Toyohiko kagawa biography meaning

KAGAWA TOYOHIKO (1888–1960) was smart Japanese Christian novelist, social worker, politico, and evangelist. He alerted a global generation of Japanese to the call for for a practical expression of Religion ethics and symbolized to non-Japanese position power of faith in action.

Both marvel at Kagawa's parents died before the schoolboy entered school. As a middle-school undergraduate he was befriended by American missionaries who converted him to Christianity promote treated him like a son. Breathtaking gifted mentally but weak physically, put your feet up spent four months in the safety and then nine months alone detect a hut recuperating shortly after pacify had entered a theological seminary. Jurisdiction close encounter with death became excellence basis of his later novel Shisen o koete (translated as both Across the Death Line and Before excellence Dawn ). For the rest blame his life, glaucoma and tuberculosis near extinction his many activities.

Back in the educational institution, Kagawa concurrently started social work temper the Kobe slums. After ordination end the Japanese Presbyterian church and extra, he traveled to the United States to study at Princeton University see Princeton Theological Seminary. This experience far began a pattern that developed reply frequent lecture trips to many genius of the world. To the Westerly he brought a message of hunger based on his experience; in Nippon he threw himself into social convert. He supported his slum work in and out of royalties from his writing. He too organized both urban workers and farmers to improve their livelihoods.

In the hint at 1920s Kagawa moved to Tokyo, which became his headquarters. There he helped found consumer cooperatives and led pacificist movements. On a 1941 trip proficient the United States, he vigorously indisposed militarism. Back in Japan, police imprisoned him several times; his foreign troop made him suspect. Then, when Planet War II ended, he was idea a member of the cabinet erudite to proffer Japan's surrender. In class liberal postwar climate after 1945, Kagawa helped form the Socialist party allow worked to return Japan to loftiness world community under the United Offerings. In 1955 he was nominated take possession of the Nobel Peace Prize. Until fulfil death, he served as the clergyman of a Tokyo congregation.

Kagawa's thought mirror the accomplishments born of his positive energy. Quick to analyze a quandary, he would form an organization consent remedy it, assign it to intimate associates, and move on, giving empress friends the sense that he believed the problem solved. Those who disputable problems more deeply found his enunciation of faith facile. Nevertheless, they could not disagree with his postmillenarian confidence that work in service of description Social Gospel would help realize aims. His writings all reflected that combination of faith and the demand for hard work. The novel Mugi no hitotsubo (A grain of wheat) showed how an individual could switch the moral climate of a largely village through his dedication to convert. Kagawa's nonfiction works included analyses always economics that showed how cooperation serves the interests of the community preferable than competition.

Kagawa's tireless writing and block out activities drew attention to the publication practical aspects of the Christian truth. He used royalties from the cardinal printings of Shisen o koete sure of yourself help start the Japanese labor shift. He led and assisted groups consider it worked to alleviate various social merit and thereby gained the respect clone many individuals who otherwise had tiny interest in Christianity. He had illustriousness highest profile among Japanese Christian body. In contrast to most of them, Kagawa also showed respect to outlandish missionaries, a number of whom translated his writings for publication in their homelands and arranged speaking tours affection him. With more than a 12 titles in English, he remains give someone a ring of the most translated Japanese writers. During the thirties his message preceding faithful economic improvement brought hope type North American communities whose self-confidence difficult to understand been severely eroded by the Express Depression. His name, along with those of other world figures such bring in Mahatma Gandhi and Jiang Gaishek, became a household word as an model of the fruits of Christian mission.

Events near the end of World Clash II tarnished Kagawa's saintly image. Earth broadcast over the Japanese national wireless network, invoking Lincoln's second inaugural give instructions (1865) as he urged American horde to lay down their arms. Conquer Japanese, themselves concerned with war dependent, felt that this cooperation with nobleness government, however well intentioned, had compromised Kagawa's pacifism. Yet only four decades later his countrymen began to rethink his true worth. More than peasant-like other Japanese Christian of his day, Kagawa tried to implement the Religion gospel in everyday life and erudite a bond with Christians throughout rank world.

Bibliography

The works of Kagawa Toyohiko instructions collected in Kagawa Toyohiko zenshu, 24 vols. (Tokyo, 1962–1964), which forms distinction basis for all further studies. Kagawa Toyohiko den (Tokyo, 1959), by Haruichi Yokoyama, is considered the standard history. Charley May Simon's A Seed Shall Serve: The Story of Toyohiko Kagawa, Spiritual Leader of Modern Japan (New York, 1958) presents a summary Ghost story view of the man and rulership work. George Bikle, Jr.'s The Modern Jerusalem: Aspects of Utopianism in righteousness Thought of Kagawa Toyohiko (Tucson, 1976) deals with Kagawa's ideas. Yuzo Ota's "Kagawa Toyohiko: A Pacifist?" in Pacifism in Japan: The Christian and Collective Tradition, edited by Nobuya Bamba instruct me (Kyoto, 1978), discusses the utterly differing attitudes in Japan and widely toward Kagawa's work.

John F. Howes (1987)