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Christianity in Meiji Japan ESSAYS ON THE MODERN JAPANESE CHURCH MICHIGAN MONOGRAPH SERIES IN JAPANESE STUDIES NUMBER 27 CENTER FOR JAPANESE STUDIES THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ESSAYS ON THE MODERN JAPANESE CHURCH: CHRISTIANITY IN MEIJI JAPAN YAMAJI AIZAN TRANSLATED BY GRAHAM SQUIRES, WITH INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS BY GRAHAM SQUIRES AND A. HAMISH ION ANN ARBOR, 1999 CENTER FOR JAPANESE STUDIES THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/ Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. Copyright © 1999 The Regents of the University of Michigan Published by the Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan 202 S Thayer St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Yamaji, Aizan, 1865-1917 [Gendai Nihon kyokai shiron. English] Essays on the modern Japanese church : Christianity in Meiji Japan / Yamaji Aizan ; translated by Graham Squires ; with intro- ductory essays by Graham Squires and A. Hamish Ion. p. cm. — (Michigan monograph series in Japanese studies ; 27) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-939512-93-9 (alk. paper) 1. Japan—Church history—19th century. 2. Japan—Religion— 1868-1912. I. Squires, Graham, 1955- . II. Ion, A. Hamish. III. Title. IV. Series. BR1307.Y3613 1999 275.2'08—dc21 99-047907 This book was set in Caslon 540. Jacket design by Seiko Semones This publication meets the ANSI/NISO Standards for Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives (Z39.48-1992). Printed in the United States of America ISBN 978-0-939512-93-5 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-472-03829-9 (paper) ISBN 978-0-472-12795-5 (ebook) ISBN 978-0-472-90191-3 (open access) The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ CONTENTS Preface vii Introductory Essays Yamaji Aizan and Essays on the History of the Modern 3 Japanese Church Graham Squires Essays and Meiji Protestant Christian History 25 A. Hamish Ion Essays on the History of the Modern Japanese Church 1. Introduction 45 2. The Awakening of the Japanese People I 47 3. The Awakening of the Japanese People II 52 4. The Appeasement Policy of the Restoration 62 Government; The Surprise of Okuma Shigenobu and the Beginning of the New Church 5. A Spiritual Revolution Comes from the Dark Side of 67 the Age 6. On Nakamura Masanao 70 7. Yasui Sokken's An Exposition of Error I 75 8. Yasui Sokken's An Exposition of Error II 77 9. Yasui Sokken's An Exposition of Error III 80 10. Yasui Sokken's View of the Universe 87 vi CONTENTS 11. OnNiijimaj5 90 12. Contrasting Social Phenomena 95 13. The Pledge of Mount Hanaoka 97 14. The First Reaction against Westernization— 103 Fukuzawa Yukichi 15. Four Kinds of Thought and the Division of Talent 107 16. The French Faction—Political Rights 110 17. The English Faction—Empiricism 112 18. The Conservative Reaction and the Policy of the 116 Government 19. The Results of the Conservative Policy 121 20. The Attitude of Christians 123 21. The University Movement and the Theory of 125 Evolution and Agnosticism 22. Tokyo University against the Christian Church 130 23. The Rise of Westernism 134 24. The Kokumin no tomo and Jogaku zasshi 137 25. The Movement at Doshisha College 139 26. Weaknesses in the Work of Niijima Jo 143 27. Theological Disputes I 145 28. Theological Disputes II 150 29. The Attitude of the Church toward the New 154 Theology—Unfairness 30. The Conservative Reaction I 156 31. The Conservative Reaction II 159 32. Inoue Tetsujiro and the Christian Church 165 33. The Victory of the So-Called Statist Education 171 34. The Stagnation of the Church 173 35. The Rise of the Business World and Christianity 175 36. Trends in the Churches Overseas and the Influence 177 on the Japanese Church 37. We Should Not Be Pessimistic about the Future of 179 the Church 38. The Christian Church of the Future 186 Bibliography 189 Index 195 PREFACE Yamaji Aizan's Essays on the History of the Modern Japanese Church was first published in 1906. It is significant for two reasons. First, Yamaji was one of the most influential historians of the mid-Meiji period, and it is one of his most important works. This is reflected in the fact that, of all his books and essays, it is the one which has been most often reprinted in Japanese. Second, it was the first history of the Protestant Church in Meiji Japan, and as such it has done much to set the tone for subsequent studies of this subject. The objective of this translation is to make this work available to a wider audience and thereby to enhance understanding of both Yamaji's life and thought and the history of Meiji Christianity. In order to render a historical work from one language into another, it is insufficient merely to translate the text word by word, sentence by sentence, page by page. The audience for which the original text was written and the audience for which the transla- tion is written are clearly quite different. For a historical text to have meaning for a modern audience it is necessary for that text to be located within an appropriate "context." In the case of Es- says, it can be located within two distinct contexts—one is the life and thought of Yamaji Aizan and the other is the historiography of Meiji Christianity. The objective of the first introductory essay is to give an overview of Yamaji Aizan's life and thought and to re- late this to some of the key elements in his Essays. In the second introductory essay, Professor A. Hamish Ion of the Royal Military College of Canada, Ontario, Canada, examines Yamaji's position within Meiji Christianity and locates Essays within the historiog- raphy of Meiji Protestantism. viii PREFACE I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Yushi Ito, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, for the help he so kindly provided as supervisor during my doctoral candidacy; Professor Fred G. Notehelfer, University of California, Los An- geles, for reading and commenting on earlier drafts of the manu- script; and the staff at the Center for Japanese Studies, Univer- sity of Michigan, for the effort they made in preparing the final version of this book. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Peggy and Russell Squires, for their support and encouragement over many years. Graham Squires June 1999 Introductory Essays YAMAJI AIZAN AND ESSAYS ON THE HISTORY OF THE MODERN JAPANESE CHURCH Graham Squires Yamaji Yakichi—Aizan was a pen name adopted when he was around twenty years old—was born in 1864 in the mansion of the Astronomical Institute of the Tokugawa shogunate located in Edo.1 The Yamaji were one of the four families that held the hereditary post of official astronomers to the shogunate. Following the abo- lition of the institute after the Meiji Restoration, however, Yamaji moved to Shizuoka together with his grandparents in the spring of 1869. This move involved not only the Yamaji family but many other former retainers of the Tokugawa, who moved there as a part of the political settlement following the Restoration. As a young child Yamaji was educated by his grandparents, but in 1874 he began to attend a local school. By 1878, however, the family was no longer able to afford the tuition fees, so he changed from being a student to working as a teacher at the same school. In 1881 he became a clerk in the police department and in 1882 1. The most detailed studies of Yamaji's life and thought have been undertaken by Oka Toshiro and Sakamoto Takao. A collection of Oka's most important essays has re- cently been published under the title, Oka Toshiro, Yamaji Aizan, shironka to seijironka no aida (Tokyo: Kenbun Shuppan, 1998). Sakamoto's works include "Yamaji Aizan no shiso—toku ni zenhanki no katsudo o chushin to shite," Gakushuin Daigaku hoga- kubu kenkyu nenpo 20 (1985): 105-311; "Yamaji Aizan no seiji shiso." Gakushuin Daigaku hogakubu kenkyu nenpo 21 (1986): 103-309; and Yamaji Aizan (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1988). In Western languages Margaret Neuss has published "On the Po- litical Thinking of Yamaji Aizan" in Tradition and Modern Japan, ed. P. G. O'Neill (Kent: Paul Norbury, 1981), 93-101, and "Zur Rolle de Heldenbiographien im Geschichtsbild Miyake Setsureis und Yamaji Aizans," Oriens Extremus 25.1 (1978): 1-44. 4 YAMAJI AIZAN AND ESSAYS started to attend a local English school part-time, where he stud- ied the work of John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer. In 1884, with a group of friends, he began to study English conversation at the local Methodist Church, and in 1885 the entire group con- verted to Christianity. Yamaji himself was baptized in March 1886. In February 1887, Yamaji read, and was greatly impressed by, the first edition of the Kokumin no totno. As is well known, this journal was published by the Min'yusha, a publishing company established by Tokutomi Soho. In 1889 Yamaji moved to Tokyo to study at the school of the Methodist Church, the T5yo Eiwa Gakko, and while in Tokyo he had the opportunity to visit the office of the Min'yusha and meet Tokutomi. In July 1890 Yamaji moved to Fukuroi in Shizuoka to work as an "assistant pastor." While there, at the recommendation of Tokutomi, he began to read the work of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was also at this time that he began contributing articles to jour- nals such as Iwamoto Yoshiharu's journal, Jogaku zasshi (Journal of Women's Study).
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