We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
The path followed by Protestant Christianity in Meiji Japan (1868–1912) has frequently been viewed as an index to the general process of Japanese development up to World War II. The beginnings seemed promising. According to the accepted picture, the early converts included a significant number of young ex-samurai whose clan had not supported the winning side in the Meiji Restoration. The new regime dismantled the feudal order which had given their lives purpose and meaning, and they felt alienated and rejected as a result. They first came into contact with Christianity from a desire to study Western learning and thus make a new start in life; they were indifferent, or even hostile, to the Western religion itself. The early missionaries and foreign teachers who led them to Christianity in spite of such initial attitudes seem to have been, if not men with actual military experience, people of strong personality and puritanical ideals. Matching samurai stereotypes of courage and single-minded determination as they therefore did, they attracted the admiration and loyalty of their lordless pupils, who pledged themselves, through their teachers, to Christ. Conversion was often accompanied by the discovery of a new purpose in life, the task of spreading the new religion. This was a restatement of the samurai obligation to set a spiritual example to others, and also represented a patriotic mission to save the nation both morally and materially, through providing the proper basis for the adoption of Western civilization.
1 For an English-language description of this picture, see Scheiner, Irwin, Christian Converts and Social Protest in Meiji Japan, Berkeley, 1970, pp. 21–30, 41–66, 82–99Google Scholar. F. G. Notehelfer emphasizes “moral dislocation” rather than a sense of lost status. See Notehelfer, , American Samurai: Captain L. L. Janes, Princeton, 1985, pp. 185–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 E.g. Griffis, William Elliott, A Maker of the New Orient: Samuel Robbins Brown, New York, 1902, pp. 299–300Google Scholar.
3 The classical works are by Mikio, Sumiya
e.g., Kindai Nihon no Keisei to Kirisutokyō: Meiji Shoki Purotesutanto Kyōkai Shiron 
: 
, Tokyo, 1950 (see esp. pp. 17–18, 42)Google Scholar and Nihon no Shakai Shisō: Kindaika to Kirisutokyō 
, Tokyo, 1968 (see esp. pp. i, 5–7)Google Scholar, and Kiyoko, Takeda
e.g., Ningenkan no Sōkoku: Kindai Nihon no Shisō to Kirisutokyō 
, Tokyo, 1959 (see esp. pp. 11–14)Google Scholar. For English-language studies which adopt similar approaches, see Best, Ernest E., Christian Faith and Cultural Crisis: The Japanese Case, Leiden, 1966Google Scholar, and Scheiner.
4 For English-language studies of Uchimura, see, e.g., Caldarola, Carlo, Christianity: The Japanese Way, Leiden, 1979Google Scholar; Howes, John F., “Japan's Enigma: The Young Uchimura Kanzo”, Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1965Google Scholar. The amount written on him can be gauged from Tsutomu, Shinagawa
, Uchimura Kanzō Bunken Mokuroku 
, enlarged ed., Tokyo, 1977Google Scholar.
5 Sumiya, , Kindai Nihon no Keisei, pp. 137–140Google Scholar.
6 See, e.g., Sumiya, , Kindai Nihon no Keisei, pp. 131–33Google Scholar; Takeda, preface pp. 4–5, p. 24. Such assumptions are also apparent in more recent works such as Akio, Dohi
, Nihon Purotesutanto Kirisutokyōshi 
, Tokyo, 1980Google Scholar, and Eiichi, Kudō
Nihon Kirisutokyō Shakai-Keizaishi Kenkyū: Meiji Zenkio Chūshin to shite 
, Tokyo, 1980Google Scholar.
7 Ohama Tetsuya 
has made a similar point about attempts to link early Meiji rural interest in Christianity with the growth of a capitalistic ethic. See his review of Kudō, , in Shakai Keizai Shigazu 
16 (02 1981), pp. 86–87Google Scholar, and also Ōhama, , “Nihon Kirisutokyōshi ni kansuru Danshō” 
, Fukuin to Sekai 
35 (09 1980), pp. 21–7Google Scholar.
8 This point has also been made by Akiko, Yoshinare
, Ebina Danjō no Seiji Shisō 
, Tokyo, 1982, pp. 3–4Google Scholar.
9 E.g. Yasushi, Kuyama
, ed., Kindal Nihon to Kirisutokyō: Meiji-hen 
, Tokyo, 1956, pp. 105–107Google Scholar.
10 E.g. Sumiya, , Nihon Shakai to Kirisutokyō, p. 25Google Scholar; Takeda, pp. 82, 85. For a contrasting interpretation of Seikyō Shinron, linked to a lower-key appraisal of Kozaki himself, see Dohi, , “Kozaki Hiromichi: Ichi Shidōsha no Kisū 
, in Yōichi, Wada
, ed., Dōshisha no Shisōkatachi 
, II, Kyoto, 1973, pp. 31–88Google Scholar.
11 Hiromichi, Kozaki, Reminiscences of Seventy Years: The Autobiography of a Japanese Pastor, trans, by Kozaki, Nariaki, Kyo Bun Kwan, 1933, pp. 26–39Google Scholar; Notehelfer, passim; Takeda, pp. 69–76. For discussions of how far this affected their understanding of Christianity, and the affinities of various forms of Neo-Confucianism with Christianity, see, e.g., Kuyama, pp. 79–90; Takeda, pp. 3–26, 68–72; Yoshinare, passim; in English, see Notehelfer, , “Ebina Danjō: A Christian samurai of the Meiji period”, pp. 36–41, 44–45Google Scholar, Papers on Japan, II, Harvard University, East Asian Research Centre, 1963, pp. 1–56Google Scholar. Watanabe Kazuyasu 
analyses Seikyō Shinron in terms of the influence of jitsugaku on Kozaki's understanding of Christianity, in “Kirisutokyō to Jukyō: Meiji Jidai o Chūshin to shite” 
, pp. 117–23Google Scholar, Kikan Nihon Shisōshi 
, no. 8 (1978), pp. 111–28Google Scholar.
12 See Kozaki, passim.
13 Seikyo Shinron (SS), pp. 306–307, in Kozaki Zenshū 
, III, Tokyo, 1938, pp. 296–399Google Scholar; Takeda, pp. 82–83. The relationship between religion and government had also been a topic of discussion among the Meirokusha 
. See Meiroku Zasshi: Journal of the Japanese Enlightenment, trans, and with an introduction by Braisted, William Reynolds, Tokyo, 1976Google Scholar, passim.
14 For the 1880s as a period when clear differences were emerging in the ideology of government and opposition, see Masao, Maruyama
, “Meiji Kokka no Shisō” 
, pp. 216–20Google Scholar, in idem, Senchū to Sengo no Aida, 1936–1957 
, Tokyo, 1978, pp. 202–50 (first publ. 1949).
15 SS, pp. 288–303.
16 SS, p. 344. For an analysis of Kozaki's general attitude to the people's rights movement, see Dohi, , “Kozaki Hiromichi”, pp. 51–9Google Scholar.
17 SS, p. 303–4. For an English-language study of Nishi Amane, see Havens, Thomas R. H., Nishi Amane and Modem Japanese Thought, Princeton, 1971, esp. pp. 114–63Google Scholar; for Motoda, see Shively, Donald H., “Motoda Eifu: Confucian lecturer to the Meiji Emperor”, in Nivison, David S. and Wright, Arthur F., Confucianism in Action, Stanford, 1959, pp. 302–33Google Scholar. Kozaki was not the only person to be worried about attempts to revive Confucianism during this period. See Maruyama, , “Fukuzawa Yukichi no Jukyō Hihan” 
, pp. 106–7Google Scholar, in op.cit., pp. 93–115 (first publ. 1942) and Pierson, John B., Tokutomi Sohō 1863–1957: a Journalist for Modern Japan, Princeton, 1980, pp. 103–15Google Scholar.
18 SS, pp. 304–5.
19 SS, pp. 394–5. For a general survey of Meiji interpretations of evolution, see Shin'ichi, Funayama
, Zōho Meiji Tetsugakushi Kenkyū 
, Tokyo, 1965, pp. 294–349Google Scholar. For a recent English-language article on the influence of Spencer, see Shigekazu, Yamashita, “Herbert Spencer and Meiji Japan”, in Conroy, Hilary et al. , ed., Japan in Transition: Thought and Action in the Meiji Era, 1868–1912, Rutherford, 1984, pp. 77–95Google Scholar. For an analysis of Japanese Christian interpretations of evolution, see (Chō) Kiyoko, Takeda
, “Shinkaron no Juyō Hōhō to Kirisutokyō” 
, Bungaku 
47 (04, 1979), pp. 198–208Google Scholar; for Kozaki himself on evolution see, e.g., “Kirisutokyō to Shinpo” 
, Rikugō Zasshi 
, no. 96 (12 1888), pp. 500–7Google Scholar.
20 SS, pp. 306–12.
21 SS, pp. 316–18, 333–40.
22 SS, pp. 342–57. A dig at Fukuzawa Yukichi is presumably intended here. (See Dilworth, David A. & Hurst, G. Cameron, trans., Fukuzawa Yulcichi's An Outline of a Theory of Civilization, Tokyo, 1973, pp. 71–123Google Scholar.
23 SS, pp. 365–71.
24 SS, pp. 372–9.
25 SS, pp. 379–83.
26 SS, pp. 386–94.
27 SS, pp. 394–6.
28 SS, pp. 396–8.
29 SS, pp. 399.
30 SS, pp. 315, 318–21. As we have already seen, Kozaki later states that all non-Christian countries locate the perfect society in the past (SS, p. 367).
31 SS, pp. 322–30.
32 SS, pp. 331–3.
33 SS, pp. 334–9.
34 SS, pp. 336–40.
35 SS, pp. 341–2.
36 SS, pp. 358.
37 SS, pp. 358–9.
38 SS, pp. 360–1.
39 SS, pp. 362–4. As was mentioned before, this is precisely what seems to have happened to Kozaki and other early Meiji Christians with a samurai upbringing.
40 SS, pp. 384–6.
41 Kozaki, , Reminiscences of Seventy Years, p. 364Google Scholar.
42 Fukuzawa Yukichi's An Encouragement of Learning, trans., with an introduction, by Dilworth, David A. and Hirano, Umeyo, Tokyo, 1969, pp. 16–20, 69–74Google Scholar. For an analysis of Fukuzawa Yukichi on Confucianism, see Maruyama, , “Fukuzawa Yukichi”, esp. 95–105Google Scholar. In English, see Blacker, Carmen. The Japanese Enlightenment: a Study of the Writings of Fukuzawa Yukichi, Cambridge, 1964, esp. pp. 60–86Google Scholar.
43 Among Western works on Chinese beliefs available when Kozaki was writing were Edkins, Joseph, Religion in China: containing a Brief Account of the Three Religions of the Chinese, London, 1877Google Scholar; Legge, James, The Religions of China: Confucianism and Taoism described and compared with Christianity, London, 1880Google Scholar; Nevius, John L., China and the Chinese, rev. ed., Philadelphia, 1882Google Scholar.
44 E.g., Faulds, Henry, Nine Years in Nipon: Sketches of Japanese Life and Manners, London, 1885, p. 299Google Scholar.
45 Notably at this time, Joseph Edkins, James Legge, and William A. P. Martin. All three of these were missionaries to China whose Chinese writings were available in Japan. See Ozawa Saburō 
, “Chūgoku Zairyū Yasokyō Senkyōshi no Nihon Bunka ni oyoboseru Eikyō” 
in idem, Bakumatsu Meiji Yasokyōshi Kenkyū 
, 2nd ed., Tokyo, 1973, pp. 177–203.
46 Tora, Yoshida, 
“Tendō Sakugen to sono fukyū: Chūgoku shinkyō bunsho dendō hatten no ichisokumen” 
pp. 49–53Google Scholar. Shicho 
, no. 61 (1956), pp. 40–53Google Scholar. It was unanimously mentioned as the best defence of Christianity available by leading missionaries and Japanese Christians in a questionnaire distributed by the American Congregationalist preacher, Joseph Cook, during his 1882 visit to Japan. See “Twenty Four Questions on New Japan”, in Cook, Joseph, Boston Monday Lectures: Orient with Preludes on Current Events, Boston, 1886, appendix IV, pp. 289–310Google Scholar.
47 For an English-language summary of Tendō Sakugen, see Covell, Ralph, W. A. P. Martin: Pioneer of Progress in China, Washington, D.C., 1978, pp. 110–25Google Scholar.
48 SS, pp. 314.
49 Lecture III: “Religion of China: Confucianism”, in The Faiths of the World, St. Giles's Lectures, Second Series, Edinburgh, 1881, pp. 73–108Google Scholar. For information on Matheson, see Macmillan, Donald, The Life of George Matheson, London, 1907Google Scholar. His (positive) views on evolution are among those examined by Moore, James R. in The Post-Darwinian Controversies: a Study of the Protestant Struggle to come to Terms with Darwin in Great Britain and America, 1870–1900, Cambridge, 1979, esp. pp. 228–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
50 Matheson, pp. 87–94, 101–4.
51 Matheson, pp. 99, 106–7.
52 Later in his life, however, he did come to support the idea of fulfilment. See Macmillan, esp. pp. 279–81.
53 See Dewick, E. C., The Christian Attitude to Other Religions, Cambridge, 1953, pp. 120–8Google Scholar; Sharpe, Eric J., Not to destroy but to fulfil: the Contribution of J. N. Farquhar to Protestant Missionary Thought in India before 1914, Lund, 1965, pp. 44–55, 97–102Google Scholar.
54 See, e.g., the two speeches relating to Japanese religion given at the 1883 Conference of Protestant Missionaries to Japan, and the discussions which followed them: Gordon, M. L., “The religious influence of Buddhism as an obstacle to the reception of the Gospel in Japan”, Proceedings of the General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of Japan, held at Osaka, Japan, April, 1883, Yokohama, 1883, pp. 90–101Google Scholar; H. Waddell, “The influence of Chinese literature as an obstacle to the reception of Christianity in Japan”, ibid., pp. 106–15.
55 “Pioneer work – a most interesting tour”, p. 373, Missionary Herald (Nov. 1877), pp. 372–9 (emphasis in original).
56 Kozaki, , Wagakuni no Shūkyō Shisō 
, p. 341Google Scholar, publ. posthumously in Kozaki Zenshū, II, 1938, pp. 286–384Google Scholar.
57 Masahisa, Uemura, “Nihon shūkyō no kōtetsu” 
in Katsuhisa, Aoyoshi
, Uemura Masahisa-den 
, pp. 161—6, Tokyo, 1935Google Scholar, orig. publ. in Tokyo Maishū Shinpō 
, no. 2 (08 1883)Google Scholar.
58 For Uemura on his conversion experience, see Wataru, Saba
, ed., Uemura Masahisa to sono Jidai 
, II, Tokyo, 1938, p. 687Google Scholar (extract from Fukuin Shinpō 
, no. 115).
59 See, e.g.., Kanzō, Uchimura, How I became a Christian: out of my Diary, pp. 190–2Google Scholar, in The Complete Works of Kanzo Uchimura, I, with notes and comments by Yamamoto, Taijiro and Muto, Yoichi, Tokyo, 1971Google Scholar (first publ. 1895) and Danjō, Ebina
(1856–1937), “Nihon Shūkyō no Sūsei” 
, pp. 572–5Google Scholar, Rikugō Zasshi, no. 192 (12 1896), pp. 568–77Google Scholar; ibid., pp. 169–71, Rikugō Zasshi, no. 196 (04, 1897), pp. 165–72Google Scholar. For India, see Baago, Kaj, Pioneers of Indigenous Christianity, Madras, 1969, pp. 3–4, 12–35Google Scholar.
60 See, e.g., Scheiner, pp. 28–30.
61 In English, see Pyle, Kenneth B., The New Generation in Meiji Japan: Problems of Cultural Identity. 1885–1895, Stanford, 1969Google Scholar.
62 Ōhama characterizes this as an attitude of Meiji Japanese church leaders in general. See “Ninon Kirisutokyō ni Kansuru Danshō”, p. 25.
63 This is also a point made by Masao, Takenaka
, “Kozaki Hiromichi ni okeru Kokka Shisō no Tenkai: Meiji Zenhanki o Chūshin ni” 
, pp. 271–6Google Scholar, in Kenkyūjo, Dōshisha Daigaku Jinbun Kagaku
, ed., Kumamoto Bando Kenkyū: Nihon Purotesutantizumu no Ichigenryū to Tenkai 
, Tokyo, 1984, pp. 259–78Google Scholar.
64 See Wagakuni no Shūkyō oyobi Dōtoku 
, pp. 415–53, in Kozaki Zenshū, III, pp. 401–567 (first publ. 1903); Kirisutokyō to Waga Kokutai 
, in ibid., II, pp. 530–46 (first publ. 1911); Kokka to Shūkyō 
, esp. pp. 390–4, 505–7 (first publ. 1913), in ibid., II, pp, 388–528; Reminiscences of Seventy Years, pp. 328–30; Nihon Kirisutokyōshi 
, pp. 206–8, publ. posthumously in Kozaki Zenshū, II, pp. 1–283. For a differing interpretation of the relationship between Kozaki's earlier and later thought, see Takeda, , Ningenkan no Sōkoku, pp. 82–5Google Scholar.
