Kanzo Uchimura, a Japanese Kierkegaard
Abstract
The article is dedicated to Kenso Ushimura, a well-known Japanese spiritual leader, Christian and Bible admirer who, on the one hand, is the founder of Mukiokai, a Christian "non-church" movement "in no way connected with the West" and "having no other mentor other than the Bible" , and on the other hand, he is known as "the Japanese Kierkegaard." The philosophical and theological views of Kanzo Ushimura, outlined in his main work "How I Became a Christian" (1895), are analyzed. Particularly closely examined is the deeply and vividly described by the philosopher the process of the formation and development of his own faith. The connection and interdependence of the "apocalyptic" faith of Kanzo Ushimura and the "paradoxical", "absurd" faith of Sjoren Kierkegaard are traced. It is proved that the book of Kanzo Ushimura "How I Became a Christian" in a meaningful and ideological way reminds us of the direct purpose and meaning of the religious creativity of S. Kierkegaard, represented by the Danish thinker in his work "How to become a Christian", and the spiritual quest of the Japanese thinker is aimed at developing a special (new ) of ethics, which "Danish Socrates" tried to create. A common idea for both philosophers in assessing the Christian world is the rigid separation between Christianity, primordial, pure and simple, and Christianity, adorned and dogmatized by professors of theology. The direct influence of the Bushido moral code on the formation and development of such a phenomenon as "Japanese Christianity" is considered and justified
References
On April 12, 1883, he wrote in his diary, “Depression; no spirit.” [1, v. 3, p. 68]. “I descried in myself an empty space which neither activity in religious works, nor success in scientific experiments, could fill. What the exact nature of that emptiness was, I was not able to discern. May be, my health was getting poor, and I yearned after repose and easier tasks. Or, as I was rapidly growing into my manhood, that irresistible call of nature for companionship might have made me feel so haggard and empty. At all events, a vacuum there was, and it must be filled somehow with something” [1, v.3, p. 67]. On March 28, 1884, he married Take Asada, but the marriage ended in divorce seven months later. The vacuum in his soul “was not to be obliterated” [1, v.3, p. 76] by any events. “Failing to find the desired satisfaction in my own land,” he decided to extend his research to Christendom to find “Peace and Joy…easily by any sincere seeker after the Truth” [1, v. 3, p. 76].
“I believe I was really converted, that is turned back, there, some ten years after I was baptized in my homeland. The Lord revealed Himself to me there, especially through that one man—the eagle-eyed, lion-faced, lamb-hearted president of my college” [1, v. 3, p. 129]. Seelye studied theology at the University of Halle from 1852–1853.
“Spiritless Theology is the driest and most worthless of all studies. To see students laughing and jesting while discussing serious subjects is almost shocking. No wonder they cannot get at the bottom of the Truth. It requires the utmost zeal and earnestness to draw life from the Rock of Ages” [1, v.3, p. 175].
He wrote this sentence at the end of How I Became a Christian. “But here this book must close. I have been told you how I became a Christian. Should my life prove eventful enough, and my readers are not tired of my ways of telling, they shall have another book like this upon “How I Worked a Christian.” [1, v.3, p. 164].
See John F. Howes, Japan’s Modern Prophet, Uchimura Kanzo, 1861–1930, 2005, p. 72, and editor’s note of vol. 36 of Kanzo Uchimura, Complete Works [1, v.36, pp. 571–572].
In 1906, Gundert visited Uchimura and lived in Japan. He founded Japanese Studies, (Japanology) in Germany.
Uchimura sent a letter to his friend Bell on July 31, 1904, in which he wrote, “My book in Germany has been a great success. I hear the first edition of 3000 copies was exhausted at once, and the second edition is now out. Many high authorities reviewed it carefully, and gave me their ‘glad assent.’ I have also had the honour of receiving 300 marks of German money as my share in the stake of the first edition. ...And the best of all, it will be instrumental in sending out one missionary [Wilhelm Gundert] to Japan, its sale paying of his traveling expense to this country.” [1, v. 37, p. 26].
Finnish and Swedish translation, 1905. Danish translation, 1906. French translation, 1913. For your information, the Japanese translation appeared in 1935.
The German translation is “Aus Japan, wie es heute ist—Personliche Eindrucke.” ubersetzt von H. Gottsched (1912, Basel). It is very interesting for me that H. Gottsched translated the article, because he also translated Kierkegaard’s works. Goju Nakayawa translated the “Redector Kanzo Uchimura” section of this essay into Japanese in 1956.
Cf. The translator’s explanation in the Japanese edition of How I became a Christian, Iwanami Bunko, pp. 281–282.
“Jonathan X., the Author.”
Merriman Colbert Harris (1846–1921), a Methodist missionary from America.
Jonathan is the given name of the author of How I became a Christian. (cf. note 13).
I would like to note his phrase “to learn of His Laws to appropriate His Spirit to our hungering souls” in order to remind us of Kierkegaard’s term, Tilegnelse: appropriation.
Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety, edited and translated with Introduction and Notes by Reidar Thomte, Princeton University Press, 1980, p. 14, note.
This article was published in January 1886 in The Methodist Review with the author’s name given as “A Japanese.” In his article, Uchimura used the term “Yamato Damashii.” Although he did not use the term “Bushido” in his How I Became a Christian, this eventually became one of his most favorite words.
Inazo Nitobe, Bushido; The Soul of Japan, published in 1900 by Leeds & Biddle, Philadelphia, and by Shokado, Tokyo. I quoted these sentences from Bushido, published by Kodansha International Ltd., 2002.
“Bushido and Christianity,” The Biblical Studies 186 (January 1916), Complete Works, vol. 22, p. 161. Cf. John F. Howes, Japan’s Modern Prophet, p. 236.
He established “Collegia Pietatis” (Schools of Piety) in 1670 and published Pia Desideria (Pious Desire) in 1675.
Robert L. Gallagher, “Zinzendorf and the Early Moravian Mission Movement,” A Faith and Learning Paper Presented to the Director of the Faith and Learning Program and the Provost, Wheaton College, In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Promotion and Tenure, 2005.
Joakim Garff, Soren Kierkegaard, A Bibliography, translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse, Princeton University Press, 2005.
