Uemura Masahisa (1857-1925) First Generation Pastor, Christian
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Concordia Seminary - Saint Louis Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary Doctor of Theology Dissertation Concordia Seminary Scholarship 5-1-1982 Uemura Masahisa (1857-1925) First Generation Pastor, Christian Leader and Instinctive Proponent of Indigenized Christianity in Japan Addison Soltau Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholar.csl.edu/thd Part of the History of Christianity Commons, and the Missions and World Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Soltau, Addison, "Uemura Masahisa (1857-1925) First Generation Pastor, Christian Leader and Instinctive Proponent of Indigenized Christianity in Japan" (1982). Doctor of Theology Dissertation. 17. http://scholar.csl.edu/thd/17 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Concordia Seminary Scholarship at Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctor of Theology Dissertation by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE iv Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1 Primary Sources 15 Secondary Sources 17 II. FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN UEMURA'S EARLY LIFE 21 General Background to Christianity 21 Uemura's Home and School 29 Nineteenth Century Protestant Evangelicalism in America . 33 Missionaries Samuel R. Brown and James H. Ballagh 36 Christian "Bands" 39 Uemura's Church 46 III. UEMURA, THE MAN AND HIS MINISTRY 57 Uemura's Personal Character 57 The Environment for Uemura's Ministry 62 Uemura's Perception of His Calling 68 Uemura's Personal Ministry 74 Uemura's Writing Ministry 80 Uemura's Teaching Ministry 92 IV. UEMURA AND HIS RELIGIOUS WORLD VIEW 105 The Motif of Continuity 119 The Motif of Aspiration 132 The Motif of Independence 141 Independence and Government Control 145 Independence and Mission Control 147 Financial 153 Theological 157 The Motif of Progressiveness 162 V. UEMURA AND HIS THEOLOGICAL FORMATION 172 Uemura's View of Scripture 188 Uemura's View of Sin 194 Uemura's View of the Person and Work of Christ 199 Uemura's View of the Christian Life 212 ii VI. CONCLUSION 225 APPENDIX 232 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 235 PREFACE The motivation for this study comes out of a life-long interest in the subject of the transmission of Biblical Christianity from one culture to another. A second-generation Christian, born in Asia, and later a career missionary to Japan, I became aware of the differences of response among people, and more importantly the complex process of the indigenizing of the Christian faith as it traveled from one country to another. As a minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, I am committed to the Bible as God's inspired and infallible word. I am also committed to the system of doctrine formulated in the Westminster Standards made up of the Westminster Confession and Larger and Shorter Catechisms. In my seventeen years in Japan as a missionary engaged primar- ily in theological education and church extension, I became aware of the Japanese enthusiastic welcome and use of ideas originating outside their own country, while at the same time managing to retain their inner core of Japanese identity. The same has held true in the church. To any visitor to a Protestant worship service, the order of service, hymns, and so forth is quite familiar. Other than language difference the similarities to a Western church service are many. To the knowledgeable, however, there are notable contrasts, not in outward form but on a deeper level. iv Doctrinal differences between churches of differing tradition are min- imal. Few of the believers understood the reason for so many so-called evangelical denominations in the country (over one hundred at one count- ing). Be that as it may, cultural patterns dictate the continuing patterns of denominations, not so much on the basis of doctrinal differ- ences, but because of certain traditions begun by leaders. The vertical pattern of society, documented in Nakane Chie's book Japan Society, in effect since feudal days, has helped to perpetuate "schools" or groups which trace their origins to one man. It is the commitment to a person not to words which determines one's loyalties in Japan. Seeing this in the church I worked with, and in attempting to acquaint myself more with that tradition, I discovered that Uemura Masa- I hisa had much to do with a major church tradition in Japan, believed by many to be Presbyterian and Reformed. As the conclusions of this paper show, this study led to the conviction that Uemura was neither very Presbyterian nor Reformed and that his basic world view, oriented to Con- fucian ethics, prevented him from reaching such a position. Thus this study reflects in part the quest of many years, that is, the search for the essential components which make up Japanese Protestantism, particularly Presbyterianism. More recently this study has centered on the thought of Uemura who remains today one of the most important figures in Japanese church history, yet almost unknown outside his own country. The painstaking task of researching the thinking of a man in pre-modern Japan reveals much of the Japanese mind, namely, the freedoms 1 In the East the surname precedes the given name. This practice will be followed throughout the paper. the language provides for artistic and aesthetic expression which usually hampers precise translation. However lamentable and irritating to the Western mind, the Japanese much prefer this type of literary expression. Uemura was an extremely able leader and organizer of men, sophis- ticated thinker, broad reader, and committed to the Christian faith as he understood it. Part of the fascination of the study lies in observ- ing how the influence of this towering figure and others like him came so quickly to bear upon the church in Japan. Unlike other countries to which the faith has been taken by missionaries, Japan stands out as one in which missionary leadership and influence were replaced by Japanese within thirty years after its introduction. Uemura was one who helped to bring this about. The Christian church in Japan bypassed the usual gradual transfer from missionary initiative and authority to that of Japanese. It came about almost from the start with missionary acceptance and approval. The Japanese believed theirs was an exceptional and unique people. The missionaries concurred. Only Japanese church leadership could be adequate for this formidable task of transmitting and teaching the faith, they thought. Again the missionary body concurred. Now, more than 120 years after its introduction into Japan, Japanese Christianity remains numerically weak (about) 1 percent of the population. The tantalizing question remains, is this because the Christian faith has not been indigenized thoroughly enough into the thought patterns of the Japanese, as some suggest, or too much, that is, so translated by early Christian teachers that its essential character has been changed? vi That question will not be answered in this dissertation, and perhaps not for a long time. What this dissertation attempts to show is the thinking and theology of a man who wished to be both authentic- ally Japanese and Christian. vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Within the last five centuries Japan has been subjected to three periods of cultural contact and invasion from the West. The first began in 1543 when three Portuguese travelers visited an island off the south- ern coast of Japan. Christianity was introduced four years later by the Spanish Jesuit, St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552). Thus began the flow of western ideas into Japan, a flow which continued in an ever-widening stream until 1639. In that year, the rulers of Japan banned all foreign personnel and ideas from the country. Until that time, however, Christianity had begun to make headway under the patronage of powerful leaders. The progress was not smooth but was checked time after time with persecutions which came with suddenness and for no apparent reason. But with equal suddenness, the persecutions stopped, new conversions to Christianity occurred and progress achieved 1 in the spread of the faith. The new religion was welcomed as long as it could serve as an instrument to enhance trade relations with foreign nations and check the power of Buddhist forces in Japan. However, the Spanish and Portuguese missionaries aroused suspicion in the minds of Japanese rulers who worried that they might be part of the imperialistic 1C. R. Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan (Berkeley: Univer- sity of California Press, 1951), p. 137. 1 2 designs of Spain and Portugal. This led to the final explusion of all foreign personnel from Japan. This explusion and forced apostasy of Christians went into effect on October 7, 1614, and between that year and 1639 when the Edict on Isolation was enacted, between five and six thousand were killed or martyred and the so-called Christian or Catholic Century brought to an end. One major reason for closing the country to foreign influence was to ban Christianity from the land. By the end of this first period of Christianity in Japan, Christians had come to be known as fanatical, dangerous to the empire, and condemned as evil-doers and rebels. Within that same time frame a pattern for the acceptance or rejection of Christianity was established. When the cultural situation was favorable the faith flourished. When repressive measures were initiated, the faith declined. The policy of absolute isolation was rigidly enforced for more than two hundred years until July 1853, when a naval force under the command of Commodore Matthew C. Perry from the United States entered Tokyo Bay. After delivering a letter from the President of the United States demanding the inauguration of trade relations, Perry withdrew to the Ryukyu Islands for the winter, promising to return in six months.