28 pages
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Nagasawa Kanaye: The Spiritual Life of California’s Japanese WinePioneer
Thomas Lockley,
Nihon University College of Law, Tokyo, Japan.Abstract
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In 1867, a young Japanese man, Nagasawa Kanaye （長澤鼎）, joined the charismatic American Thomas Lake Harris’ sect called ‘The Brotherhood of the New Life.’
Harris’teachings were originally inspired by the eighteenth-century Swedish Lutheran mystic,Emanuel Swedenborg, but later drew on a variety of religious and spiritual influencesfrom around the world, including Japan.
Harris went out of his way to attract Japanesemen to his American communities and the most loyal, Nagasawa, eventually became his leading disciple and acknowledged heir. Nagasawa’s spiritual involvement with Harrishas traditionally been played down in favor of his status as a Californian wine guru and pioneering Japanese immigrant. This study, however, analyzing personal diaries and correspondence, attempts to uncover how a young samurai, raised to despise Christianity, became Harris’ leading follower. It sheds new light on Nagasawa’s religious side and what exactly his membership and eventual leadership of ‘The Brotherhood of the New Life’ meant to him and other Harris disciples.
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