The influence of American culture on the modernization of Japan has become a recognized subject for investigation. British cultural influence was also an important factor, especially in the later nineteenth century, but has received less attention. This holds particularly true for the study of Christianity and Christian missions. It is generally understood that Christianity contributed to the formation of the intellectual tradition of the Meiji era. Yet all studies, both in Japan and in the West, treat Christianity as identical with American Protestantism. It is the thesis of this study that another type of Christianity, which came from England, also existed in Meiji Japan. Its relation to society was less dialectical. Where American Protestantism challenged, Anglicanism affirmed traditional institutions. Although never attaining the public recognition given the American type, Anglicanism furnished an early example of a group which recognized and practised cultural and intellectual pluralism. It is therefore important for the understanding of modern Japanese society. The examination of this tradition also provides an insight into the general differences between the British and American approaches to Japanese culture. This investigation follows the careers and writings of three early Anglican missionaries who lived in Japan between 1873 and 1900. Their writings have been related to the main social and intellectual currents of their day. Where possible their family background, education and attitudes have been compared with other leaders in the church and in secular affairs. Each missionary was found to represent a particular aspect of upper and upper-middle class English life. Their views and the ways in which they related to the culture of Meiji Japan were seen to express certain general English ways of relating to foreign cultures. The missionaries views on three important areas of Meiji society--education, politics and the Emperor-system--pointed to certain clear, though tentative, conclusions. Anglicanism was part of the general ideology of the old English land-owners whose dominant position in society was being taken over at this time by the industrial middle class. As a ruling class it was naturally opposed to sudden change. Its view of culture was broadly humanistic, and this humanism was reinforced by the Anglo-catholic theology of the missionaries. Social and theological factors combined to produce a generally affirmative attitude toward certain foreign cultures with which the missionaries came in close contact. In Japan the missionaries identified with the institutions of their adopted land. The aristocratic society of their own land was passing away, but something approximately like it still existed in Japan. The leaders of Meiji society trusted the Englishmen for their conservatism, while lower-class Japanese felt safe with them because of their paternalistic sense of responsibility. Consequently, although the Englishmen still maintained their personal identity as foreigners, they felt secure enough to affirm the Japanese way of life,. Finally, the corporate and organic nature of the missionaries thinking led to the formation of a church in which Englishmen and Japanese could work together. Within the framework of a hierarchical relationship Anglicanism became a basis for coexistence between individuals of two distinct cultures. In the process of work together, the British missionaries and their Japanese colleagues associated creatively with one another in a way that was quite distinct from the American pattern. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-78). / ix, 78 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

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Thesis (Th. M.)--Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 1998. / Vita. Bound with 2 copies of leaf 10; numbering and text undisturbed. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-171).

This thesis undertakes to apply some of the insights from postcolonial criticism to understand the history of Christianity in Japan, focusing on key Christian thinkers in the period since Japan’s national isolation ended in the mid 19th century. It studies these theologians' interaction with the the Bible as a “canonical”text in the Western civilisation, arguing for a two-way connection between Japan’s reception of Christianity and reaction to the West. In particular, it considers the process through which Christianity was employed to support or criticise Japan’s colonial discourse against neighbouring Asian countries. In this process, I argue that interpretation of the Bible was a political act, informed not simply by the text itself, but also by the interpreter’s positionality in the society. The thesis starts by reviewing the history of Christianity in Japan. The core of the thesis consists of three chapters, each of which considers the thought of two contemporaries. Ebina Danjo (1866-1937) and Uchimura Kanzo (1861-1930) were two first-generation Christians who converted to Christianity through missionaries from the United States, and responded to Japan’s westernisation and military expansion from opposite perspectives. Kagawa Toyohiko (1888-1960) and Yanaihara Tadao (1893-1961) spoke about the country’s situation in the years preceding the Asia-Pacific War (1941-1945), and again reached two different conclusions. Nagai Takashi (1908-1951) and Kitamori Kazo (1916-1998) were Christian voices immediately after the war, and both dealt with the issue of suffering. Each chapter explores how the formation of their thoughts was driven by their particular historical, economic, and social backgrounds. The concluding chapter outlines Christian thought in Japan today and deals with the major issue facing Japanese theology: cultural essentialism.

viii, 169 p. / The Jesuit mission to Japan (1549-1639) has long attracted the attention of historians because it coincided with a number of developments in Japanese history: increasing contact with Western powers, political reunification, and the transition to early modernity. However, few historians have placed the Jesuit mission in the wider context of Christianization, a process that many different peoples and cultures globally experienced during the premodern and early modern periods. This study examines Japan's participation in the world-historical process of Christianization during the first thirty years of the Jesuit apostolate. Making extensive use of Jesuit documents written between 1548 and 1561, this study demonstrates how the Japanese of the sixteenth century experienced Christianization and how that experience connected them to other missionized peoples and cultures across time and space. / Committee in charge: Jeffrey Hanes, Chairperson; Andrew Goble, Member; Robert Haskett, Member / 10000-01-01

This thesis explores the history of Christianity and conversion to it in 16th and 17th Century Japan. It argues that conversion is a complex phenomenon which happened for a variety of reasons. Furthermore, it argues that due to the political context and limitations acting upon the mission, the majority of conversions in 16th and 17th Century Japan lacked an element of epistemological change (classically understood). The first chapter explores theories of conversion suggesting that conversion in 16th and 17th Century Japan included sorts of religious change not usually encapsulated in the term conversion including adhesion, communal and forced conversion. Moreover, it argues that contextual factors are the most important factors in religious change. The second chapter explores political context contending that it was the political environment of Japan that ultimately decided whether conversion was possible. This chapter charts the evolution of the Japanese context as it became more hostile toward Christianity. In the third chapter, the context of the mission is explored. It is argued that limitations acting upon the mission shaped post-conversion faith, so that changes to practice and ritual rather than belief became the mark of a successful conversion. The fourth chapter explores methods of conversion, the factors influencing it, and post-conversion faith more directly. It argues that Christianity spread primarily through social networks, but that conversion was also influenced by economic incentive, other realworld benefits, and Christianity's perceived efficacy. Building on Chapter Three, the final chapter also seeks to illustrate that the missionaries were not successful in their attempts to spur epistemological change or instil a detailed knowledge of theology or doctrine amongst their converts.