METHODIST 1 
 EPISCOPAL 
 CHURCH r 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/japanmissionofmeOOunse 
 
REV. ROBERT SAMUEL MACLAV, D.D. 
 
The 
 
 Japan Mission 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church 
 
 Edited by 
 
 DAVID S. SPENCER 
 
 THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 
 150 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 
 
 Price, Ten Cents 
 
he Rev. Robert Samuel Maclay, D.D., holds. 
 
 among the foremost missionary leaders of the 
 
 -i Methodist Episcopal Church, the distinction of 
 being an active agent in the beginnings of our mis- 
 sion work in the three important fields of China, 
 Japan and Korea. With the remarkable record of 
 twenty-five years in the early, formative period of 
 the China Mission, the advocacy and then, for fif- 
 teen years, the superintendency of the Japan 
 Mission, and the earliest Protestant missionary 
 exploration of Korea, and oversight of t lie plant- 
 ing of our mission in the Hermit Nation, he 
 completed his long public career by guiding the inter- 
 ests of the Maclay School of Theology, San Fernan- 
 dino, California, as dean, from 1S8S, when he retired 
 from service in Japan, to 1S93. He was permitted to 
 see the wide Oriental territory which formed the 
 center of his labors become the present strategic 
 center of world politics and history, and to know that 
 to him was given a principal part in projecting into 
 it the decisive Christian factor. 
 
 PRINTED IN APRIL, 1910 
 
JAPAN MISSION 
 
 COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 
 
 The Empire of Japan is composed of a chain of islands, 
 located in the northwestern corner of the Pacific Ocean, close 
 to the continent of Asia, and extending in a general direction 
 from northeast to southwest, along the shores of 
 Siberia, Korea, and China. The northern extrem- Geographical 
 ity of Arito Island, off the southern point of Position 
 
 Kamtchatka, 50° 56' N. Eat., constitutes its most 
 northeast extremity, while at the southern end of the island 
 of Formosa, 21° 48' N. Lat., it reaches its most southwesterly 
 point. 
 
 If laid down on the American Continent this island chain 
 would extend from Fort Severn on Hudson Bay to Havana 
 in Cuba, or a distance in direct line of about 2,100 miles. The 
 islands number in all several thousand, depending 
 upon how many are counted of the rocky bubbles, Area of the 
 lifted by volcanic force from the lied of the ocean. Islands 
 
 The largest of those inhabited are, beginning from 
 the north, Hokkaido, area 30,267 square miles; Honshiu, area 
 86,750 square miles; Shikoku, area 7,029 square miles; Iviushiu, 
 area 15,763 square miles. Here in these four islands, and ex- 
 cluding Formosa, is a total area of 139,810 square miles, while 
 the total area of the empire, excluding Formosa, is 147,721 
 square miles, which shows how small is the average area of 
 the thousands of remaining islets. Formosa contains 13,415 
 square miles. If to the reader these figures mean little, it 
 may be easy to remember that Japan is considerably larger 
 in area than Italy, or the British Isles, or Germany proper, 
 almost as large as Spain, and well approaching the size of 
 France. She is slightly larger than California. 
 
When one considers Japan’s great population, however, it 
 at once becomes clear that there is no territory to spare. If 
 California, with her 1,500,000 population had instead to 
 provide homes for Japan’s population of 50,000,- 
 Population 000 (1909) she would doubtless regard herself as 
 having too large a family to support. But Cali- 
 fornia could take care of 50,000,000 people more easily than 
 can Japan, because she possesses a greater proportion of 
 arable soil. It must not be forgotten, however, that the seas 
 
 BRIDGE AND TEA HOUSE 
 
 which lash Japan’s very irregular coast-line of 18,178 miles 
 furnish large stores of food for her millions. 
 
 Japan is a beautiful country. A chain of mountains ex- 
 tends throughout the length of the islands, with a cross sec- 
 tion dividing Honshiu into two main portions, ‘ Southern 
 Japan” and “Northern Japan.” From these craggy 
 An Attractive mountains spring deep gorges and narrow valleys, 
 Country out of which, during rainy periods, flow swift 
 
 mountain streams. Japan has no large and long 
 
rivers. The surface of the country is very uneven, and, while 
 having less grandeur than Italy, or the eastern United States, 
 is exceedingly varied and attractive. The storm-swept moun- 
 tains are clad in crazy old pines, cedars, maples, and many 
 other woods; and cherry blossoms, chrysanthemums, and huge 
 lotus flowers spring up along all valleys and streams. Beauty 
 is everywhere. 
 
 Since Japan passes through such a stretch of latitude, she 
 naturally possesses a great variety of climate. In the extreme 
 north the summers are cool and bracing, and the frigid winters 
 wrap everything in a heavy mantle of snow and ice; 
 but in the southern extremity there is little snow and Climate 
 the winters are mild, while the summers are damp and 
 hot. In general the climate is temperate, differing but little 
 from that of the Gulf States. But the excessive humidity in 
 the atmosphere, and the proportionally small amount of ozone 
 and electricity make it enervating and depressing to the 
 foreigner, especially during the late spring and summer months. 
 
 The rainfall is heavy, and particularly so at the rainy season 
 in June, when it rains almost constantly for three weeks. In 
 short, Americans generally find the climate more of a trial 
 than would from appearances seem to be warranted. 
 
 The Japanese are a vigorous and prolific race, and the popu- 
 lation is rapidly increasing. While France is decreasing in 
 population, Japan gains about a half-million a year. Physi- 
 cally the Japanese are inferior to the races of the 
 West, and even to the Chinese, being smaller and Characteristics 
 possessed of less powers of endurance. But better of the People 
 food and the careful bodily training that the 
 young, both boys and girls, now get in the schools will grad- 
 ually correct this, in fact is making marked changes. Indeed, 
 the average height of the young men anil women in the schools 
 has already, we are told, been increased over one inch during 
 the last few years. On the battlefield they have surprised 
 the world. 
 
 The Japanese, inured through centuries to hardships caused 
 by floods, famines, typhoons, fires, and earthquakes, are a 
 cheerful race, fond of bright flowers, gay scenes, and light 
 
amusements. They are generally friendly to foreigners and 
 a pleasant people among whom to live. They are kind to the 
 poor and quick to relieve distress. 
 
 A prominent characteristic is their openmindedness-r their 
 readiness to adopt new r things, if proven to be of value, no 
 matter whence they come. They are, in fact, anxious to try 
 every new thing, and to adopt what is best. The 
 Their youth generally study well at school, and make 
 
 Openmindedness commendable progress. Side by side with 
 American or English students in the colleges of 
 the West, they easily hold their own, often capturing the 
 prizes offered. In professional life they have made good show- 
 
 ings, and the list of scientists, specialists, and inventors among 
 them is a very commendable one. The abundant life and 
 energy of these people in comparison with other Eastern races 
 is one of the things that most forcibly impress the traveler. 
 They are quick, active, alert, enterprising They have an 
 inordinate amount of ambition, not only to do what other 
 men have done, but to surpass them, even to set the pace for 
 them. Their haste to master and use all that is new tends 
 to make them superficial rather than thorough, and they lack 
 somewhat in persistence. 
 
 The soil is quite fertile, yielding fine crops of rice, wheat, 
 barley, beans, and vegetables in considerable variety, while 
 
cotton, tea, and mulberry plants bring in large returns. A 
 variety of native fruits are also produced, to which 
 in recent years have been added most of the leading Products of 
 fruits of the United States. Japanese fields are cut, the Farm 
 up into small plots like our vegetable gardens, and 
 they look very different from the broad, cultivated fields of 
 the West. Little rivulets are made to flow around through 
 them, and by these they are well irrigated. 
 
 Although the Japanese are good farmers, their agricultural 
 implements are' extremely crude. Plowing is done with a 
 wooden plow, iron tipped and drawn by a horse, a cow, or an 
 ox; or the earth is dug over by man power, a very heavy sort 
 of hoe, called a kuwa, being used for the purpose. Grain is 
 mostly gathered with a sickle and threshed by hand on the 
 ground. While model machinery is already used in the gov- 
 ernment experimental farms to some extent, the masses of 
 the farming communities know little of the use of such helps. 
 
 The chief contributions of Japan to the world's markets are 
 tea, silk, rice, and camphor, all of which are of good quality. 
 
 She also does a very considerable export business in matting, 
 matches, lacquer ware, and porcelain. 
 
 Material expansion is characteristic of the times. Good 
 railways, fairly well conducted, traverse the empire from north 
 to south, the main trunk line being something over 2,000 
 miles in length; and there are numerous cross lines already 
 open and more under construction. One can now 
 travel to all parts of the country by train com- Modern 
 
 fortably, cheaply, and in reasonable time. The Conveniences 
 
 postal system furnishes free delivery throughout 
 the empire, and is in the main carefully and promptly con- 
 ducted. The telegraph system, conducted by the same de- 
 partment, reaches practically all portions of the empire with 
 commendable promptness, and even from the interior towns 
 direct cable communication may be had with Europe and 
 America. Wireless telegraphy helped to make possible the 
 naval victories of the recent war, and stations on the Japan 
 coast are now talking with ocean steamers half way across the 
 Pacific. 
 
The change that has come over Japan through her educa- 
 tional system can scarcely be measured. A uniform system 
 of training throughout the length and breadth of 
 Educational the land has tended to unify the people in language, 
 System political ideas, and patriotic interests. 
 
 One can go nowhere without finding good school- 
 
 A MODERN RAILWAY STATION AT OSAKA 
 
 houses, with Japanese children swarming around them like 
 bees. Over 96 per cent of the children of school age are now 
 enrolled in schools, and this percentage is still rising. Pri- 
 mary schools are to be seen in every village and hamlet, while 
 the larger towns have academies and agricultural, industrial, 
 normal, and other schools. There are also eight government 
 colleges and two good universities. If one leaves out of ac- 
 count moral and religious instruction, the educational system 
 in vogue is an excellent one. 
 
 The Educational Department for years opposed the estab- 
 lishing of private schools in the empire, especially such as 
 10 
 
would not come under the control of that department. There 
 are, therefore, comparatively few private schools except 
 the Mission schools. Among the few, however, are the Private 
 great Wasedo University, established by Count Okuma, Schools 
 with its 5,700 or more students, and Keio University, 
 established by that fearless pioneer educator, Yukichi Fuku- 
 zawa, with its strong faculty and 4,500 students. The other 
 private schools not connected with Missions are mostly tech- 
 nical or primary schools. 
 
 Of the Mission schools there are (1909) 143, with an en- 
 rollment of about 12,000, and it may be questioned whether 
 any other form of Christian work in this country is accom- 
 
 MISSION DAY SCHOOL, FUKAGAWA, TOKYO 
 
 panied with deeper or more far-reaching results. There 
 are also 29 schools reported by the Roman Catholic Mission 
 Missions, having a total enrollment of 5,912. The grad- Schools 
 uates of those Protestant schools now occupy prominent 
 positions in government and business life, are generally fully 
 trusted, and in many instances exert strong influence in favor 
 of Christianity. 
 
 li 
 
SYSTEMS OF NATIVE RELIGIONS 
 
 There are those who boldly assert that the Japanese are not 
 a religious people, and they point to the absence from temple 
 services of the masses of the people. Others would have it 
 that the people are very religious, and these cite 
 Evidence of a the religious literature, the temples, the priests, 
 Religious and the festivals in evidence. All depends upon 
 
 Instinct one’s viewpoint. Individual Japanese do not 
 
 generally worship at the temples, for they pay 
 the priests to do this for them, but the evidences of religious 
 desire are on every hand. Japan had in 1905 192,366 Shinto 
 shrines, and 15,212 priests serving therein, while Buddhist 
 temples numbered 72,206 and priests 51,204. 
 
 Festivals are frequent and popular. Pilgrims are incredibly 
 numerous; five hundred thousand are said to visit Ise, and 
 nine hundred thousand to visit Kompira, each year. Mendi- 
 cant pilgrims abound on every famous circuit. Every house 
 has its god or Buddha shelf. Gods are conceived to exist by 
 the myriad and for every conceivable purpose; not only are 
 there gods for farmers, for travelers, for children, for soldiers, 
 and for mothers, but also for robbers, for immoral women, 
 and even for the dramshop. 
 
 On the other hand, in conversing with the people one is 
 struck by the widespread ignorance of what their religions 
 teach. Not one Buddhist in a hundred can define the tenets 
 of Buddhism, nor can a man tell you what teachings 
 Religious are Buddhist and what are Shinto or Confucian. 
 Ignorance The Japanese has constantly before his eyes the em- 
 and Apathy blems of each of these religions. In nearly every 
 Samurai’s house (under the old feudal system a 
 Samurai was a member of the soldier class) were the moral 
 books of Confucius, and the black lacquered wooden tablets, 
 inscribed in gold with the Buddhist names of his ancestors, 
 while on the god-shelf stood the idols of Buddhism and sym- 
 bols of Shinto. The cause, therefore, of the apathy mentioned 
 must be sought in the unfaithfulness, ignorance, and laziness 
 of the priests. Taken as a whole they are a corrupt and shift- 
 12 
 
less lot, and have lost their hold upon the educated classes 
 almost entirely, while the lower classes follow religious prac- 
 tices largely through force of habit handed down for centuries. 
 
 Broadly speaking, Japan has three non-Christian religions: 
 
 (1) Shinto, or “The Way of the Gods,” which is a purely 
 Japanese cult handed down from the earliest times; (2) Con- 
 fucianism, or the teachings of Confucius, the great 
 Chinese sage, which w r ere introduced into Japan Three Native 
 in 270 A. D., during the reign of the Emperor Ojin; Religions 
 
 and (3) Buddhism, or the teaching of Buddha, or 
 Sakya-muni, which came to Japan from Korea in 552 A. D., 
 having traveled from India 
 through China. Shinto, as 
 one has said, is only a na- 
 tional cult: Confucianism is 
 a philosophy of the relations 
 between man and man; while 
 Buddhism is a true religion, 
 with ideas about sin and sal- 
 vation. As another has sum- 
 med up the scope of these 
 three “ways,” “Shintoism 
 furnishes the object of wor- 
 ship, Confucianism offers the 
 rules of life, and Buddhism 
 supplies the way of future 
 salvation.” 
 
 c r , SHINTO PRIEST AND SON 
 
 Rrof. Ernest W. Clement „ 
 
 , . sacred dog, d50 years old 
 
 makes this statement regard- 
 
 ing the Shinto faith: “Shinto is a system in which the deifica- 
 tion and worship of heroes, emperors, family ancestors, and 
 forces of nature play an important part. It has no 
 dogmas, no sacred books, no moral code, no phi- A Simple 
 losophy, no code of ethics, no metaphysics; it sums up Nature 
 its theory of human duty in the following injunction: Worship 
 
 Follow your natural impulses and obey the laws of 
 the state. It requires of its adherents nothing except wnrship 
 at certain temples or shrines on stated days. A pure Shinto 
 
temple is an exceedingly plain affair, in front of which, at a 
 little distance, is invariably set a torii, or arch. Without idols, 
 the temple contains, as emblems of Shinto, strips of paper 
 hanging from a wand, together with a mirror. The form of 
 ordinary worship is simple: it consists of washing the face, or 
 hands, or both, with holy water; of ringing a bell, or clapping 
 
 WOMAN WORSHIPING A TREE 
 LIUCHIU ISLANDS 
 
 the hands, to call the god’s attention; of casting in a coin as 
 an offering; of standing with clasped hands during a short 
 prayer, and of making a farewell bow. This ceremony is 
 sufficient to ‘cover a multitude of sins’! At the regular fes- 
 tivals there are special and elaborate services, at which the 
 priests (often laymen) officiate. Pilgrimages to holy spots, 
 usually ‘high places,’ are important in Shinto.” 
 
 U 
 
After the rise of Buddhism to power, about the ninth cen- 
 tury, Shintoism became well-nigh buried under the rich para- 
 phernalia and aggressive power of the Buddhist faith. It 
 remained thus buried until the rise of modern Japan, 
 when the restoration of the emperor to power led Decline of 
 to the revival of the primitive faith, Shinto receiving Shintoism 
 the special protection of the imperial house. Ever 
 since this period efforts have been made by enthusiastic 
 Shintoists to secure an enactment which would make Shinto 
 the state religion of Japan, but 
 religious Shinto has gradually 
 lost ground. After a time it was 
 reduced from a religion and 
 placed in charge of a Supreme 
 Council as one of ten depart- 
 
 ments. In less than a year 
 thereafter it was again degraded 
 from a department to a board. 
 In 1S77 this board became 
 a Bureau of Shrines. Thus 
 Shinto has been completely 
 disestablished as a religion, of- 
 ficially considered. This does 
 not mean that it has lost its 
 hold in a religious sense upon 
 
 all the people. Its head shrine 
 
 is at Ise, which has recently buddhist pagoda at nikko 
 assumed in the popular thought 
 
 far greater importance than formerly. The imperial visit 
 to this shrine at the close of the Russo-Japanese war, the 
 visit made there by Admiral Togo to offer thanksgiving for 
 victory on his homeward journey from the war, and the 
 visits of the crown prince and imperial princes recently 
 made, add new interest to this Shinto shrine, and, there- 
 fore, to all Shinto shrines throughout the country. The 
 funeral of the late Prince Ito was conducted as a state 
 funeral in genuine Shinto style. It is nevertheless true that 
 the influence of Shinto is confined largely to the official class. 
 
The masses of the people remain Buddhists, though multi- 
 tudes on the New Year’s occasion, and at other festivals, 
 borrow symbols of Shinto as means to express religious 
 thought. 
 
 The Japanese people are slow to adopt a new religious faith. 
 The survival of the Shinto faith itself stands as a testimony 
 of the strong tenacity of old religious ideas. It required a 
 century for Buddhism, after its introduction to 
 Introduction this land, to gain any appreciable foothold with 
 of Buddhism influential classes, and it was not until the Prime 
 Minister Iname and Prince Shotoku espoused the 
 faith that Buddhism began to make any headway; and not 
 until Kobo Dashi, 774-834 A. D., introduced the principle 
 that Shinto deities were incarnations of Buddhist objects of 
 worship did the new religion spread widely among the people. 
 After this Buddhism was adapted to Japan, rose in power, 
 overshadowing the primitive faith, and ultimately attained 
 great political importance. 
 
 In the words of B. II. Chamberlain, “All education was for 
 centuries in Buddhist hands, as was the care of the poor and 
 sick. Buddhism introduced art, introduced medicine, molded 
 the folklore of the country, created its dramatic 
 Its Influence poetry, deeply influenced politics and every sphere 
 of social and intellectual activity. In a word, 
 Buddhism was the teacher under whose instruction the Jap- 
 anese nation grew up.’’ 
 
 But in proportion as civilization advanced under Buddhist 
 influence, luxury and pessimism arose, weakening the middle 
 classes as well as those who carried the responsibilities of the 
 state. “At present,” writes Ernest W. Clement, “Bud- 
 Losing dhism in Japan is exceedingly corrupt, is losing its 
 
 Its Hold hold upon the educated, but retains a tremendous 
 
 influence over the great mass of the people. The 
 majority of the priests are ignorant, illiterate, and immoral, 
 ‘blind leaders of the blind.’ ” 
 
 Buddhism brought a voluminous ritual, ornate temples, 
 and a wealth of display which instituted at once a strong 
 contrast to the unadorned shrines and simple service of the 
 16 
 
Shinto cult. Its idols are numberless, many of them being 
 merely local gods. It can dress up famous characters 
 of other faiths and deify them for its service. Some Empty 
 of its gods are merely Shinto characters decorated Forms 
 with the habiliments of Buddhist thought and coloring. 
 
 It is the religion of the common people. It gets nearer the 
 heart than either of the other two faiths. It is concerned far 
 more with the future life than with this. It knows no salva- 
 tion for the individual, whose highest attainment is absorp- 
 tion into Buddhahood in a state called Nirvana, unconscious, 
 unreasoning, unfeeling, will- 
 less. With its multitude of 
 visible objects of worship, its 
 gorgeous ritual, its rosary, 
 its wearisome repetition of 
 prayers, its language largely 
 dead to the people, it is in 
 many respects not unlike the 
 degraded forms of B,oman 
 Catholicism. 
 
 Buddhism in Japan is di- 
 vided into twelve chief sects. 
 
 Some of them are large, vig- 
 orous, missionary in spirit, 
 progressive; others weak, 
 quarrelsome, having compar- 
 atively little influence. The 
 reader must bear in mind that there is a vast differ- 
 ence between ideal, esoteric or philosophical Buddhism — 
 of which little is known except by the priests and the foreign 
 student of Buddhist teachings — and practical 
 Buddhism as it appeals to and is understood by Two Phases 
 the masses of the people. Theoretically some of of Buddhism 
 its views are elevating and would seem to lead 
 to higher religious development. Practically the masses of 
 its followers are low in thought, degraded in practice, and 
 pessimistic as to the future. It is a slave to necessary law, 
 and its unvarying answer for all the ills and misfortunes of 
 
 IT 
 
 DAI BUTSTJ, KAMAKURA 
 Famous bronze image of Buddha 
 
human life is the pessimistic shi-kata-ga-nai — “there is no 
 help for it.” 
 
 But Buddhism in Japan is not yet dead. Indeed, a revival 
 of its life has of late l>een manifest. Alarmed at the progress 
 Christianity is making, disturbed by the dissensions within its 
 own ranks, disappointed with its failure during the 
 Borrowings wars with China and Russia to make an impres- 
 
 from sion, though spending large sums of money, while 
 
 Christianity Christian agencies with little money and less 
 prestige won strong approval and government 
 recognition, and stung by the criticisms of a press growing 
 daily in power and effectiveness, Buddhist leaders have been 
 striving vigorously to regain for their faith its former place 
 in the public mind. In their attempt to make it attractive 
 they have again taken to borrowing. They have Buddhist 
 Sunday schools and picnics, a Buddhist Bible with missionary 
 journeys of Buddha, Young Men’s Buddhist Associations with 
 summer schools, Buddhist preaching services, even to street 
 preaching, a thing previously unheard of, and in many ways 
 reveal their anxiety over present conditions. Not a few Bud- 
 dhists are purchasing copies of Christian Scriptures and hymn 
 books, and to Christian tunes are being adapted Buddhist 
 hymns. 
 
 Confucianism came early to Japan, but had relatively little 
 influence until the seventeenth century. Chinese Confucian- 
 ism may not deserve to be called a religion. But in the hands 
 of the moral teachers of old Japan, and as practiced 
 Bushido, by the nobler Samurai, it became transformed 
 
 a Form of into an ethical religion known as Bushido, “The 
 
 Confucianism Way of a Warrior.” Its central principle was 
 loyalty. Obedience of the inferior to the superior 
 w r as the keyword. As thus adapted to Japan Confucianism 
 differs from its Chinese aspect in the heroic military spirit that 
 pervades the whole, in exalting loyalty over filial piety, and 
 in ascribing to loyalty and filial piety a religious authority. 
 Bushido produced many noble characters whom the nation 
 now' delights to honor. Had it not been for the severe training 
 received by her ruling classes under the guidance of Bushido, 
 is 
 
Japan could not to-dav have taken her place so easily and, on the 
 whole, so successfully among the civilized nations of the earth. 
 
 This system built up again the sanctions for family and 
 social life, stating in detail the duties of each class and indi- 
 vidual. Bushido restored to the practical life of the nation 
 those choice idealizing spirits whom Buddhism had 
 for centuries been drawing off to the mountains, Its Strength 
 to Japan's incalculable injury. It sought to estab- and Weakness 
 lish the practical life of the state and of the family 
 on the firm foundation of character and knowledge. But 
 
 Bushido had no systematic propaganda, no missionary zeal; 
 it had no worship for the Supreme Being. It had no church, 
 no priesthood, no organism. It was a system of thought, a 
 philosophy of life, a code of religious ethics, but not truly nor 
 completely a religion. Hence its complete collapse on the 
 advent of Occidentalism. An important tenet of Bushido, as 
 of Confucianism, was to let the gods severely alone. It con- 
 tained no doctrine of salvation for the sorrowing and self- 
 condemned. It was a system of stern political morality and 
 
 19 
 
of personal stoicism; it was thus unfitted to reach and uplift 
 the sinning, downcast, and helpless masses. 
 
 Bushido has absorbed elements from both Confucianism 
 and Buddhism. From the latter it gets its pessimistic or stoical 
 fatalism; from the former its loyalty or patriotism. It has 
 been fashionable chiefly with the military classes. It em- 
 phasizes justice, courage, benevolence, politeness, veracity, 
 honor, and self-control, but ignores personal chastity in men, 
 and encourages suicide and revenge. To Confucianism must 
 probably be charged in some degree the apparent religious 
 indifference of the Japanese. 
 
 What then is the status of these non-Christian religions? 
 Are they sufficient for the moral and religious needs of Japan? 
 
 Buddhism, as we have seen, is hopelessly divided into a 
 dozen chief sects with still further subdivisions, and there is 
 a great lack of harmony among them. The priesthood is ex- 
 ceedingly corrupt, ignorant, and with little influence, 
 All three except over the lowest classes. It would have far 
 Religions less influence did it not largely control the funeral 
 
 Outgrown rites and cemeteries. Buddhism is out of the race. 
 
 It will long remain as a religious and superstitious 
 influence, will attract visitors to its temples, and by its im- 
 mense property investments and the gifts of its misled fol- 
 lowers keep up a show of life; but under the blazing light of 
 the scientific and religious thought of the twentieth century 
 it cannot permanently stand. 
 
 Shinto is also out of the race. For reasons above outlined 
 it cannot appeal to an enlightened people as possessed of a 
 sufficient religious basis. “The strength of modern Shinto as 
 a religion is in its doctrine of the divine descent of the im- 
 perial house. But here, too, is its weakness; for in proportion 
 as the science of anthropology destroys this belief, Shinto 
 as a religion will be wholly routed.” It has already been 
 officially killed. 
 
 Confucianism or Bushido is likewise out of the race. How- 
 ever much a few skillful Japanese writers may glorify its teach- 
 ings and a few uninformed foreigners laud its virtues, the 
 thoughtful student of the times, be he Japanese or foreigner, 
 
knows that it is out of harmony with the spirit of the new 
 Japan. It exalts the military virtues. According to its tenets, 
 manhood as such has no rights. It scorns industrialism and 
 commercialism. In essence it is opposed to popular govern- 
 ment, to the education of the masses, and to that pronounced 
 individualism toward which new Japan is fast tending. 
 
 It should he carefully noted that the moral and religious 
 wants of Japan to-day are being met by neither one nor all 
 of these religions. “It is pointed out by the Japanese them- 
 selves that ethical thought in Japan to-day is in 
 confusion, and the reason is not far to seek. More A Moral 
 
 than aught else, it is the whirlpool created by the and Religious 
 
 inrush of Western ideas and the break-up of old Lack 
 
 Japanese standards that has wrecked so many 
 Japanese youth. The transfer of the seat of moral authority 
 from Confucius to the individual conscience has been so sudden 
 that many a man has been morally killed by the shock. The 
 extent of the mental and emotional distress prevailing at 
 present may be judged from the fact that one Christian edu- 
 cator receives dozens of letters every month from men and 
 women who are contemplating suicide, and the Asahi Shimbun 
 bureau of consultation for intending suicides receives as high 
 as fifty letters a day from such persons, many of whom are 
 students.” 
 
 According to investigations made by the Department of 
 Home Affairs, the number of suicides throughout Japan during 
 1908 was 10,149, and these sad cases are on the increase. The 
 most alarming feature of this moral symptom is the 
 very large proportion of young people suicides, both One of 
 
 male and female. Non-Christian Japan is increasingly the Signs 
 dissatisfied. The nation stands in dire need of a new 
 religious force. It must be a spiritual religion, which can both 
 satisfy the heart and control the moral conduct. 
 
 MODERN CHRISTIAN DEVELOPMENT 
 
 It should be a matter of great thanksgiving that forces are 
 at work which tend to the uplift of Japan. A half century ago 
 Japan was compelled to face the question of her future political 
 
 21 
 
history. Put in the fewest words, the question was whether 
 she should face for the future toward Asia, with its 
 Facing old religions, its deep superstitions, its distinctly 
 
 Toward Oriental customs, laws, language, education,' and 
 
 the West moral impulses — or whether she should squarely 
 face the Occident, where religion, commercial and 
 civil law, education, and the entire environment are as far 
 removed as the poles from those of the East; and, after much 
 discussion, many doubts and fears, but nevertheless with hope 
 as to the future, Japan decided to face the Occident. That 
 this is true will Ire seen from various things which Japan de- 
 cided to do. namely: 
 
 (1) The guarantee of religious liberty to all her subjects, as 
 provided in Article 28 of the Constitution. When Christianity 
 first came to Japan there was practically no such thing as 
 
 freedom. The word jiyn was then invented to ex- 
 Religious press this idea. It is of the very greatest importance 
 
 Liberty to the Japanese nation that deep in her foundation 
 
 has been laid this stone — religious liberty for the 
 entire nation. The reader should remember that Japan is the 
 only non-Christian nation to-day that protects Christianity 
 and puts it on the same level with the native religions. 
 
 (2) A constitution and laws based upon Christian models. 
 Japan went to Europe and America, not to China, for her 
 models in law. In doing so she turned her back on India, 
 
 China, Korea, and her own past. It is not easy to 
 New Laws conceive the vast difference which this whole people 
 now feel by having a system of law and code based 
 upon the Code Napoleon, which in the last analysis is Christian 
 law. 
 
 (3) She has introduced democratic ideas, as manifested in 
 the deliberative bodies established in all the provinces, and in a 
 Diet, which, with the approval of the Emperor, makes the laws 
 
 and regulates the political life of the nation; in 
 A Democracy manhood suffrage; in a comprehensive and in- 
 creasingly valuable school system for all classes; 
 in freedom of the press; in encouragement of commerce and 
 manufactures. 
 
 OO 
 
(4) She has adopted the Gregorian calendar and has made 
 the Christian Sabbath a legal holiday in her government 
 institutions generally, except in the postal and telegraph 
 departments. 
 
 (5) She is putting a new value upon human life. Foreigners 
 living on this soil to-day can remember when the 
 
 lives of the lower classes of people were scarcely The 
 
 worth a straw, and now they witness those same Individual 
 
 people elevated to citizenship and enjoying the 
 rights of men. 
 
 (6) She is recognizing the principle of the equality of all 
 men before the law, so that, no matter what a man's rank, 
 he is subject to the law if he violates it. and as a citizen 
 must take his part in defense of the nation in time of war 
 
 THE READING LESSON 
 23 
 
(7) She is putting a new estimate upon the value of woman- 
 hood and the sacredness of the family relation. Shintoism has 
 no place for woman. Buddhism counted her un- 
 Womanhood clean and unfit to visit the sacred places of that 
 ancient faith. Christianity gives her a high place 
 in the home, and an equal place in the church; and the change 
 to Japanese womanhood is already marvelous. 
 
 (8) She has introduced a new idea of justice. Under 
 Ideal of the old laws revenge was justified, and to fail to take 
 Justice revenge was considered cowardly and mean. The 
 new law punishes a man for taking revenge. 
 
 (9) She is approving directly or indirectly many Christian 
 institutions which do their work effectively in the elevation 
 of man: for example, the Red Cross Society, with its 1,500,000 
 
 members in this country ; orphanages for the poor, 
 Christian down-trodden, sorrowing; asylums for the in- 
 
 Philanthropies sane; hospitals for the sick; schools for the deaf. 
 
 dumb, anti blind. The positions given in the 
 recent war to some of these agencies for the alleviation of 
 suffering tell forcibly what the better heart of Japan thinks 
 of these Christian institutions. 
 
 (10) Other Signs. The presence of Christian ideas in the 
 minds of the people has changed the thought of many. The 
 great educator Fukuzawa from an opponent of Christianity 
 
 became an advocate of the new religion — not 
 General as a. personal adherent of the Christian faith, 
 
 Attitude Toward but for political and social reasons. In 1873 
 Christianity the edicts against Christianity were quietly 
 
 removed, though never publicly repealed. Grad- 
 ually hospitals and orphanages began to appear, agencies 
 practically unknown in old Japan. In 1905 the Emperor made 
 a gift of 10,000 yen to the Young Men’s Christian Associa- 
 tion because of its excellent work in connection with the war. 
 Christians were often chosen for important positions, because 
 they were reliable where other men failed morally. This is 
 increasingly true. The whole Bible has been translated into 
 the Japanese vernacular and finds increasing sale throughout 
 the land. Formerly ordinary book stores would not keep a 
 
 24 
 
copy of Christian Scriptures on sale because of the odium 
 attached to that book. To-day booksellers very gladly dis- 
 tribute and advertise the Christian Scriptures and colporteurs 
 may stand upon the streets selling copies of the same, usually 
 without interruption. Hundreds of stores in Tokyo sell Christ- 
 mas cards and Christian literature. 
 
 New words are also coming into the language — words dis- 
 tinctly Christian in origin and spirit. Christian phrases are 
 used by public speakers on all sorts of subjects. The most 
 successful novels now being circulated draw upon Christian 
 truth for much of their force. 
 
 The old religions are not dead. In some respects a distinct 
 revival is manifest in them, and a great battle has yet to be 
 fought. But it is perhaps not too much to say that the greatest 
 single religious force in Japan to-day is Christianity, and in 
 the successful propagation of Christianity lies the hope of 
 Japan. 
 
 In view of the conflict of ideas, and the battle between re- 
 ligious faiths of the East and the West in Japan, the question 
 may naturally arise — What will Japan do ultimately? Will 
 she swing back toward the old faiths, toward 
 Oriental ideas, turn her back upon the West The Japan of 
 and be satisfied to enjoy a repetition of her past the Future Will 
 history, or has the root principle of modern Be Christian 
 civilization struck deep enough to produce a 
 tree that shall stand in future ages, a living, luxuriant, splendid 
 growth? The writer believes that the die has already been 
 cast; that when Japan decided to take on Western institutions 
 and laws and link herself with the commercial West she prac- 
 tically settled the religious question also. To rank Japan 
 to-day as a Christian nation is far from the truth and well nigh 
 absurd, but, following along the lines of her new growth, the 
 Japan of the future will be Christian. Her ideas are to-day 
 leading her toward the ranks of the Christian forces. Says Dr. 
 
 S. Motoda, one of her prominent citizens, “Japan will adopt 
 all the institutions conducive to human welfare according to 
 Christian ideas and principles; the bulk of the people will come 
 to believe in the religion of Jesus Christ.” 
 
Conditions Met by First Protestant Missionaries 
 
 A little more than fifty years ago it was impossible for mis- 
 sionaries to enter Japan. The very name of Christianity was 
 hated. The wonderful work commenced three centuries before 
 by Xavier had been terminated by bitter perseeu- 
 Hatred of tions in which myriads of Roman Catholics lost 
 
 Christianity their lives. Stern measures were adopted for 
 
 ferreting out any who might be secret adherents 
 of the hated religion. In every town was posted a notice 
 declaring that the evil sect known as Christianity was strictly 
 under the ban, and that rewards would be given to any who 
 gave information against its followers. Householders were 
 required to obtain each year from the Buddhist priests a 
 certificate that no member of the family was a Christian. In 
 many parts of the country the people were made to show by 
 
 DECREE AGAINST CHRISTIANITY 
 
 The above copy of the decree of the Japanese Government against 
 Christianity was originally written on a wooden board. This is the 
 translation: 
 
 ORDER 
 
 Hitherto the Christian Religion has been forbidden, and the 
 order must be strictly kept! 
 
 The corrupt religion is strictly forbidden!! 
 
 Done in the 3d month of the 4th (year] of Kvo ( March, 1868). 
 
 By order of the Inugami Prefecture. 
 
trampling on the cross their hatred of the religion that it 
 represented. Books containing references to Christianity, or 
 even to European countries, were prohibited. The Japanese 
 were not allowed to visit foreign lands. The only Europeans 
 allowed to trade with Japan were a few Dutch merchants who 
 were willing to submit to humiliating conditions for the sake 
 of a little trade. 
 
 Christians of the West longed to enter these closed doors. 
 Roman Catholics prayed that the land whose soil had been 
 stained by the blood of so many martyrs might again resound 
 with praise to Jesus and Mary. Protestants were 
 interested in what they heard of the Japanese and First Attempt 
 longed to give them the gospel. In 1814 a French to Find 
 
 priest and in INIfi a Protestant missionary took Entrance 
 
 up their residence in the Liuchiu Islands, which at 
 that time loosely acknowledged their allegiance to Japan. The 
 Protestant was Dr. Bettelheim, a converted Jew. He was 
 surrounded by guards and spies, who did their best to keep 
 him from holding any communication with the people. The 
 tracts that he distributed were immediately after gathered up 
 by the officials and returned to him. Notwithstanding these 
 difficulties he baptized three persons. lie also prepared a 
 Japanese translation of one of the gospels, which was after- 
 ward printed. In China Dr. Gutzlaff and Dr. S. Wells Wil- 
 liams prepared other translations by the help of some ship- 
 wrecked Japanese sailors. An attempt was made to return 
 these men to their native land, but they were not permitted 
 to land and the ship that brought them was fired upon. 
 
 Prince Iwakura stated to the Treaty Powers that if Chris- 
 tianity were permitted, the government, being based on the 
 Shinto religion, could not continue. Japanese officials would 
 consent to admit foreigners providing they could keep out 
 the two most hateful things — Christianity and opium. 
 
 Period of First Seed Sowing, 1859-1872 
 
 In 1853 Commodore Perry, with the American expedition, 
 reached Japan and informed the officials that he would return 
 the next year and demand a treaty between Japan and the 
 
United States. He came, and on March 31, 1854, a treaty 
 was signed at Yokohama, the building erected for 
 Treaties the purpose standing on the very spot of ground on 
 
 Prepare which now stands a Christian church, the first -Prot- 
 
 the Way estant church building erected in this empire. This 
 treaty did not give Americans permission to reside in 
 the country, but it opened the way to a treaty made soon after 
 which did give this privilege. This is known as the Townsend- 
 Harris Treaty, which per- 
 mitted residence in certain 
 cities after July, 1859. 
 
 Other foreign countries, tak- 
 ing advantage of what 
 America had done, soon se- 
 cured similar treaties with 
 Japan. 
 
 Missionaries at once 
 made use of the new op- 
 portunities. T h e 
 First Mis- first was the Rev. 
 sionaries J. Liggins, of the 
 Protestant Episco- 
 pal Church of the United 
 States, who reached the 
 country in May, two months 
 before the time set by the 
 treaty, and who was soon 
 joined by the Rev. (after- 
 ward Bishop) C. M. Will- 
 iams. In October came J. C Hepburn, M.D., of the American 
 Presbyterian Board; and in November the Rev. S. R. Brown, 
 the Rev. G. P. Verbeck, and the Rev. D. B. Simmons, M.D., 
 all of the Reformed (Dutch) Church in America. 
 
 Great difficulties surrounded the opening work. Recollec- 
 tions of political troubles that came from the former propa- 
 gation of Roman Catholicism made the government 
 Obstacles fear Christianity. Its profession was still prohib- 
 
 and Aids ited. Spies watched the movements of the mis- 
 
 2S 
 
 DR. GUIDO E. VERBECK 
 
sionaries. Persons suspected of being under their influence 
 were liable to be arrested. A difficult language had to 
 be learned before direct instruction could be given. Yet 
 there were some favorable circumstances. Many of the edu- 
 cated classes were eager to learn about Western lands and 
 their civilization. Being able to read Chinese books, they 
 bought large numbers of those that had been prepared by 
 missionaries in China, and these contained many references 
 to Christian doctrines. Many young men desired instruction 
 in the English language. Of those who were then taught by 
 the missionaries, a few afterward became Christians; others, 
 and among them some who attained positions of great in- 
 fluence, had their prejudices dispelled. After a time some of 
 the missionaries were employed by the government itself as 
 teachers of English or of science. 
 
 In 1864 occurred the first baptism, that of a man who 
 had been the teacher of a missionary. Two years later there 
 were baptized an official of high rank and two of his relatives 
 — their study of Christianity having come from the 
 desire to know the contents of a Dutch New Testa- First 
 
 ment, which they had found floating on the water, Baptisms 
 w'here it had probably been dropped from some 
 foreign ship in Nagasaki harbor. 
 
 In 1865 it was discovered that many descendants of the 
 Roman Catholic Christians still adhered to their faith. Sev- 
 eral thousand were arrested and banished from their homes. 
 
 The representatives of foreign governments at 
 once protested against the persecution, and were Persecution 
 told by the Japanese officials: “Our government 
 rests upon the Phinto faith, which teaches the divinity of the 
 Mikado. Christianity tends to dispel that belief; hence the 
 government has resolved to resist its propagation as it would 
 resist the advance of an invading army.” The persecution 
 extended to those who were becoming interested in Chris- 
 tianity as taught lay Protestant missionaries, and several 
 persons were thrown into prison, where at least one of them 
 died. 
 
 Up to the spring of 1872 only ten converts had been bap- 
 
 29 
 
tized by the Protestant missionaries. In March of that year 
 the rite was administered in Yokohama to nine others, who, 
 with two previously baptized, were organized into 
 Range of what, without denominational name, was called 
 
 Early Work “The Church of Christ in Japan.” In addition to 
 
 the Roman Catholics and Protestants, a few per- 
 sons had at this time been baptized in connection with the 
 Russo-Greek Church. 
 
 Period of Rapid Growth, 1S73-1889 
 
 In 1873 the edicts against Christianity were quietly taken 
 down. Though the laws themselves were not repealed, it was 
 evident that the government would not enforce them. During 
 the new era then com- 
 Eager mencing there was a 
 
 Interest great desire to adopt 
 
 Western customs and 
 ideas. Railroads, machinery, 
 and other material products of 
 Occidental civilization were in 
 demand. Christianity, as the 
 religion of the West, was 
 thought worthy of investiga- 
 tion. Large audiences listened 
 to its proclamation. Young 
 men and women flocked in in- 
 creasing numbers to Christian 
 schools. After graduation 
 many of them became earnest 
 and effective pastors or evan- 
 gelists. Bibles and other Chris- 
 tian books found a ready sale. 
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA, LL.D. 
 
 There were large accessions to 
 
 the churches. Many of the local churches were self-supporting; 
 and there were also generous contributions for evangelistic, 
 educational, and philanthropic purposes. The growth in all 
 directions was so rapid that it began to be said, even by those 
 who hated Christianity, that probably by the end of the cen- 
 tury it would be the predominant religion of the land. The 
 
churches of America and England, encouraged by the glad 
 news coming from Japan, sent forth new missionaries and 
 large contributions for the enlargement of the work. It was 
 during these years that Dr. Joseph Hardy Neesima did his 
 great work of education and evangelization, largely at Kyoto, 
 and laid the foundations of the Doshisha College. 
 
 These years were not without their trials. There were 
 many who bitterly opposed the advance of Christianity. 
 Buddhism was aroused to unwonted activity and strove to 
 keep its followers from going over to the new faith. Those 
 who did so met with persecution from relatives and 
 neighbors. Many persons were held back by fear of In Spite of 
 losing trade or official position. The movements Difficulties 
 of the missionaries were hampered by regulations 
 that prevented residence in the interior, except as employed by 
 Japanese, and sometimes it was difficult to procure pass- 
 ports for travel. The high pressure at which the work was 
 carried on, and the numerous perplexities that arose in ad- 
 justing the relations between the missionaries and the Jap- 
 anese Christians, caused a severe nervous strain that led 
 to many failures in health. In retrospect, however, these 
 trials, to a great extent, fade from sight, while the period is 
 remembered as one of great opportunities, of rapid growth, 
 and of high hopes. 
 
 The statistics of Protestant missions for 1888 showed 249 
 churches, with a membership of 25,514, the number of adults 
 baptized during the year covered by the reports being 
 6,959. The Roman Catholics reported for the same Results 
 year a membership of 39,298. The Russo-Greek 
 Church at that time probably numbered not far from 16,000 
 believers. 
 
 Period of Reaction, 1890-1900 
 
 During this third period the reaction which began to be mani- 
 fest in the second period became severe. It was not a reaction 
 against Christianity simply, but against Western 
 civilization in nearly every form. The occa.sioif for Against 
 
 it was probably political. The people had become Western 
 
 strongly opposed to the conditions placed upon Civilization 
 
 31 
 
144 148 152. 
 
them hy the treaties which Japan held with foreign na- 
 tions. These governments, some of them of no commercial 
 consequence, declined to agree to the revision of the treaties, 
 except upon terms which were deeply humiliating to Japan. 
 Repeated efforts were made to secure redress, led by the 
 strongest statesman in the empire, but the concessions de- 
 manded failed to get the approval of the Japanese people, 
 and when Count Okuma had practically agreed to what seemed 
 to be humiliating concessions, just before the signing of the 
 treaties, he lost a limb and came near losing his life by the 
 explosion of a bomb under his carriage. The reaction grew 
 stronger. People who had purchased foreign knives and 
 forks, spoons, plates, foreign clothes, etc., were practically 
 forced to dispose of them because of the strength of conserva- 
 tive ideas. 
 
 The Church itself partook somewhat of this same spirit. 
 In place of energetic measures to evangelize the people a lull 
 came over the work of the Churches. Prominent pastors in 
 some of the denominations began to advocate an 
 Effect on independent Church, controlled by Japanese, and 
 the Church an adaptation of Christianity to Japanese needs. 
 
 It was distinctly the day of the conservatives, anil 
 the Buddhists, seizing the opportunity, undertook in many 
 shrewd ways to regain their standing with the people and to 
 make Buddhism again popular as the people’s religion. Japan 
 for the Japanese was their cry, and with remarkable zeal did 
 they plead with the people to stand by the nation and Bud- 
 dhism, lest all perish through division. 
 
 Hitherto there had not appeared doctrinal divisions among 
 the messengers of the gospel in Japan, but now came the 
 Unitarians from America, and liberal missionaries, as they 
 were called, from Germany — teachers of all sorts 
 Religious of rationalism, who spread over the country with 
 
 Controversies their tracts and publications, causing division in 
 the Christian ranks and adding confusion where 
 enough already existed. With theological unrest came spirit- 
 ual decline and relaxing of evangelistic efforts to save the 
 people. 
 
 34 
 
b L tC 
 
 A commercial spirit, too, had its influence upon both min- 
 istry and laymen. Some preachers left off preaching the 
 gospel to make money; church attendance decreased and 
 discouragement came to many an earnest 
 worker who had not before felt so heavily the Commercialism 
 strength of heathenism and cold commercialism. 
 
 Nevertheless, during all this period the Church made some 
 ains, and there appear in the statistics for 1900 the following 
 gures : 
 
 Protestant Churches 
 
 Members therein 
 
 538 
 . 42,451 
 
 Some Gains 
 
 Roman Catholic adherents 
 
 . 54,602 
 
 Nevertheless 
 
 Russo-Greek Church adherents . . 
 
 . 25,994 
 
 
 The Greek and Roman Churches included children in their 
 statistics, while most of the Protestant Churches do not. 
 
 Twentieth Century Outlook 
 With the opening of the twentieth century a change grad- 
 ually came over Japan. The Boxer difficulty in China had 
 
 MONUMENT ERECTED AT PORT ARTHUR BY JAPANESE IN MEM- 
 ORY’ OF RUSSIANS WHO FELL IN THE SIEGE 
 35 
 
broken out. ami Japan had gone with her troops to take part 
 in an international movement- to rescue imprisoned 
 A New Life diplomatic officials, missionaries, and foreign resi- 
 in Japan dents at Peking. The conduct of her officers and 
 
 troops was such as to win great praise from foreign 
 officers and diplomatists and the missionary body. All eyes 
 now began to turn toward Japan. 
 
 The Churches in Japan, too, began to take on new life, and 
 the people began to look upon international questions in a 
 new light. The activity of the Churches found expression in 
 a great forward movement, which represented to a 
 4 Great greater or less degree all Protestant denonuna- 
 
 Revival of tions, and many leaders of the movement were 
 Christianity found among Japan’s influential citizens. The 
 Japan Evangelical Alliance served as a unifying 
 agency in the carrying on of this work, and little attention 
 was paid to merely denominational lines. Prominent mis- 
 sionaries and Japanese Christians went out upon the streets 
 preaching the gospel of Jesus to the multitudes. This “Taikvo 
 Dendo,” ‘‘Great Uplifting Evangelization,” the workers led by 
 banners carried by Christian laymen, men and women both 
 distributing tracts and using personal influence to lead indi- 
 viduals to accept the truth, stirred the thought of the people 
 of Japan to a great degree. Thousands heard the preaching 
 of the truth in this way for the first time, and to distant in- 
 terior villages were carried messages and leaflets concerning 
 the Christian truth. Perhaps 25,000 people signed cards giv- 
 ing their names and addresses and asking that they be taught 
 the Christian way. Many additions to the Churches took 
 place, and the religious enthusiasm manifested at some points 
 was a very unusual thing for Japan. 
 
 From the very beginning the Methodist Churches took 
 prominent place in the leadership of this movement. Y. 
 Honda, T. Ukai, II. Yamaka, II. Hirat-a, S. Ogata, and M. 
 
 Yamaka, among its ministry, and the Honorable 
 Methodism’s T. Ando, president of the Temperance League, and 
 Share in the S. Nemoto, M.P., both leading Japanese Methodist 
 Movement laymen, with a multitude of missionaries and 
 
 3G 
 
others, contributed very largely to the success of this movement. 
 
 To one Methodist Church in Tokyo, located among the student 
 class chiefly, 511 probationers were added in a single fortnight. 
 
 Politically Japan was gravitating toward the war with 
 Russia, which broke out February 5, 1904. The political 
 aspects of that great struggle cannot be discussed here. Re- 
 ligiously, it opened to the people of Japan a new 
 opportunity for effective work. The Buddhists sent One Result 
 
 representatives to the front, spent large sums of of the War 
 
 money, and in many ways exerted themselves to 
 lead the soldiers to Buddhist thought and consolations. But 
 it has been repeatedly observed how little influence they 
 seemed to have, while the Young Men’s Christian Association, 
 alert, under good leadership, and appreciating the real con- 
 ditions, though with little money and less prestige, was en- 
 abled to accomplish great things for the Christian cause. 
 Thousands of tracts, Gospels, and other printed messages were 
 distributed among the soldiers, and in the gospel tents thou- 
 sands heard for the first time the story of Christ and his sav- 
 ing power, and later came home to their native villages and 
 hamlets all over the land, bringing the story of what they 
 had heard. Thus was the war, with all its horror and terrible 
 bloodshed, made a means for good to a multitude of people. 
 
 By this time the Churches had learned somewhat more 
 fully the lesson of the value of united effort, and in Sunday 
 school work, in special forward movements, in. publication 
 work, and especially in the production of a Union 
 Hymnal for the Protestant Churches, was good The Union 
 work accomplished. Several years had been spent Hymnal 
 
 in the collecting of material and the translation and 
 the adaptation of tunes to the wants of the Japanese congre- 
 gations, with the result that a hymnal was now produced 
 which is perhaps not excelled by any other similar publication 
 in the world, judged from the standpoint of its adaptability 
 and its wide usefulness. The first edition, which at the time 
 was thought to be large enough to meet the wants of the Chris- 
 tian community for years to come, has already been followed 
 by edition after edition. Not only so, but an entirely new 
 
book has been added for Sunday school use — all of this still 
 under the direction of an interdenominational committee 
 representing the leading Protestant Churches Probably no 
 other single production in modern mission enterprise, the 
 Bible alone excepted, has done more to bring to the knowledge 
 of the people the Christian faith than has this hymnal. 
 
 The different families of Protestant Christianity have united 
 themselves in Japan to form suitable Churches to meet their 
 
 UNION HYMN BOOK COMMITTEE 
 Representatives of live denominations. Book used by all Protestants. 
 
 needs; the Presbyterian denominations in one Church, the 
 Episcopalians in another, the Congregationalists 
 Denominational in a Church by themselves, (he Baptists forming 
 Unions alliances of a similar nature, and the three main 
 
 bodies of Methodists now forming one Meth- 
 odist Church for all Japan. It has never seemed necessary to 
 the Japanese converts to Christianity that the divisions which 
 separated us in our respective homelands should be trans- 
 planted to the soil of Japan. 
 
With guaranteed religious freedom, with the Christian 
 press already making itself felt, with the Churches united in 
 congenial families, with united Sunday school 
 work growing stronger year by year, and with Grounds for 
 
 self-support steadily increasing, Japanese Chris- Encouragement 
 tianity faces the twentieth century with large 
 hopes and with good prospects. 
 
 Statistics of Christian Work in Japan in 1909 
 
 Married male missionaries 303 
 
 Unmarried male missionaries 40 
 
 Unmarried female missionaries 314 
 
 Total missionaries, wives included S90 
 
 Ordained Japanese ministers 55S 
 
 Unordained Japanese ministers 538 
 
 Total Protestant membership .... 74,560 
 
 Baptisms during the year 7,449 
 
 Organized churches 579 
 
 Other preaching places . ...... 956 
 
 Churches wholly self-supporting. 169 
 
 Sunday schools 1,159 
 
 Scholars in same 87.003 
 
 Boys’ schools 15 
 
 Students in same, 3,034 
 
 Girls’ schools . 37 
 
 Students in same 3,693 
 
 Day schools 59 
 
 Students in same 4,702 
 
 Theological schools 19 
 
 Students in same 318 
 
 Bible women’s training schools 13 
 
 Students in same 174 
 
 Roman Catholic missionaries 366 
 
 Roman Catholic membership 63,094 
 
 Greek Catholic missionaries 2 
 
 Greek Catholic membership 30,712 
 
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSION 
 
 The treaty negotiated by Commodore Perry between the 
 United States and Japan was ratified in 1854. Between this 
 date and that of the beginning of the Japan Mission of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, in the latter half of the year 
 1873, Methodist Episcopal Missions were founded in India, 
 Switzerland, Denmark, Bulgaria, Italy, and Mexico. The 
 older mission fields of the Church, together with those 
 named, were rapidly expanding during these two decades. 
 This will explain the lateness of the beginning of our work in 
 Japan. 
 
 The Rev. Robert Samuel Maclay, D.D., one of our first 
 missionaries to China, was the leader in founding this Mission. 
 1 lis attention and heart were first drawn to Japan, August 9, 
 1853, by Commodore M. C. Perry, who that 
 The Founders day returned with his squadron from Japan to 
 
 of the Mission Hongkong harbor and announced his successful 
 
 commencement of negotiations for opening 
 Japan to the world. Before the departure of Dr. Maclay from 
 China, in 1871, the Foochow Mission forwarded to our Mis- 
 sionary Society an appeal for the establishment of a Mission 
 in Japan. In 1872 Dr. Maclay made strong appeals through 
 our Church papers for funds with which to open this work, 
 and in the following November the General Missionary Com- 
 mittee took the first step toward establishing a Mission in 
 Japan by appropriating $25,000 for that purpose. Bishop 
 Jesse T. Peck at once appointed Dr. Maclay superintendent of 
 the Japan Mission, and the Rev. John C. Davison, the Rev. 
 Julius Soper, and the Rev. Merriman C. Harris were appointed 
 a little later. The Rev. Irvin TI. Correll, originally appointed 
 to China, on reaching Yokohama, en route to China, was trans- 
 ferred by Bishop Harris to this Mission. On August S, 1S73, 
 all these missionaries, with their wives, together with Bishop 
 Harris, Dr. John P. Newman and wife, Dr. James W. Waugh, 
 of our India Mission, Dr. Ross C. Houghton, of the Northern 
 New York Conference, and Dr. William A. Spencer, of the 
 Central Illinois Conference, assembled in Yokohama, and on 
 •to 
 
that evening the Mission was organized by Bishop Harris, at 
 the resilience of Dr. Maclay. 60 Bluff, Yokohama. 
 
 At this meeting these Methodist leaders proceeded to map 
 out “four old-fashioned Methodist circuits The first and 
 second to be called the Yokohama and Yedo (Tokyo) Circuits, 
 together with such other portions of the island of 
 Nippon (Hondo), on which these cities are sit- Rather Large 
 uated, as we may lie able to occupy. The third Circuits 
 
 to be called the Hakodate Circuit, embracing the 
 city of Hakodate and such other portions of the island of 
 Yezo (Hokkaido), on which it is situated, as we may in time 
 
 be able to cultivate. The fourth 
 to be called the Nagasaki Circuit, 
 comprising the city of Nagasaki 
 and such other portions of the 
 island of Kiushiu, on which it 
 is situated, as we may be able 
 to occupy.” 
 
 In other words, with char- 
 acteristic Methodist faith, these 
 missionary fathers proposed to 
 preempt for Methodism the 
 three largest islands of the Jap- 
 anese empire, containing then a 
 a population of about 30,000,000, 
 their outside stations being 1,300 
 miles apart, and the extremes of 
 territory distant from each other 
 nearly 2,000 miles. Dr. Maclay 
 and Mr. Correll located in Yoko- 
 hama, Mr. Soper in Tokyo, Mr. 
 Davison in Nagasaki, and Mr. 
 Harris in Hakodate, so that by 
 the end of January, 1874, our 
 pioneers had planted themselves 
 empire. 
 
 True to their history, the noli 
 their opportunity, and the ste 
 
 in the four quarters of the 
 
 le women of our Church saw 
 amer of October 28, 1874, 
 
brought Miss Dora E. Schoonmaker (now Mrs. Henry M . 
 
 Soper, of ( ’hieago) as the first representative to 
 Woman’s Japan of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society. 
 Work In November Miss Schoonmaker opened her- school 
 
 Begun of a dozen boys and girls in Tokyo, and amusing 
 
 and instructive stories are told of the difficulty of 
 getting students to attend it, owing to the prejudices of the 
 people against Christianity. 
 
 Our first Methodist converts were Mr. and Mrs. Kichi, 
 baptized by Mr. Correll in his own house, 217 Bluff, Yoko- 
 hama, October 4, 1874. The Rev. John Ing and his wife, 
 previously engaged in our mission work in China, entered 
 First upon successful educational work at Hirosaki, in the 
 
 Fruits northern part of Hondo, toward the close of 1^74. June 
 
 5, 1875, he baptized fourteen young men, all students 
 except one, while eight others were preparatory candidates 
 for baptism. On January 3, 1875, Dr. Soper baptized Mr. 
 Ben Tsuda and wife in the missionary residence, Tsukiji, 
 Tokyo, the first converts of our Church in the capital. On the 
 same day he for the first time administered the sacrament of 
 the Lord’s Supper in Japanese, and on the 17th of the same 
 month opened services in the house of Mr. Furukawa, Kudan, 
 Tokyo, out of which grew our prosperous Kudan Church. The 
 Church at Mita, known as the Draper Memorial Church, is 
 likewise the outgrowth of services begun by him at the house 
 of Mr. Tsuda in May. The new mission residence in Tsukiji 
 was occupied in October. 
 
 Our first Church in Yokohama stood on lot 224 Bluff, and 
 was bought, in an unfinished condition, of Mr. Jonathan Goble, 
 a Baptist missionary, the reputed inventor of the jinrikisha, 
 and previously one of the sailors who came with 
 Pioneer Commodore Perry. This was also our first church 
 
 Planting of in Japan, and in it two of our first ministers, Sogo 
 the Work Matsumoto and Tenju Kawamura, first heard, soon 
 after its opening, the preaching of the gospel by Dr. 
 Maclay, and were led to Christ, though they could not under- 
 stand the words of the speaker. Matsumoto became our first 
 native presiding elder. The Church in Nagasaki, built on the 
 42 
 
historic Deshima (outer island), where the government of two 
 centuries before had hemmed in the Dutch settlement and 
 factory, was completed by the end of the year, and in Hako- 
 date also Mr. Harris had secured a church location, and was 
 carrying on regular services and had baptisms; so that within 
 about two years after the organization of this Mission the 
 Church had been securely planted in each of the stations 
 chosen, and, spreading out from these centers, its work has 
 gone on steadily increasing to this day. 
 
 During the first period of two years of pioneer planting 
 of the Mission the expected reinforcements did not come, the 
 financial depression, beginning in the United States in 1S74, 
 having hindered the enlargement of the work; but in the period 
 now opening the much needed help began to appear. Now 
 school enterprises were established, publishing interests began 
 to receive attention, and touring became common. The year 
 1875-6 is also marked by the organizing of church classes, 
 and the beginning of love feasts and quarterly meetings and 
 ( 'onferenees. 
 
 A prominent distinction between this and the previous 
 period lies in the fact that this year, for the first time, our 
 Japanese pastors and teachers began to take part in the Annual 
 Meeting, and in all our history one of our strong 
 points has been in bringing these Japanese ministers Position of 
 into our deliberations, and giving them equal eccle- Native 
 
 siastical rights with ourselves, just as fast as they Workers 
 
 were able. By so doing we have avoided many of 
 the difficulties which have rent the missions of other 
 denominations. 
 
 In January, 1S77, the new school for girls and the new 
 church in Tsukiji were occupied. Our first Methodist hymnal, 
 translated or written originally by Mr. Davison, 
 came into existence in July, and contained 27 Expansion of 
 
 hymns and doxologies; our book now carries 485 the Work 
 
 numbers. The baptism by Mr. Harris, in August, 
 of twelve students of the Agricultural College in Sapporo 
 opened our work in that great city of the north. 
 
 The Rev. John Ing, who at the request of the Mission was 
 
 4:j 
 
transferred from the China Mission anti became a member of 
 the Japan Mission in 1876, continued to have large success in 
 reaching young men at Hirosaki. Under his direction five of 
 his students came to the United States, in 1S77-7S, to-pursue 
 courses of study at what is now DePauw University, Indiana, 
 the forerunners of many others who have sought in America 
 fuller equipment for later labors in their native land. 
 
 The Rev. W. C. Davison and wife joined the Mission at 
 the end of 1877, the first regular reinforcements sent out. 
 In the eight years before the organizing of the Mission into a 
 Conference there was a gradual increase of the 
 Reinforcements force of missionaries from America, both on the 
 part of the Parent Board and the Woman’s 
 Foreign Missionary Society. Among those who w r ent out in 
 those years, and are still associated with the Mission, are the 
 Rev. Gideon F. Draper and the Rev. Charles Bishop. The 
 name of the Rev. Milton S. Vail, who inaugurated the 
 
 higher educational work of 
 the Mission in 187!), should 
 be joined with the fore- 
 going. 
 
 In the work of the Wom- 
 an’s Foreign Missionary 
 Society Miss Schoonmaker 
 was first reinforced by Miss 
 Olive Whiting, in Septem- 
 ber, 1 876, and in November, 
 1879, by Miss Elizabeth 
 Russell and Miss Jennie M. 
 Cheer. Others came into 
 the field before the organ- 
 izing of the Conference, and 
 of these there were still en- 
 rolled in the Mission forces 
 in 1909 Misses Russell, 
 Gheer, Mary S. Hampton, 
 miss Elizabeth miss Jennie Matilda A. Spencer, and 
 
 russell m. gheer Rebecca J. Watson. 
 
 44 
 
The year 1879 has been called in our Mission “a year of 
 disaster and growth.” The membership almost doubled, 
 self-support quadrupled, and new churches were organized in 
 important centers. The Japan Conference Semi- 
 nary was opened at 221 Bluff, Yokohama, October Year of 
 
 1st, Dr. John F. Goucher giving §10,000 to Disaster and 
 encourage this particular line of work; and the Growth 
 
 girls’ school in Nagasaki was opened in December. 
 
 On December 7th our church and school buildings in Hako- 
 date were destroyed by fire, and on the 26th our entire prop- 
 erty in Tsukiji — school, church, residences — was consumed in 
 a great conflagration which swept away a large section of the 
 city. Our missionaries there lost all, and w'ould have suffered 
 intensely but for the kindness of friends, Japanese and foreign, 
 who came to their immediate relief. 
 
 Naturally the next year was largely spent in recovering 
 the ground lost by these disastrous fires. Overwork broke 
 down some of our missionaries, and, though reinforcements 
 came, they were never sufficient to meet the needs of the 
 work. On August 28, 1881, Bishop Bowman ordained to the 
 office of deacon S. Kurimura, B. Onuki, E. Aibara, K. Asuga, 
 
 T. Ivikuehi, and S. Abe, the first native converts in our own 
 Church to receive ordination, as the Rev. Y. Honda, men- 
 tioned above, was converted in the Dutch Reformed Church, 
 and ordained by Bishop Wiley in 1878. 
 
 After the year 18S1 our publishing work assumed new in- 
 terest, and the Berean Sunday school lessons began to be 
 regularly translated and published in Japanese. 
 
 The schools now began to grow 7 in numbers and importance. 
 
 Of more advanced schools, Cobleigh Seminary at Nagasaki, 
 now called Chinzei Gakuin, and the rebuilt girls’ school 
 at Tsukiji, were opened in 1881, and the new buildings Mission 
 for Ivwassui Jo Gakko, or Girls’ Seminary, at Nagasaki, Schools 
 were dedicated May 29, 1882, when Joseph Cook de- 
 livered the address. 
 
 Through the generosity of Dr. Goucher, of Baltimore, plans 
 had been made for the founding of a Methodist College in 
 Tokyo, and, through the gift of Mrs. Philander Smith, the 
 
 45 
 
theological school known as the Philander Smith Biblical 
 Institute was established. On January 1, 1883, the money 
 was paid over which gave us possession of our splendid prop- 
 erty of about twenty-five acres at Aoyama, or “Green. Moun- 
 tain,” the beautiful suburb of Tokyo, a location which leaves 
 nothing to be desired. The theological school was removed 
 from Yokohama and became a part of the Aoyama plant, 
 the training school for Bible women taking the property thus 
 vacated. Later the Tsukiii girls’ school was also removed to 
 
 KWASSUI JO GAKKO, OR GIRLS’ SEMINARY, NAGASAKI 
 
 The school buildings are in the background, to the right 
 
 Aoyama, where we now have a college, a middle school, a 
 theological school, a seminary for girls, and an industrial 
 school for women. 
 
 Revivals appeared in all parts of the field in 1883, and were 
 confined to no denomination. The number of converts in 
 Japan, in this one year alone, about equal the en- 
 First Great tire number converted during the first twenty years 
 
 Revival of mission work. Wonderful demonstrations of 
 
 power were manifest. The greatest results were in 
 
 40 
 
our schools. More than half our students were converted, 
 twenty-seven in one school in one night. The spiritual uplift 
 given to our work by this gracious revival has never lost its 
 effect. 
 
 This year also we graduated our first theological class, 
 
 T. Doi, II. Hirata, T. Yamada, and II. Yamaka, a noble 
 quartet; and a second class of native preachers received ordi- 
 nation, a wonderful showing for the first ten years of mission 
 work in a field new to Christian truth. 
 
 Perhaps in no way did the great revival of 1883-84 show 
 its genuineness more clearly than in the strength which it at 
 once gave to the movement toward self-support, which had 
 already started among the churches of our Mission, and has 
 steadily grown to the present time. 
 
 These movements formed the fitting preparation for the 
 organization of the Japan Mission into an Annual 
 Conference in August, 1884. Including members on Japan 
 
 probation, the Conference had 13 foreign missionary Conference 
 members and 111 native preachers. The Woman’s Organized 
 Foreign Missionary Society had 12 representatives 
 on the field. There were 1)07 members of the Church, 211 pro- 
 bationers, and 1,203 Sunday school scholars. 
 
 A third period covers the history of the Mission from its 
 organization into an Annual Conference in 18S4 to 
 the present time. The work of the first period fixed The Third 
 the Mission’s geographical boundaries; that of the Period 
 
 second the lines of our work. The third period has 
 been one of stern contest, solid if not rapid progress, and, on 
 the whole, most remarkable results. 
 
 Dr. It. S. Maclay came to the United States in 1888 as a 
 delegate to the General Conference, and, after careful con- 
 sideration, decided to accept the position which was tendered 
 him of Dean of the Maclay College of Theology 
 at San Fernando, California. With deep regret Condition of 
 
 he sent by letter to the Japan Conference the Work in 1888 
 announcement of the conclusion of his long 
 term of service in that field. The Conference, feeling equal 
 sorrow at parting with one who had been so true a leader, in 
 
 ■17 
 
its resolutions on his resignation reviewed the fifteen years, 
 from the beginning of the Mission in 1873 to the fifth session 
 of the Japan Conference, August, 1888, covering the period of 
 
 Dr. Maclay’s work. The 
 number of church members 
 in 1888 was 2,854, with 849 
 probationers. There were 
 20 missionaries, 19 assistant 
 missionaries, and 3S native 
 preachers. The Woman’s 
 Foreign Missionary Society 
 had 12 foreign missionaries 
 and 22 native workers. 
 The foreign teachers num- 
 bered 16 and the native 
 teachers 44. There were 
 77 Sunday schools, with 
 4.198 scholars, and 17 high 
 schools and other day 
 schools with 1,79S pupils. 
 
 In 1898, at the twenty-fifth anniversary of our work in 
 Japan, the southern portion of the empire, including the 
 island of Kiushiu, the Liuchiu group, and Formosa, was con- 
 stituted the territory of the South Japan Mission 
 South Japan Conference, which held its first session at Nagasaki, 
 Conference March, 1S99. Bishop Earl Cranston presided, and 
 the new Conference entered on its course with 
 remarkably complete organization. In no part of the empire 
 have more rapid material developments taken place than in 
 northern Kiushiu during recent years. Railways, new coal 
 mines, iron and steel plants, great government piers, and yards 
 turning out large ocean-going steamships have made this 
 section of the South Japan Conference a busy hive of industry. 
 Our churches and workers have nobly measured up to these 
 conditions and opportunities. With no less alertness they have 
 kept in view the extension of their operations through the length 
 of the Liuchiu Islands and through Formosa, which was added 
 to Japan’s possessions at the close of her war with China. 
 
 4S 
 
Episcopal Supervision 
 
 In the earlier years of the Mission a Bishop from America 
 visited the field once every year to administer the affairs of 
 the Church. Beginning with 1896, Bishop Joyce presided 
 at two successive sessions of the Conference, Bishop Cranston 
 at two. Bishop Moore at four. 
 
 The General Conference of 1904 elected the Rev. Merriman 
 C. Harris to be Missionary Bishop of Japan and Korea, under 
 whose supervision the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 in Japan still remains. The formation of the Japan Methodist 
 Church simply relieved Bishop Harris of that portion of the 
 administration belonging exclusively to the native Church. 
 He continues to superintend the entire work of the missionaries 
 of our Church in Japan. 
 
 The Publishing Interests 
 
 Nearly a score of years ago the Methodist Mission procured 
 printing materials and began to do the practical work of 
 
 the ginza, Tokyo’s leading thoroughfare 
 Methodist Publishing House in the B'oreground 
 49 
 
printing on a small scale. That work has increased until the 
 Methodist Publishing House, the only general 
 A Large publishing plant in the country under special 
 
 and Growing missionary direction, now turns out from its 
 
 Enterprise presses about 5,000,000 pages per month, prints 
 
 regularly a score of periodicals, employs 100 men 
 regularly, and does a large business in the sale of books and 
 tracts in various languages. It makes its own type, does 
 printing in eight different languages, and is capable of taking 
 the paper from the factory where it is made, and turning it out 
 in nicely appearing books and stationery. It publishes the 
 Sunday school literature for the International Sunday School 
 Association, which organization is gradually reaching all the 
 Protestant churches of the empire. It also publishes the 
 Union Hymnal (described on a previous page), known as the 
 Sambika, which appears in two distinct series and nearly two 
 score different styles. 
 
 Educational Work 
 
 Just as soon as the missionaries of our Church to Japan 
 were able to establish themselves in their homes, at the dif- 
 ferent stations in the empire, they began to teach. When they 
 had not yet the language of the people they 
 Early began teaching in English, and from the very first 
 
 Educational there were young men, and later young women, 
 Work who desired to learn the English tongue. As has 
 
 been previously shown, schools soon sprang into 
 existence, until the Mission now has a line of schools ex- 
 tending from north to south throughout the empire. A brief 
 mention of these may be helpful: 
 
 (1) The Iai Jo Gakko, or Caroline Wright Memorial School, 
 located at Hakodate, has from the beginning been a center 
 of light in that far northland. Its graduates have gone out to 
 be Bilile women, wives of Christian ministers and of business 
 men, teachers in the schools, and earnest workers in various 
 good lines. 
 
 (2) The Hirosaki Jo Gakko, a girls’ school with grades from 
 primary to academic. The property of this school is not 
 
owned by the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, but by 
 an arrangement with the owners our women have been teach- 
 ers in the school from its beginning, and the results have 
 been beneficial. There is also in this same town of Hirosaki 
 a kindergarten, opened in memory of Mrs. Mary Alexander, 
 whose sudden translation at the time of the burning of their 
 house in that city will be specially remembered by many warm 
 friends. 
 
 (3) Sendai Girls’ School, an intermediate and grammar 
 school of about fifty pupils, doing an excellent work among 
 important classes in this great city of the central north. 
 
 (4) Aoyama Gakuin, located at Tokyo, which is the out- 
 growth of the Mission school first constructed at 221 Bluff, 
 Yokohama, now the site of the Bible Women’s Training 
 School. With the development of the work of the Mission, it 
 was found important to remove this first boys’ school 
 
 to the city of Tokyo, where already existed an ele- At Tokyo 
 
 mentary school for boys, and the two were united in 
 
 the spring of 1883 at the present site, Aoyama, or Green 
 
 CHAPEL OF AOYAMA GAKUIN, TOKYO 
 51 
 
Mountain. Here are college, academy, and preparatory de- 
 partments, with a theological school quite independent of 
 the other departments. The total enrollment of these schools 
 is about 600, and the influence of the institution has extended 
 far and wide. Special privileges are accorded the school by 
 the Educational Department, because of the high grade of 
 work it has been able to do. Its graduates are to be found in 
 important diplomatic, official, and business positions, at home 
 and abroad. The theological school has furnished the back- 
 bone of the ministry of the Methodist Church of to-day. At 
 Aoyama is also: 
 
 (5) The Aoyama Jo Gakuin, a high school and preparatory 
 department for girls. This is the outgrowth of the girls’ schooi 
 established in 1S74 by Miss Schoonmaker, located first at 
 Tsukiji and later removed to Aoyama. Here are some 300 
 young women and girls preparing for life’s work, and the 
 school has a high standing. 
 
 (6) At Aoyama is also to be found the Harrison Memorial 
 Industrial School, which has for its object the training of 
 women under Christian influences for the duties of home, as 
 well as giving them a knowledge of some of the fine arts. 
 
 (7) Higgins Memorial Bible Training School, located at 
 Yokohama, has sent out from its classes most of the Bible 
 women connected with our own Church and a number of 
 those now laboring in other churches in Japan. 
 
 (8) The Seirvu Jo Gakko (girls’ school!, is located at Nagoya. 
 This school, too, has had an excellent history, though it has 
 met with some severe losses by fires. 
 
 (9) The Eiwa Jo Gakko. or English-Japanese girls’ school, 
 at Fukuoka, in the northern part of the Island of Kiushiu, 
 is another valuable institution of our Church. 
 
 (10) The Chinzei Gakuin, the second school for boys in 
 the Mission — for there are but two educational plants for 
 
 young men — is located at Nagasaki. It was first 
 At Nagasaki opened in 1SS1 and now has an enrollment of 
 something like 500, owns some good buildings, and 
 is exerting a strong Christian influence among the young 
 men of the island. 
 
53 
 
 SOME OF THE STUDENTS OF AO YAM A JO GAKUIN, TOKYO 
 
THE FACULTY OF CHINZEI GAKUIN, NAGASAKI, IN 1908 
 
 (11) Kwassui Jo Gakko (girls’ school), also located at 
 Nagasaki, adjoins the property of the boys’ school mentioned 
 above. This school, begun in 1879 by Misses Elizabeth Rus- 
 sell and Jennie M. Gheer, has made for itself a unique place 
 among Christian forces of the country. It equals in grade a 
 good college for young women. 
 
 These several institutions have proven valuable agencies in 
 the spread of Christian knowledge among the people. The 
 boys’ schools belong to the Board of Foreign Missions: the 
 gills’ to the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society. 
 Important Several of the most important revivals that have 
 Agencies occurred in Japan have had their beginning in these 
 schools. In some instances, every member of the 
 graduating class has been a Christian, and in two or three 
 instances, practically every student attending the school pro- 
 fessed faith in Christ. All of these schools, together with 
 the publishing house, and kindred interests, remain the property 
 of, and under the direction of, the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 their status not being affected by the union, which was a 
 union of churches, forming one native Methodist Church for 
 all Japan. 
 
METHODIST UNION, ITS ORIGIN SCOPE AND VALUE 
 
 Without a doubt the missionaries of the several Methodist 
 Churches are themselves chiefly responsible for the first mani- 
 festations of the spirit of union in Methodist Churches in 
 Japan. Before the native Christians of our com- 
 munion were many, or had begun to take practical As the 
 
 interest in the affairs of the Church, the missionaries Missionaries 
 of the leading Methodisms — the Canadian, and the Saw It 
 
 Methodist Episcopal — had begun to look forward 
 to the development of the Church in Japan. They saw the 
 waste, the danger of friction, and the uselessness of proceeding 
 to develop their respective churches, regardless of each other, 
 and therefore without any formal union it was tacitly agreed 
 that the work of the two churches should be so conducted as 
 not to overlap each other, and that the spirit of earnest coopera- 
 tion should be cultivated. In later years, when the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, entered the country, it. chose for its 
 field of operations a section not yet occupied by either of the 
 other two, so that as the years advanced the three developed 
 mainly in different sections of territory and with a sympathetic 
 attitude toward each other. 
 
 As the churches grew and men of ability began to 
 appear in them, their interest in the question of Methodist 
 union was aroused. There were plain examples about them 
 of the value of union. Five Presbyterian bodies had 
 already united to form one Presbyterian Church for Object 
 Japan, two Episcopal Churches, English and American, Lessons 
 had united to form one Episcopal Church; those of 
 Congregational polity formed another Church; while those of 
 the Baptist persuasion were considering the formation of one 
 Baptist Church for Japan. As the number of Methodist bodies 
 increased, it became apparent that the formation of one Meth- 
 odist Church would result in economy and efficiency to the 
 work as a whole. 
 
 But this idea did not find strong expression with Japanese 
 Methodists until the political changes following the recent 
 wars began to be felt. These wars tended to unify the people 
 
and a pro-national sentiment arose which undoubtedly had 
 some influence. To infer that this was nar- 
 Growing Feeling row and ungrateful, selfish and blind, would 
 Among Japanese be to make a serious mistake. As American 
 Methodists at the close of the revolutionary war 
 felt the necessity of establishing a Church independent of the 
 mother country and mother church, so Japanese Methodists 
 came to feel the importance of having a Methodism separate 
 from the mother church and having its legal and actual home 
 in Japan. The leaders of the uniting Methodist Churches saw 
 all this and took the right and wise course in approving 
 union rather than that these churches should ultimately dis- 
 integrate and die. 
 
 This Japanese nationalistic spirit is not to be condemned. 
 It is right, patriotic, self-protective, unquenchable. The true 
 mission of the Christian Church is to Christianize this spirit, 
 and to utilize it in the spread of the kingdom of Jesus. To 
 oppose it blindly is to defeat the mission of the gospel in this 
 land . 
 
 The approach to organic union was a natural growth, not 
 a forced process. It had been for twenty years under con- 
 templation. When, therefore, in view of the above facts the 
 time seemed ripe for union, the respective General 
 Organization Conferences of the three churches having answered 
 Effected favorably the petitions from Japan, the following 
 
 commissioners visited Japan to effect the organiza- 
 tion: Bishop A. W. Wilson and the Rev. W. R. Lambuth of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; Bishop A. Carman 
 and the Rev. A. Sutherland of the Methodist Church in Canada; 
 and Bishop Earl Cranston and the Rev. A. B. Leonard of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church. These commissioners, clothed 
 with full powers to do what might be thought best, went 
 carefully over the whole matter again and again in fullest 
 consultation with both missionaries and Japanese, and came 
 fully to approve and warmly to defend the union project, 
 which was ultimately approved by their General Conferences 
 at home. 
 
 The Japan Methodist Church is established upon the doc- 
 
FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE JAPAN METHODIST CHURCH, HELD IN MAY, 1907 
 
trines of Methodism prominent from Wesley’s day to this, and 
 accepts the polity of the Methodist Episcopal Churches in all 
 essential features. The only exceptions to the 
 The Same With latter are that the election of the Episcopacy is 
 
 Two Exceptions for a term of eight years instead of for life, and 
 
 district superintendents are nominated by the 
 Conference for appointment by the bishop, two nominees 
 being presented for each appointment to be made. By action 
 of the General Conference of this new Church, the foreign 
 missionaries were accorded all the privileges which Japanese 
 members of Conference enjoy. 
 
 This union affected the native churches only, and has 
 nothing to do with the schools, publishing houses, hospitals, 
 dispensaries, homes, orphanages, missionary residences, or other 
 Mission property of the several Missions. The 
 Relationship respective Home Boards still remain responsible for 
 of Boards the carrying on of these lines of work and their 
 development until such time as the new Church 
 may be able to take them over, which must, in the nature 
 of the case, be somewhat remote. 
 
 The new agreement puts upon the churches the respon- 
 sibility of meeting all their own current expenses, repairs, 
 building, traveling, etc., and promises them assistance, for a 
 limited time only, in paying salaries and chapel rents in order 
 to keep up the work. 
 
 The young Church in Japan cannot at the present time 
 furnish the funds for its own sustenance and at the same time 
 evangelize the forty millions yet unreached. It must have 
 help, and that for some time continued, not so much 
 Financial for its own support, for it will soon accomplish 
 
 Help Needed that, but to aid it in reaching the other nine tenths 
 
 of the unsaved. Right here is the problem. Un- 
 aided the young Church will be swamped in heathenism, mate- 
 rialism, agnosticism and other forms of unbelief. Japan is yet 
 far from Christ. Millions of money and many consecrated 
 lives must yet be put into this battle. For some years yet 
 no diminution of financial aid can be safely allowed. The 
 number of missionaries should be increased, and to aid the 
 
accomplishment of this a gradual reduction of the direct 
 contributions to the support of the Japanese ministry should 
 be possible. Any reduction of missionary forces in Japan at 
 present is not to be thought of. Some say: “They wanted 
 to be independent. Now take away support, use it in other 
 fields, and let them be independent.” Such a spirit is revenge- 
 ful, selfish and destructive. 
 
 To allow a child to try to walk, though it may experience 
 some falls and bruises, is in the end helpful to both parent 
 and child. But because the child naturally desires to use its 
 own limbs for development, it would be irrational to demand 
 that it at once assume all the burdens and cares of full manhood. 
 
 Give the child a chance, and it will take its place in the race. 
 
 It is too early as yet to estimate accurately the value of 
 this union in all that it means. It is certain that its influence 
 will not be confined to Japan. But it is possible even now 
 to note certain points of decided advantage. 
 
 (1) It permits the governed to choose their leaders Results of 
 — the democratic principle in church government. At the Union 
 once, all eyes turned toward the Rev. Yoitsu Honda of 
 
 our own Church, and he was 
 elected bishop on the first 
 ballot with a vote almost 
 unanimous. No other Chris- 
 tian in the empire has a 
 wider influence or is better 
 known. He is doing a heroic 
 work for the young Church. 
 
 (2) It put the chief bur- 
 den of evangelization where 
 it belongs — upon the people 
 themselves rather than upon 
 foreigners. The missionary 
 must open the way and 
 should assist to victory, but 
 the native is the man — God’s 
 man — to lead in completing 
 the work. 
 
 BISHOP YOITSU HONDA 
 
(3) It has aided self-support immensely. A new spirit has 
 possessed the Church. It cannot suddenly do great things, 
 but it shows the right spirit and will win. 
 
 (I) It has encouraged the spirit of self-sacrifice. -Pastors 
 can now walk where once they must ride. Current expenses 
 can be cut down. Individual Christians can give more when 
 they feel responsible for a Church all their own. 
 
 (5) It tends to economy in money and men. Mot many 
 unions of societies to form single churches have been possible 
 because care was taken in the past that no two churches should 
 occupy the same field; but one system of general supervision 
 takes the place of the former three' one treasurer pays out 
 for all Missions; one source of appointment must provide for 
 all churches. 
 
 (6) It has revealed to Japanese Methodist leaders the 
 dimensions of their task and their own limitations. This is 
 important. If formerly they fancied that the missionaries did 
 not know how to bring rapid success — that with the right 
 kind of leadership heathenism must at once give way to their 
 preaching — they are learning the magnitude of the task which 
 the Christian Church has yet to work out in Japan. All this 
 tends to bring them upon their knees before Almighty God. 
 
 (7) It has relieved the missionary of official leadership and 
 from a form of criticism which was unpleasant. If the right- 
 kind of man, he can now give his whole time to teaching and 
 moral leading. His advice is sought, his help appreciated as 
 it might not have been before. He can establish his own 
 classes and chapels, and work effectively for Christ. The 
 schools, the press, the Bible classes, the preaching demand all 
 of the missionary’s time, and are the really efficient means for 
 the spread of the gospel. 
 
 The obligation of American Methodists to assist their 
 brothers in Japan in the evangelization of the unreached 
 millions has not been lessened by the formation of this inde- 
 pendent Church organization. We did not enter 
 The Obligation Japan primarily to build the Methodist Episcopal 
 of American or some other Church but to save the souls of 
 
 Methodists those lost in sin and add them to the kingdom of 
 
Jesus. The presence of our own Church organizations 
 in Japan was merely a means to that supreme end. When 
 it became apparent that this great end could the better be 
 accomplished by creating an independent National Church, 
 built upon the .same foundations as the mother churches, and 
 having the same blessed mission of carrying the gospel to the 
 people, what objections could reasonable men anywhere oppose 
 to this work of God? 
 
 The compact made with the Japan Methodist Church for- 
 bids the three American Methodisms, the mother Churches, to 
 organize again their several Churches upon the soil of Japan — 
 this in protection of the rights and interests of the new Church. 
 But it does not prevent our aiding this Church. On the con- 
 trary, in all the careful and painstaking deliberations of the 
 commissioners and missionaries with the Japanese brethren, 
 the idea, recurring in many forms, was constantly conveyed, 
 that the marriage of the daughter should not be allowed to 
 alienate the sympathy, interest or assistance of the mother 
 heart. True, the assistance might take a new direction — in 
 some respects would of necessity do so — but it certainly should 
 not be withdrawn. 
 
 It would not be well that the aid given should go directly 
 to the new Church, but through the agency of our duly con- 
 stituted missionaries on the field and our well-established 
 financial channels. But let us not forget our obligations. 
 Under existing circumstances, any proposition to withdraw 
 now our aid to Japan would be disloyal, ungenerous, and 
 wholly unworthy of Methodism. 
 
 As other Protestant denominations — the Episcopalians, the 
 Presbyterians, the Congregationalists and the Baptists — are aid- 
 ing their native churches in Japan, though possessing wholly 
 independent organizations on this field, by furnishing them 
 with missionaries, schools and other accessory agencies, so 
 American Methodists should gladly furnish similar aid to 
 Japanese Methodism, and thus contribute to the coming 
 victory. Christian Japan will be a worthy reward. 
 
 61 
 
THE CALL OF JAPAN TO CHRISTIAN AMERICA 
 
 What stronger providential appeal to American Christians 
 could he made than that which Japan offers? Her appeal is 
 strong because of the following considerations. 
 
 1 . Because of her history. Within the memory of 
 Her many now living, Japan was a land sealed to the world, 
 
 History knowing little and unknown. Her language, literature, 
 
 arts and religion had come to her from the hoary 
 East. She sat in spiritual and 
 scientific darkness, scarce dream- 
 ing of the depth of her night. 
 
 Suddenly rays of light began 
 to fall upon her. She awoke. 
 
 She began at once to move. 
 
 To-day she ranks in laws 
 and literature, in schools and 
 commerce, in deeds and diplo- 
 macy high up in the scale of 
 nations. For rapid progress 
 she has no equal among the 
 nations. 
 
 It was America that led 
 her out. It was America that 
 taught and guided her in her 
 introduction to the world. In 
 American schools many of her 
 sons have been educated, and 
 American sympathy has steadied her through some of her 
 mightiest struggles. It is to America that she looks for that 
 which is freest, fairest, and best. Her new birth history claims 
 for her a hearing. 
 
 2. Because of the Christian progress she has made. Chris- 
 tianity is already in high places in Japan. It is fortified in 
 the Constitution; it is written in the spirit of the 
 Her Christian laws; it finds general support in the commercial 
 Progress and diplomatic relations of Japan with the outside 
 
 world; and to-morrow may see some Prince Shotoku 
 
and some modern Prime Minister Soga no Iname ready to 
 die for the propagation of the faith. Any one at all acquainted 
 with conditions in Japan knows that his Majesty’s most reliable 
 subjects are now the Christians. In Parliament and in many 
 positions of trust they number full twenty times their normal 
 proportion. 
 
 Take now into account Japan's 75,000 Protestant Church 
 members, or her 168,000 Christians, Roman and Greek Catholic 
 included, to say nothing of hundreds of thousands not enrolled 
 in the Church but whose lives have been profoundly impressed 
 by the gospel, and what an appeal for help do these make 
 in their efforts to win 40,000,000 yet untouched by the new 
 light! Can we fail to hear the call of these our children in 
 the gospel? 
 
 3. Because of her moral and religious needs. The pre- 
 
 ceding pages of this booklet tell the story of Japan’s great 
 need — not to know something about Christianity, but to be 
 permeated with the Christ spirit. The stoical indiffer- 
 ence, the unrest, the sad want, cannot be hidden from Hei 
 those who read beneath the surface. Needs 
 
 This moral need is written upon the faces of nine tenths 
 of all you meet. The Christian Churches are yet unable to 
 cope with the pagan mass that increasingly crowds upon 
 them, and in their need they cry out to American Christians, 
 their nearest brothers, for help to meet the task. And they 
 must not cry in vain. 
 
 4. Because of her influence in the Orient. Providence has 
 given Japan the key position to the Orient. Thought and 
 feeling flow from East to West. Japan is catching the 
 
 sunlight from the moral hilltops of America and will Her 
 
 pass it on. Politically her influence ascends rapidly. Influence 
 Let Japan but become Christian and who can measure 
 her influence for good? 
 
 But the present is a critical hour in the religious history 
 of Japan. Unless some calamity befall her, she will continue 
 to rise in political and commercial importance in the far East, , 
 and she will pass on to the westward the influence derived 
 from America. She will be a help or a hindrance to China 
 
according to what America shall do for her. God forbid that 
 Japan’s influence in China and Korea shall be materialistic, 
 atheistic and destructive. The decision of this question is 
 under God, largely in the hands of American Christians. 
 America has the money, the men and the spiritual power and 
 opportunity. ‘What shall the harvest be?” 
 
 LITERATURE 
 
 The best brief works descriptive of Japan and the Chris- 
 tian work therein are: 
 
 1. Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom, by J. IT. DeForest, 
 
 50 cents. 
 
 2. Handbook of Modern Japan, by E. W. Clement, $1.50. 
 
 3. The Gist of Japan, by R. B. Peery, $1.25. 
 
 4. The Christian Movement in Japan, 1900, 75 cents. 
 
 5. From Far Formosa, by G. L. MacKay, $1.50. 
 
 Good biographies are the following: 
 
 1. Verbeck Oj? Japan, by W. E. Griffis, $1.50. 
 
 2 .Joseph Hardy Neesima, by A. S. Hardy, $2.00. 
 
 3. Townsend Harris, by W. E. Griffis, $1.50. 
 
 The best books on the native religions: 
 
 1. Shinto, the Way of the Gods, by W. G Aston, $2.00 
 
 2. The Development of Religion in Japan, by W G. 
 
 Knox. 
 
 3. Bushido, by I. Nitobe, $1.00. 
 
 4. The Religions of Japan, by W. E. Griffis, $1.25. 
 
 If one would understand the religious setting in Japan, he 
 must read: 
 
 1. Japan, by David Murray, Story of Nations Series, 
 
 $1.50. (Best single volume history of Japan.) 
 
 2. Evolution of the Japanese, by S. L. Gulick, $2.00. 
 
 3. The Mikado’s Empire, by W. E. Griffis, 2 vols., $4.00. 
 
 4. History of Christianity in Japan, by Otis Cary, 
 
 2 vols., $5.00. 
 
 5. Every-Day Japan, by Arthur Lloyd, $3.00. 
 
 0. Japanese Education, by Baron Kikuchi, $1.25. 
 
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