Stories
About
Japan
日本を語る |
"Foreigners Who
Changed Japan" Series, Part 2 日本を変えた外国人 II
![](Frois_statue_Yokoseura_2018-03-19-s.jpg) |
No. 3
The First Foreign Historian
in Japan
- Luis Frois -
第三話:日本初のポルトガル人歴史家
ルイス・フロイス
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Luis
Polycarp Frois could very well be called Japan's first foreign-born
historian, having come to the country in 1563 at the age of 27 and
staying for 31 years, 20 of which were spent on Kyushu. During these
years, he objectively and extensively chronicled 16th-century Japanese
life in some 140 letters and nearly 2,500 pages of history, which later
became a five-volume work called the Historia
de Japam
(History of Japan 1549-1593), and could be considered the very first
Western historiographer of Japan. Unbelievably, his work would not be
read by the greater world then as it was not published nor translated
into any other language until 1976. His other interesting work on
things Japanese, the Treaty on Contradictions, was not printed until
400 years later as well. Truly odd, but perhaps the victim of internal
affairs among the more elite Jesuit leadership in Japan, specifically
the Italian Alessandro Valignano, who had a too-critical view of what
Frois had written. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that the period of
Frois' writings about Japan coincided with the great increase of
commerce and intellectual exchange during the Azuchi-Momoyama era.
There
had been other accounts written earlier about Japan, e.g. by Tomé Pires
in 1513; Mendes Pinto in his journal, the Peregrinação (1614); and
Jorge Alvares, who gave Francis Xavier descriptions of the Japanese
land and people in 1548. But none of these reached the depth and volume
that Frois had chronicled, nor did they have such close contact with
the great leaders of that age, Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Earlier writers had had great influence on helping to bring knowledge
of Japan to the early Portuguese explorers of Asia who, as a result,
gradually brought western culture to the Japanese. Later writings by
Japanophiles Gaspar Vilela, Luis Almeida, and João Rodrigues had even
more influence on making Japan known to the world, and the world known
to Japan. Through these early contacts with the West, Japan's future
would be changed in amazing ways.
Frois spent his first year and a half in Hirado and nearby Takashima,
learning the Japanese language and culture. Over the next four years,
he was then sent to Kyoto, then to Sakai, then back to Kyoto, where he
became the first Jesuit to reside there. Among the highlights of Frois'
seven years in Kyoto were the high-level meetings with Nobunaga,
talking with the leader about a variety of things both Japanese and
European. Nobunaga was especially fond of Frois and very interested in
all the new things brought over by the
Portuguese, even wearing
clothing that the nanbanjin would wear. In an official parade in Kyoto,
Nobunaga sat on a velvet chair that the Jesuit missionary Valignano had
given him, an immensely practical device never before seen in Japan.
Frois even showed Nobunaga an alarm clock, but the latter did not wish
to keep it as it would seem too difficult to regulate. Frois is said to
have
served as a sort of diplomat for Nobunaga, receiving letters from the
ruler that allowed the Jesuit's religion to be promulgated in Kyoto and
even a seminary to be built in Azuchi. Frois would ten years later meet
with Hideyoshi and act as interpreter in a very important meeting with
other Portuguese leaders, and be given a special tour of the new Osaka
castle.
As for religion, Frois and Nobunaga were both in agreement regarding
Buddhism, viewing that religion with great disdain. The Nichiren bonze,
Nichijo Shonin, had succeeded in having an Imperial Edict enacted in
1568 that ordered Frois be executed and his religion vanquished from
Japan. Nobunaga, however, overruled the edict. Nobunaga would later
carry out a massive destruction campaign against the temples and bonzes
at Mt. Hiei in Kyoto. Incidentally, Frois was at his church only a
block away from the place where Nobunaga burned to death on June 21,
1582, remarking, "this man, who made everyone tremble not only at the
sound of his voice but even at the mention of his name, there did not
remain even a small hair which was not reduced to dust and ashes."![](Black_sumo_wrestler_in_17th_century-s.jpg)
One of the interesting episodes with Nobunaga was when Frois visited
Kyoto in 1581 along with Valignano, who had brought along a Mozambican
teenager to present to Nobunaga. The Kyotoans had never seen a black
person before and created quite a riot just to catch a glimpse of him.
Nobunaga himself was so amazed that he had the young man stripped and
bathed to actually determine whether his skin color was real! This
African became Nobunaga's samurai attendant and was given the name
Yasuke.
Another famous individual Frois met was Sen-no-Rikyu,
renowned master of the tea ceremony (wabi-cha,
called suki
by the Jesuits) and special advisor to Nobunaga, later ordered by
Hideyoshi to commit suicide. It was through Sen-no-Rikyu that Frois was
able to ask Nobunaga for religious freedom for the Jesuits. Frois would
enjoy having tea with Nobunaga on different occasions, even showing
Frois his "golden tearoom." Incidentally, the ceramics boom in the
Arita and Imari areas of Kyushu could very well be related to the
influx of European influence and interest in Sen-no-Rikyu's tea
ceremony. So important was this ceremony that the Jesuit missionaries
created special reception rooms in their homes for this purpose, and
Japanese would engrave teacups with European symbols, including the
cross. "Imari porcelain" would later become a prime export to Europe
and the Middle East via Nagasaki.
Perhaps
the most important of events recorded by Frois was the journey of four
Japanese samurai teenagers to Europe in 1582. Called the Tensho
Embassy, it was initiated by Valignano and sent by very important daimyo
in southern Japan. These youth were probably the first Japanese group
to ever visit Europe. Their travels lasted eight years (only two of
which were actually spent in Europe) during which they visited famous
places and met important people such as King Phillip II of Spain and
the popes of Rome. The young men brought back to Japan many different
items, including books, musical instruments, a modern
atlas and a
globe, no doubt having a great impact on Japanese scholars, and
especially Hideyoshi. Frois wrote that Hideyoshi enjoyed the classical
music played by these young men on the harpsichord, harp, violin and
lute so much that he asked them to repeat their performance three times!
Valignano had wanted these young scholars and their attendants to learn
printing techniques in Europe, which they did, and brought back with
them the greatest and most important piece of equipment in their cargo,
the printing press, the first the Japanese had ever seen. They had also
brought kanji and kana metal dies to use in the press, and the first
print shop was set up in Kazusa in Shimabara. Through this amazing
invention, the Japanese were introduced to the first
Japanese-Portuguese language books, namely João Rodrigues' book of
grammar and later a Japanese-Portuguese dictionary, called "a
masterpiece of its kind." The grammar book alone was remarkable in that
it recorded the actual phonetic spelling of Japanese vocabulary,
helping us to know how Japanese words were pronounced in the 16th and
17th centuries. Rodrigues, incidentally, became the chief translator
for Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, but was later replaced by the
Englishman, William Adams.
There
were many other European ideas that affected Japanese culture. Perhaps
the greatest was education, as a number of schools and colleges were
built by the Portuguese. One estimate has it that there were some
12,000 pupils at these schools in western Japan who were being taught
about western civilization and thought. With all the foreign teachers
in the schools as well as Portuguese merchants and missionaries in the
country, it is no wonder that so many foreign words became a part of
the Japanese language – one researcher said they had imported around
4,000 words, though many later became obsolete. Conversely, the
Portuguese adopted Japanese words into their vocabulary which are still
in use today.
Another idea was city-building – construction design and techniques
that were utilized in building schools, hospitals and churches for the
Europeans, seen especially in the city of Nagasaki. Prior to Nagasaki,
ports in Kagoshima, Oita, Hirado (a famous whaling and pirate port),
Yokoseura (where Frois first arrived in Japan, in north Saikai,
becoming the model city upon which Nagasaki was based) and Fukuda had
been used by trading ships. Fukuda was where the daimyo, Omura
Sumitada, had recommended the Jesuits locate after Yokoseura had been
destroyed (due to the bitterness of the Hirado daimyo over loss of trade
profits). However, the port was not in a safe location. Frois writes
about how a priest, Belchior de Figueiredo, searched for another harbor
by sounding various inlets. He soon found that Nagasaki, just to the
east of Fukuda, was an ideal spot for ships to enter for trade. The
Jesuits gradually populated the area and a city was built, soon
becoming very prosperous and the only international port for all of
Japan. After a crack-down on Jesuit activity, an isolation area for
them was built and was called Dejima, populated entirely by Portuguese.
When they were ordered out of the country in 1639, the Dutch from
Hirado took over and became the sole trading link with Europe for over
200 years.
![](Azuchi_Castle-s.jpg)
Since Frois' works were translated, his descriptions of various cities,
castles and gardens throughout Japan have excited the interest of quite
a number of Japanese researchers seeking more information about how
exactly these sites were constructed. Even today these descriptions
have created quite an interest in learning about the past. In the
visitor's center in Gifu, there was a 3-D model of Nobunaga's palace,
based wholly upon Frois' description of that building. Castle-building
was also influenced by Europeans, probably through the many
question-and-answer sessions the daimyo and great military leaders had
with the foreigners. Not only was Frois greatly impressed with
Nobunaga's Azuchi and Gifu Castles, he was equally amazed by the
hundreds of thousands of workers involved in building the grand walls
surrounding Hideyoshi's Osaka Castle. Some of the stones were so huge
that it required over 200,000 men to carry them! Frois was also
astonished at how clean the palaces and large houses were in Osaka.
Though Frois did not interact with Hideyoshi much, he did refer to him
as the second "great unifier of Japan."
Trade with Europe brought in many other new
things to Japan:
- Art, as more and more paintings were brought in by
the Europeans and Japanese students were taught aesthetic techniques,
helping them develop their own style, e.g. the Maruyama style, and
develop the amazing Nanban byobu;
- Weapons, such as teppo
rifles, smaller arms, and cannons, which, by the way, helped change the
way castles were built;
- Sugar and related confectioneries – nowadays the
Japanese are familiar with products such as castella sponge cakes, konpeito candy, maruboro cookies and dorayaki
sandwiches, all from the Portuguese. Sugar cane had been introduced
into Brazilian culture since the middle of the 16th century and become
popular for preserving foods on long journeys by ship. It is no wonder
this amazing sweetener caught on in Japanese cuisine, along with egg
recipes from the European traders. The Nagasaki Route through Kyushu
is, incidentally, called the "Sugar Road." One famous confectionery
company, Chidoriya, can trace its 17th-century roots to Saga where this
road passed through.
In his work, Treaty on Contradictions,
Frois wrote about the differences between the Japanese and Europeans.
Perhaps the reason for this work was to inform others more clearly
about the Japanese, that they were a people "so civilized, have such
lively genius, and are naturally intelligent." Among the 611
interesting observations are the following:
- With us, it is normal to whip and punish a child; in
Japan this is very rare and they only reprimand them.
- Our instructors teach our children the catechism,
[the lives of] the saints, and virtuous habits; the bonzes teach the
children to play music, sing, play games, fence and carry out their
abominations with them.
- We dress the same throughout the four seasons of the
year; the Japanese change their dress three times a year: natsu
katabira, aki-awase, fuyu kimono.
- Among us a new look in clothing is created nearly
every year; in Japan styles are always the same, without ever changing.
- Noblemen in Europe sleep at night and have their
entertainments during the day; Japanese noblemen sleep by day and have
their parties and amusements at night.
- In Europe, a young woman's supreme honor and treasure
is her chastity and the inviolate cloister of her purity; women in
Japan pay no mind to virginal purity nor does a loss of virginity
deprive them of honor or matrimony.
- Women in Europe perfume their hair with fragrant
aromas; Japanese women always walk about reeking of the oil they use to
anoint their hair.
- Women in Europe tie their hair by braiding ribbons
into it all the way to the ends; Japanese women tie their hair using
either a small paper ribbon at a single place in the back or they roll
it on top of the head using a paper string.
- The hair of women in Europe turns white in a few
short years; Japanese women who are sixty years old have no grey hair
because they treat it with oil.
- European women pierce their ears and wear earrings;
Japanese women neither pierce their ears nor do they use earrings.
Though many other writers have chronicled Japanese life, the works of
Frois will stand out among the greatest, especially in recording his
observations of and conversations with the great military leaders,
Nobunaga and Hideyoshi. Frois died in 1597 at the age of 65 in the city
that meant so much to him, Nagasaki, where he was personally able to
see and write about the effects of his land and his countrymen on that
great city, which eventually spread to all of the country. Though the
era of the Portuguese was soon to end in Japan, foreign influence would
continue through the English and the Dutch.
SOURCES:
The First European
Description of Japan, 1585: A Critical English-Language Edition of
Striking Contrasts in the Customs of Europe and Japan by Luis Frois, S.J. by Danford,
Gill and Reff (2014)
Luis Frois: First Western
Accounts of Japans Gardens, Cities and Landscapes by Cristina
Castel-Branco and Guida Carvalho (2020)
They Came to Japan: An
Anthology of European Reports on Japan, 1543-1640 by Michael
Cooper (1965)
Luis Frois History in 12 Volumes (2000) ル
イス・フロイス日本史 の検索結果
Text ©2022 Wes Injerd
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No. 4
The Doctor Who Taught the
World about Japan
- Engelbert Kaempfer -
第四話:日本を世界に教えた医者
エンゲルベルト・ケンペル
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One of the first
European physicians to come to Japan was a German named Engelbert
Kaempfer. He stayed in Japan only two years, from Sept. 23, 1690, until
Oct. 31, 1692. In spite of Japan's closed-country policy (sakoku),
Kaempfer recorded nearly everything he observed in Japanese society,
making many sketches of plants, animal life, and maps of various parts
of Japan. His observations and detailed sketches would later become a
book entitled Today's Japan,
first translated into English (The
History of Japan,
1727) and then from English into Latin, Dutch, French and German. What
Kaempfer wrote about Japan during his two years there would become the
world's view of Japan for the next 200 years.
![](Kaempfer_and_Imamura_1727.jpg)
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Batavia appointed Kaempfer as the
head physician at the VOC trading post on Dejima in Nagasaki, a small
island for the only foreigners in Japan, in order that it may be the
window through which the Japanese could know what the world is doing.
Kaempfer had a 24-year-old student and helper by the name of Genemon
(Eisei) Imamura 今村源衛門(英生), who was the key
person in enabling Kaempfer to assemble an enormous amount of
information about Japan
– its history, customs, religions, government, language, and natural
beauty. Imamura would later become quite well-known in rangaku (Dutch
studies), both as scholar and high-ranking interpreter. Like Kaempfer,
Imamura also contributed greatly to enlightening the Western world
about Japan.
![](Kaempfer-History-of-Japan-titlepage-color-1727-cropped-s.jpg)
Matthew
Perry carried with him on board his ship a copy of Kaempfer's book,
read by not only himself but also by Townsend Harris, the first
American consul to Japan. Perry is said to have "speedily and
thoroughly mastered" its contents. Famous men such as Immanuel Kant and
Goethe used this book, and even Voltaire thought highly of the work. It
was indispensable to the studies of Thunberg and Siebold who later
worked in Nagasaki.
During Kaempfer's stay in Nagasaki, one of the important words he
learned was "Tenka-sama," the ruler of Nipon, aka Nifon, from the
Chinese word, Sjippon, that
is, the "bastion of the sun." Kaempfer was
able to actually visit the ruler of Japan, Shogun Tsunayoshi, twice
while in Japan -- once in March, 1691, and then again the next year in
April. Kaempfer called this Shogun the "Secular Emperor," and the Dairi
or Mikado he called the "Ecclesiastical Emperor" or "Pope of Japan,"
which at the time was Higashiyama (Tomohito). To the Dutch in Nagasaki,
Kaempfer was only a physician, but to the scholarly Tsunayoshi, he was
more interesting than the Dutch trading post kapitan and treated him so.
![](Kaempfer_at_Edo_court_1729.jpg)
A very interesting conversation took place when Tsunayoshi desired to
know if the Dutch had discovered any medicine which would make one's
life immortal. Kaempfer replied that there indeed was a medicine to
keep people in
health and prolong life. Tsunayoshi requested that such a medicine be
brought on the next ship from Batavia in Indonesia. The Shogun also
asked Kaempfer and the two Dutchmen to sing and dance, paint, speak
broken Japanese, and even play a drunkard.
Of the many events Kaempfer observed in Nagasaki, one of the most
disturbing to him were the public executions of Japanese, either by
beheading or by crucifixion. Some offenders even "ripped open their
bellies" to atone for their offenses. Samurai were known to practice
their sword skills on the corpses, sometimes reducing them to tiny
pieces. Another observance was how dogs were treated so well, and many
Japanese severely punished for their ill-treatment of the animals. This
was due to the Shogun's love of dogs, which is why he was called the
"Dog Shogun" (犬公方 inu-kubo).
What exactly did the West learn from Kaempfer's work about Japan?
Probably the most useful information was Kaempfer's observations and
descriptions of people and places on the road and on board ship from
Nagasaki to Tokyo – the first "travelogue of Japan" to be widely read
in English (more so than Arnoldus Montanus' work in 1670). Even the
scholar Okikatsu Aoki commented around 1800 that anyone wanting to know
everything about eastern Japan should read Kaempfer's work.
No doubt the people of Japan were most interesting to Kaempfer. Here
are some of characteristics of the people he observed:
- The Japanese do not lack "heroism" when they are
conquered or have no way to take revenge, to kill themselves by
"ripping open their belly."
- They are revengeful, with jealousy and resentment
handed down to succeeding generations (e.g., Heike and Genji families).
- They are a valiant and invincible nation, as shown in
the Mongol attacks on Japan.
- Children are taught courage and resolution, being
taught stories, songs and ballads of war heroes. Older people are most
eager to fight against any danger to their empire.
- The Japanese are industrious, endure hardship,
love civility and good manners, being clean, neat and polite.
Much credit can be given to Sir Hans Sloane, founder of the British
Museum, for having Kaempfer's work translated into English, without
which many a traveler from the English-speaking world would not have
learned about the nation of Japan and been eager to visit its shores.
Text ©2021 Wes Injerd
(images available online)
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No. 5
The Doctor Who Taught
Medicine to Japan
- Philipp Franz von Siebold -
第五話:日本に医学を教えた医者
フィリップ・フランツ・フォン・シーボルト
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Philipp Franz
von Siebold was born in Wurzburg, Germany, on Feb. 17, 1796. He was
chief physician at Dejima, Nagasaki, from 1823 to 1829, and later
became adviser to the Dutch Trading Society from 1859 to 1861.
Though Chinese medicine had been known in Japan for hundreds of years,
and the work of German and Dutch doctors such as his predecessors
Thunberg and Kaempfer in the 18th
and 19th centuries, Siebold is best known as the German who brought
Western science and medicine to Japan. He was 29 years old when he
arrived in Dejima on August 11, 1823, appointed to be the official
physician for the Dutch East India Company. This office also included
the job of scientist, or in the case of Siebold, botanist, which
allowed him to do a very large amount of research, basically learning
as much as he could about Japan.
Next to Kaempfer, Siebold stands as the most voluminous writer of
things Japanese, especially in regards to things natural. It has been
remarked that Perry would have had Siebold's works added to his library
were they not so exorbitantly priced! There is perhaps no other
19th-century writer on things Japanese that has been so widely quoted
as Siebold -- even more so, no other foreign personality in Japan has
had so many books written about him, "882 western and 740 Japanese
titles" (per Philipp Franz von
Siebold and His Era: Prerequisites, Developments, Consequences and
Perspectives (2000), p95).
Once becoming the official physician in Dejima, his reputation grew
immensely and dozens of doctors from all over Japan came to him for
advice, especially regarding surgical methods, in which Siebold
excelled above his predecessors.
He was allowed to even treat patients outside of Dejima, but the number
grew so large that a house was built for him in an area called
Narutaki, where later he established a medical school. One of Siebold's
most-promising students was a man by the name of Choei Takano. After
graduation, Takano stayed in Nagasaki to help Siebold translate
Japanese medical books into Dutch, and then later translate Dutch books
into Japanese, which was of immense benefit to many. Perhaps Siebold's
most important medical advancement in Japan was the introduction of the
vaccine, resulting in numerous Japanese being inoculated against
smallpox around the year 1823.
Though he was an expert in his field, he could not relate his knowledge
to the Japanese without the help of Japanese interpreters. Much of his
success was no doubt due to these interpreters who were able to bridge
the gap, not only in conveying what Siebold had to teach, but in
explaining what the Japanese themselves desired to teach him about
their land, culture, language, politics, and lifestyle. Through this
exchange, Siebold could write authoritatively about Japan and her
people. Unfortunately, much of what he had intended to send to Europe
as museum pieces of his studies was confiscated during the "Siebold
Incident" of 1828. However, when he left Japan the second time, he
brought with him an immense number of items, including his own personal
library of over 3,400 volumes, which are all now at the Leiden
University Library in the Netherlands.
Around
1823 Siebold met and "married" a 16-year-old geisha (aka "Oranda-yuki")
named Sonogi. Her real name was Taki Kusumoto (called Otakusa by
Siebold), and she became the first practicing woman physician in Japan,
even serving the Meiji Empress in 1882. The Siebolds had a daughter
named Ine Kusumoto (born 1827), who became the first woman doctor in
Japan educated in Western medicine.
In 1826, Siebold joined the official Dutch journey to Edo to pay homage
to the Tokugawa shogun, Ienari. Siebold was able to not only meet the
shogun, but also some very important Japanese scientists, including the
shogun's physician, Hoken Katsuragawa, and astronomer,
Kageyasu Takahashi. Interestingly, William Griffis in his 1895 book
about Townsend Harris, wrote concerning Siebold, "In 1826 P. F. von
Siebold accompanied the Dutch to Yedo, where, after his companions
left, he remained until January 18, 1830, most of the time in prison."
Siebold stayed in Japan until October 22, 1829, when he was expelled
for attempting to smuggle out maps of Japan, including very detailed
survey maps produced by the reknowned Tadataka Ino (see
this western Japan portion of the map). While back in
Europe, Siebold worked on his collections as well as his famous works: Nippon, Fauna Japonica, Bibliotheca Japonica, and Flora Japonica.
In 1845, he built a villa with a greenhouse and named it, "Nippon."
After he married Helene, the following year his son, Alexander, was
born, the first of five children.
Siebold continued to have a desire of returning to Japan, which he
missed greatly. He was especially interested in the Perry expedition to
Japan of 1852-1853: "That it will be successful by peaceful means I
doubt very much. If I could
only inspire Commodore Perry, he would triumph."
Siebold requested that he join the expedition, that he alone had "a
plan to open the Japanese Empire to the world." Perry, however, denied
the request due to Siebold's "banished person" status in Japan. Siebold
was so irritated at being rejected that he wrote a pamphlet that
basically thanked the Russians for opening up Japan! There was some
suspicion that Siebold wanted the Russian fleet, which sailed into
Nagasaki a month after Perry's ships had entered Edo, to take the
credit for opening up Japan to the world. Of special note in Siebold's
request was the desire that America "not trouble herself
about the present religion and politics of Japan," i.e. do not excite
distrust in Japan by sending over missionaries. The Russians were not,
incidentally, warned by Siebold to avoid the mention of Christianity to
the Japanese. None of the objections Siebold had said the Japanese
would use to stall negotiations ever came true. Very interestingly,
Perry suspected Siebold of being a Russian spy!
Siebold's dream did come true and he was allowed back to Japan in 1859
(accompanied by his son, Alexander) as an
adviser to the Dutch Trading Society in Nagasaki. However, he was made
to leave again in 1862, having attempted to become an international
political adviser to the Bakumatsu leaders of Japan in Edo (Tokyo).
Tenacious and stubborn as he was, Siebold then asked
the Dutch
government to send him to Japan, then the Russian, and finally the
French. All requests were denied. During his time in Japan, though, he
was able to reunite with his Japanese wife, Taki, and daughter, Ine,
and even meet Ine's 7-year-old girl, Taka. Before he left Japan in 1862
for the last time, he gave his house and garden in Narutaki to Ine.
Due to the influence of Siebold's work, German medical education, and
hence German terminology, has remained the basis of medical literature
in Japan, up to the mid-20th century. Japan also followed the German
system of schooling children, and even the army and how it was
organized. Botany was especially indebted to Siebold's labors, having
brought tea seeds to Batavia, Java, and many other plants to the
Netherlands and from there to Europe. In all, Siebold had collected
some 14,000 Japanese botanical and 7,000 zoological specimens.
Siebold died in Munich on Oct. 18, 1866, at the age of 70. At the time,
he was working on forming a French-Japanese trading company that would
give him the opportunity to once again return to Japan, to the land and
the people that had meant so much to him.
To the doctors, more
than to any one class, is Japan indebted for her modern renascence. The
new civilization may be said to rest upon medical science. Long before
Perry's arrival the physicians taught by the Dutch at Nagasaki, and
scattered all over the country, began the creation of the public
opinion which welcomed Western ideas. See the Religions of Japan,
chapter xii. In 1891 there were 579 hospitals, 42,348 physicians
(mostly practicing according to European science), 33,359 nurses and
midwives, 2706 pharmacists, 11,849 druggists, besides excellent schools
of pharmacy and medicine. Small-pox is nearly eradicated, and the
proportion of infants reared is vastly greater than in 1857.
-- from Townsend Harris: First American Envoy
in Japan (1895) by Griffis, p219 footnote
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LINKS:
Siebold
Museum (Wurzburg, Germany)
Japan Museum
SieboldHuis (Leiden, the Netherlands)
Siebold
Museum (Nagasaki)
SOURCES:
Frog in the Well:
Portraits of Japan by Watanabe Kazan, 1793-1841 by Keene (2006)
Philipp Franz von Siebold
and His Era: Prerequisites, Developments, Consequences and Perspectives
(2000)
The Remarkable P. F. B.
Von Siebold: His Life In Europe and Japan by Compton and Thijsse
(2013)
Narrative of the
Expedition of an American Squadron under Perry Vol2 (1856)
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No. 6
The First English Teacher
to Japan
- Ranald MacDonald -
第六話:最初の英語の先生
ラナルド・マクドナルド
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NOTE: Was Ranald
the first English teacher in Japan? It would seem that
the English, e.g. William
Adams, John Saris, and Richard Cocks, who were in Hirado, would
have been used in some capacity to teach the English language to the
Japanese, but nothing concrete has been written in that regard. It
would, therefore, be fair to say that Ranald was the first "full-time
English instructor," his sole existence in Japan during his short stay
being taken up with educating those few key Japanese interpreters in
proper English usage, who in turn would be influential in the
modernization of Japan.
Ranald MacDonald was born
in 1824 in what was once the British Territory of Northwest America, in
a city now known as Astoria, Oregon. His father was from Scotland and
was serving as chief trader in the British Hudson's Bay Company in that
area over which it had a trade monopoly. Ranald's mother was a Chinook
Indian, "Princess Sunday," the daughter of a famous tribal chief -- for
which Ranald would be labeled as a "half breed," the son of a "squaw
man." Yet it was this very background that brought him to think about
his roots, and the connection with three shipwrecked Japanese about
whom he would later hear about, and perhaps even meet, and influence
him to embark on his amazing journey to the land of Japan.
Ranald had probably
learned much about various countries, including
Japan, and perhaps had heard stories about Kaempfer and Siebold and
Golovnin, or even actually read what they had written about Japan and
its culture. Though Ranald had traveled to many countries in the world,
one thing is for certain -- no other country had such an impact on his
life as the empire of Japan.
The
three Japanese who were shipwrecked along the coast of Washington
State in May 1834 have created quite a stir of imagination in the minds
of
many who have studied about MacDonald. Their names were Otokichi,
Iwakichi, and Kyukichi, and they are known for their travels around the
world after their time in the Northwest, being among the first Japanese
to visit London. Other than their meeting with the "Father of Oregon,"
John McLoughlin, at Fort Vancouver (in now Washington State), one of
the most interesting activities in which they
were involved was helping the German missionary in Macau, Dr.
Gutzlaff, translate portions of the Holy Bible into Japanese. They did
not actually meet the then 10-year-old Ranald and talk with him about
Japan, or, as some have thought, plant in his mind the eventual desire
to visit that country, for Ranald had already left Fort Vancouver by
the time the young Japanese boys arrived. No doubt, though, Ranald had
heard about them. He later wrote that he believed Japan was the "land
of his ancestors," perhaps due to his time in Japan and his resemblance
to
her people.
What definitely influenced Ranald were stories from sailors who had
actually been on ships that had attempted to open up Japan. Some were
even allowed on shore, but were soon made to return to their ships,
without incident. Ranald had heard these stories while he was in Hawaii
(Lahaina, Maui), having gone there in 1846 to look for a whaling ship
bound for the Japanese islands. There were also stories about
shipwrecked Japanese who had come to Hawaii that Ranald had read or
heard about -- all of this exciting in him the desire to
travel to
Japan. He was so resolved in learning more about the Japanese and
instruct them on the ways of Americans that he embarked on an
incredible journey to the land of the
rising sun.
That one driving desire of his -- to become "an instructor on history,
geography, commerce, and modern art, and the Bible," and to be employed
by the Japanese "as a teacher" -- actually did come to pass. Great was
his wish to learn the Japanese language and serve as an interpreter
when the country finally opened up to the world, and to help the
Japanese become a modern country.
At the age of 24, Ranald first arrived on the island of Yagishiri on
the western shores of Hokkaido on June 27, 1848, then a few days later
arrived on Rishiri Island on July 2 where he was "rescued" by a group
of Ainu, the very first people he was to meet in Japan. From day one,
he started learning to communicate with the Japanese leaders on the
island, writing down a vocabulary list to help him learn the language.
After spending a short time there, he was sent to Soya (near Wakkanai),
and then on to Matsumae (west of Hakodate).
Finally he was sent down to Nagasaki, the only district were foreigners
were alllowed to live, arriving on Oct. 11, 1848. It could very well be
said
that his coming stirred the hearts of many, for there was a great need
for English-speakers who could be used to help Japanese
interpreters speak in the English tongue. Ranald was kept in a sort of
prison
while in Nagasaki but was treated very well there, probably because of
his
importance to the Japanese interpreters as a native speaker of English.
Another reason perhaps was him being part Chinook, his facial features
aiding him in receiving less harsh treatment by his Japanese captors as
would a Caucasian. In fact, when he arrived in Matsumae, the governor
exclaimed upon meeting him, "Ah, Nipponjin!" -- "Oh, a Japanese!"
Ranald was in Nagasaki
for only six months, during which time he was
utilized as an English instructor. A total of 14 students learned from
him, one of whom was Einosuke Moriyama, who became the chief
interpreter during negotiations with the Perry expedition in 1854, as
well as for the first American consul to Japan, Townsend Harris.
Moriyama's expertise was further utilized during Japan's first official
mission to Europe. Others among Ranald's students also helped influence
the future of Japan on the international scene. Ranald said of
Moriyama: "He was, by far, the most intelligent person I met in Japan."
Ranald, in fact, felt highly of all his students, for they were "very
quick and receptive... extraordinary... some of them phenomenal," all
because "their heart was in the work." On a memorial plaque on Rishiri
Island are these words (translated into English): "Those of his
students who mastered English conversation were subsequently able to
contribute to the diplomatic negotiations that took place between Japan
and the world powers of the day, and thus to save Japan from the threat
of destruction."
Moriyama soon became Ranald's favorite pupil, no doubt because he
showed the most zeal in learning the English language. Granted,
Moriyama had been used as interpreter earlier during the visit in 1845
by the Manhattan, in 1846
with the survivors of the Lawrence,
and in
1848 with the Lagoda crew.
However, his hard work learning the English
language paid off as he was able to take part in talks with American,
British and Russian military representatives, and, most importantly,
was able to go with the first Japanese mission to Europe in 1862. He
became probably the most sought-out interpreter of English in all of
Japan.
The influence Ranald had on the Japanese in Nagasaki was not limited to
English instruction, for in all the interrogations he underwent, he was
able to relate much information regarding the Western world, e.g.
geography, whaling and his own country. The reason for Ranald's
extensive knowledge was that he loved reading books, and he had even
brought a number of them with him in his travel chest. To him the most
important book he had brought was the Holy Bible.
When he arrived in Matsumae, the Japanese noticed the reverence he had
toward the Bible, which Ranald explained to them as being "the book of
my worship." So they made a kind of alcove shelf where Ranald could
keep his sacred book, not unlike how the Japanese keep various
important items on tokonoma shelves (tokowaki) in their homes. The same
thing happened once again in Nagasaki after he had arrived there, where
his keepers had noticed how important the Book was to him and therefore
made a shelf as "a place of honor" for his Bible -- Ranald later
remarked that the Japanese said he "had made a God of it."
![](USS_Preble_1840-1863_US_Naval_History_Heritage_Command_cropped.jpg)
On April 17, 1849, the USS Preble
arrived in Nagasaki with its mission
to pick up stranded American sailors, thanks to having received word
from crewman of the Lagoda
via Joseph Levyssohn, the Dutch trade
superintendent (factor) in charge on Dejima. Not only were these Lagoda
seamen rescued, but Ranald was sought out by the captain and included.
Ranald left Japan on the Preble
on April 27, 1849, and arrived in Hong
Kong on May 22. The story of the USS Preble
and Ranald would soon be
heard around the world, with great interest shown by the US Government,
resulting in Commodore Matthew Perry in Nov. 1852 setting out on his
expedition to
the land of Japan and arriving there in July 1853.
Perry then left and returned once again in March 1854... and Japan
would be
changed forever.
Ranald himself related that he was possibly “the instigator of
Commodore Perry’s expedition to Japan.” What is
certain is that those students to whom he had taught not only the
English language but various customs and cultural helps to expressing
themselves in that language, went on to help spread their knowledge and
skills in cities across Japan -- one of the stimuli to the
modernization of Japan.
Ranald MacDonald died on August 5, 1894, at the age of 70, in
northeastern Washington State where he was visiting his niece. He had
been working on having his story published, a story which was not
entirely unknown at the time, but which was overshadowed by a multitude
of other stories by those who had been able to visit the new Japan. His
roots were British, Canadian, Chinook and American, but what made his
life of special importance was his connection to Japan and how he felt
about the Japanese. Among Ranald's last writings were these remarks:
"It is long, nearly half a century—since my adventure here sketched:
Yet even now, after the vicissitudes, varied and wearing, of my life, I
have never ceased to feel most kindly and ever grateful to my fellow
men of Japan for their really generous treatment of me. In that long
journey and voyage from the extreme North to the extreme South—fully a
thousand miles—of their country; throughout my whole sojourn of ten
months in the strange land, never did I receive a harsh word, or even
an unfriendly look. Among all classes, a gentle kindness to the fancied
cast-away—the stranger most strange—pervaded their general regard and
treatment of me. From the time I landed on the beach of Tomassey in the
Straits of La Perouse, when Inoes took me gently by the wrist, one on
each side, to assist me to the dwelling of their employer, while others
put sandals to my feet, to the time of my joining the United States
Sloop of War 'Preble,' it was ever the same uniform kindness. Truly I
liked them in that congenial sympathy which, left to itself—unmarred by
antagonism of race, creed, or worldly selfishness—makes us all, of
Adam’s race 'wondrous kin.'
"...after having, in my wanderings, girded—I may say—the Globe itself,
and come across peoples many, civilized and uncivilized, there are none
to whom I feel more kindly—more grateful—than my old hosts of Japan;
none whom I esteem more highly.
"...they are truly a wonder among the nations; commanding, in their
present position, the respect and admiration of the world."
It is no wonder, then, that on a memorial plaque (above banner photo)
on Rishiri Island are
engraved the words, "Ranald enjoys the honor of being the first formal
teacher of English and indirectly a father of modernizing Japan."
SOURCES:
Native American in the
Land of the Shogun Ranald MacDonald and the
Opening of Japan by Frederik L. Schodt (2003)
Ranald MacDonald -- The
Narrative of his Life (1923)
Memorials in Astoria (Oregon), Rishiri Island, Nagasaki, and Toroda
(Washington)
Text ©2023 Wes Injerd
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No. 7
The First American Consul
General to Japan
- Townsend Harris -
第七話:初代駐日本米国弁理公使
タウンゼント・ハリス
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Townsend
Harris - Friend of Japan
Townsend Harris, at age 51, was the first U.S. Consul-General to Japan,
arriving there on Aug. 21, 1856, along with Commodore Armstrong aboard
the San Jacinto. The Perry Expedition had initially re-opened the door
for official foreign relations between Japan and the West in July 1853,
and coming once again in March 1854. Harris was the man who helped
smooth Japan's entry into a modern world and open the door for other
countries to follow. Harris noted that he was arriving at an empire
that was "more populous than the United States," and he continued, "I
shall be the first recognized agent from a civilized power to reside in
Japan. This forms an epoch in my life, and may be the beginning of a
new order of things in Japan." How true were those words!
Harris was a man of principle, and that principle had much of its
foundation resting on the Holy Bible. Soon after he first arrived in
Japan, he wrote:
Sunday, August 31, 1856. A
lovely day. Write many letters. Japanese come off to see me. I refuse
to see any one on Sunday. I am resolved to set an example of a proper
observance of the Sabbath by abstaining from all business or pleasures
on that day. I do not mean I should not take a quiet walk, or any such
amusement. I do not mean to set an example of Puritanism, but I will
try to make it what I believe it was intended to be, a day of rest.
Half a year later, he noted, "I have opened the port of Nagasaki to
American ships wanting supplies... missionaries may actually come and
reside in Japan." And again at the end of the year, he commented along
this line how much he felt that Christianity must be allowed full
freedom in Japan:
Sunday, December 6, 1857.
This is the second Sunday in Advent ; assisted by Mr. Heusken , I read
the full service in an audible voice, and with the paper doors of the
house here our voices could be heard in every part of the building.
This was beyond doubt the first time that the English version of the
Bible was ever read, or the American Protestant Episcopal service ever
repeated in this city. What a host of thoughts rush upon me as I
reflect on this event. Two hundred and thirty years ago, a law was
promulgated in Japan inflicting death on any one who should use any of
the rites of the Christian religion in Japan. That law is still
unrepealed, and yet here have I boldly and openly done the very acts
that the Japanese law punishes so severely!
What is my protection? The American name alone. That name, so powerful
and potent now, cannot be said to have had an existence then, for in
all the wide lands that now form the United States there were not at
that time five thousand men of Anglo-Saxon origin.
The first blow is now struck against the cruel persecution of
Christianity by the Japanese, and, by the blessing of God, if I succeed
in establishing negotiations at this time with the Japanese, I mean to
boldly demand for the Americans the free exercise of their religion in
Japan, with the right to build churches, and I will also demand the
abolition of the custom of trampling on the cross or crucifix, which
the Dutch have basely I witnessed for two hundred and thirty years
without a word of remonstrance. This custom has been confined to
Nagasaki; had it been attempted at Shimoda, I should have remonstrated
in a manner that would have compelled the Japanese to listen to me. I
shall be both proud and happy if I can be the humble means of once more
opening Japan to the blessed rule of Christianity.
My Bible and Prayer-Book are priceless mementos of this event, and
when, after many or few years, Japan shall be once more opened to
Christianity, the events of this day at Yedo will ever be of interest.
Harris' life in Japan was not without danger. In January 1858, Harris
mentioned that he had learned of a plot by certain "ronin" samurai to
kill him. A large number of sentries were placed around his residence
to protect him, and the "Yedo rowdies" (as he called them) were
arrested. Many foreigners, it has been noted, were killed by these
"cowardly swashbucklers" between 1858 and 1870, including Henry
Heusken, Harris' personal secretary and interpreter, who was
assassinated on Jan. 14, 1861.
The most important work that engaged Harris was, of course, his
endeavors to fully open up Japan once again to the world. Harris had a
very difficult time conversing with the Japanese as his English had to
be translated into Dutch. What made it so hard was that the Dutch
language the Japanese used when talking with Harris was what they
learned from traders and sailors, and 250 years old! One interpreter
was with him in the beginning, Einosuke Moriyama, who was once Ranald
MacDonald's student and who had been chief interpreter for many other
foreigners. Little did MacDonald know that one day his student would be
so instrumental in these historical negotiations with the United States.
The main points that Harris insisted upon, when speaking with the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, were as follows:
I told him that by
negotiating with me, who had purposely come to Yedo alone and without
the presence of even a single man-of-war, the honor of Japan would be
saved; that each point should be carefully discussed ; and that the
country should be gradually opened.
I added that the three great points would be: first, the reception of
foreign ministers to reside at Yedo; second, the freedom of trade with
the Japanese, without the interference of government officers; and
third, the opening of additional harbors.
I added that I did not ask any exclusive rights for the Americans, and
that a treaty that would be satisfactory to the President would at once
be accepted by all the great Western powers.
One of the important points that was accepted was regarding the freedom
of religion, an issue that had caused so much pain and death in the
past 250 years.
In this manner they went
through the treaty, rejecting everything except article 8. This article
I had inserted with scarce a hope that I should obtain it. It provides
for the free exercise of their religion by the Americans, with the
right to erect suitable places of worship, and that the Japanese would
abolish the practice of trampling on the cross. To my surprise and
delight, this article was accepted! I am aware that the Dutch have
published to the world that the Japanese had signed articles granting
freedom of worship, and also agreeing to abolish trampling on the
cross. It is true that the Dutch proposed the abolition, but the
Japanese refused to sign it.
The treaty was finally signed on July 29, 1858, with a 21-gun salute.
This was the basis, the first of many others countries making treaties
with Japan -- British, French, Russian, Mexican, a total of 23 other
nations. The US Consulate was removed from Shimoda to Kanagawa
(interestingly, again at a Buddhist temple, Zenpukuji) and flag
raised on July 1, 1859. A 70-member Japanese embassy traveled to the US
on Feb. 13, 1860 regarding the Harris treaty. Harris also gave the
considerable sum of $1,000 to help build the American Union Church in
Yokohama, completed in 1875, upon the very ground of the Perry treaty.
What were the benefits that Japan gained through the labors of Townsend
Harris? What did he accomplish? How did he help change Japan? Here's
what his early biographer had to say:
Old Japan of Mr. Harris's
days has vanished, and in New Japan life is more than worth
living for the average man. Such popular freedom and advantages were
never before known. Instead of the caste, monopoly, cramping laws,
repressive customs, and cruel government of former days, the common
people live in a new world of rights, privileges, and possibilities.
New institutions, codes, and ideals have come in. The land is for the
most part owned by the men who till the soil. The courts are open to
every one, and justice is cheap and easy to obtain. Schools invite all
to enter. Once only samurai could be soldiers ; now the army and navy
are filled without regard to class by enthusiastic conscripts. The men
are well fed, well paid, well taught, and well nursed in time of
sickness. The old sectional jealousies, sectarian bigotries, and
political hatreds are vanishing. Wealth, comfort, happiness, national
unity, and population are steadily on the increase. With over two
thousand miles of railway, with telegraphs, lighthouses, post-offices,
newspapers, savings banks, hospitals, and most of the appliances of
modern civilization, life seems very rich and full to the lad and lass
born in this " era of Meiji " (1868-1895+).
Japanese travelers and enterprising adventurers are now found in many
countries. Immigrants by thousands dwell in Hawaii, the United States,
Australia, Mexico, Korea, China, and in British, Russian, Dutch,
Spanish, and French Asia. With her population increasing at the rate of
over half a million a year, it is necessary for Japan to expand and
colonize. Her desire and ability to do both are manifest. These facts
explain in part also why so small a nation did not hesitate, when peace
seemed no longer possible, to go to war with colossal China.
When in 1870 the Japanese abolished feudalism, they rejected also most
of the ideas of government and society borrowed from China and from
Confucius and his commentators, and adopted those of the Western
World...
It was not a new thing in Asiatic history when China and Japan began
hostilities in the summer of 1894, but it was in a wholly novel way.
Each published a formal declaration, and appealed to the sympathies of
Christendom. Japan proceeded according to international law, and with
scientific and Christian-like methods. A superb hospital corps, trained
nurses, the Red Cross Society, and the absence of privateers were
noticed. In old Japanese times the wounded in battle committed suicide,
were left to die on the field, or received only blacksmith surgery.
These days are over.
Yes, these days are over, and a new Japan has been born, in great part
to the tireless work of this one man. Though there were "two hundred
years of Dutch leaven" in the land, Harris was the one who brought
those years to fruition, He was the bridge to the new Japan, and
missionaries along with many other foreigners helped educate Japan. The
Japanese no longer followed feudalism and Confucian thought, but were
liberated to grander ideas. As they built a powerful military, able to
conquer almighty China in the battle over Korean sovereignty, and
gained strong economic power through manufacturing, they became equals
in the world system. The status of and honor toward women changed in
Japan also as Christian teachings became widespread. Hospitals and
nurses became more and more common, including the Red Cross treatment
of the wounded rather than let them die on battlefields.
Harris left Japan for New York on May 11, 1862. His nickname in
the city was "the old Tycoon," which came from the Japanese name for
the emperor, taikun, which later became tenno. Harris died on February
25, 1878, at the age of 73. Though in Japan for a short time, his
legacy will always remain as one of the most influential foreigners who
helped change Japan into the great country it is today.
![](Harris_Monument_Gyokusenji_Shimoda_Harris_Journal.jpg)
![](harris_museum_memorial_closeup1_izu-gyokusenji.jpg)
SOURCES:
The Complete Journal of
Townsend Harris: First American Consul and Minister to Japan
(1930)
Townsend Harris: First
American Envoy in Japan by William Griffis (1895)
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Channing Williams - June 1859
James Hepburn and Samuel Brown -
Oct-Nov 1859
Guido Verbeck - Nov. 1859
Jonathan Goble - 1853, 1860
L. L. Janes - Aug. 1871
William S. Clark - June 28, 1876
Christ the Hope of Japan
by
William E. Griffis
April 1922
This Spirit of Jesus is the soul of the liberalizing forces of Japan.
The transforming power of Christianity has already had much to do in
bringing about the social changes that are so readily noted by those
who have followed the history of Japan during the past fifty years. To
tell of even a few of the changes in the civilization of Japan since
1870 is to picture again the England of the 12th Century. Then there
was not a chimney in the land; no windows; no chairs, no public
hospital, no lighted streets at night; there were beggars by the
thousands, gamblers and social outcasts by myriads.
Occasional famines swept off thousands at a time, leaving whole
villages only collections of charnel houses. Public executions of
criminals by fire and roads often lined by heads on pillars were not
uncommon sights. Prostitution and venereal diseases were rampant. The
standard plots of romance were vile. The word "love" referred to that
which was outside of the marriage relation. Popular literature, mostly
pornographic, and the stage, were frequently so obscene as to call
forth the drastic interference of the authorities. We say nothing of
the phallic emblems and shrines made into toys, keramic ware and in
other forms too disgusting to mention.
The commoner in any of the four grades in the nonmilitary classes was
virtually without rights before the ever armed samurai with his swords.
Feudalism being the framework of society, there was little or no sense
of individual personality apart from class or office, and women in the
laboring class, in a contract, were referred to by the same numeral as
that used for beasts of burden. Trade and commerce were in low repute,
the merchant being at the lowest rung of the social ladder.
The number of blind and diseased was amazing. Every third person seemed
pockmarked, for preventive medicine was almost unknown. Deformed
children were very rare, for these were not allowed to be born or to
live.
In industry, only hand labor was known. In the language, few or none of
the modern terms for freedom or personality, or what is the very soul
of our civilization, were known. In the organization of the family,
woman was chattel and toy. It was a common thing for the head of the
household wanting a male heir to advertise for a female child-producer,
to be paid for a birth, and to be discharged after her offspring was
weaned.
The typical Japanese family was formed on principles abhorrent to the
Christian ideal and practice, and this explains why few or none of the
words relating to the position of an individual in the family had the
same depth of meaning or cluster of associations which the religion of
Jesus has given and compelled in western lands.
In a word, the house was everything and the individual nothing.
Japanese civilization was on the lower or communal type. Even yet her
nationality at many points has not emerged from the primitive. and the
individual is but emerging from the group. One has to read a book like
Luffman's “The Harvest of Japan” to realize the terrible facts which
lie in the background. and which no gloss of material civilization can
cover up.
I speak what I know and testify to that I have seen. But there is a
bright side to the picture. And what do we see? A marvelous
transformation; a new Japan, modeled outwardly at least after the best
in the world; a nation honored as only a few are; an acknowledged
leader in education, sanitation, industry and government. To be sure,
this has not all been due to organized Christianity. The Japanese would
have brought about these changes for the better through their desire to
stand well in the world, or through their own military necessity of
developing a healthy, intelligent and powerful national machine.
Yet is it not true that Japan was moved to make these progressive
changes by the ideals and by the sentiment of the West, which in turn
had felt the humanitarian power of Christianity? Moreover, have there
not been within Japan's very boundaries for over fifty years Christian
workers of striking character and moral aggressiveness, both foreign
missionaries and Japanese Christian leaders? These directly or
indirectly have expressed the spirit of Jesus Christ. Indeed, I believe
that I can here repeat in all confidence what I said in a previous
Envelope Series (1907) entitled "Christ the Creator of New Japan."
Behind almost every one of the radical reforms that have made a new
Japan stands a man — too often a martyr — who was directly moved by the
spirit of Jesus, or who is or was a pupil of the missionaries.
What would have been all the wonders wrought under the eyes of such
giants of power as Verbeck, Brown,
Hepburn, Williams, Ballagh, Greene, Gordon, Davis, DeForest, Pettee
and others without the faith, the courage, the loyalty, the lifelong
devotion of such Japanese as Okuno
and Ogawa,
officers in the First Church of Christ, with the unnamed but glorious
company of men and women who in early days faced prison, risked death
and the edge of the sword. In the patience of Jesus Christ they waited
long to see, and finally saw the anti-Christian edicts disappear. They
won against priestcraft and hostile chauvinism the right before the law
to inter the dust of their loved ones in their ancestral graveyard.
Yes, the very saints in Caesar's household salute us; for Prince Tokugawa’s words at
Washington, and better still the Crown
Prince's remarkable message that charmed Christendom, are but
the echoes from Christian writers and scholars high in rank and office.
On its opposite side, Christianity has brought to Japan a message to
the woman, the common man, the multitude, the sick, the outcast, the
leper, the prisoner, the wage earner, the victim of man's pride, power
and lust; and to humanity in general. The Christian in Japan, native
and foreign, has preached good tidings unto the meek, bound up the
broken hearted, proclaimed liberty to the captive, and opened the
prison to them that are bound. What that means, — "liberty to them that
are bound," — they know full well who have lived among the plain people
of Japan, over whose minds superstition as well as subserviency has
hung like a pall, influencing every action of life.
When it comes to prison reform, the abolition of torture, the
humanizing of the methods of prevention, correction and jurisprudence,
the creation and purification of newspapers and the printed page, one
has only to read Okuma's two great volumes on "Fifty years of New
Japan" in order to /feel/ the force of Christ at work for the
redemption of Japan. Even though the Christian initiators and reformers
of these years go to a large extent unnamed, yet they have been men and
women of power, as men like Count Okuma often testified.
This religion of Jesus Christ must be depended upon to regenerate
Japanese Government and society. Christ is the Hope of Japan. The
gospel leaven, dropped at first into the lump of Japanese feudalism,
has created and recreated Japanese mind and life. It has produced and
will continue to produce that temperament and that spirit, which will
check the power of militarism, do away with dual government, free the
Emperor for larger service, build up a parliamentary form of
government, enlarge the franchise, and, in short, make the Japanese
Government the servant of the people.
This power of the gospel will continue to modify the educational
program of the nation, bring about a proper adjustment between capital
and labor, produce nobler ideals for the industrial and commercial
leaders, turning the minds of many to philanthropy and stewardship; and
in time help the Japanese people to fulfill their mission under God in
the Far East and throughout the world.
This is our hope. Even more: it is our assurance. God can never be
defeated in His purpose.
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