding Company, and so are not sub-
ject to confiscation as enemy property. The girls’ school and
the old peoples’ home are both carrying on outside the church,
as far as organization is concerned. They have their own gov-
erning body of trustees. The men’s dormitory in Tokyo was
still functioning in September of 1943, but with the difficulties
in provisioning, in getting help, and in the demands of the
military on the young men, it may be necessary to close it down.
Last, but not least, there are two small groups left which
may definitely be called Friends, both in Tokyo. The first of
these is the Friends Center Committee. It was formed some
years before the war began, to represent Friends to those of
various countries who come to Japan with an interest in
Quakerism, and to serve the Jewish refugees who were coming
in large numbers to Japan at that time. Gilbert Bowles was
a member of the committee as long as he was in Japan. Now
its members are Seiju Hirakawa, Iwao Ayusawa, and Yasu-
kuni Suzuki. This committee has charge of the dormitory; it
arranges for the Inazo Nitobe Memorial Lectures and it
gathers other Friends, individual members who did not go with
their meetings into the union movement, for meetings for wor-
ship, or for the consideration of some topic of common interest,
as opportunity arises. To these people the tenet of inward faith
without the aid of outward form, seemed too precious to give
up. They have an office in the dormitory, and a small Friends’
library is also housed there. When communication with Japan
becomes possible again, they will be instruments with whom
Friends from outside can hope to make connections.
The other group of which we spoke is the group of Young
Friends. They number perhaps ten or twelve. Many of them
are second generation Christians, and quite a few have grown
up with Friends. Four at least have had a year’s study at
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
41
Pendle Hill, and all are trained to think. They are “convinced”
Friends, whatever their forebears. They too felt that the
Quaker heritage was too precious to be lost, and have continued
to meet for worship and study and discussion. They and the
Friends Center Committee plan to cooperate in holding meet-
ings. The lives of these young Friends are before them, and
perhaps we can not do better than leave the future of Quaker-
ism in Japan with them, at this point, praying for them God’s
guidance and blessing.
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
APPENDIX I .
A Japanese View of Quakerism ( abridged ) by Dr. Inazo Nitobe
The starting point of Quaker teaching is the belief in the existence
of the Inner Light. **** Whatever the name, it means the presence of
a Power not our own, the indwelling of a Personality, other than
human, in each one of us. Such a doctrine is **** as old as the oldest
form of mysticism. Buddhism is full of references to it. **** The Zen
Sect of Buddhism makes it its aim to comprehend it. ****
Let it be far from me to turn Quakerism into Oriental mysticism.
Quakerism stays within the family of Christianity. **** Unlike Orient-
als, George Fox and his followers conceived **** of light as a person;
but by making their person eternal and existent before the world was,
Quakerism came to much the same conclusion as the old mystics.
Were these mystics misguided, building their houses on the sands
of fantasy and clothing themselves in garments woven of cobwebs? ****
Modern psychologists do not seem to deny that there can be a gradual
development in consciousness. **** [self-consciousness] is a state of
development not very difficult for us to attain, in fact every normal
being attains it. But is there not a stage still higher, where we can
merge ourselves in the great universe? **** Curiously enough the
Cosmic sense as described by those who attain it, is very much the
same everywhere — whether it be by a Buddhist priest, a Shinto votary,
or an American farmer. ****
The central doctrine of Quakerism is the belief in this Cosmic
sense, which they call the Inner Light and all the doctrines and pre-
cepts of Quakerism are only corollaries drawn from this premise. ****
Is there then no superiority in the so-called revealed religion, by
which is meant, I presume, the revelation of Godhead in the person and
life of Jesus Christ? **** We read Laotze; we read Buddhist saints;
we study Oriental mystics, **** we are brought very near to the idea
of redemption, atonement, salvation. **** but we feel that we have not
reached our finality. **** Yes, we see light, but not the one thing essen-
tial — perfect, living Personality.
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QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
APPENDIX II.
From a paper read by T. Takemura at the Fiftieth Anniversary
Meeting of Friends in Japan. ( translated )
Silent worship is the expression of Quakers’ attitude to life. Sim-
plicity in the outward appearance of the meeting, which nevertheless
produces on the communicants a deep sense of devoutness, is character-
istic of the Quaker manner of life. Simplicity is no lack of aesthetic
sense. In many cases of Quaker practice, simplicity is raised to the
point of exquisite beauty, — the beauty of artless art. In this sense of
beauty the early Quakers seemed to have much in common with Jap-
anese. **** The beauty of the highest grade is found mostly in objects
most simple. The “haiku” or “hokku”, a sort of sonnet, regarded as
the most refined literature in Japan, is the simplest and shortest of all
the world’s literary forms, comprising only 17 syllables. Again, the
“sumie” is a picture of Chinese origin, painted in black only, and with
the lightest touch of the brush. It ranks as the highest art. [He
instances as further examples Friends’ meeting-houses] with bare
beams and plain white walls, and no decoration, but exquisitely
beautiful.
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
45
APPENDIX III.
List of those who served in the Friends Foreign Mission in Japan,
together with the dates of their service.
Joseph and Sarah Ann Cosand 1885-1900
William V. and Isabel Wright 1888-1891
Mary Ann Gundry 1889-1905
Mary M. Haines 1892-1895
Gurney, 1893-1936; and Elizabeth J. S. Binford 1899-1936
Minnie P., 1893-1941; and Gilbert Bowles 1901-1941
Edith Dillon 1896-1903
Sara Ellis 1902-1915
Sarah M. Longstreth 1903-1905
Inez E. Taber 1905-1910
Alice G. Lewis 1905-1924
Horace E. and Elizabeth Coleman 1907-1927
Mary H. Lewis 1908-1909
Edith F. Sharpless 1910-1943
Alice C. Gifford 1911-1920
Esther B. Rhoads 1917-1918 and 1921-1940
Esther B., 1914-1924; and Thomas E. Jones 1918-1924
Catherine Jones -1915-1916
Herbert V., 1915-1939; and Madeline W. Nicholson . . .1920-1939
Edith Newlin 1918-1927
Margaret W. Rhoads 1921-1922
Rosamond H. Clark 1921-1923
G. Burnham and Edith L. Braithwaite 1922-1935
Margaret S. James 1922-1924
Violet Hawkins 1925-1932
Alice L. Dixon 1926-1929
Luanna J. Bowles 1927-1928
Hugh and Elizabeth W. Borton 1928-1931 and 1934-1936
Edna Miller 1929-1933
Sarah A. G. Smith 1933-1935
Helen Thomas 1936-1937
46
QUAKERISM IN JAPAN
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fifty Years of Quakerism in Japan, by S. Hirakawa. In Japanese.
Kirisuto Yukai 50 Nenshi. 1937.
Reports of the Mission Board of Friends of Philadelphia
The Friend (Philadelphia)
A Japanese View of Quakerism, by Inazo Nitobe, an address made at
the University of Geneva, December 14, 1926. Published by
Friends Service Council. London.
History of Japanese Religion, by M. Anesaki, 409 pages. 1930. Pub-
lished by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.
Japan, A Short Cultural History, by G. B. Sansom. Published by the
Century Co., New York, 1932.
Beyond Dilemmas, Edited by S. B. Laughlin. Chapter 13, “Quakerism
Through Oriental Eyes,” by Takeo Iwahashi. Published by J. B.
Lippincott Co., 1937.
WC 2 — 5 M
