On the Day July 10 1888

A Japanese Giant Arises

Khen Lim




Toyohiko Kagawa (Image source: theviewfromthisseat.blogspot.com)

Introduction

Japan and the Gospel never seemed to make good bedpartners. History shows that many missions with the exception of Xavier¹ and Nikolai² had proved futile in bringing local Japanese communities to Christ. Whatever successful efforts that such foreign missions might have produced, the best were pockets of conversions here and there, far from the en masse phenomenon that Latin America, for example, experienced. And the same was true for Japan’s own Toyohiko Kagawa even though he left an indelible imprint as prominent as Gandhi and Schweitzer for many to be inspired today.

Born this day in 1888 to Junichi Kagawa, a wealthy but philandering businessman and Kame Kagawa, a concubine who died early in his childhood, Kagawa was sent away to be educated by Drs Harry W Myers and Charles A Logan, two American Presbyterian missionary teachers who were central to his conversion to Christianity following a few Bible classes. His baptism at the age of fifteen also resulted in him being disowned by his extended family.

Social awakenings

At Princeton Theological Seminary with Kagawa seated on the steps (Image source: en.wikipedia.org)

Kagawa underwent theology studies first at the Meiji Gakuen, a Presbyterian College in Tokyo and later, Kobe Theological Seminary before he embarked for Princeton University followed by Princeton Theological Seminary from 1914 to 1916. There, he was part of the university’s curricular exchange programme where he went beyond theology, studying also psychology, genetics, mathematics, comparative anatomy, palaeontology and embryology though he graduated with a Bachelor in Divinity.

There too, Kagawa published a paper called, Researches in the Psychology of the Poor in which he recorded his experiences centring on the slum society since 1909. While in America, he happened to witness economic depression in a southern neighbourhood area in Manhattan, New York called the Bowery. From there he saw first-hand a demonstration by 60,000 workers and learned to work in solidarity with the disenfranchised back home in Japan to consolidate labour movements. 

During his time in the local seminaries, Kagawa was baffled by how the seminarians preoccupied themselves with doctrinal technicalities and rhetoric, which he concluded had alienated them from the priority of following in the footsteps of Christ. In other words, by indulging in moot academic debates, the seminaries were not encouraging their people to do His works. For him, faith must be founded on and reflected by action³ and he consistently quoted the parable of the Good Samaritan⁴ to underscore that point.

With this parable as the cornerstone of his faith by works, Kagawa challenged his own government in response to their provocative acts of aggression by speaking out for peace. Soon enough, he became the voice of conscience for the ordinary Japanese. Shortly thereafter, he also moved into a slum in Kobe to witness the way the poor in society struggled with their lives.

Identifying with the poor

The Shinkawa Kobe slums (Image source: pinterest.com)

In the midst of Japan undergoing serious social upheavals punctuated by a careering inertia towards capitalism, Kagawa felt the intense pain of everyday suffering workers who had to endure whatever society dished out against them. He once said that it was his Christian faith that shaped him to be a socialist at heart and by that, he became a doer whose life revolved around the poor.

By now, he was well immersed in the slums of Shinkawa, not far outside of eastern Kobe, mingling and coexisting without prejudice and sharing himself with those in need. Sometimes, he even slept in tiny fleapits and armed with nothing but compassion, he would hold the hands of murderers left unwanted by society.

At the slums, Kagawa’s daily routine began early at daybreak, 5:00am usually, when he awoke and began his meditation before he went on his rounds to visit the infirmed. His chores included educating the children, organising adult classes, leading in worship singing and sharing the Gospel wherever he went and whenever the opportunity sprang. Where required, he would also conduct funerals.

Kagawa with his wife, Haru (Image source: en.wikipedia.org)

Eventually, word got around about this amazing man who unassumingly did the work of Christ under circumstances that most others would do their best to avoid. When volunteers arrived to help Kagawa in his efforts, he felt emboldened him to broaden his initiative. Among them was a woman by the name of Haru Shiba who worked in a factory by day and joined him to visit the slums by night. She eventually became his wife.

Taking leadership

Kagawa with victims of the Kanto Earthquake (Image source: jesusband.jp)

When a powerful Kanto Earthquake struck Tokyo and Yokohama, the government went to Kagawa, who, in 1923, was in prison for his labour activism, seeking his services because in him, they found no one better or more experienced in organising labour under critical conditions. They made him the Chief of Social Welfare and gave him the authority to rebuild the ruined cities not only from the earthquake but also from neglect.

In his typically altruistic nature, Kagawa rounded up Japan’s first labour and peasant unions to form the Japan Labour Federation (in which he was its secretary) and later also the National Anti-War League in 1928. By now, his reputation had burgeoned beyond simply a pesky activist. The government had grown a listening ear, heeding his advice to not ignore but to rebuild the slums. From 1926 to 1934, he plunged himself headlong into evangelistic work using the Kingdom of God movement to ward off not only the Communist threat but also the rapidly encroaching warmongering foreign policies.

Heartbroken by his own country’s atrocities against China, Kagawa issued his own public apology to the Chinese government in 1940. That move alone got him thrown into jail though, of course, not for the first time. Upon his release, he decided to return to America, thinking that from there, he could have a better chance at preventing the Americans from engaging war against Japan but to no avail and so he went home and decided to direct his efforts in support of women’s suffrage.

While on the outset, it was easy to assume that Kagawa’s peace efforts were futile but they were not unnoticed by the Allied Forces, principally, the Americans, who then engaged him as an advisor to the new transitional government following Japan’s surrender during the Second World War. In his postwar role, he played an important part in the restoration process that was integral in Japan’s rise of democratisation.

Peace-time activism

Kagawa in his early thirties (Image source: en.wikipedia.org)

A humbled Japan had now begun to seek peace with herself and the people were now beginning to accept that their emperor might not be as divinely anointed as they might have had once thought. In arduously righting what were wrong within the Japanese psyche, Emperor Hirohito himself sought answers of his own and in the process, he invited the Rev Dr Toyohiko Kagawa to his Imperial Palace in Tokyo in 1946 in the hope that during his visit, he could learn something from the now-famous home-grown Christian reformer.

The emperor’s question was a simple one – how to serve his loyal subjects better than he otherwise could. In response, Kagawa advised him that he needed to be closer to his people in order that he could inspire them with a hope for democracy and justice.

“Whosoever will be great among you shall be the servant of all. A ruler’s sovereignty, Your Majesty, is in the hearts of the people. Only by service to others can a person or nation, be godlike,” he said to the emperor.

A week after the visit and upon Kagawa’s advice, the Emperor of Japan appeared before his people for the very first time in his reign. At the same time, he seized the opportunity to take to the streets and visited Kagawa and his wife who, at that time, was working tirelessly at the Tokyo settlement to serve 20,000 war refugees. There, the emperor saw with his own eyes what it meant to be of servitude to the people right in their very own hearts. Kagawa’s words of wisdom lit him up in an almost unforgettable manner.

Worldwide accolades

A poem signed by Kagawa, 1949 (Image source: historyforsale.com)

Aside from his work among the poor and his persistent efforts to pursue peace, Kagawa was also a notable author of over 150 books. He was nominated not only for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947 and 1948 but also the vaunted Nobel Peace Prize six years later, in 1954, 1955, 1956 and also in 1960.

Other than his bestselling novel, an autobiographical work of fiction, called, ‘Across the Death Line’ (1922), he also wrote ‘A Shooter at the Sun’ (1925), both of which were conceived while he was in prison. Both became hugely popular throughout Japan for many years and like many of his other publications, they are highly sought after today.

Some of his other publications include ‘Christ and Japan’ (1934), ‘Cosmic Purpose’ (1959), ‘Behold the Man’ (1941), ‘A Grain of Wheat’ (1936), ‘Love, the Law of Life’ (1929) as well as eight lectures he gave that were printed in 1999 under the title ‘The Modern Age.’

The 1988 movie ‘Shisen o Koete: Kagawa Toyohiko Monogatari’ (tr. Before the Dawn: The Story of Toyohiko Kagawa) is based on Kagawa’s life and the title was borrowed from his very first autobiographical novel written in 1925.

From the earnings from the sale of his books, Kagawa spent them on the poor, retaining only a small monthly stipend for him and his wife to live on.

The twilight years

Kagawa in America, 1935 (Image source: en.wikipedia.org)

Kagawa’s display of the love of Christ was a very compelling one. For him, the cross had always been the most powerful symbol of suffering for righteousness’ sake. It was solely because of this that he persisted in living in Japan’s worst slums but then, he used that opportunity to stage his love of servitude to those who sought his help.

Even so, he did not appear to be overly popular in the theological circles in his own country⁵. To that, Kagawa had this to say and more:

“It seemed that everyone attacked me – the Soviet Communists, the anarchists, the capitalists, the foul-mouthed literary critics, the sensationalist newspaper men, the Buddhist who could not compete with Christ and those many Christians who profess Christ but believe in a Christianity which is sterile…

“There are theologians, preachers and religious leaders, not a few, who think that the essential thing about Christianity is to clothe Christ with forms and formulae. They look with disdain upon those who actually follow Christ and toil and moil, motivated by brotherly love and passion to serve.

“They conceive pulpit religion to be much more refined than movements for the actual realisations of brotherly love among men. The religion Jesus taught was diametrically the opposite of this. He set up no definitions about God but taught the actual practical practice of love.”

The end to come

Toyohiko Kagawa (Image source: pinterest.com)

In the year of his second of four Nobel Peace Prize nominations in the month of March, Kagawa collapsed from a deteriorating heart condition and was bedridden for two weeks. Even so, he worked relentlessly and without respite, unconcerned that many of his friends and family members were growing increasingly worried. While his health progressively worsened, he continued to write and preach, oversaw various projects and hosted guests.

Not surprisingly, Kagawa’s health took a turn for the worse. Four years later, in 1959, he was hospitalised for three months at the St Luke’s Hospital in Takamatsu, a port city close to Honshu from Shikoku Island. Thereafter, he was largely confined to the bed at home in Matsuzawa. His condition improved in the mid of April but it didn’t last.

On April 23 1960, Kagawa laid unconscious in bed for three hours but then, he awoke and smiled to his wife and close surrounding friends. His last words before he died on the day were, ‘Please do your best for world peace and the church in Japan.’

Following his death, a very grateful Emperor Hirohito posthumously conferred upon Kagawa the nation’s second-highest honour, the Order of the Sacred Treasure. Across in America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church commemorates his work for Christ and his invaluable contribution to peace and evangelism by holding a yearly vigil on the anniversary of his death. He is also honoured on the day of his passing by the Episcopal Church of America with a fitting feast day on their liturgical calendar.

One year after his death, in 1961, a group of one-hundred and three people comprising doctors and patients, academicians and teachers, writers and workers including those whose lives were touched by his kindness came together to contribute essays that, when compiled, filled two volumes that were given the title, The Biography of Kagawa.

In 1964, much of his personal writings were put together in a twenty-four volume manuscript called, Kagawa Toyohiko Zenshu (tr. The Work of Kagawa Toyohiko).

A lasting legacy

Toyohiko Kagawa’s lasting legacy will always be his focus on God’s redemptive love and how it is manifest in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. In all of that, he single-handedly showed how people can engage in an overpowering experience of faith and intellectual creativity.

Even though Kagawa’s life was better known as a Christian social reformer and not as a religious leader (in Japan or otherwise), the truth is that he was, first and foremost, a true evangelist until his last breath.

A Selection of Kagawa’s Authorship

1. Meditations; 1904, Harper & Brothers, New York, London, Second Impression Edition⁶ (click here)

2. Across the Death Line; 1922, (publisher’s name unknown), Kobe, Japan^7,8 (click here)

3. Christ and Japan; 1923, Friendship Press, New York (click here)⁹

4. Before the Dawn; 1924, George H Doran Company, New York (click here)

5. A Shooter at the Sun; 1925, Japan Chronicle Press, Tokyo (click here)

6. Love, the Law of Life; 1929, The John C. Winston Co., Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto¹⁰ (click here)

7. The Religion of Jesus; 1931, The John C. Winston Co., Philadelphia^12,13 (click here)

8. Meditation on the Cross; 1935, Willett Clark & Co., Chicago (click here)

9. A Grain of Wheat; 1936, Harper & Brothers, New York, London, Second Edition (click here)

10. Behold the Man; 1941, Harper & Brothers, New York, London, Fourth Edition (click here)

11. Cosmic Purpose; 1959, Cascade Books (Veritas Series, Book 12)¹¹ (click here)

Note: Due to lack of available information online and lack of research time, it is not possible to pursue more titles from Kagawa’s entire collection.

Works on Kagawa

Leading book titles describing the life and works of Toyohiko Kagawa, though not limited to, include the following (in ascending order of publishing date):

1. William Axling; Kagawa; 1932, Harper and Brothers, New York, London, Fifteenth Edition (click here)

2. Emerson O Bradshaw, Charles E Shike and Helen F Topping (eds); Kagawa in Lincoln’s Land; 1936, National Kagawa Coordinating Committee (Friends of Jesus Series), Brooklyn, NY (click here)

3. Cyril James Davey; Kagawa of Japan; 1961, Abingdon Press, New York (click here)

4. George B Bikle Jr; New Jerusalem: Aspects of Utopianism in the Thought of Kagawa Toyohiko; 1976, University of Arizona Press (Monographs of the Association for Asian Studies; Nr. 30), Tucson (click here)

5. Tim Dowley (ed); Eerdman’s Handbook to the History of Christianity; November 1977, Eerdmans Pub. Co., Berkhamsted, Herts, England, First American Edition (click here)

6. Robert D Schildgen; Toyohiko Kagawa: An Apostle of Love and Social Justice; June 1988, Centenary Books, Berkeley, First Edition (click here)

7. Stephen Neill; A History of Christian Missions; May 17 1991, Penguin Books (Penguin History of the Church, Book 6), Hammondsworth, Middlesex, England, Second Edition (click here)

8. Toyohiko Kagawa; Living Out Christ’s Love: Selected Writings of Toyohiko Kagawa; Dec 1 1999, Keith Beasley-Topliffe (compiler), Upper Room (Upper Room Spiritual Classics, Series 2) (click here)

9. F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone (eds); “Kagawa, Toyohiko” in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church; September 8 2005, Oxford University Press, England, Third Revised Edition (click here)

10. Christianity in Action: The Life of Toyohiko Kagawa; Fall 2010, Japan Christian Activity News, National Christian Council in Japan, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; Issues #747, pages 1-4 (click here)

11. Charles Van Engen, Nancy Thomas and Robert Gallagher; Footprints of God: A Narrative Theology of Mission; July 27 2011, Wipf and Stock Publishers (click here)

12. Thomas John Hastings; Seeing All Things Whole: The Scientific Mysticism and Art of Kagawa Toyohiko (1888-1960); Feb 6 2015, Pickwick Publications, a division of Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene, Oregon (click here)

13. Kagawa, Toyohiko (1888-1960) – Japanese Evangelist and Social Movement Leader; (undated), Boston University School of Theology, History of Missiology (click here)

Motion Picture

A 1988 103-minute motion picture on Kagawa called ‘Shisen O Koete: Kagawa Toyohiko Monogatari’ (tr. Before the Dawn: The Story of Toyohiko Kagawa), directed by Tengo Yamada, starring Tomiyuki Kunihiro, Hitomi Kuroki, Chiaki Matsubara and Hiroyuki Nagata with English subtitles is apparently available from the Kagawa Archives & Resource Centre. Please write email to zaidan@unchusha.com for more information.¹⁴

Footnotes

1. Full name Francis Xavier a.k.a. Francisco Javier or Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta, co-founder of the Jesuit Order (Society of Jesus), first missionary to Japan, b.1506, d.1552

2. Real name Ivan Dimitrovich Kasatkin a.k.a. Saint Nicholas or Nikolai, Equal-to-the-Apostles Archbishop of Japan, first saint of the Japanese Orthodox Church, b.1836, d.1912

3. New Testament, Book of James 2:14-26

4. New Testament, Gospel of Luke 10:25-37

5. New Testament, Gospel of Matthew 10:36

6. Written together with Jiro Takenaka who acted as his translator.

7. Translation from Japanese courtesy of I. Fukumoto and T. Satchell.

8. ‘Across the Death Line’ is available for rent at the National Diet Library, Tokyo, Japan under Bibliography ID 000006476779.

9. The URL refers to a reproduction of the original published by Nabu Press in August 2011.

10. A biography of Kagawa is included in the publication written by Eleanor M Hinder and Helen F Topping.

11. This version by Cascade Books is a reproduction of the original and was published on Mar 4 2014.

12. Excerpts from ‘The Religion of Jesus’ are available online via these links:  http://www.abcog.org/kagawa1.htm, http://www.abcog.org/kagawa2.htm, http://www.abcog.org/kagawa3.htm, http://www.abcog.org/kagawa4.htm and http://www.abcog.org/kagawa5.html.

13. This version of the publication combines two books into a single volume, notably, ‘The Religion of Jesus’ and ‘Love, the Law of Life.’

14. Filmography is provided by Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and available at http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/505379/Shisen-o-koete/ (or click here).