The Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan: Prefaces
Table of Contents:
Prefaces (you are here)
My observations on the Prefaces
Entry 1: March 1, 1870, St. Petersburg
Entry 2: March 4, 1871, Shanghai, China
Entry 3: March 18, 1871, Hakodate, Japan
Entry 4: January 1, 1872, Hakodate, Japan
Entry 5: December 20, 1876 / January 1, 1877, Hakodate, Japan
Entry 6: September 12-13, 1879, St. Petersburg
Entry 7: September 14, 1879, St. Petersburg
Entry 8: September 16, 1879, St. Petersburg
Entry 9: September 17, 1879, St. Petersburg
Entry 10: September 18, 1879, St. Petersburg
Entry 11: September 19th, 1879, St. Petersburg
Entry 12: September 20-23, 1879, St. Petersburg
Entry 13: September 24-26, 1879, St. Petersburg
Entry 14: September 27, 1879, Moscow
Entry 15: September 28 and 29, 1879, Moscow
Entry 16: October 28-29 and November 12, 1879, St. Petersburg
Entry 17: November 13, 1879 - St. Petersburg
Entry 18: November 14-17, 1879, St. Petersburg
Entry 19: November 18-19, 1879 - St. Petersburg
Entry 20: November 20, 1879 - St. Petersburg
Entry 21: November 21, 1879 - St. Petersburg
Entry 22: November 22, 1879 - St. Petersburg
Entry 23: November 23-24, 1879 - St. Petersburg
Entry 24: November 25-26, 1879, St. Petersburg
Entry 25: November 27-28, 1879, St. Petersburg
Entry 26: January 1, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 27: January 3-4, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 28: January 5, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 29: January 6, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 30: January 7, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 31: January 8-10, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 32: January 11-12, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 33: January 13, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 34: January 14, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 35: January 15-16, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 36: January 17-19, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 37: January 20, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 38: January 21-22, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 39: January 23-24, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 40: January 25, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 41: January 26, 1880, St. Petersburg
Entry 42: January 27-28, St. Petersburg
The following is a machine language translation, for which I first used Yandex Translate, but moved to ChatGPT, of the prefaces to the first volume of the Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan.
I am publishing this on Substack with the intent to organize a translation team and eventually have all five volumes professionally translated. If you can read Russian and English, and are a baptized Orthodox Christian and would like to assist, please email me: nikolai.shores / gmail.
This is a ‘living document’ for now; as we go through and make revisions, I will revise this note.
Last revision: 2/7/2025 5:26PM MSK: Used ChatGPT to translate down to ‘The First Sprouts of Faith in Northern Japan’
Last revision: 2/3/2025 8:44AM MSK - Used ChatGPT to translate down to ‘Town of Beryoza’
Cover to the Russian print version [Work on a new cover that hearkens to this old one]
Photo of St. Nicholas of Japan as a young archbishop
Appeal to the readers of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexei II
The life and deeds of Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles NICHOLAS OF JAPAN have, for many decades, inspired profound reverence among the faithful, serving as an example of zealous service to the Lord and His people.
Since the glorification of Archbishop NICHOLAS (KASATKIN) among the saints in 1970, many years have passed. For many Russians, the story of their compatriot who, in the mid-19th century, set out to a distant land to preach the Gospel and establish the Orthodox faith in Japan became confirmation that Apostolic ministry is not limited to the earliest period of Church history. Indeed, everyone who, like the Apostle Peter, can turn to the Lord with the words: "Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed Thee" (Matt. 19:27), understands that they, too, partake in the great mission the Church carries out from the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ’s disciples at Pentecost to the last day of human history.
Following in the footsteps of his predecessors—Saint Stephen of Perm, Saint Innocent of Moscow, and Saint Herman of Alaska—Saint Nicholas traversed vast distances, significant even by modern standards, to reach a faraway land foreign and even hostile to Christianity. Until the late 19th century, Japan’s civil laws threatened anyone who abandoned their ancestral faiths—paganism and Buddhism—with the death penalty. The country's ancient culture, formed in isolation not only from Christian Europe but even from its neighbors in the Far East, seemed impervious to Orthodox teachings. The Japanese language, with its complexity and numerous dialects, stood as an insurmountable barrier between the Russian missionary and the local population. Furthermore, political, economic, and later military tensions between Russia and Japan at the turn of the 20th century only exacerbated these challenges.
It was under such conditions that, in 1860, the new Apostle of Japan embarked on his mission, leaving his homeland. Yet, just over half a century later, when Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Nicholas completed his earthly ministry and departed to the Lord, what once seemed impossible had been accomplished. By that time, 32,000 native Japanese Orthodox Christians had been united into 265 church communities, spiritually nourished by 41 priests. Orthodox cathedrals had been built in Tokyo and Kyoto, along with numerous smaller churches across Japan. Orthodoxy had ceased to be perceived by the Japanese as something foreign to their national tradition. Representatives of all social classes in Japan had come to regard the founder of the Russian Spiritual Mission in their country with great reverence.
Undoubtedly, the fruits of Saint Nicholas’s apostolic ministry compel all of us to approach his diary entries, preserved in the archives of the Holy Synod and now housed in the Russian State Historical Archive in St. Petersburg, with special respect and attention.
Since 1979, the study and preparation of Saint Nicholas's diaries for publication has been undertaken by the renowned Japanese scholar of Russian studies and historian of Russian-Japanese relations, Professor Kennosuke Nakamura. The first edition of the saint’s diaries was published in 1994 by Hokkaido University Press.
This second edition of the diaries of the Russian Apostle to Japan, undertaken in his homeland, has also been made possible thanks to the diligent work of Professor Kennosuke Nakamura and his Japanese and Russian colleagues.
I believe that this complete edition of the diaries of Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Nicholas of Japan, which contains testimony of exceptional significance about his great service to God and people, will enrich the Church's spiritual treasury. It will have a profound and beneficial effect on many of our contemporaries, contributing to their spiritual growth and deeper assimilation of the Orthodox tradition.
During our visit to Japan in 2000 for the enthronement of the new Primate of the Japanese Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Daniel, we witnessed firsthand the apostolic labors of Saint Nicholas. His efforts are evident in the churches he built, especially the cathedrals in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hakodate. But the greatest testimony to his legacy is the Japanese Orthodox believers who preserve a living memory and profound love for Saint Nicholas. We were convinced that the missionary and enlightening work he accomplished in Japan remains alive, and his equal-to-the-apostles labor established the Orthodox Church of Japan, which continues to uphold the traditions, chants, and liturgical practices of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Land of the Rising Sun in the Japanese language.
PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA
ALEXEI II
THE BLESSING:
METROPOLITAN DANIEL, ARCHBISHOP OF TOKYO AND ALL JAPAN
I call upon God's blessing for the publication of the Complete Diaries of Saint Nicholas, Equal-to-the-Apostles, Archbishop of Japan, made possible through the significant efforts of Professor Kennosuke.
Through these diaries, we will come to understand the love and the missionary labors in the field of preaching the Holy Orthodoxy in Japan, which Saint Nicholas carried out.
I offer prayers to the Lord that the labors of Saint Nicholas, Equal-to-the-Apostles, Archbishop of Japan, may not be in vain but inspire us to preserve the spirit of Orthodoxy even more diligently.
Archbishop of Tokyo and Metropolitan of All Japan
Daniil
This book was published with the support of the Nippon Foundation
Publication of this book was supported by Grant–in–Aid from the Nippon Foundation
Edited by Kannosuke Nakamura
H635 The Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan: in 5 vols. /Comp. K. Nakamura.
Vol. 1.- St. Petersburg: Hyperion, 2004.-464 p.
This five-volume edition is the first complete publication of the extensive diary kept throughout his life by Archbishop Nicholas of Japan (1836–1912), the founder of the Russian Orthodox Mission in Japan.
Arriving in Japan at the age of 24, Father Nicholas engaged in missionary work for fifty years. He established a seminary, theological schools, and an iconography workshop. Having mastered the Japanese language to perfection, he translated the Holy Scriptures for his Japanese parishioners. By the time of his passing, the Japanese Orthodox community had grown to 34,000 members—an achievement directly attributed to him.
Beyond his missionary work, Father Nicholas also distinguished himself as an outstanding scholar, leaving behind unique ethnographic records on Japan in his diaries. These materials were gathered during his numerous travels across the country, from village to village, where his flock resided.
In Japan, Father Nicholas enjoyed—and continues to enjoy—extraordinary renown, with his contributions widely recognized. Interest in him has also grown in Russia, particularly following his canonization by the Russian Orthodox Church on April 10, 1970.
The first volume of his diaries covers the period from 1870 to 1880.
Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan: in 5 volumes / Comp. K. Nakamura. Vol. 1, - St. Petersburg: Hyperion, 2004. - 464 p.
© K. Nakamura, comp. text, commentary, introduction, 2004
© A. Konechniy, comp. pointers, 2004
© K. Kumpan, comp. pointers, 2004
© RGIA, 2004
© Hyperion Publishing House. 2004
ISBN 5–89332–090–5
ISBN 5-89332-091-3 (I t.)
Note: Multiple attempts were made to contact the Russian State Historical Archive to inquire about copyright. No responses were received. I believe the diaries themselves to be in the public domain, however, the opening material below remains in question. I chalked the lack of response up to the present difficulties between the United States and Russia, and secured a blessing from a Russian Orthodox priest, then proceeded with the translation, hoping that in the future this will be resolved. - N
From the Russian State Historical Archive
[I dropped this section, because it is long and only tangentially related to the underlying work]
The Beginning of the Preaching of Orthodoxy in Japan
I. A. Goshkevich
In the mid-19th century, Japan was finally forced to change its long-standing "closed country" policy, which it had maintained since the early 17th century. On July 18, 1853, an American squadron under Commodore Perry arrived in Uraga Bay. This event, known in history as the arrival of the "black ships," marked the beginning of intense foreign pressure that the Japanese had not experienced for two hundred years. In March 1854, the Japanese government was compelled to sign a Treaty of Friendship with the United States (the so-called "Kanagawa Treaty"), under which, in August 1856, the American Consul General, Townsend Harris, arrived in Shimoda.
Just a month and a half after Perry’s arrival in Uraga, on August 22, 1853, the Russian envoy, Vice Admiral Yevfimy Vasilyevich Putyatin, arrived in Nagasaki aboard the flagship frigate Pallada, accompanied by four other ships. Unlike Perry, he did not resort to threats and, unlike the Americans, his mission was solely to demarcate the Russo-Japanese border. However, in the eyes of the Japanese, Putyatin’s ships were the same "black ships"—only this time, they had come from the north to forcibly open Japan. In February 1855, the Russo-Japanese Treaty of Friendship was signed in Shimoda, and in August 1858, the official Russo-Japanese Treaty of Friendship and Trade was signed in Edo.
Russia established a consulate in Hakodate, and at the end of October 1858, the first Russian consul, Iosif Antonovich Goshkevich, began his duties. I. A. Goshkevich had previously visited Japan as part of Putyatin’s mission and had participated in negotiations with Japanese government representatives in 1853 in Nagasaki. He was also in Shimoda as a Chinese language translator in 1854–1855. Upon his appointment as the first Russian consul in Japan, he arrived in Hakodate with his family, a secretary, a doctor, and servants—a total of fifteen people.
Following him, a little later, Archpriest Vasily Makhov arrived in Hakodate as the rector of the consular church. At a time when Orthodoxy was the state religion of the Russian Empire, a priest was an essential part of the consulate staff, and all employees were required to fulfill their religious duties in accordance with church regulations.
Archpriest Vasily Makhov had previously visited Japan once before, as a priest aboard the frigate Diana under the command of Putyatin, which reached the shores of Japan in 1854. Due to an earthquake in the port of Shimoda, Diana suffered severe damage, after which Father Vasily, along with the entire Russian mission, remained in Japan for six months. His impressions of Japanese life and character, formed during his stay in Shimoda and the village of Heda, were later published in a book titled Frigate “Diana”—Travel Notes of Archpriest Vasily Makhov, Who Was in Japan in 1854 and 1855 (St. Petersburg, 1867). The book describes the tragic details of the shipwreck in the port of Shimoda, which was struck by an earthquake and tsunami on December 11, 1854—an event that Father Vasily witnessed firsthand.
Vasily Makhov was already 60 years old when he was appointed rector of the consular church in Hakodate. Over the two years he spent in this position, his heart condition worsened, and he requested permission to return to his homeland for treatment in St. Petersburg. His request was granted, and Consul I. A. Goshkevich, through the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, submitted an official request to the Holy Synod for a new priest to replace Father Vasily. In his letter to the Synod, he wrote: "The rector of the Orthodox church can also contribute to the spread of Christianity in Japan." (Archbishop Antony, Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Archbishop of Japan, Father Nicholas—Theological Works, Moscow, 1975, No. 14).
It is noteworthy that Goshkevich had such foresight at a time when Christianity was still strictly prohibited in Japan. Goshkevich himself was the son of a priest. While studying at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, he became acquainted with Hierodeacon Polycarp, who later became the head of the twelfth Orthodox mission in China (which consisted of ten members). Goshkevich spent nearly ten years, from October 1840 to May 1850, in Beijing as a member of this mission—not as a clergyman, but as a “student.” Afterward, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, as previously mentioned, traveled to Japan as a Chinese-language interpreter with the Russian mission led by Putyatin. It can be said that the foundations for the future development of Orthodox missionary work in Japan were already present in Goshkevich’s own life and career.
To a modern reader, it may seem strange that Goshkevich transitioned from an Orthodox mission to working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but at that time in Russia, such career changes were not uncommon. The Orthodox mission in Beijing was organized by the Asian Department and also served as a diplomatic representation of the Foreign Ministry in China. For example, the head of the mission, Archimandrite Polycarp, was involved in trade negotiations between Russia and China regarding tea, dyes, and other goods. He was also responsible for reporting on relations between China and England concerning the opium problem. The reports Goshkevich prepared in China—such as Sericulture and Silkworm Breeding and The Production of Chinese Ink—were not related to missionary work but were instead scholarly studies on China. (See A Brief History of the Orthodox Mission in China, Russian Spiritual Mission, 1916). It appears that overseas missionary work within the Russian Orthodox Church was primarily conducted by intellectuals.
The Japanese-Russian Dictionary, compiled by I. A. Goshkevich with the assistance of a Japanese scholar, Kosai Tachibana (this extensive work was published in St. Petersburg in 1857, a year before Goshkevich’s appointment as consul in Hakodate), clearly reflects his strong interest in Japan, the country of his new assignment. Moreover, he was undoubtedly concerned with the spread of Christianity in Japan. The fact that Goshkevich foresaw the eventual lifting of the ban on Christianity in Japan eight years before the Meiji Restoration demonstrates his keen interest in this issue and his close attention to developments in the country. Since he was fluent in Chinese, Goshkevich could communicate with the Japanese using Chinese characters. (It is likely that his relationship with Kosai Tachibana began this way.) It seems that Goshkevich, in a broad sense, felt a deep affinity for Japan. From the moment of his appointment as the Russian consul, he likely dreamed of the day when the ban on Christianity in Japan would be lifted, allowing for the preaching of Orthodoxy. When Archpriest Vasily Makhov left for Russia, Goshkevich undoubtedly saw an opportunity to fulfill his long-held aspiration. He requested not just a priest to conduct services at the consular church but a preacher who would be ready to bring the word of God to the Japanese people.
In his letter to the Holy Synod, Goshkevich insisted that the newly appointed priest be “a graduate of a theological academy, capable of contributing not only through his spiritual work but also through scholarly endeavors, and even through his personal life, serving as a positive example of our clergy not only to the Japanese but also to the foreigners residing there.”
Hakodate was home to many educated Europeans and Americans, such as the British consul Christopher Hodgson. The city also had an intellectual Japanese community, including Jōun Kurimoto, who later gained fame as a journalist during the Meiji era. The new rector of the consular church needed to be a missionary who could not only engage with such people on equal footing but also earn their respect. By that time, in anticipation of the eventual legalization of Christian preaching, the French Catholic missionary Mermet de Cachon, a highly educated man fluent in Japanese, was already stationed in Hakodate for preparation. Goshkevich requested an Orthodox missionary who would match the Catholic Cachon in both ability and erudition.
In response to Goshkevich’s request, a 25-year-old hieromonk, Father Nicholas, arrived in Hakodate from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Fortunately for the Japanese, he fully possessed all the qualities that Goshkevich had sought. In the end, it can be said that it was Goshkevich, recognizing the high intellectual and spiritual aspirations of the Japanese people, who selected the mentor capable of leading the mission to preach among them.
In 1865, I. A. Goshkevich returned to Russia and retired in 1867. Around the same time, he informed the Moscow Missionary Society that, despite the prohibition on Christianity, Father Nicholas had secretly begun preaching in Hakodate. He also petitioned for financial support for his work in Japan. The influential Russian newspaper Moskovskie Vedomosti urged readers to support the young missionary, writing: “The Missionary Society Council has received very encouraging reports about the activities of Hieromonk Kasatkin in Japan… Could it be possible to leave this honorable hieromonk without assistance?… In Western countries, such missionary work enjoys widespread support. We hope that our society will respond to the Council’s statement, which has only now, on September 13, learned through Mr. Goshkevich about the work of Hieromonk Nicholas and the needs of our Japanese mission.” (Moskovskie Vedomosti, October 8, 1867).
E. V. Putyatin
It is unknown whether I. A. Goshkevich continued to support Father Nikolai after his retirement. However, former Russian envoy Yevfimiy Vasilyevich Putyatin, under whom Goshkevich had once served as a translator, actively assisted his mission in Japan. Putyatin left his career as a naval officer for political activities and, in 1861, headed the Ministry of National Enlightenment before becoming a member of the State Council and entering the political circles of St. Petersburg. From the Orthodox Church's side, Father Nikolai's activities in Japan were primarily supported by Metropolitan Isidor of St. Petersburg, as well as by the Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod, K. P. Pobedonostsev, priests Fyodor Bystrov and Ioann Dyomkin in St. Petersburg, Gavriil Sretensky in Moscow, and others.
There were also many patrons outside the Church, including Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna, Count S. D. Sheremetev of St. Petersburg, Countess M. V. Orlova-Davydova, and others. The rector of the Academy of Arts, F. I. Jordan, his wife V. A. Jordan, and the sisters of the Novodevichy Convent in St. Petersburg were also among Father Nikolai's supporters. However, the most devoted patrons were E. V. Putyatin and his daughter Olga. Father Nikolai specifically acknowledged Putyatin’s assistance in the concluding section of his "Report to the Council of the Orthodox Missionary Society" for December 1878:
"The Mission owes immense gratitude to Count Yevfimiy Vasilyevich Putyatin: he continuously and lovingly cares for it and has performed countless good deeds for it—both through his personal donations and by resolving its needs and encouraging others to contribute. The current stone buildings of the Mission, the foundation of which was laid by the donation of His Imperial Highness, Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich, during his visit to Japan in 1872, would never have been completed if Count Yevfimiy Vasilyevich had not taken upon himself the task of collecting donations for this purpose."
In 1879, Father Nikolai returned to Russia for the second time, traveling via America. From September of that year until August 1880, he worked in St. Petersburg and Moscow collecting donations for the construction of a cathedral in Tokyo. His Diaries from that period detail his close interactions with Putyatin. For instance, one entry reads:
"Leaving [the St. Petersburg Theological Academy — K. N.], I met Count Putyatin at the entrance. It felt like meeting a father. The Count came in to see me and promised full support... He invited me to Gatchina; he also promised to visit me on Thursday" (September 16, 1879).
Thus, Putyatin acted as a kind benefactor to Father Nikolai.
Putyatin had many acquaintances among high-society ladies who had access to the royal court. Through his mediation, they made significant donations in support of the Japanese mission, as also noted in the Diaries (see, for example, the entries from November 1879).
In October 1883, Putyatin passed away in Paris. A year later, in October 1884, his daughter Olga Yevfimovna Putyatina arrived in Tokyo to work for the Orthodox Church, seemingly inheriting her father's desire to support the Japanese mission.
Diary entries indicate that Father Nikolai was personally acquainted with Putyatin even before his second and final visit to Russia in 1879. It is possible that Goshkevich had introduced him to Putyatin during his first visit in 1869-1870.
The Village of Beryoza – The Homeland of Father Nikolai
Hieromonk Father Nikolai, known in the secular world as Ivan Dmitrievich Kasatkin, was born on August 1, 1836 (Old Style) in the Berezovsky Pogost of the Smolensk Province. His father, Dmitry Ivanovich, served as a deacon in the village church. Ivan’s mother, Ksenia Alexeevna, passed away when he was five years old. He had an older brother, Gavriil, who died at the age of five months, and an older sister, Olga. Ivan himself was the second son and also had a younger brother, Vasily, who was four years his junior.
Ivan Kasatkin (the future Saint Nikolai) grew up in the village of Beryoza and studied at the Velsky Theological School. The colloquial words and expressions that often appear in Saint Nikolai’s Diaries suggest that he did not come from the educated urban nobility but rather from a rural deacon’s family.
On March 30, 1880 (Old Style), during his second return to Russia, Father Nikolai was ordained as a bishop in the cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in Saint Petersburg. In June of that same year, he traveled for a week to his homeland, the village of Bereza. The journey took an entire day on horseback from Rzhev, which itself is located 200 km west of Moscow. Some, albeit rather superficial, insights into what Saint Nikolai’s homeland was like and the people who lived there can be gleaned from the diary entries he made during this trip.
June 26, 1880, Thursday. From Rzhev home and at home.
Early in the morning, the coachman who had been assigned to me arrived, and after drinking tea from a dirty teapot and glass, I set off with him. [...] The view of Bereza—a green church roof, a red roof—clearly belonging to the tavern keeper—below the village...
At home, I found my nephew Alexander and his wife, Maria Petrovna.
I immediately went to the Bereza River to wash off the dirt from the road.
On the way back, I met Father Vasily Ruzhentsev in his cassock.
Later, I visited with my sister; went to the church where Father Vasily sang "Is polla".
I paid visits to Father Vasily, to Marfa Grigorievna—the prosphora baker (whose daughter, Sasha, is living in a common-law marriage with a neighbor); to Larion Nikolaevich and others, including, among others, the tavern keeper with the red roof—a cunning exploiter of Bereza—and I refused to visit the neighboring petty bourgeois women, the kept women...
Chaos in my soul, chaos in the people around me; only nature redeemed my sorrow and consoled my anger, but the people interfered.
It seems that Father Nikolai remembered his homeland with warmth only when he was far from it—following the saying, "It is good where we are not." However, in his heart, he had a strong innate attachment to his homeland, likely planted during his childhood in Bereza. This feeling often manifested in diary entries made while he was in Japan.
During his travels through the Hokuriku region in April, he wrote upon seeing a horse plowing a field near Toyama:
"The plowing in the field pleasantly surprised me: the plow is exactly like a Russian one, and it is harnessed to a horse. The way they hold the plow and control the horse is so similar to the Russian method that I almost expect to hear the calls: 'Closer!' or 'Get out!'" (April 18/30, 1893).
Having grown up in a rural setting, Father Nikolai encountered a scene in the Japanese countryside that vividly reminded him of his childhood.
His attachment to his native village was particularly deep. Upon learning that his fellow countryman, the botanist S. A. Rachinsky, was building a school for peasants, Father Nikolai immediately sent a significant donation from Japan and subsequently sent annual financial support for the school, which was named in his honor.
"From my native village of Bereza," wrote Father Nikolai, "I received a photograph of the church and another of the school, which Sergei A. Rachinsky named after me because I send 200 rubles a year for it. A group of 50 boys and girls with Father Pyotr Sokolov in the center looks very pleasant: the faces are intelligent, and they are dressed decently, though in varied attire." (October 17/30, 1910).
Through one of his acquaintances in Russia, Father Nikolai sent the school a magic lantern*, an organ, and other items as gifts.
*"Magic lantern" – This refers to an early type of image projector, commonly used for education and entertainment in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In his diary entry for April 23/May 6 (the Feast of St. George the Great Martyr) in 1910, at the age of 73, Saint Nikolai unexpectedly wrote:
"The feast day in my native village of Yegorov-Bereza. My relatives must be remembering me. There are fairs, many people, and it is very lively."
Even after coming to Japan at the age of 25 and living there for nearly 50 years, Father Nikolai of Japan still found it difficult to forget his native village.
Moreover, since Father Nikolai was a monk, he lived alone throughout his life, yet he always worried about his relatives in Russia. From time to time, he sent money to his nephew through his close friend in Saint Petersburg, Father Fyodor Bystrov.
Saint Nikolai’s younger brother, Vasily, also became a clergyman. Upon receiving news in 1911 of his brother’s passing—he had served as a protopriest in Syzran—the 74-year-old Father Nikolai wrote:
"Very sorrowful! My only brother, three years younger than me. It is good that my last letter reached him and comforted him, in which I replied to his plea—not to return to Russia for retirement but to stay in Japan forever. He had been troubled by a rumor in a newspaper claiming that I was seeking retirement at the Smolensk Avraamiev Monastery. Eternal rest to you, dear brother! I immediately wrote a letter of condolence and consolation to his widow." (February 15/28, 1911).
Ivan Kasatkin studied at a primary parish school in Velsky Uyezd and then enrolled in the seminary in Smolensk, 150 kilometers from home. After graduating with honors, he was granted permission to continue his education at the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy on a state scholarship.
Such a path was probably not unusual for a deacon’s son who showed academic promise. By continuing his education step by step within the institutions of the Orthodox Church, he could have secured a high position in its hierarchical structure. However, this gifted student, at the age of 24, decided to dedicate his life to preaching Christianity in distant, pagan Japan. Leaving everything behind, he departed—not as a married priest but as a hieromonk.
Choosing the Path
It is known that even while in seminary, Ivan had the desire to go on a mission to China in the future, something his teacher had told him about. It seems that the dream of preaching to pagans lived in him since childhood. During his academy years, he read Captain Golovnin’s Notes on His Captivity Among the Japanese in 1811, 1812, and 1813, and his dormant dream of missionary work was rekindled with new strength—only now, his gaze shifted from China to Japan.
Saint Nicholas wrote about this in his diary:
"I set out at 6 o’clock when they came to tell me that everything was ready for the ‘shimbokukai’ [a social gathering]. There was an excellent treat—tea, fruits, and pastries—and a well-decorated dining room, where the meetings always take place, adorned with flowers and flags. [...] I was asked to say something, so I took as my theme: ‘The will of God, which we pray for daily in the Lord’s Prayer, guides us—if we do not resist it,’ and I told how I firmly believe, despite my unworthiness, that it was God’s will that sent me to Japan. In seminary, the story of China told by Professor Ivan Feodorovich Solovyov, and the departure of his fellow Academy student, Father Isaiya Polkin, on a mission there, awakened in me a desire to go to China to preach the Gospel. Later, at the Academy, reading Golovnin’s travel account reignited that forgotten desire—but now directed toward Japan." (October 21 / November 3, 1907)
One day, the theology student Ivan Kasatkin, who felt an unclear pull toward Japan, saw a notice posted in a lecture hall inviting a priest to serve at the Russian consulate in Hakodate, on the island of Ezo (Hokkaido), Japan. This happened in June 1860, during his final year at the Academy.
"Passing by the Academy rooms one day, my eyes quite accidentally stopped on a sheet of white paper lying there, where I read the following lines: ‘Would anyone wish to go to Japan to take the position of rector of the consulate church in Hakodate and begin preaching Orthodoxy in that country?’ What if I went?—I decided. And that very day, during the all-night vigil, I already belonged to Japan." (Christian Rest, 1912, No. 2)
Ivan Kasatkin was not the only one who responded to this notice, which had been sent to the Academy from the Synod. Forty-four years later, in 1904, the 69-year-old Father Nicholas wrote from Japan to his close friend since their student years, Archpriest N. V. Blagozrazumov:
"Here is another request: send me an assistant, that is, a young, good missionary... To tell the truth, dear Nikolai Vasilyevich, our time was much better. Do you remember? As soon as that notice appeared on the table, and for what a position—a rector of the Consulate Church—how quickly that sheet was covered in names, and what names they were! You, M. I. Gorchakov [archpriest, professor at St. Petersburg University], among them—the very elite of the Academy’s youth." (April 8, 1904)
On this letter from Father Nicholas, the recipient, Blagozrazumov, later added the following note:
"At that time, 10–12 students signed up as volunteers (i.e., to dedicate themselves to missionary work), all on the condition of marriage, except for Kasatkin—who was the only one to go as a monk and outdid them all." (N. Kedrov, Archbishop Father Nicholas of Japan in Correspondence with Archpriest N. V. Blagozrazumov—Russian Archive, 1912, No. 3)
Thus, Father Nicholas’s generation represented the elite of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. For the student elite, the position of rector at a consulate church in a distant island country of the Far East was quite modest. However, not only Father Nicholas (Ivan Kasatkin) but also 10–12 young volunteers applied for this humble position. They did not seek high ranks in the Orthodox hierarchy; rather, they responded to the call of Bishop Goshkevich with a fervent desire to devote themselves to spreading Christianity in a distant pagan land.
Father Nicholas remarked that "our time was much better." This seems to hint at one of the key motives that drove him and his friends toward missionary work in Japan. "Our time", the era when Father Nicholas, Blagozrazumov, and their companions competed for the right to become the priest of the consulate church on Ezo Island, was the early 1860s—a period when Russia, having been defeated in the Crimean War, was striving for renewal under the scepter of Alexander II. Society was filled with new hopes: it was the era of the Great Reforms in Russian history. Starting with the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, progressive reforms in judicial systems, education, and local self-governance followed one after another.
The best students of the capital’s theological academy, Kasatkin and his friends, belonged to the highly conservative world of the Orthodox Church. However, they were also part of the intellectual clergy, as they studied major European languages, including classical ones (Father Nicholas was fluent in German and, it seems, learned English in Japan). They had a first-class, well-rounded education, read secular political and literary journals, and were acutely aware of their homeland’s backwardness.
The numerous applications from talented young theologians for the position of rector at a small consulate church in a remote Far Eastern town testify to the fact that the idealistic enthusiasm of the reform era had spread even among students of theology. While studying at the theological academy, they were also “the people of the sixties”—contemporaries of an era marked by idealism and reformist aspirations.
Belonging to the clerical class, which was a staunch supporter of autocracy, they also wholeheartedly wished to serve the poor and suffering. Father Nicholas’s diary entries during his stays in Russia frequently mention Father Nikandr, who worked for the benefit of impoverished Jews in St. Petersburg (see, for example, the Diary entry for January 8, 1880). Father Nicholas’s close friend, Father Ioann Demkin, organized a shelter for homeless children and the elderly (see the Diary entry for September 24, 1879). These men were young representatives of a generation characterized by lofty ideals and a thirst for practical action.
One of the most famous "people of the sixties" from the intelligentsia, Nikolai Dobrolyubov (1836–1861), was born the same year as Father Nicholas, also into a clerical family, and also studied in a theological school. Dobrolyubov struggled between pious faith and deep doubts, left theological school at seventeen, and eventually became a journalist who criticized stagnation in Russian society. In literary history, Dobrolyubov is regarded as a kind of dissident intellectual opposed to the Orthodox Church. However, young critics and theology students of that time undoubtedly shared idealism, a critical attitude toward contemporary realities, and hopes for Russia’s renewal. Most likely, Father Nicholas, Blagozrazumov, and others read Dobrolyubov’s works.
Father Nicholas wrote in his Diary:
"Reading the critique of Oblomov prompted me to resolve the question: serve God or the world? And the firm answer was the first. Shortly after that, the paper from the Synod arrived at the Academy..." (October 21 / November 3, 1907)
It is highly likely that the "critique of Oblomov" he read was Dobrolyubov’s 1859 article "What Is Oblomovism?".
Eight years after his arrival in Japan, in February 1869, Father Nicholas published a lengthy essay in the Russian Orthodox journal Christian Reading, titled "Even in Japan, the Harvest Is Plentiful... A Letter from a Russian in Hakodate."
The Road to Japan
After receiving the position of rector of the consular church, Ivan Kasatkin took monastic vows on June 23, 1860, adopting the name Nicholas, and on June 30, he was ordained as a hieromonk. On August 1, the 24-year-old Hieromonk Nicholas set off for Japan. It was a long journey to the East through Siberia, during which he had to buy carts, hire drivers, and at times even steer them himself.
"At that time, there was no Siberian railway like there is now, so travel had to be done by carts, often without stopping even at night. Continuing in this way, by the end of August, he finally reached Irkutsk, the capital of Siberia, crossed Lake Baikal, arrived in Chita, then traveled to the Sretensk station, and from there proceeded by water along the Amur River, reaching Nikolaevsk by late September with great difficulty. However, by then, the severe cold had already set in, and since the water route had frozen over, sea travel to Japan was blocked, so he had to stay there for the winter," writes Protopriest Simeon Mii of the Japanese Orthodox Church, who likely heard this account from Father Nicholas himself (Seikyō Jiho – Orthodox Herald, February 1927).
This was roughly the same journey that Anton Chekhov undertook 30 years later, in 1890, on his way to Sakhalin. (Construction of the Siberian Railway began in 1891 and was completed in 1903.)
In his 1895 Diary, Father Nicholas recalls his youthful journey through Siberia as follows:
"Thirty-five years ago, when I was traveling to Japan, there was a place in Siberia with a charming view of a green, square-shaped field on a mountain slope to the left. A thought suddenly crossed my mind: it would be good if people were given crosses when they completed their education and entered life, and then, as they fulfilled their duties, those crosses would be taken off—so that when they lay in the grave, their chests would be clean, as a sign that they had lived up to the expectations placed upon them, to the extent that God had helped them. That, at least, would be more reasonable. I still hold the same thoughts now." (June 26 / July 8, 1895)
This crystal-clear and simultaneously intense sense of calling to his mission remained with Father Nicholas throughout his life.
Thus, while waiting for ships to Japan, Father Nicholas had to spend the winter in Nikolaevsk.
Fortunately, there he met the elderly Bishop Innocent, who had extensive missionary experience in Alaska and was also wintering in Nikolaevsk.
Innocent advised him to "translate the Holy Scriptures and the prayer book into the language of the newly converted natives so that Orthodoxy could take root in their culture." For Father Nicholas, who was preparing for Japan and still inexperienced in missionary work, this must have served as a true action plan. During his years in Hakodate, Father Nicholas devoted himself with incredible energy to studying the Japanese language—especially kanbun (Chinese texts published with special annotations to make them understandable to the Japanese). He also studied Japanese history with great diligence and perseverance. It seems likely that Bishop Innocent’s instructions played a role in shaping this approach. His position that "Orthodoxy must take root in the local culture" indicates that he taught respect for the culture of the country where missionary work was being conducted.
The 62-year-old veteran took great care of the 24-year-old young man, who had his whole life ahead of him, and even personally sewed him a new cassock, as the old academic one was not dignified enough. "When you go there, everyone will be watching to see what you’re like, what kind of priests they have. You need to command respect immediately," the bishop told the future missionary, sending him to buy velvet (S. A. Arkhangelov, Our Foreign Missions, St. Petersburg, 1899).
Fr. Nicholas in Hakodate
On July 2/14 of the following year, 1861, Hieromonk Nicholas arrived in Hakodate aboard the Russian warship Amerika. Having only recently opened to foreign relations at the end of the Tokugawa era, Hakodate was already a bustling port city, a hub of activity for Japanese from various parts of the country and foreigners from all over the world. It was one of the small centers of international culture, along with Nagasaki and Kanagawa. After his long journey, the 25-year-old Russian missionary arrived in this Japanese city.
However, immediately upon his arrival, Fr. Nicholas seems to have experienced deep disappointment. He described this feeling to his later missionary colleague in Japan, Sergius (Stragorodsky):
"As I traveled there, I dreamed a lot about my Japan. It appeared in my imagination like a bride waiting for my arrival with a bouquet in her hands. The news of Christ would awaken in her darkness, and everything would be renewed. But when I arrived, I saw—my bride was sleeping in the most prosaic manner and wasn't even thinking about me."
(Archimandrite Sergius, In the Far East: Letters of a Japanese Missionary, 1897)
With such passionate determination to fulfill his duty, the young missionary had come to Japan.
Fr. Nicholas immediately set about "awakening the sleeping bride." While serving as the priest of the consular church—conducting services for the consul, his family, subordinates, and the crews of Russian ships arriving in port—he also devoted himself with remarkable zeal to missionary work. He studied the Japanese language and the history of the country, sought to understand the character of its people, and patiently attempted to establish connections with the Japanese.
Fr. Nicholas’s efforts to prepare for his missionary work are evident in his previously cited Letter from a Russian in Hakodate. Regarding his language studies, he writes:
"Upon arriving in Japan, I threw myself into learning the local language with all my strength. A great deal of time and effort was spent before I could even begin to grasp this barbaric language—unquestionably the most difficult in the world... And yet people like the so-called expert on the Japanese language, the Frenchman Ronie, dare to write Japanese grammars! Fine grammars indeed—ones that you have to toss aside as useless junk within a week of arriving in Japan! It seems that those studying Japanese will have to keep learning it by instinct, through reading books and mechanically training themselves in various turns of speech, both spoken and written. And so, instinctively, I finally managed to speak at least somewhat and mastered that simple and easy writing system used for original and translated scholarly works. With this knowledge, I immediately set about translating the New Testament into Japanese."
Thus, Fr. Nicholas followed the advice of Bishop Innocent. Two years after his arrival in Japan, he wrote to the Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod, A.P. Akhmatov:
"I now speak Japanese fairly fluently. [...] I have become well acquainted with the local bonzes (Buddhist monks); I sometimes go to listen to their sermons and borrow from their religious knowledge."
In the same letter, he also writes:
"I teach the Russian language to six Japanese of varying ages."
Fr. Nicholas learned the language from various Japanese teachers, one of whom was Kensai Kimura. His son, Taiji Kimura, who later served as director of the Bank of Taiwan, writes in his autobiography that in Hakodate, Fr. Nicholas received "initial knowledge of the Japanese language, Japanese history, Confucianism, Buddhism, etc." from Kensai.
"Fr. Nicholas, a tall young man of 25-26 years old with blue eyes, came to my father’s school almost every day and studied diligently. [...] As my mother told it, Fr. Nicholas loved discussions and often argued with my father—he was a very passionate student, which greatly distinguished him from Japanese students. [...] Whenever Fr. Nicholas visited our home, he would always go into the kitchen, find my mother, and ask: 'What is this soup called? And what is the Japanese word for this yellow radish?'—meaning miso-shiru (soybean soup) and takuan (pickled daikon radish)," writes T. Kimura.
A distinctive feature of Fr. Nicholas’s Japanese was that he had deeply mastered Chinese writing and literature, excelling in written language more than spoken. He read in the original such key works on Japanese history as Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters), Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan), Nihon Gaishi (Unofficial History of Japan), as well as the Lotus Sutra and other Buddhist scriptures. Later, he gave lectures on these topics to Japanese seminarians. This deep knowledge of Chinese literature was likely due in large part to the education he received from the scholar-Confucianist Kensai Kimura, who was known for his exceptional abilities in his clan’s school.
Taiji Kimura also writes:
"Fr. Nicholas fervently urged my parents to give him one of my brothers—Fusaji or Tsuneji: ‘Give me one, give me the youngest, I will send him to St. Petersburg for education.’ But my parents never agreed. If this had actually happened, one of my brothers might have become someone who played a significant role in Russo-Japanese relations. It is a pity that it never came to pass."
As can be concluded even from this brief excerpt, from the very beginning of his time in Japan, Fr. Nicholas sought to build bridges between people in Russia and Japan. Later, he invited Russian boys to study at the Tokyo Mission, brought church music teachers from Russia, and sent talented Japanese seminarians to Russia for education.
Many of Fr. Nicholas’s students and collaborators contributed to the development of relations between Japan and Russia (outside the political sphere). These included:
Yakov Tikhai, who pioneered the spread of Western music in Japan;
Fr. Sergius Glebov, author of Russian Grammar, who significantly advanced the study of the Russian language among the Japanese;
Fr. Peter Bulgakov, who translated a Japanese textbook on ethics and morality for elementary schools into Russian;
Rin Yamashita, who studied painting at a women's monastery in St. Petersburg;
Shomu Nobori, who did much to introduce Japanese readers to Russian literature;
Yoshifumi Kurono, who spent many years teaching the Japanese language at St. Petersburg University;
and others.
The First Orthodox Japanese
In the article "And in Japan the Harvest is Plentiful... A Letter from a Russian in Hakodate," written in July 1868, Father Nikolai describes how he began secretly preaching Christianity among the Japanese:
"Meanwhile, I tried to do whatever was possible for the direct missionary goal. At first, of course, it was necessary to find people who, having accepted Christianity, would in turn be able to spread it further... Four years after my arrival here, God sent me one such person... Having become acquainted with the Faith, he felt repulsion toward his former service, abandoned it, and resolved to dedicate his efforts to serving the true God. A year later, he found a companion, and another year after that, they found a third comrade. [...]
But suddenly [in April 1868], decrees from the new government arrived in Hakodate, one of which prohibited the adoption of the Christian faith. [...] Since they had already long been prepared for baptism, I baptized them on May 18, giving them Christian names, provided them with books, and sent them in different directions... The goal of their journey, apart from the immediate necessity of avoiding danger, was also to investigate the attitudes of people in various places, seek out individuals necessary for our mission, and, if possible, establish the foundations of Christian communities."
The three Japanese men mentioned here, who, under the guidance of the Russian missionary Father Nikolai, became the first Orthodox Christians in Japan, were: the Shinto priest Takuma Sawabe from Hakodate, the physician Tokurei Sakai, and Daizo Urano. Through the efforts of two of them, Sawabe and Sakai, the seeds of Orthodox faith began to be sown in Sendai and the northern regions of Japan surrounding the city.
Preaching Supported by Japanese Catechists
Russian culture, as it was adopted by the Japanese starting from the Meiji era, can be roughly divided into three parts. The first is Christianity, brought by the Russian missionary Father Nikolai at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate period. Then came Russian literature, primarily from the 19th century, and finally, the socialist ideas introduced by Soviet Russia.
The Japanese Orthodox Church, founded by Father Nikolai, though never the largest denomination compared to others, has survived for a long time despite numerous severe trials. It became a church of the Japanese people, embedded itself in Japanese culture, left its unique mark, and continues its mission to this day.
The exact direction this Church took in its early days, its missionary strategy, and its relationship with Russia have not been fully explored in historical studies. From 1872, Father Nikolai began to preach openly, and by 1875, he ordained a Japanese priest, allowed Japanese participation in church leadership, and devoted himself to the training of native clergy.
Seizing every opportunity, Father Nikolai told the Japanese faithful:
"We foreigners must make ourselves unnecessary as soon as possible. I have advised you of this before, I am advising you now, and I will always advise you of this."
(Acts of Archbishop Nikolai)
He said this not only to the Japanese, but also to the Russian Orthodox Missionary Society, which supported his work:
"The Japanese Church is not the work of missionaries, who have no means of preaching outside of two places—Tokyo and Hakodate—but rather the work of catechists."
(Report to the Orthodox Missionary Society, 1879)
In 1877, the number of foreign missionaries in Japan was distributed as follows:
Catholic missionaries: 45
Protestant missionaries (various denominations): 99
Orthodox missionaries: 4
The number of Orthodox missionaries was significantly smaller than that of Catholic and Protestant missionaries, and this gap continued to widen over the years.
However, this does not mean that Father Nikolai rejected Russian missionaries. On the contrary, he constantly and persistently requested more missionaries from Russia. But since there were no volunteers willing to come to Japan, the necessity of the mission compelled him to recruit Japanese believers. (A list of Russian missionaries who served in Japan is included in the appendix.)
Yet, despite Father Nikolai’s clear statement that "foreigners must become unnecessary as soon as possible," he did not mean that the Japanese Church should sever ties with Russia. In his view, in order to "avoid corrupting itself and becoming something like a Protestant sect," the Japanese Church, supported by Japanese clergy, should continue inviting bishops from Russia for at least another hundred years and remain under the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod.
(Diary entry from July 7/20, 1904)
It might seem that the lack of Russian missionaries negatively affected Orthodox preaching efforts, but this was not entirely the case. The Orthodox Church in Japan grew rapidly and gained believers throughout the country. According to Japanese Ministry of Home Affairs data from 1898, the number of Orthodox Japanese Christians exceeded 25,000. This was second only to Catholics, who numbered around 54,000, and it surpassed all Protestant churches.
In his book "The Japanese Bible," Arimichi Ebisawa acknowledges that, despite being vastly outnumbered by Protestant and Catholic missionaries, the Orthodox Church's preaching efforts achieved results that significantly surpassed those of Protestants.
Even Father Nikolai himself stated that, apart from the "kakure-kirisitan" (hidden Christians—Catholics who had survived persecutions and later rejoined the Catholic Church) in Nagasaki, the number of Japanese who embraced Orthodoxy would have been even greater than those who became Catholics.
The Role of Japanese Catechists
Of course, Father Nikolai did not gain believers by his efforts alone. He himself stated that:
"The Japanese Church is the work of catechists."
Catechists were ordinary believers who received short-term theological training and were sent to preach. This "grassroots" method of evangelization was a defining characteristic of the Japanese Orthodox Church.
Japanese catechists, who were not ordained clergy and received only a modest stipend from the mission, traveled to farming and fishing villages across Japan, particularly in Hokkaido, Tohoku, and Kanto, reaching the most remote areas and zealously preaching to people who had never heard of Christianity.
At the time, the common folk harbored wild rumors about Christianity:
"They say that those who convert have their livers cut out and sent abroad, where they are sold for huge sums of money—that’s why they teach for free!"
(Seikyo Shimpo, Orthodox Church Bulletin)
Despite such fears, catechists gathered villagers and taught them the Gospel. Some even ventured into isolated Buddhist temples deep in the mountains to preach to the monks there.
Even Father Nikolai himself traveled across Japan, walking through mountain trails in straw sandals, setting an example for his catechists.
His tall, foreign figure in black robes became a subject of great curiosity in rural areas. He wrote in his diary:
"How tiresome it is to be constantly stared at! People peer through every crack in the windows and doors—as if I were some exotic beast in a cage!"
(Diary entry, May 15/27, 1881)
The First Sprouts of Faith in Northern Japan
In his report to the Council of the Orthodox Missionary Society, compiled in 1878, Fr. Nicholas describes in detail the results achieved in the six years since preaching was started on a permanent basis in Japan. He lists parishes all over Japan with the names of priests and the number of believers, seminary and girls ' school students, what their names are and where they come from, what salary preachers receive, etc. There is also a mention of the icon painter Rin Yamashita, who has recently enjoyed attention in Japan. Links with Russian organizations that supported missionary activities, the number of donations, and so on are also described in detail. Thus, it is a document that records the most basic facts about the state of the Japanese Orthodox Church at the beginning of the Meiji era.
This report also clearly shows that Fr. Nicholas and the Japanese catechists carried out their preaching activities from the very beginning. It was through the work of these catechists that the Orthodox Church was able to increase the number of its faithful, surpassing Protestants and taking second place after Catholics.
There were also cases when a young man who had studied poorly at the seminary went to the village as an assistant catechist and managed to touch the village elder with his sermon, who then received baptism under his guidance. In his Report, Fr. Nikolai speaks with great warmth and even pride about such students.
Reading this simple report, you can get a vivid idea of how in Japan at the beginning of the Meiji era, the Russian missionary Fr. Nicholas and the young Japanese catechists, working together to create a new community, gave all their strength to preaching, shared their sorrows and joys with each other.
The Japanese Orthodox Church, which was inextricably linked to Russia, was also at a disadvantage because it could not use the interest and admiration that the Japanese had for Western European culture in the interests of its preaching. In addition, the Japanese Church had to pass such a severe test as the Russo–Japanese War. And the fact that despite all this, it was in no way inferior in its development to other churches can be attributed to the fact that due to the small number of Russian missionaries from the very beginning, the main burden of preaching activities fell on the shoulders of the Japanese, from whom later candidates for the priesthood were chosen.
In 1910, the number of Orthodox believers increased to 31 thousand people. During the Meidei period, most of them were in the north of Japan — on the island of Hokkaido and in the Tohoku region. Currently, of the 74 Orthodox parishes that exist in Japan, about 30 are located in Hokkaido and Tohoku (most of these parishes have existed since the Meidei era), which also indicates that the concentration of Orthodox Japanese has always been greatest in the north of the country.
Speaking of Orthodox believers in Hokkaido, we should not forget the Orthodox Ainu who, after the Treaty on the Exchange of the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin (1875) was concluded, were forcibly resettled by the Japanese government from Shumshu Island adjacent to Russian territory to Shikotan Island. so it was. "The Ainu people are peaceful and pious, but far from earthly affairs and from earthly happiness. God-loving brothers and sisters, help the faithful in Shikotan! "- articles with such appeals can often be found in the issues of the "Bulletin of the Japanese Orthodox Church" in the mid–1880s. There are mentions that about. Nicholas wept as the catechists told him about the situation on Shikotan. And Japanese Christians, having learned about the deplorable state of the Orthodox Ainu in Shikotan, responded vividly to Fr. Nicholas ' call to provide material assistance to their brothers in the faith.
From late July to early August 1898, Fr. Nicholas, together with Archimandrite Sergius (Stragorodsky), toured the parishes of the southern and eastern parts of Hokkaido, and on August 13 visited the Ainu parish on Shikotan Island. Archimandrite Sergius also has records of this journey in his travel notes "On Japan" (1903), and Fr.Nicholas in his Diary. We will quote here a passage from the Diaries, which describes the scene of parting with the island.
"We gave them the final blessing and said goodbye to them. They accompanied us in a crowd to the scow, in the oars of which the girls and young men still took their oars, the former in their fine dresses, which they had worn to church before they had changed them. With a chant — first in violas, then in trebles-melodiously sad, and with visible animation and zeal, they soon took us to the steamer, and here they once again took leave and received the blessing. Sadly, we parted from them. A good fragment of the famous Church of Innocent, our glorious missionary" (August 1/13, 1898).
And in the Diary dated June 7/20, 1904, there is also this entry: "Father Roman Fukui writes about Shikotan that "he received money, 107 yen, to buy two cows for the Christians of Shikotan. [ ... ] that Yevgenia Storozheva, Vladimir's daughter, was engaged to Fyodor Suzuki in Kushiro."
What was the situation like in the Tohoku area?
Takuma Sawabe was an ardent patriot, and at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the beginning of the Meiji era, he mingled in Hakodate with former samurai (Ronin) who had left the Sendai Clan. When the Ronin were plotting a second rebellion together with the fleeing forces of the Shogunate troops, Sawabe, who by then had already become a loyal disciple of Oh. He convinced them that they should now invest their energy not in the political reform of the country, but in the reform of the spiritual life of the Japanese, and that this spiritual reform should be carried out with the help of Christianity. He even managed to persuade two former samurai of the Sendai clan, Zenemon Kannari and Tsunenosina Arai, to meet Fr.
After that, Fr. Nicholas and the former Sendai samurai formed a close relationship, and soon new like-minded people from Sendai joined them. They believed that " without Christianity, it is impossible to maintain the right path of peace." In Hakodate, they "spent every day studying the truths of the Orthodox faith" and, eventually becoming preachers, returned to Sendai, where they began to spread Orthodoxy primarily from their relatives and acquaintances. Kokko Soma, known as the founder of the Naka Muraya restaurant in Tokyo's Shinjuku district and as a patron who supported many artists, was also originally from Sendai, and although she was a Protestant, her family in Sendai has since been Orthodox. Thus, through the efforts of fervent representatives of the Sendai samurai faith, pockets of Orthodoxy were born one after another throughout the territory of Tohoku.
In February 1872, Father Nicholas left Hakodate and moved to Tokyo. There, in the Kanda district (Surugadai), he sets up a Mission and begins preaching in Tokyo and its environs, and then in the Tokai and Kansai districts. By this time, Hokkaido and Tohoku were already a kind of powerful hinterland, capable of supporting further missionary activities of the Orthodox Church in Japan.
Let us once again return to the Hakodate period of preparation for missionary activity. In 1868, Fr. Nikolai writes at the end of the article "And in Japan the harvest is plentiful" already quoted above: "From all that has been said so far, it seems possible to conclude that in Japan, at least in the near future: the harvest is plentiful… Catholicism and Protestantism have taken over the world… Here is another country, already the last in a series of new discoveries: if only here we could become along with others... I will, God willing, not be abandoned and I am here alone, doomed to fruitless solitary labor. It was with this hope that I came here, and I have lived here for seven years; it is my most fervent prayer for its realization, and in this realization, finally, I believe so much that I have applied for my dismissal on leave, and, after receiving permission, I am going to St. Petersburg to petition the Holy Synod for the establishment of a mission here."
After receiving the desired vacation, Fr. Nicholas returned to Russia in early 1869 and during the two years he spent there tirelessly convinced the Synod and influential church hierarchs of the need to open a Mission in Japan, and also visited four Russian theological academies, where he fervently encouraged young academicians to engage in the preaching of Orthodoxy in Japan.
During his stay in Russia, in September 1869, Fr. Nikolai published a long article in the Russian Messenger magazine, edited by the influential conservative journalist Katkov, entitled " Japan from the Point of view of the Christian Mission." In it, he again tells the educated stratum of Russian people about the situation in Japan and writes that the preaching of Orthodoxy in Japan will definitely bear fruit.
The "Diaries of St. John the Baptist" currently published by us . St. Nicholas of Japan " begins with an entry made on March 1, 1870 (all dates during his stay in Russia - old style) in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg during this return to Russia.
If you briefly describe the further activities of O. St. Nicholas and the history of the Japanese Orthodox Church, then on April 6, 1870 (old style), the decision of the Holy Synod on the establishment of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Japan was approved, and Fr.Nicholas himself was appointed its head with the elevation to the rank of archimandrite. In March 1871, with new aspirations, he went to Japan to take up missionary work again.
At the end of 1871, a new employee, Hieromonk Anatoly (Tihai), arrived in Japan. Fr. Nikolai entrusted the church in Hakodate to Anatoly, and he went to the capital Tokyo, where he began to preach.
And then for 40 years, and from the first arrival in the country — 50 years. Nicholas worked to spread Orthodoxy in Japan.
As already mentioned in the chapter on E. V. Putyatin, from March 1879 to November 1880, Fr. Nicholas traveled to Russia for the second and last time to raise funds for the construction of a cathedral in Tokyo. During this return, on March 30, 1880, in the Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg, he was consecrated bishop.
The diary entries made during this second return tell us in detail who Father Nicholas was associated with and what people in Russia supported the work of the Orthodox Mission in Japan. In this sense, first of all, it is necessary to mention the name of Metropolitan Isidore (Nikolsky), who was the most powerful support for Fr. Nicholas in his missionary work in Japan.Fr. Nicholas to the end of his days revered and fondly remembered Metropolitan Isidore as his teacher and benefactor. Here is what he writes in his Diary on the feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos: "Twenty-four years ago, on this day, I served the Liturgy in the Cross Church of His Eminence Metropolitan Isidore in St. Petersburg with him, and after that I left St. Petersburg for here. The day before, he wanted to leave, but Vladyka restrained him: "Why take such a hurry? Tomorrow we will pray together, and then go." Today I remembered this and prayed sadly and poorly, standing in the altar " (August 15/28, 1904).
In addition, in the diary entries of this period, you can find, for example, such outpourings of the soul of fr. St. Nicholas, who has already fully devoted himself to missionary work in Japan: "Now I sit down at the Chudovo station, on the way to Novgorod and St. George Monastery, to ask for 2 thousand, the last missing ones, since the Metropolitan of Kiev, from whom I have just left, gave 2 thousand. I started the diary, and yet I wanted to outline each day in brief terms, so that after-in Japan, when I get sad and want to go to Russia, when I look at the diary, a whimsical desire stops. "It's only good where we're not there." In Japan, I want to go to Russia, and if I have lived in Russia for at least one day, I don't want to go to Japan! Where is happiness? There is no such thing on earth; no matter where you are at this moment, you never experience complete peace and happiness; you always strive for something ahead, you long for a change; but when a change comes, you see that you were not waiting for it, and you return to the old thoughts. In Russia, the best of the best minutes are, of course, the hours I spend with F. N. Bystrov. This little earthly paradise is a nice family — and no, I don't think I've ever seen it better in the world. [ ... ] My soul blooms and warms in this dear family — but what fills me in it? The same eternal thought about Japan and the Mission! Warmed up and expanded mentally, I become better about the Mission, so the main thing here is the Mission, and forever and everywhere-one Mission and Japan, and I will not hide from them, and I will not find another-the best on earth, another happiness, except the Mission and Japan. So what did I miss about Japan? What was the soul looking for? You can't run away from what has grown to it — and my happiness on earth is one thing-a good course of business on the Mission. [ ... ] May God grant me to return there as soon as possible and never be bored there again and never want to go to Russia! When reading these lines, when any annoyance or melancholy begins to overcome in Japan, may God always calm down and sober up from the week-long thought of seeking happiness-even if only on a temporary vacation in Russia " (September 28 (October 26), 1879).
Soul of O. Nicholas was already fully committed to the Japanese mission, and thus, by that time, he was already "Nicholas of Japan".
In April 1906, Fr. Nicholas was elevated to the rank of archbishop, and 6 years later, on February 16, 1912, he died at the age of 75 on the territory of the Mission in Tokyo. Struggling in the last years of his life with the sufferings caused by heart disease and asthma, he was engaged in translating and editing liturgical books until his death, and even on the day of his death, he gave his successor Bishop Sergius (Tikhomirov) the last instructions on how to conduct mission affairs.
Before his death, in 1911, Orthodoxy in Japan numbered 31,984 believers, 265 parishes, 41 priests, 15 choral regents, and 121 catechists. A single grain of wheat produced many fruits.
In 1970, 58 years after his death, Fr. Nicholas was glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church as a saint with the title "Equal-to-the-Apostles".
The future fate of the Japanese Orthodox Church founded by Fr. Nicholas was not easy: after the death of its founder, waves of various misfortunes began to overwhelm it one after another.
The most serious blow from the Russian revolution of 1917 in Japan, as directly connected with Russia, was experienced by the Japanese Orthodox Church-and the shock of this blow was not one that passes quickly. And in 1923, as if in pursuit, another misfortune occurred: The Great Kantos earthquake caused serious damage to the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Tokyo (widely known as "Nicholas-do" - "Temple of Nicholas"), the restoration of which required a long time and great efforts of both clergy and believers of the Japanese Church.
After that, the Church was forced to suffer persecution from the rearing head of Japanese militarism.
After the Second World War, the wave of time and with the support of foreign missions in Japan intensified Christianity, which came from America and Western Europe, but in the Japanese Orthodox Church, which was separated from the Russian Mother Church, such a "revival" did not occur. Perhaps we can say that the problem of the relationship between the church and international politics in Japan was most acutely experienced by this small Church. Reflecting on the problem of Japanese perception of the gigantic socio-political gap that occurred during the transition from Tsarist Russia to the Soviet Union, one should also not ignore the experience of the Orthodox Church in Japan.
From the Diaries of St. Nicholas in Japan
St. Nicholas sometimes went on trips to local parishes. Naturally, while doing missionary work in Japan for 50 years, he traveled all over the country. In his Diaries, he writes down in detail the condition of each parish-from the number of parishioners to such details as the composition of the families of believers, the amount of funds needed for the construction of the church, and so on.
He also describes the views of nature, rivers and mountains that were encountered along the way, impressions about how poor or rich the village or village where he visited is, which stratum there is more-the samurai nobility or the common people, what industry there is in a particular area, how agricultural work is carried out in the village. Travel notes about. It can also be called a kind of field record of the state of a Japanese village in the Meiji era.
For example, during a visit to the Tsugaru area, he writes in his Diary: "The area is poor; anyone who dreams of the cleanliness of Japanese homes, as if everywhere, should come here and see what dirty straw shacks poor Japanese people live in, at least in the Tsungara region" (May 5/17, 1893). It must be said that in the Meiji era, there weren't many foreigners who knew the Japanese countryside so well.
There are also many records of hotels that Fr. Nicholas stayed in on the road. For example, in his travel notes during a tour of the Joshu area in the spring of 1881, he writes the following: "One of the drivers who drove me, after running 10 ri and not stopping running, before Kumagai, began to admire the mountains aloud to the right! How can you not say that the Japanese are a people who are inclined to poetry and soft feelings! We got to Kumagaya before dark, but stopped for the night, as there are no good places to spend the night, and Maebashi can't be reached today. The hotel directly announced that a foreigner will be charged 50 sen for an overnight stay. The room is decent; they gave me warm water to wash my hair. Ama [Amma? the muschins and women had already come three times to fill up on their art. I want to go to sleep, but I don't think I'll have to go to sleep soon, because there's a lot of hubbub and noise all around" (May 7/ 19, 1881).
In a travel diary during a trip to Tohoku in June of the same year, 1881, there is a detailed record of the production of varnish near the city of Fukuoka in Iwate — how much it is extracted, what its cost is, how the trees are tended. "The buyers of varnish come from Etzingo and buy the trees completely," writes Fr. Nicholas (June 4/16, 1881). He also records in detail his observations on the cultivation of silkworm in Joshu — how and what types of silk thread are produced, where it is sold, what are the working conditions of factory workers (June 15/27, 1881).
It seems that Fr. Nikolai liked to visit various production sites — in his travel diary, there are often descriptions of his impressions from visiting factories for the production of soy paste "miso", soy sauce, salt, canned fish, ceramics, etc.
And when he was at his workplace at the Tokyo Mission, he received daily letters from all over the country with reports and requests from priests, catechists, and believers. "Yesterday I received another letter from Akita, the village of Ooyu, from the Christian Timothy Tsiba, also asking me to help eliminate the terrible custom of crushing newborns and throwing them into the river. Today, letters were sent to him and to Efrem Yamazaki with reproaches and convictions. Perhaps, God willing, at least the Christians will not have this " (January 13/25, 1882).
Thus, even while in Tokyo, Fr. Nicholas, through priests and catechists from local parishes, was constantly in touch with the realities of life in the Japanese province. Therefore, his Diaries are valuable material on the history of not only the Japanese Orthodox Church, but also various regions of Japan.
What makes a special impression when traveling to local parishes is how Fr. Nicholas pays special attention to the faithful who are capable of singing, and even in the most remote community he zealously tries to improve the level of performance of church hymns.
"One Raisa sings, a girl who was at the Hakodate Mission School for several years, the daughter of Fr. Nicholas, a doctor who lived in Hakodate, I think, and sings perfectly and boldly; her voice is also excellent. He ordered her to teach others who could sing" (May 29 / June 10, 1881).
Fr Nicholas is also very sensitive to the quality of the chants performed.
"Sing the 3rd: John Kon and 2 girls who learned singing from Vasily Takeda. The girls sing well, but the horse is so bad that during the service I had to ask him to stop singing and be content with reading alone; he reads well " (June 13/25, 1881).
"In the evening there were many catechetical letters; everywhere, little by little, things are progressing. More and more there is a need for singing teachers; Roman Tsibauslan to the north, Yakov Maedako to the south, to the parish of fr. Pavel Tade, from there he must go to Oosaka, but he doesn't even know how to sing; in the Transfiguration Church, the blind man Alexander Komagai teaches, and that is welcome everywhere" (January 20/February 1, 1882).
The development of preaching also meant an increase in the number of people who could sing church hymns.
Orthodox Japanese of the Meiji era, even 30 years before the introduction of the school singing program by the Ministry of Education (which began to spread around 1910), were already performing Russian church hymns arranged for singing in Japanese. Orthodox worship is unthinkable without singing, so the ability to master the European singing technique was an urgent necessity. Thus, the Orthodox Church, together with the preaching of the faith, also contributed to the spread of the Western style of singing and the ability to perceive it among the Japanese.
Few people know of the Japanese Orthodox Church choirs, which actually mastered Western singing techniques so well that in the second half of the Meiji period, their art was admired by students of the Ueno Music School, one of the first music schools in Japan. This means that in Japan at that time, they had no equal in this area. The reputation of these choirs was so high that even many Englishmen and Americans gathered to listen to the solemn Christmas or Easter chants in St. Nicholas Cathedral in Tokyo.
Fr Nicholas was very zealous and at the same time strict about teaching church singing, which can be explained by the fundamental difference in his position on this issue from representatives of other Christian denominations.
"This is not the Protestant church poor, with a few Old Testament psalms, their tearful rhymes, and every pastor's self-made sermon - 'what is rich is welcome' - or the Catholic worshipful gibberish with organ wails." Orthodox church music, on the other hand, is based entirely on the Holy Scriptures and Sacred Tradition — "you only need to read and sing clearly in church, and listen carefully to the worshipper-and a whole sea of Christian teaching flows into the soul — illuminates the mind with the knowledge of dogmas, enlivens the heart with holy poetry, animates and moves the will after holy examples." - writes down about. Nicholas expressed his thoughts on this subject (October 11/24, 1904).
For him, church singing takes an unquestionable priority in Orthodox worship and is in itself an "authoritative sermon": those who listen with reverence to beautiful hymns, thereby already perceive the divine teaching.
From the diary entries about church singing, you can get a good idea of what Christianity is like for St. John the Baptist. St. Nicholas, and in general for Russian people. Orthodoxy is not just a system of dogmas and moral values, but a religion in which one of the central places is occupied by a majestic, joyous divine service, where church hymns serve both as a guide to God's teaching and as a prayerful response to it by people.
Father Nicholas was a good master of the kambun and read Buddhist texts. He also occasionally conversed with bonzes in Buddhist temples. In his work on Japan, which was published in Russia, one can even find a sympathetic attitude towards Buddhism — for example, Fr. Nikolai writes that listening to a different sermon in the temple of the Buddhist sect of Monto–shu (Jedo–shinshu), "you can forget yourself and think that you are hearing a Christian preacher" (Japan from the point of view of christian mission).
And what was Father Nicholas ' attitude to the popular beliefs of the Japanese? Here you can see the healthy religious feeling of Fr. Something that is not poisoned by a modern, purely humanistic, perception of the world.
Traveling through various regions of Japan, Fr. Nicholas saw how widespread the belief in such pagan gods as Inari or Jizo was among the common people, which, however, did not cause him a shadow of contempt. He perceived this as a manifestation of a "lively religious feeling" and even believed that areas characterized by a zealous attitude of the people to religious beliefs were most suitable for Christian preaching.
Here is what he writes in his Diary: "On the way there were groups of dressed up praying mantises, trudging somewhere near Yamada-to the idol, I think-Jizo, patronizing the harvest. This is after planting rice-to pray that there will be a harvest. [ ... ] But what is remarkable in general is the need for the people to go on pilgrimage. It must be borne in mind when establishing Christianity among the people" (June 10/22, 1881).
"In Akutsu, 2 1/2 ri from Utsunomiya, and near Akutsu along the roads are a lot of dressed-up people, especially women and children, all worshippers flocking to Inari in Akutsu. [ ... ] But the fact is that there is no one who prays to the people, which means that the religious feeling in this area is alive, and we must keep this in mind in order not to miss the appointment of preachers in Utsunomiya and Kitsuregawa " (June 20 / July 2, 1881).
The same was true for Buddhism — for example, Fr. Nicholas says about Nagano, where the famous Zenkoji Buddhist Temple is located: "A place that is quite ready for preaching: by the way, the fact that there is a famous idol temple makes the people more ready to accept the true teaching than in other places; yet after all, the soil of the mind and heart is prepared, even if I think about an idol " (February 17/29, 1882).
Father Nicholas was a Christian missionary, but he did not deny the religious feelings of ordinary Japanese people who went to worship in a Buddhist temple or to the Shinto god Inari, because he believed that these feelings are universal and interchangeable. He felt that the Christian faith he preached had all the potential to be perceived by the Japanese religious sense. It seems that the Anglo-American Protestant missionaries who were in Japan at the time probably did not understand this. The Protestant confessions of Christianity, as will be discussed later, became the main force in modernizing Japan ("bummei kaika" - the course towards an enlightened civilization). In essence, they carried the spirit of modern rationalism and individualism and were a kind of double-edged sword: being a religion, they also exposed "medieval" religious feelings to rational and ethical criticism.
In Japanese folk customs, there is no religion that has a strictly defined teaching, but there are a lot of believers. Apparently, Fr. Nicholas believed that the seeds of true faith, that is, Orthodox Christianity, could be sown on the basis of the religious feelings of such people.
Nor can it be said that fr. Nicholas perceived Christianity as the basis of an incomparably superior Western civilization, emphasized its absolute importance, or wanted to" make the Japanese happy "by bringing them to the Christian world with the help of" Western science " by rejecting everything Japanese and pre-modern, medieval. This can be explained by the fact that, among other things, he diligently studied kambun, studied the history of Japan, and felt that the Japanese were a people with an outstanding culture. He recognizes that Japan, while being a pagan state, is at the same time an outstanding country. Being in Japan for a long time and traveling to various regions, Fr. Nikolai almost every day encountered the peculiarities of the spiritual culture of the Japanese, where Shintoism, Buddhism and Confucianism are one inseparable whole, and felt the originality and uniqueness of this culture. Here is what he writes, while traveling through the Hokurokudo district, meeting crowds of people gathered near Fukui for the memorial day of Renne, one of the founders of the Jodo–Shinshu sect.
"Among many dozens, perhaps hundreds of thousands, there was not a single drunk and not a hair's breadth of indecency, no rudeness, no ill-breeding. To tell the truth, the Japanese people, with their three religious guardians — Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shintuism-and their strict government, have been brought up remarkably well for this life; and this good education is still fully preserved in areas closed to foreign influence, as in Hokurokudo "(April 20/May 2, 1893).
Father Nicholas did not agree with the Westernization of Japanese education. Already in his article "Japan and Russia", published in the magazine" Ancient and New Russia "in 1879, he writes:" Buddhism is the deepest of the pagan religions, and Confucianism is the highest of the pagan moral philosophies. Many excellent moral qualities, of course, the Japanese owe to these two teachers." In addition, despite the fact that Buddhism and Confucianism have penetrated all corners of Japanese society, " the national teaching of Shintuism is not dead either: it neutralized the ground for the independent minds of Japan, who, without anger or envy, seeing the flood of foreign teachings in the country, found it possible to defend their beliefs against them, showing through the fact that foreign teachings are not absolutely good and do not fully satisfy the Japanese spirit. Indeed, Shintu has done a great service to Japan by preventing Buddhism and Confucianism from merging with the Japanese spirit."
Father Nicholas was perhaps the only Christian missionary who had such a deep understanding of Japan in the Meiji era.
There is another important point: Fr. Nicholas was still a Russian missionary and, unlike Protestant and Catholic missionaries from Europe and America, belonged to the world of Orthodoxy, which still retained its real religious essence. The Christian faith he preached was probably close to the" Japanese spirit " of the Meiji era, with its remnants of the medieval worldview.
"The Japanese, it seems, show a tendency towards Orthodoxy. They don't like the oppression of Catholicism. [ ... ] The Japanese don't like Protestantism either. Protestantism, giving only the Bible in its hands, but allowing everyone to understand it as they please, cannot satisfy their religious thirst, " writes Fr. Nikolay (Japan and Russia. - Ancient and new Russia, November 1879).
As a Russian who came to Japan at an advanced age, Fr. Nikolai naturally makes various observations about Japan and compares it with Russia. For example, in his work "Japan from the Point of view of the Christian mission" (1869), he writes that Japan is not a country of "eastern stupidity and immobility", as it is represented in Russia; that in Japan there is not "absolute despotism from above and unrequited servility from below, ignorance, dullness and at the same time imperturbable complacency and self-sufficiency". pride"; that "the [Japanese] emperors were never despots in the sense that we are accustomed to associate with this word"; that "education here is spread almost evenly over all strata of the people" , etc., thus offering their very interesting observations about Japan in comparison with Russia.
Elsewhere, after learning in the course of studying Japanese history that since the Muromachi era, actual power has passed from the emperors to the shoguns, Fr. Nicholas, as if discovering something rare and unusual, writes: "Japan, without thinking for a long time, created a new form of government for itself. Something very original came out: the emperor, apparently, continued to be the same emperor; titles and honors in words and in books remained with him, but power passed to more lively and powerful figures-seoguns "("Japan from the point of view of the Christian mission"),
Diary entries also often include comparisons between Japan and Russia. So, during a trip to Joshu, Fr. Nikolai compares Japanese nightingales with their relatives, and in favor of the latter: "On the edge of the road-down in urea [1], there is a lot of talnik, a favorite place for nightingales, and how many of them are here! It's just a pity that they don't sing as well as our Kurskys, for example," or, comparing Japanese and Russian coachmen, writes that in Japan they are "not so impudent" (May 7/19, 1881).
He also made large-scale comparisons between Japan and Russia. For example, the point of view of Fr. Nicholas, set forth in his Diary of May 20/June 2, 1905, where he compares the sea power of Japan and the continental power of Russia, is of great interest today.
Especially often about. Nikolai highlights in comparison with the Russians such a feature of the Japanese as their law-abiding attitude. During the Russo-Japanese war, the Japanese government decided to protect the Orthodox Church and St. Nicholas, for which police and gendarmes were constantly on duty at the Tokyo Mission (Nikolai–do). The security arrangements were extremely serious and extended to the smallest detail. Often the actions of the guards seemed to Fr. Nikolay a manifestation of excessive adherence to the rules, a stubborn unwillingness to deviate from them one iota. He even wrote with some indignation: "These Japanese are formalists!" But at the same time he appreciated the Japanese adherence to rules and laws: "But this is also their good feature and strength: they execute the law accurately and accurately. Seogunism, with its strict regime, brought up the Japanese in this way" (February 4/17, 1904).
Father Nicholas, who came to Japan at the end of the Shogunate era, felt the continuity between the Edo and Meiji eras and knew that the foundations of Japanese social behavior and character were formed during the Edo era. And what was the situation with Russia in this regard? Here's what about. Nicholas writes about this: "Here [in Japan] law and rule reign supreme. In Russia, not the law, but "discretion"" (July 19 / August 1, 1905).
The Russo–Japanese War was the greatest disaster for Fr. Nicholas and for the Japanese Orthodox Church of the Meiji period. While all the staff of the Russian diplomatic mission returned to their homeland due to the outbreak of war, Fr. Nicholas remained alone in Tokyo. He continued to work tirelessly-to stand at the helm of the young Japanese Church in order to preserve it and not let the Japanese believers lose their presence of mind — and also to work for the "religious consolation" of Russian prisoners of war who came to Japan in large numbers from the battlefield (the final number exceeded 70 thousand people).
During this war, Fr. Nicholas makes diary entries without missing almost a single day, and the diaries of this period can probably be called the most interesting and remarkable part of the entire text of his Diaries.
During the Russo-Japanese war, the Japanese government took an official position recognizing that the war had nothing to do with religion, and decided to protect the Japanese Orthodox Church from the maelstrom of war. To do this, the Japanese police began to protect the Orthodox Mission in Surugadai. But even so, Orthodox Japanese were reproached and attacked by their ordinary fellow citizens — " throughout the country, Orthodox Christians were often persecuted." Orthodox believers, because they belong to the "Russian Christianity", were ostracized by their neighbors, their homes and property were destroyed, and other persecutions were carried out.
"The locals have organized a kind of union against the believers and refuse them trade and other transactions"; "in elementary school, the children of the believers were beaten by other students, as a result of which one of them became deaf"; " hooligans in the number of 3040 people attacked the house of the [Orthodox] catechist and began randomly throwing stones they broke doors and partitions and broke in" — these and similar incidents happened one after another. The newspapers, on the other hand, "by order of the police, wrote about these events only in refutatory tones." The Orthodox in Kushiro, in order to "buy off" others, were forced to give their horses, which were very necessary for them, for military needs. There were also cases when all the gravestones in Orthodox cemeteries were overturned.
The sufferings of Japanese Christians caused Father Nicholas, who brought them up, great mental pain. Listening to stories about the persecution of believers in different parts of Japan, he was always so indignant, as if they were torturing his own child. And when the news came of the death on the battlefield of a Japanese youth who taught at a seminary, he would sink into deep sadness and pray for the repose of his soul. Soul of O. My soul has become one with the souls of Japanese Christians.
However, at the same time, Fr.Nicholas hears news about the defeats of the Russian army every day, and he, as a Russian person, is haunted by patriotic feelings.
"What a grief, what a great grief! Beauty and strength of the Russian Fleet-Makarov, sunk! " (April 2/15, 1904).
"This wretched war does not go on with your thoughts, it mixes with everything and spoils everything; to know, patriotism is the same natural feeling of a person as the consciousness of his" I "" (August 4/17, 1904).
"This is my sadness. [ ... ] My dear Japanese are triumphant; but, much as I love them, this time it is not with them: the fatherland is dearer and dearer; and it is extremely sad that it is not the Fatherland that beats the Japanese, but they beat us " (April 5/18, 1904).
Father Nicholas ' heart, which loved both Japan and Russia, suffered and was torn in two because of the Russo–Japanese war.
When he saw the Japanese cheering, he understood that their joy was natural and reasonable, but at the same time he deeply grieved that his fatherland was being defeated. Because of this, he was even forced to refuse to participate in public worship. Father Nicholas ' patriotism is not something abstract or ideological. This feeling is deeply rooted in his mental and physical nature.
Receiving news of the continuous defeats of Russia, Fr. Nicholas writes in his Diary the following bitter words about his beloved homeland:: "Our nobility has been corrupted by serfdom for centuries and has become depraved to the core. The common people have for centuries been oppressed by the same serfdom and have become ignorant and rude to the last degree; the service class and the bureaucracy have lived on bribery and embezzlement, and now in all degrees of service there is the most shameless embezzlement of the treasury everywhere that can be stolen. The upper class is a collection of apes — imitators and worshippers of France, England, Germany, and all the rest of foreign countries; the clergy, oppressed by poverty, barely contains a catechism-is it up to the development of Christian ideals and the sanctification of themselves and others by them?" (July 18/31, 1904).
When the "Otsu incident" occurred in May 1891, [2] the Japanese government asked Fr. Nicholas on the mediation between Tsarevich Nicholas and the Japanese authorities. As this case clearly shows, Fr. Nicholas was a kind of bridge connecting Japan and Russia during the Meiji period. O.'s diaries St. Nicholas ' actions during the Russo–Japanese War also attest to his tireless work as a liaison between Japan and Russia.
The total number of Russian officers and soldiers taken prisoner in the Russo-Japanese war was an impressive 72 thousand people. Prisoners of war were sent to camps, of which there were about thirty throughout Japan. In this situation, Fr. Nicholas made every effort to "religiously comfort" the Russian soldiers: having mobilized all the Japanese priests who knew Russian, he sent them to the POW camps. Having practically stopped missionary activity among the Japanese, Fr. Nikolai, while maintaining contact with the French Embassy in Japan and the Japanese military authorities, devoted all his time to fulfilling the requests that prisoners of war and their relatives in Russia addressed to him in letters. He sent books and newspapers in Russian to the officers, and sent pencils and notebooks in large numbers to illiterate soldiers, glad that they expressed a desire to learn to read and write during captivity.
By the way, Japan, feeling the close monitoring of the war by developed countries-Europe and America - and wanting to show itself a "civilized country", tried to treat Russian prisoners of war very humanely. So, in the camp in Matsuyama on Shikoku Island, where about 6 thousand people were in captivity, they were allowed to receive money transfers from their homeland, exchange them for Japanese yen and use them. Officers were free to leave the camp and rent a house or apartment. They loved entertainment, often caroused in restaurants with geisha, and the hot spring hotel ("onsen") in Dogo, thanks to Russian prisoners of war, even experienced an unprecedented heyday in its history.
Russian Emperor Nicholas II, through the French envoy to Japan, sent Bishop Nicholas an order to provide "religious consolation" for Russian prisoners of war who found themselves in Japan (March 24 / April 6, 1904). And the Russian Synod sent 129 parcels with books in Russian for prisoners of war. These facts were first made known by the Diaries of St. John the Baptist. Nicholas.
However, fr. Nikolai worked for the benefit of prisoners of war not by order. His ministry took various forms: he sent a large number of encouraging letters to Russian officers in the camps, and at Christmas he sent young seminary teachers with "magic lanterns"to comfort prisoners. Of course, his work was based on compassion for his compatriots who were defeated and captured by enemy Japan, but at the same time he did it not only for the sake of the Russians themselves.
Here is what the saint himself writes about this:: "The diligent service of our priests to the prisoners of war and the good treatment of Japanese prisoners of war in general will bring a lot of benefits for the Japanese Orthodox Church and for the rapprochement of Japan with Russia in general: more than a thousand prisoners will return, disperse to thousands of places in Russia and everywhere say a good word about the Japanese and the Japanese Orthodox Church" (July 23 / August 5, 1904).
Also in a letter to the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, K. P. Pobedonostsev, Fr. Nicholas asks him to tell the Emperor how well the Japanese treat Russian prisoners of war (January 4/27, 1905).
Having received a letter from the bishop of Tomsk asking him to send books in Japanese for the Japanese prisoners of war in Tomsk, Fr. Nicholas immediately sends a large number of Japanese Bibles. And when the father of a soldier who died at Port Arthur comes from Russia to ask at least from the Japanese the circumstances of his son's death,he tries to satisfy this request.
Thus, from the pages of the Diary, we see the image of Fr. Nicholas, who made every effort not to break the threads connecting Japan and Russia.
Russian military personnel who returned to their homeland after the conclusion of peace, talked a lot about their stay in Japan. Soldiers praised the Japanese doctors and nurses who took care of them, and among the officers there were also those who published voluminous books with photographs about their Japanese experience — for example," 646 days in captivity with the Japanese " by G. G. Seletsky (1910) or "In Japanese Captivity" by F. P. Kupchinsky (1906).
A war that left such a favorable impression on prisoners of war is probably rare.
Immediately after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, in June 1906, the Japanese writer Roka Tokutomi made a trip to Russia. He says that thanks to the prisoners of war who returned from Japan, the reputation of the Japanese as "good, kind people" spread among the Russian people (Roka Tokutomi. Travel notes. 1906).
Not only during the Russo–Japanese war, but throughout his life Fr. Nikolai consistently held the position that Japan and Russia are countries that should not endanger each other's basic conditions of existence. He convinced representatives of scientific circles in Russia of the need for a multifaceted study of Japan, accepted boys from Russia for training so that in the future they would become translators, and also sent capable Japanese seminarians to study in Russia. For Russians who came to Japan for the purpose of scientific research, Fr.Nikolai was a kind of host and scientific adviser. Thus, the famous Japanese scientist D. M. Pozdneev writes: "It is no exaggeration to say that all Russians who came to Tokyo and Japan in general enjoyed the constant assistance of the late Archbishop and his students. This fact is well known to all of us" (Pozdneev D. M. Archbishop Nikolai of Japan. 1912). Reading the Diaries, you can often find records confirming these words about various visitors who came to Fr.
Russian generals and representatives of the Red Cross, who came to Japan immediately after the end of the Russo-Japanese war with the aim of repatriating Russian prisoners of war, also primarily visit Tokyo. Nicholas and ask him for various services. Even an agitator who came from Russia to spread revolutionary ideas among Russian prisoners of war, considering Fr. Nicholas a useful person for his work, tries to establish contact with him.
During the Meiji era, in addition to Orthodoxy, such Christian denominations as Catholicism, various branches of Protestantism, as well as the Anglican Churches of Great Britain and the United States (the latter fr. St. Nicholas in his Diaries calls it "the American Episcopal Church"). Of these denominations, the Anglican Church was in close relations with Fr.Nicholas.
As can be seen from the Diaries of fr. Some of the Anglican missionaries in Japan, such as Wright, Jefferies, Audrey, Cecil, Williams, and McKim, were friendly with him, and sometimes even tried to establish cooperation. Perhaps one of the factors that caused this rapprochement was that Orthodoxy and Anglicanism shared similarities as state religions that rejected the papacy and paid due respect to the emperor or king.
Here are some examples of friendly communication between Fr. Nicholas and Anglican missionaries.
Apparently, Fr. Nicholas met W. B. Wright, the first missionary of the English evangelical mission abroad in Japan, at a rather early period. In his later diary entries, Fr. Nikolai writes the following.
"Responded to a letter from Rev. W. M. Ball Wright, who was one of the two earliest Anglican Episcopal missionaries in Japan and left Japan in 1882 (Fr. Nicholas clearly remembered all the dates until the very end of his life); since then, he has served in various places in England and America; now-a parish priest near York in England. I'm with him and his co-worker Rev. Shaw was on good terms. Now he has sent me a very long letter, in which, among other things, he writes the following: "Do you remember our conversations about the' communion of saints ' and how you said that we Anglicans do not understand its meaning or that we should pray for the deceased during public services and ask for the prayers of the Mother of God and the saints? You didn't convince me then of the validity of the latter practice. However, the reason for this was my bias and ignorance. [ ... ] Our church has recently undergone major changes. [ ... ] Two societies were established to encourage the process of reunification between Orthodox and Old Catholics. All this will certainly be very interesting for you and me, who have discussed this issue so many times”"
... How could an old friend not have responded to such pleasant news! " (August 1/14, 1909; Wright's original letter is in English).
Wright came to Tokyo in 1873, the year after Fr. Nicholas moved from Hakodate to Tokyo. Probably, among the Western missionaries of that time, it was rare to find a person who showed understanding and respect for the Orthodox Church.
As Tatsuya Moriyasu writes, back in the 19th century, " in Western Europe, the idea of Orthodoxy was widespread as a folk ritual form of Christianity, which stopped at the level of pagan antiquity and has nothing to do with the Gospel." More or less correct assessment of Orthodoxy in the West began to give only after the revolution. "As a result of the revolution of 1917, which shook the current century, many Orthodox clergy and thinkers, fleeing from the revolution and the persecution of religion that followed, emigrated to Europe and America. There they re-built churches, engaged in religious activities among emigrants. Thanks to this, the West began to learn more about Orthodoxy "(T. Moriyasu. Orthodox Christianity. 1978).
Indeed, in the Diary of Fr. Nicholas, we find an entry in 1900 expressing his indignation at the ignorance of an English missionary who considered Orthodoxy almost paganism:
"Today, as I was walking on the Cathedral grounds before dusk, a young English missionary comes up and asks to see the interior of the Cathedral, which was already locked up at that time. I open the door and led him to the iconostasis, which was no longer visible from a distance [retranslate]. He asked, interweaving the Russian word:
— Is that your Bog? (Is this your God?)
"Our God is the Creator of heaven and earth and the Redeemer of men, and these are only holy icons," I answer.
He looks at me and smiles, as if he doesn't believe me.
“Look,” I continue, “here is the Savior teaching, here He is in the arms of a Mother, here He is blessing children, and here is the Annunciation on the royal gates, here are the Evangelists… In short, it is a Gospel that is painted and understandable to the eye, just as what is read is understandable to the ear.”
“What kind of Bible do you have?" he asks.
“Like what? Yes, of course, the same as yours. [retranslate] Every seminarian in our country knows quite thoroughly all that is essential about Protestantism, and you are so ignorant of our Church — aren't you ashamed of that? And when will you begin to study us?” (October 13/26, 1900).
However, the above-mentioned William Wright, who was also an English missionary, was already familiar with the teachings of the Orthodox Church and even spoke about the dialogue between Anglicanism and Orthodoxy, thanks to his meeting with Fr Nicholas in Tokyo in the 1870s, when foreign missionaries were still numerous on the fingers. [retranslate] We don't know if this was his idea, but shortly before the revolution, there was a movement in the Church of England to find ways to reunite with the Orthodox Church. Wright, who was a supporter of this movement, was certainly not an intolerant or self-obsessed person, but he was able to understand and feel the significance of Orthodoxy precisely because of his meeting with Fr. Nicholas. [There is a book about this attempted union between Anglicanism and Orthodoxy; find it and link it here in a footnote.]
Of interest is the relationship between Fr Nicholas and Henry Jefferis, an American Episcopal missionary who spent a long time preaching in Maebashi and Sendai. Jefferies respected and loved Fr. Nicholas, as if he were his brother. During his visits to Tokyo, he always appeared on Surugadai, sang in the Orthodox cathedral, after which Fr. Nicholas treated him to tea. Jefferies also celebrated Easter in the Orthodox Church.
Fr Nicholas did not receive visitors during the morning hours, which he devoted to translating the Holy Scriptures and liturgical literature. This rule was always observed, even if the visitor was a Russian Envoy. Jefferies was an exception to this rule. One morning the following dialogue took place between Father Nicholas and Jefferis, who came to visit him:
"I got a six-month furlough," he says.
- Congratulations! You must be very pleased with this after working so hard for so long in Japan. So what do you intend to do? "I'm asking."
— I'm going — not to America, but to China. Therefore, I have come to ask you: give me a letter to the head of your Mission there and mention in it that I am very well disposed towards the Orthodox Church.
"Oh, of course, I know this from your actions here since your arrival in Japan "(November 16/29, 1900).
In general, Fr. Nicholas was on good terms with missionaries of all Christian denominations who were in Japan. However, during the Russo–Japanese war, he felt a strong dislike for Protestant missionaries, because when the war began, in accordance with the course of the Anglo–Japanese alliance, they began to praise Japan with one voice and express open contempt and hatred for Russia. In the Diaries of Fr. Nicholas during the Russo–Japanese war, there are often entries like the following, where he expresses his indignation about this: "No one hates Russia so much and does not wish her harm as the Protestant missionaries" (November 19 / December 2, 1904).
Anything past this line hasn’t been reviewed yet
In a situation where anti-Russian sentiments were spreading more and more among foreign missionaries, only Jefferies remained on the side of Fr. Nicholas and the Russian Church: "Of all the foreigners, it seems, only the Rev. Jefferys, an American Episcopal missionary, is sincerely attached to both the Orthodox Church and Russia: as soon as he finds something good in the religious journals he receives, he immediately makes a clipping or sends me a whole issue with a red mark " (June 2/15, 1904).
During the Meiji period, all Christian denominations faced great problems regarding the burial of their dead. The Japanese government and Buddhist circles put up all sorts of obstacles, preventing Christians from acquiring cemetery plots for themselves. When the local governor in Sendai helped organize a cemetery for Americans and Protestant Japanese, Jefferies kindly offered Fr. Nicholas took the opportunity to purchase a plot for the cemetery and for the Orthodox Church (October 22 / November 4, 1903).
Later, Jefferies persuaded Fr. I want to join the society for the search for opportunities to "connect with the Church of England". The Anglican and Orthodox Churches in Japan have even held meetings on "reunification"several times.
Fr Nicholas was also on friendly terms with the Anglican Bishop W. Audrey, who came to Japan in 1898. They often paid each other visits, and, as can be seen from the Diaries, they had a good friendly relationship, including his wife Audrey.
In addition, Fr. Nicholas had several conversations with Bishop Cecil about the methods of conducting missionary work. Cecil also asked Fr Nicholas for advice on how best to include Japanese catechists in the work.
Of course, thanks to such friendly communication with Anglican missionaries, the field of vision of Fr.Nicholas himself expanded.
In the Diaries of St. Nicholas, there are many records that show that he had a large number of acquaintances and friends among foreign missionaries who represented in Japan not only the Anglican Church, but also other denominations. On occasion, they often gave each other mutual assistance. Here are some examples. Having arrived in Kyoto with the intention of building a temple there, Fr. Nicholas is looking for a reliable contractor. And so, after learning about a contractor named Kojima, who was engaged in the construction of Doshisha University, Fr. Nicholas goes to this Protestant educational institution.
"Since Kojima was said to have built in Doshiya, a congregationalist institution, and was a Christian himself, I went to collect information about him from the Protestants-and by the way, to make visits. But I didn't find Bishop Partridge — he must have gone to America to see his new bishopric; I found old Bishop Williams, and how glad we were to see each other! Old friends! " (July 22 / August 6, 1900).
After reading a note in the Japan Daily Mail about Williams 'death, Fr Nicholas writes in his Diary:" The Japan Mail announces the death in Virginia of Bishop Williams, an elderly pioneer of Christian preaching in Japan. We were on friendly terms. A holy man in his life, who devoted himself entirely to Christ; he was celibate, although he kept telling me: 'I can marry, I can marry '" (November 22 / December 5, 1910). So Williams made fun of Fr. Nicholas, who, being a monk, could not marry.
The day after visiting Dosis, Fr. Nicholas visits a Catholic priest.
"I went with Father Simeon to see some things in Kyoto. First of all, we went to the Catholic Mission, whose director here is Father Orienzi (as it appears on his card in Japanese). [He] met me once in a railway carriage and invited me to his house. The mission occupies 1200 tsubo of land in the city center, on which a magnificent stone cathedral and mission buildings are built. [ ... ] There are six hundred Catholics in Keoto. [ ... ] At the priest's diligent explanation, he reeked of wine; perhaps from the fact that he had dined recently, or perhaps from boredom. He has lived in Japan for twenty-three years, "but I hope to live as long as you do (that is, forty years), "he concluded his explanation" (July 25 / August 7, 1900).
Fr. Nicholas, who had come to Japan in the era when Christianity was banned, and who had been leading missionary activities for forty years, was respected among missionaries of other faiths as a "senior comrade".
Sometimes in the Diaries you can find entries that indicate the wide popularity of fr. St. Nicholas in a missionary environment.
"At the Vigil, there were four Protestant missionaries and a missionary woman who waited until the service was over, and even me, who came out in front of the church gate. They expressed regret that I had not been to their meeting, which had just ended,with five hundred people sitting.
— I wanted to go, but I was given to understand that it was inconvenient, a 'Protestant' meeting, " I replied.
— On the contrary, it was mentioned more than once at the rally that it is a pity that Bishop Nicholas is not with us, as well as Catholic missionaries.
— Of course, the essential thing in Christianity is the same for all of us. However, I only wanted to listen, and not participate in the council of Protestant missionaries, which, perhaps, would not have been quite convenient.
"And that would be desirable," said the lady, " but I have heard that you are not at all in Tokyo at this time, which turns out to be untrue; what a pity! "and so on. Mutual courtesies, between which the youngest of the missionaries gave me a bow from Mr. Mott, a young American zealot of the Young Men's Christian Association, who was also in Japan (and visited me)... "(October 22 / November 3, 1900).
"In the morning I received a letter from an American traveler and, apparently, a writer, Miss Ackerman, in which she explains:" We would very much like to meet you and talk about your work. Bishop McKim tells me that you are without a doubt the greatest missionary who has ever been in Japan. We were in the church for your Easter service and were amazed by its majesty... " and so on. — So impressive to foreigners is the success of Orthodoxy in comparison with foreign missions! What a missionary I am! I sit in one place and translate and read catechetical letters. In my deepest conviction, I don't even deserve the name of a missionary" (April 11/24, 1901).
"I read in the Russian-American newspaper Svet that at a meeting where there were 106 American bishops and our Orthodox Christians, I was declared 'the first missionary in the world'. Strong words! This is also an idealization, but it is not unprofitable for our church" (November 3/16, 1910).
We often tend to view St. Nicholas only as the founder of the Japanese Orthodox Church or as a person who made a great contribution to the development of friendly relations between Japan and Russia. However, he also played a significant role as an Orthodox missionary, thanks to which many Western missionaries who were in Japan at that time were able to get acquainted with Orthodoxy and the Orthodox Church. Most of them had the opportunity to meet an Orthodox missionary for the first time in their lives, and because of this meeting, many of them were able to realize that it is a mistake to consider Orthodoxy "having nothing to do with the Gospel".
Western missionaries who were able to communicate with Nicholas gained a sense of trust in him. The first Russian consul in Hakodate, I. A. Goshkevich, in his request for a priest to be sent to Japan, wrote that he should be a person who "by his private life would be able to give a good idea of our clergy not only to the Japanese, but also to foreigners living here." We can say that Goshkevich's wish was fulfilled, and this is a great merit of St. Nicholas.
The Meaning of the Diaries
It can be said that the movement for "civilization and enlightenment" in Japan was essentially a Westernization that took place in broad areas of Japanese politics, social structure, production, etc. In the religious sphere, this Western enlightenment was expressed in the spread of Christianity, which, being accepted by very many Japanese, quickly took root in their religious consciousness and even outside the confessional framework profoundly influenced Japanese spirituality, affecting the very system of values.
However, the shades of religious "Westernization" were different. The Christianity adopted by the Japanese during the Meiji period is, more specifically, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, as well as various forms of Protestantism, including the Anglican Church, and in each direction "Westernization" had its own characteristics. (Orthodox Christianity, which came from Russia, was also one of the directions of Westernization for the Japanese, which began with the discovery of the country.)
The process of Protestantism's penetration into Japan and the peculiarities of its influence have already been described in many studies. Most of all, it spread among the young Japanese intelligentsia, who wanted to study "Western sciences". Protestant missionary work has been linked to the English language from the very beginning. A brief and very sensible commentary and bibliography on Protestant proselytism can be found in Macao Takenaka's article "Protestant Missionary Work" in the Great Encyclopedia of the History of Japanese Christianity published by Kebunkan (1988).
As for research on the history of the spread of Catholicism since the Meiji era, according to Arimichi Ebisawa's article " History of Japanese Christianity "in the same encyclopedia, they are very far behind in all areas, with the exception of the so-called topic of" Christian revival " (since the Japanese first got acquainted with Catholicism in the XVI century). There are many publications that study the history of Catholicism in foreign relations, the annals of individual churches, congregations, and colleges, but there is no general outline of the history yet.
As for the state of Japanese Orthodox preaching, research lags even further behind than in the case of Catholicism, although the Meiji Orthodox Church was directly behind the Catholic Church in terms of the number of believers. The general picture of missionary work, its connections with Russia, the essence of the faith itself and its peculiarities still remain unclear. Among the researchers of the history of Japanese Christianity, there were practically no people who were interested in the history of Orthodoxy. On the other hand, there were no people among the Orthodox faithful who were ready to reconstruct the history of their own church.
Of course, this does not mean that there was no collection of materials or attempts to reconstruct the history of the church at all. Among the main sources on the history of Orthodox preaching in the Meiji era are the Church Gazette (Kyokai Hoti; published twice a month from 1877 to 1880) and the Orthodox Bulletin (Seike Simpo; published with the same frequency from 1880 to 1912). However, a generalizing essay was not created on the basis of these materials. An example of a collection of documents on missionary work is the "Description of Orthodox Preaching" published in 1901 by Kizaburo Ishikawa, but since then there have been no noticeable phenomena in this area. In 1957, Junko Shibayama's The Acts of Archbishop Nicholas was published. In fact, this is a valuable historical essay that records the most important events in the life of the Japanese Orthodox Church from the arrival of Fr. Nicholas in Japan to his death. However, this is the history of the church, written for the benefit of the faithful, and it remains an open question as to how exhaustively it reflects objective reality.
Thus, the history of the Orthodox Church of the Meiji era was beyond the interests of researchers. The preaching works of fr. St. Nicholas, Japanese priests and more than a hundred catechists, the fruits of their work and the influence they have exerted have remained without discussion to date.
But in recent years, the history of Meiji Orthodoxy has shown a glimmer of light. Especially many articles and monographs on the history of the Orthodox Church have appeared since the late 1970s: Fr. Nicholas ' own articles were translated into Japanese, and "centenary histories" of local churches that reached this milestone were published one after another.
All these articles and monographs, commentaries and notes to translations, and histories of individual churches are designed in the spirit of scientific and objective historical research and are written to shed light on hitherto obscure facts in the history of Japanese Orthodoxy. Thanks to these works, the image of the Orthodox Church in the Meiji period, when it was led by Fr. Nikolay.
So, the Diaries of St. John the Baptist offered to the reader are: St. Nicholas of Japan provides extremely extensive and valuable material for research on the history of Meiji Orthodoxy, which has become so active in recent years. These Diaries reveal a lot of previously unknown facts.
Research on the Orthodox Church of the Meiji period with the help of these Diaries will undoubtedly gain a new degree of objectivity and will be able to get closer to the true state of affairs. They especially clarify events related not to provincial parishes and the situation around them, but to the position of the central leadership, which determined the course of the entire Orthodox system. Access to the Diaries further encourages research on Japanese Orthodoxy. The Diaries of St. John the Baptist. St. Nicholas of Japan - these are the notes of the founder and organizer of the Japanese Orthodox Church, that is, a documentary monument in which the orientation of Orthodox missionary work and its true picture is drawn in exact facts by the conductor of the entire process of preaching.
The history of the Japanese Orthodox Church is based on circumstances known only to its founder, Fr. Nicholas, and the only reliable source of such facts is his Diaries.
Above, we have outlined the significance of the Diaries of St. John the Baptist. St. Nicholas is mainly from the point of view of studying the history of the Japanese Orthodox Church. But, of course, they are valuable material not only for the Japanese, but also for the Orthodox Church in Russia. For example, the diary entries made by Fr. Nicholas during his second return to his homeland in the 1879-80-ies tell in vivid form about the hierarchs who were at the helm of the Russian Orthodox Church at that time, as well as about Fr.Nicholas ' close friends who sincerely supported his missionary work in Japan. There are probably few Russian Orthodox missionaries who have left such detailed records of their work.
The diaries are a valuable document describing Orthodox preaching in the Far East in the second half of the 19th century, and from this point of view are of interest to both clergy and ordinary believers of the modern Russian Orthodox Church. In addition, Fr. Nicholas was the greatest missionary that is rarely found. In 1970, for his fervent faith, outstanding personal qualities and apostolic service, he was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. Thus, the Diaries are a document written by the saint's hand. In addition, a modern Russian person, reading Diaries, is likely to show interest in such topics as Japan through the eyes of a Russian, the meeting of Japan and Russia.
The name of St. Nicholas of Japan is also known among the numerous Orthodox believers who used to be part of the Russian Orthodox Church, but now live far away from it outside of Russia — in Europe and North America. After reading the Diaries, they will be able to learn more about Fr. St. Nicholas and its spirit and clearly see that Orthodoxy can live in the hearts of people who are far from Russia. The Diaries of St. John the Baptist. They have a lot to say to people not only in Japan, but also in other countries.
Beginning of the study of the diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan [retranslate]
A word of appreciation
We knew that Nikolai was writing a diary. Bishop Sergiy (Tikhomirov) says in his memoirs "In Memory of His Eminence Nicholas" (1912) that Nicholas wrote about his illness in a diary. But we didn't expect that his diaries were preserved. People associated with the Japanese Orthodox Church and researchers of the history of Russian–Japanese relations believed that the papers of Nicholas stored in the Tokyo Cathedral were burned in a fire during the great Kantos earthquake of 1923. Soviet Japanese scholars knew that Nikolai was the biggest link in Russian–Japanese relations at the end of the Tokutawa and Meiji eras, but they could not have guessed that his diaries were in the Leningrad State Repository of Archival Literature.
After the death of Nicholas in 1912, Bishop Sergius (Tikhomirov), on the instructions of the Synod, sent the diaries, letters and other numerous papers of the deceased to Russia, and they are preserved in the Synod's archive.
A small part of the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church and students of theological academies of the Soviet period knew that the diaries of Nicholas were kept in the Leningrad Central State Institute (now RGIA). However, in the USSR, under the Communist Party rule, communication between scientists in various fields was very rare, and the fact of the existence of diaries was not known to a wide circle of the scientific community outside the Orthodox Church.
In Japan, a professor at Ootsuma University (then a professor at Hokkaido University)was the first to learn about the existence of diaries Kannosuke Nakamura. The archive code of the diaries is fond 834, inventory 4. Having established this fact in the fall of 1979, he received microfilms with the text of the diaries through the mediation of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since that time, Nikolai's diaries have become the object of scientific research.
At the end of 1981, Kannosuke Nakamura turned to the Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) expert on the Holy Scriptures, a representative of the North-Western Bible Commission and the scientific secretary of the Patriarch Konstantin Ivanovich Logachev with a request to decipher the text of the diaries, to which he and his wife Larisa Nikolaevna Logacheva agreed. With the permission of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Northwestern Branch of the VAAP (1983) they were busy deciphering the diaries. (For the search for the diaries of Kannosuke Nakamura and his request to the Logachevs to decipher the text, see the recording of the conversation "In search of Nikolai's diaries" in the collection of articles "Japan and Russia", Nauka, 1990).
In 1994, Kannosuke Nakamura, Yoshikazu Nakamura, Ryohei Yasui, and Mitsuo Naganawa co-composed and published through a publishing house
Hokkaido University one-seventh of the full text of the diaries under the title "Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan".
In addition to the Logachevs and the above-mentioned authors, many people participated in the preparation of this book, including Mr. Haruo Tamiya of Hokkaido University Press and Mr. Shunji Mori of Sapporo University Library.
The names of these people are listed at the beginning of the above volume of the Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan. Every time we reread them, we remember with gratitude their kind help. [3]
This book was published with the blessing of Archbishop Theodosius (Nagashima) of Tokyo and Metropolitan of All Japan. With the help of Mr. Eiichi Okamoto, it was also presented to the Russian Orthodox Church-the presentation of this book took place in the publishing house of the Moscow Patriarchate on September 25, 1997, with the participation of Bishop Tikhon of Bronnitsky. This presentation was attended by the Chairman of the Society for Russian-Japanese Relations, Mr. Romanenko, Professor of the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University, V. P. Mazurik, and many other interested persons (see Moscow Church Bulletin, № 10 (135), 1997).
In 1996, the Northwest Bible Commission also published a part of the diaries in the form of a two-volume book entitled "The Righteous Life and Apostolic Writings of St. Nicholas, Archbishop of Japan, based on his Handwritten Notes". This publication received the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia. And this part of the text of the diaries, of course, we received from the Northwest Bible Commission.
Thus, the diaries of Nicholas began to gain popularity in Russia. However, there is a flaw in the two editions mentioned above that needs to be corrected: there is no gratitude expressed to the archive where the original diaries are kept.
Kannosuke Nakamura became convinced of the existence of Nikolai's diaries in 1979, when he was engaged in scientific research at the IRLI (Pushkin House) at the invitation of the USSR Academy of Sciences. This was during the Soviet era, when the Central Research Institute was subordinate to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and foreign scientists invited by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, through the Department of External Affairs of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, could freely use the materials stored in the Central Research Institute, and if necessary, even get copies of these materials in the form of microfilms to Japan. All this time we have been studying the diaries of St. John the Baptist. Nicholas with a sense of deep gratitude to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
However, it is only now that you realize that this was made possible thanks to the kind assistance of the TSGIA (now RGIA). The Logachevs were also able to decipher their diaries for a long time, thanks to the assistance of the Central State Institute of Information Technology. Although K. I. Logachev and held the idea that the diaries of St. St. Nicholas are the property of the Russian Orthodox Church, but for a long time they were kept in the Central State Museum of Fine Arts (RGIA).
Although belatedly, we would like to express our deep appreciation to the CGIAT (RGIA).
After the publication of the "Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan", published by Hokkaido University in 1994, new batches of the text of the diaries decoded by the Northwest Bible Commission were delivered in large volumes from St. Petersburg to Moscow by Kotaro Otani and Mr. Kohei Tsuchida from the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, and from Moscow to Tokyo they were delivered by gMr. Hiroyuki Shirai and Ms. Minako Mori from the Moscow branch of Mitsui Bussan. Mr. Shirai was introduced to us by our friend Mr. Shigeru Nojima from Mitsui Bussan. We express our deep gratitude to these individuals.
Thus, for the first time, we have in our hands the full text of the diaries of St. John the Baptist. Nicholas. We are deeply grateful to the Northwest Bible Commission for its work in deciphering the diaries.
We made a reduced two-sided photocopy of the entire text of the diaries in typewritten form in Russian, with the exception of the text already published in the publication of Hokkaido University, and together with my wife Etsuko came to Moscow. It was the summer of 1997.
Introduction to the computer of the text of this edition of the Complete Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan, with the exception of the text published in the publication of Hokkaido University, was carried out by senior researchers of the Moscow Institute of Russian History O. G. Ageeva, T. V. Boyko and V. P. Rumyantseva.
The introduction of the text into the computer was carried out with the permission of the director of the Institute of Russian History, Dr. A. N. Sakharov. Scientific Secretary of this Institute L. P. Kolodnikova, senior researcher K. A. Cherevko, and Professor of the ISAA at Moscow State University V. P. Mazurik also assisted us in preparing this publication.
However, unfortunately, there were missing places in the text entered into the computer. The review and completion of this text, which also took a long time, were performed by Kannosuke Nakamura, Alexey Potapov, A. Pershts, and Nobuaki Kakinuma.
Thus, by the spring of 2001, we finally had the full text of the diaries ready (entered into the computer). The texts published in the aforementioned Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan (1994) and the Righteous Life and Apostolic Writings of St. Nicholas (1996) are also fully included in this edition of the Complete Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan.
In 2003, Mitsuo Naganawa, Hitoshi Yasumura, Toshiyuki Shimizu, Nobuaki Kakinuma, Yoko Kumanoya, Kazuya Goshima, Takeshi Saito, Yoko Sakanoue, Kenichiro Takahashi, Kayoko Nakazawa, Motoki Nomachi, Shiro Hanya, Shunsuke Miyoshi, and Kumi Mori were also responsible for reviewing and updating the text.
For the publication of the Complete Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan, we were able to receive financial assistance from The Nippon Foundation. We express our deep appreciation to the Chairman of this foundation, Ms. Ayako Sono, and the Chief Executive Officer of the foundation, Mr. Yohei Sasagawa, as well as to the Head of the International Department, Mr. Takashi Ito, and the Head of the Planning Department of the same foundation, Mr. Masanori Tamazawa, who showed understanding and listened to our point of view that although the publication of the full text of the diaries commercially untenable, it is of great scientific importance, and has assisted in obtaining financial assistance from a Japanese foundation.
We would also like to thank Mr. Yosuke Kusakabe of The Japan Foundation, who kindly provided some useful advice for our publication project.
We are also grateful to Mr. Hideo Tokunaga, Vice President of Kyosera Communication Systems, for his financial assistance in verifying the text of the diaries.
The editorial comments accompanying this edition of The Complete Diaries have been rewritten using the comments from the Hokkaido University publication. Alexey Potapov translated the Editorial Comments and Words of Appreciation in this publication into Russian, and we also express our deep gratitude to him.
We are also deeply grateful to Mr. Sarkisov from the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who provided useful advice for the project and showed an understanding of the importance of the publication for the development of scientific ties between Japan and Russia.
We are grateful to the director of the Hyperion publishing house Sergey Smolyakov and all the employees of this publishing house, who carried out the publication of "Full Diaries".
We also thank Ksenia Kumpan and Albin Konechny, who compiled the personal and subject–specific indexes to the first volume of the Diaries of St. John the Baptist. Nicholas. These extremely detailed indexes will undoubtedly be useful to all readers of the diaries.
We would like to thank the following persons for their valuable photographs related to St. Nicholas and the Japanese Orthodox Church: Metropolitan Daniel (Nushiro), Protopresbyter Justin (Yamaguchi), Keiji Ootera, Naka Kaneishi, Tadao Yoshimura, Etsuko Nakamura, the archive of the Gakuen Baika Institute, Kooti Prefectural Botanical Garden named after T. Makino, the Educational Center of the University of Tokyo, and the National Library of Japan. the Tokyo Ikuseien Institute and the State Parliamentary Library of Japan.
We are also deeply grateful to Priest Nikolai Dmitriev, who works sincerely for the benefit of the Japanese Orthodox Church, founded by St. Nicholas, and the Russian Orthodox Church, of which St. Nicholas was the son.
This complete edition of the Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan was made possible by the cooperation of many people listed above, including the authors and all those who helped to produce the Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan, a Hokkaido University publication. We express our deep gratitude to all of them.
I am also deeply grateful to my wife, Etsuko Nakamura, who selflessly assisted at all stages of the Diaries' publication for 24 years since they were discovered in 1979. Without her understanding and support, this book would not have been published.
Here we express our deep gratitude to the Director of the Russian State Academy of Fine Arts A. R. Sokolov, who understood the importance of publishing the Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan for international Japanese-Russian scientific research and who has agreed to this publication.
In conclusion, we express our deep gratitude to His Holiness Patriarch Alexey II of Moscow and All Russia and His Eminence Daniel, Archbishop of Tokyo and Metropolitan of All Japan, with whose blessing this book was published.
It is our wish that the "Diaries of St. Nicholas of Japan" will contribute to strengthening mutual understanding between Japan and Russia.
Kannosuke Nakamura
March 2003
PREFACE
(This actually appears in the print edition in English!)
By the middle of 19th century the Tokugawa shogunate was being forced to terminate its Sakoku (’National Seclusion’), which had been adopted in 1639 and maintained ever since. On the 8th of July, 1853, the American Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrived off the coast of Japan with a squadron of four ships, which frightened the Japanese people. Perry demanded that the Japanese government conclude a treaty of amity with the United States. It was the sort of strong pressure from outside which Japan had never experienced for a long time. As a result, in March, 1854, the Kanagawa Treaty of Peace and Amity between the United States and Japan was signed. In August, 1856, the first American consul–general, Townsend Harris, arrived in Japan, reopening the country to the world.
One month and a half after Perry’s visit, on August 22, 1853, the Russian Vice–Admiral Evfimii V. Putiatin arrived at Nagasaki on the flag ship Pallada, accompanied by four other vessels. And next year (1854) he came to Japan again with a single vessel, the frigate Diana. Although Putiatin negotiated with the representatives of the Japanese government peacefully, he had been assigned a task similar to that of Perry — to initiate relations with Japan and to reopen the country.
For the Japanese people, the Russian delegation was also perceived as frightening Kurofune (’black ships’) from abroad. However, in Feburuary, 1855, the Russo–Japanese Treaty of Amity was concluded. Later (in August, 1858) the Russo–Japanese Treaty of Friendship and Commerce was signed.
In September, 1858, Iosif Antonovich Goshkevich (the first Russian consular representative) arrived in Hakodate with his staff. He had previously visited Japan in 1854–1855 as a Chinese–language interpreter for the Russian expeditions under Putiatin.
In July, 1860, Vasilii Makhov, chaplain of the consular chapel, returned to Russia due to ill health. Goshkevich had sent in 1859 through the Asiatic Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a letter requesting the Holy Synod in Russia to send to Hakodate a successor to the post of chaplain. In the letter he wrote that «the chaplain of our church will also be able to promote the propagation of Christianity in Japan». It is worthy of notice that Goshkevich saw the prospect of missionary work in Japan as early as this time, when Christianity was still strictly prohibited throughout Japan.
Goshkevich was the son of a village priest. He was educated at the seminary in Minsk, and graduated from the Theological Academy in St. Petersburg. He worked in Peking as a member of the Russian Orthodox Mission for nearly 10 years. Upon his return to Russia, he became a member of the Asiatic Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry and (as previously noted) served as the Chinese interpreter for Putiatin during the Russian expeditions to Japan. In Goshkevich, we can find the genesis of Russian Orthodox missionary work in Japan. When he was appointed as the first Russian consular representative in Japan, Goshkevich must have expected that the prohibition of Christianity there would be removed in the near future.
When Vasilii Makhov was about to leave for Russia, Goshkevich must have sensed the opportunity to realize his long–cherished dream. He asked the Holy Synod to send not a chaplain who would merely handle church functions for the consular staff, but a highly–educated missionary who could preach the gospel to the Japanese people.
Goshkevich wrote in the letter to the Holy Synod that the next chaplain should be «one who had completed the course of the theological academy and will be competent not only in ecclesiastical functions, but in scholarly activities as well, and who will present an excellent example of our clergymen through his private life, both to the Japanese and foreigners living here». (RGIA, f. 796, ed. khr. 572, d. 1859).
In response to this request, there arrived in Hakodate from St. Petersburg the 25 year–old Hieromonk Nikolai. To the great good fortune for the Japanese, this young priest was equipped with all the abilities that Goshkevich had asked for, though this was not proved for certain until Nikolai began his work. It can be said that Goshkevich recognized that the Japanese people were fairly cultivated, and thus endeavored to bring to Japan the sort of excellent missionary who was qualified to teach them Christian doctrine.[4]
Goshkevich returned to Russia in 1865, worked in the Asiatic Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry and retired from public service in 1867. About that time, he informed the Orthodox Missionary Committee that Hieromonk Nikolai had secretly begun to engage in missionary activity in Hakodate, and arranged for Nikolai to receive financial assistance from the Committee. Moskovskie vedomosti (The Moscow Herald) of October 8 (20), 1867, reported that «the Board of the Orthodox Missionary Committee received very encouraging news of the work of Hieromonk Nikolai Kasatkin in Japan… Can we leave this respectable Hieromonk without help? In western countries everywhere these missionaries enjoy the general support of the people. We hope that our society will also respond to the appeal by the Committee for subscription. Only recently, on September 13, the Committee learned for the first time through Mr. Goshkevich of the activities of Hieromonk Nikolai and of the needs of our mission in Japan».
We do not know whether Goshkevich after his retirement had any opportunity to provide support to Nikolai. But E. V. Putiatin, the former Russian delegate to Japan (and under whom Goshkevich had worked as interpreter), succeeded Goshkevich and supported Nikolai’s missionary work in Japan. Putiatin had moved from the Navy to the political world, and was playing an active role there as a member of the National Congress.
There were many clergymen in Russia who were supporting Nikolai — for example, Isidor (Metropolitan of St. Petersburg), Fyodor Bystrov, Ioann Dyomkin. Among the lay believers supporting Nicholas, Putiatin was one of the most influential, and Nikolai made special mention of Putiatin’s support in his «Annual Report to the Executive Committee of the Orthodox Missionary Society» for 1878:
«Our Mission must express its deepest gratitude to Count Evfimii Vasilievich Putiatin. He is always providing for the Mission with love, and continues to perform good deeds for it not only by his own subscriptions, but also by explaining its needs and persuading others to contribute to it. The new stone building of the Mission, the foundation of which was made possible by the donations from the Grand Duke Aleksei Aleksandrovich when he visited Japan in 1872, would never have been completed if Count Evfimii Vasilievich had not undertaken to raise the funds for them».
Later, in 1879, when Nikolai was in St. Petersburg, he was able to meet Putiatin. Nikolai wrote in his diary for September 16: «When I was going out [from the Theological Academy — ed.], at the exit, I met Count Putiatin. It was just as though I met my true father. The Count dropped by my room. He promised to give me every support… He invited me to his house, to Gatchina. I promised to visit on Thursday».
We may know from Nikolai’s diaries in St. Petersburg that there was a very friendly relationship between Putiatin and Nikolai and that the former was like a patron of his missionary work in Japan.
Nikolai may have been introduced to Putiatin by Goshkevich during the time of his first return (1869 to 1870).
In October, 1883, Putiatin died in Paris. In October, 1884, his daughter Olga Evfimovna Putiatina arrived in Tokyo to serve in the Orthodox Mission as a deaconess, as if to succeed to her father’s dedication to thejapanese Mission.
Nikolai came to Japan in the twilight years of the Tokugawa shogunate and worked in the new Japan of the Meiji era. His way to Japan was prepared by Goshkevich and his missionary work was supported by Putiatin.
Hieromonk Nikolai, whose original name was Ivan Dmitrievich Kasatkin, was born on August 1, 1836, in the village of Beyroza in Smolensk prefecture. His father, Dmitrii Kasatkin, was the village deacon. Ivan’s mother, Kseniya, died when he was five years old. Ivan was the second son. There are many folksy expressions in Nikolai’s diary entries, which show him to be a man of common origins. After completing his courses at the theological school and the Smolensk Seminary with distinction, he entered the St. Petersburg Theological Academy on a scholarship.
While he was a seminarian at Smolensk, Ivan was already aspiring to join an Orthodox mission in a foreign country (specifically in China). However, during these years at the Theological Academy, he read Captain Golovnin’s famous Memoirs of a Captive in Japan, During the Years 1811, 1812, and 1813, and had a new dream — to go to Japan.
Some 44 years later, in 1904, Nikolai wrote from Tokyo to Archpriest N. V. Blagorazumov, his friend and classmate from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy:
«I wish to ask you a favor of you. Please send me a helper, that is, a good young missionary…. To tell you the truth, my friend Nikolai Vasilievich, our time was much better than now. You remember that as soon as an application appeared on the desk, it was filled up with names. Oh, what names! You and M. I. Gorchakov, the cream of the youth of the Academy, were included among them. And applying for what post? For the post of chaplain of a consular church». (Nikolai’s letter of April 8, 1904.)
Blagorazumov, the addressee, made the following memo about that letter: «At that time, ten or twelve student volunteers applied, all on condition of marriage, but Kasatkin alone decided to go as a monk and he beat the others». (See Nikolai Kedrov; Archibishop Nikolai in the Letters to Archpriest N. V. Blagorazumov.)
These young applicants represented the elite of the Theological Academy, and the post of chaplain of the consular church in Hakodate was only a small one for them. But ten or twelve student volunteers applied for the small post. They did not wish to protect their own interests, and did not desire to advance up the steps of the hierarchy in the Russian Orthodox Church. They wished to devote themselves to the cause of a Christian mission in one ’heathen’ country in the Far East.
Nikolai also wrote in his letter to Fr. Blagorazumov that «our time was much better than now». Herein lies one of the principal motives which spurred Nikolai and his classmates to missionary work. Their time was the 1860s, when Russia (having been defeated in the Crimean War) was trying to regenerate itself and build a new regime under the new Tsar Alexander II. This was the time of ’Great Reforms’, when Russia successively carried out new progressive reforms such as the emancipation of serfs, restructuring of judicial administration, establishment of local autonomy, and the like. Intense expectations for a new life pervaded the entire country.
The elite group of the students at the Theological Academy in the capital city of Russia were, although belonging to the naturally conservative world of the Orthodox Church, a kind of intelligentsia who had acquired high culture, had a good knowledge of European languages, and were well read in politics and ’belles lettres’.
Thus they were quite aware of the backwardness of their own country.
The application of elite students for the small post of chaplain in Hakodate clearly shows that they were influenced by the idealistic expectations of the 1860s. Though they were theological students, they were contemporaries of and held the high idealistic view of life in common with ’ Men of the 1860s (’Shestideshatniki’), the democratic writers noted for their criticism of the old regime of Russia.
In February, 1869, about eight years after his arrival in Hakodate, Nikolai published a long report entitled «Japan Also Will Be Fruitful — A Letter of a Russian in Hakodate» in Khristianskoe chtenie (The Christian Reading), in which he wrote: «Eight years ago I declared my wish to accept the post of chaplain of the consular church here with a missionary purpose. Who among the students at the Theological Academy would be determined to come here only in order to serve in a church, which is often completely empty, as there are not more than ten Orthodox Russians including babies here? At that time, by the way, there was much discussion about the necessity for a missionary academy in Russia and, if I am not mistaken, they set about to founding one. Thus I could expect that when it became necessary, comrades would join me and I would not remain here alone».
It must have been that the expectations of the advent of a new era had awakened the Russian religious world, paving the way for Orthodox missionary activity abroad was and prompting the plan to found a missionary academy. Stimulated by the renewed religious zeal of the time, Nikolai must have decided to go to Japan with the Word of God.
On June 23, 1860, Ivan Kasatkin was tonsured as a monk with the name of Nikolai and was ordained as a hieromonk on June 30. On August 1, 1860, the 24 year–old Nikolai set out across Siberia on his journey to the Far East. He arrived in Nikolaevsk–on–Amur at the end of September. By that late date, travel by ship had been halted and he was forced to spend the winter in Nikolaevsk.
Fortunately he met there a man of great missionary experience, Archbishop Innokentii (Popov–Veniaminov) of Kamchatka, who was also wintering there. [5] Innokentii gave Nikolai much valuable advice and instruction. He advised Nikolai to translate the Bible and prayer books into the language of the people who were to be converted to Christianity, and to make the belief rooted in their native culture. This was, as it were, valuable personal guidance for missionary activities.
In April, 1861, Nikolai departed Nikolaevsk on the warship Amur and arrived in Hakodate on July 2. [6] Hakodate at the end of Edo period was a small but lively port city with residents from various parts of Japan and even from foreign countries. However, it was a difficult time for a Christian missionary, because the preaching of Christian doctrine was still strictly prohibited.
At first the young Nikolai was deeply disappointed in his expectations. He later said to Father Sergii (Stragorodskii) that «When I was on my journey, I dreamed much about Japan. It appeared in my imagination as a bride awaiting my arrival with a bouquet. I expected that soon the good news of Christ would spread into its darkness and everything would be renewed. Having arrived here, I saw that my bride was enjoying the most prosaic sleep and was thinking nothing of me». (Archimandrite Sergii. In the Far East (Na Dal’nem Vostoke, 1897).
Young Nikolai immediately began to prepare himself to awake the ’sleeping bride’. While attending to his duties as the consular chaplain, Nikolai studied the Japanese language with untiring enthusiasm, learned the history of Japan, and tried to establish first–hand contacts with Japanese people. He wrote in the above–mentioned «Letter of a Russian in Hakodate» how he learned Japanese:
«When I arrived in Japan, I summoned up my strength and began to study the local language. Much time and effort were lost while I was getting acquainted with this barbaric language, no doubt the most difficult language in the world… And people such as the notorious Frenchman Rosny, half knowing the language, dare to write Japanese grammars. You have to throw such grammars into the corner like useless junk after a week in Japan. For a long time to come students of Japanese will have to learn by instinct through the reading of books and the mechanical memorization of various phrases of the spoken and written language. In this way I have somehow finally learned to speak and to be able to use the simplest written forms for translations and original compositions. Having so much knowledge, I immediately began to translate the New Testament into Japanese». (Trans. by Fr. John Bartholomew.)[7]
Nikolai also wrote in «the Letter» that he had secretly begun to preach Christianity among the Japanese.
«By the way, I tried to do all that is possible directly for missionary purposes. Firstly, of course, it was necessary to find men who, having accepted Christianity, would be able in their turn to devote themselves to the propagation of Christianity.
Four years after my arrival in Japan, God sent me one man. A year later he found himself a friend and in the course of that year they found a third colleague». (Trans. by Fr. John Bartholomew.)
«From all that has been stated above», Nikolai concluded, «it seems we can expect that there will be an abundant harvest in Japan, at least in the immediate future… Catholicism and Protestantism have occupied the whole world… But here is still a country, the last one in a number of newly discovered countries. If only we could stand here coping with other Christian confessions… God will provide that I will not be deserted and will not remain here alone, doomed to fruitless solitary work. I came here with that hope and have been living here with it for seven years. Realization of the hope has been my earnest prayer…
So I submitted an application to grant me leave. When I obtain permission, I will go to St. Petersburg to petition the Holy Synod for establishing a mission here».
Nikolai returned to Russia at the beginning of 1869 and stayed there for nearly two years. In St. Petersburg he petitioned the Holy Synod and influential persons of the Church for the establishment of a Russian Orthodox mission in Japan.
The Diaries of St. Nikolai of Japan open with an entry for March 1, 1870, written at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg.
His efforts were crowned with success. On April 6, 1870, foundation of the mission was approved by the Holy Synod and Nikolai was appointed its head and promoted from Hieromonk to Archimandrite.
The mission had a small staff which consisted of three priests besides Nicholas and one subdeacon. It was provided with an annual budget of 6,000 rubles. Nikolai visited all four theological academies in Russia and attempted to persuade some of the students to join him in missionary work in Japan, but to his disappointment none of them responded to his call.
In February, 1871, Nikolai returned to Hakodate with a colleague, Father Grigorii (Volontsov). However, Father Grigorii turned out to be (according Nikolai’s diary entry for January 1, 1872) too idle to be a missionary, and Nikolai had to send him back to Russia in June, 1871.
In December of that year, Hieromonk Anatolii (Alexander Dmitrievich Tikhai), a graduate of the Kiev Theological Academy, arrived in Hakodate to assist Nikolai.
In January, 1872, Nikolai left Hieromonk Anatolii in charge at Hakodate and set out for Yokohama by sea, eventually arriving in Tokyo on February 4. He immediately began preaching Orthodox Christianity in the new capital of Japan. Since then, for more than 40 years, with untiring zeal, Nikolai continued to promulgate Orthodoxy in Japan.
In August, 1879, Nicholal returned to Russia for the second and final time, staying there until November, 1880 to collect contributions for construction of the Cathedral of the Holy Resurrection in Tokyo. During his stay in St. Petersburg, on March 30 (O. S), 1880, Nikolai was consecrated as a Bishop.
The greatest misfortune to befall Nikolai and the Japanese Orthodox Church of the Meiji era was the Russo–Japanese War of 1904–1905.
Although the entire staff of the Russian Legation returned to Russia, Nikolai himself remained in Tokyo to defend his flock against the attacks of non–Christian and Protestant Japanese. He also worked for the welfare of the Russian captives in Japan (who numbered more than 70000) and sent Japanese Orthodox priests and Russian–speaking catechists to the prisoners’ camps to provide the Russians with some religious consolation.
Throughout the war, Nikolai wrote his diary; indeed this period marks the climax of his diary writing. The war ended in September, 1905. In April, 1906, Bishop Nikolai was elevated to the dignity of Archbishop. Six years later, on February 16 (3 O. S.), Nikolai — the Apostle to Japan — passed away.
In 1911, just before his death, the Japanese Orthodox Church numbered (in addition to Archbishop Nikolai) 1 bishop, 40 priests and deacons, 15 precentors (regents), 121 catechists, 31984 Orthodox Christians, and 265 churches and houses of prayer.
The enlightenment of Japan during the Meiji era encompassed the westernization of Japanese politics, social relations, industry and so forth. The westernization of Japan in the field of religion meant the implantation of Christianity, which has since then obtained a considerably wide acceptance in the Japanese people and has had a great influence upon their spiritual life.
However, the Christianity newly implanted in Meiji Japan was not a single kind. It comprised at least three varieties: Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodoxy, each of which had its own characteristic influence on the Japanese people. (For the reopened Japan, Orthodoxy introduced from Russia was one of the ’western’ faiths.)
The history of Protestant missions in Japan has been investigated in detail. Protestantism spread mostly among those young Japanese intellectuals who were eager to study ’Western science’. From the start, Protestant missionaries in Japan made use of the English language (the indispensable key to Western learning) to attract young Japanese. (Please see the article «Protestant Mission» by Masao Takenaka in The Cyclopedia of the History of Christianity in Japan, Tokyo, 1988.)
The history of Catholic missions in Japan, according to the article «The History of Christianity in Japan» by Arimichi Ebisawa in the above–mentioned Cyclopedia, has not yet received a thorough study, except in the area referred to as ’ the revival of early Christianity in japan’. Studies of the diplomatic history of the Catholic Church and of monastic orders have been published, but we do not yet have a complete history of Catholicism in Japan.
The history of the Orthodox Church in Japan, though it was the second largest Christian sect after Catholicism, has received much less attention than that of the Catholic Church. The entire picture of its missionary activities, its relation with the Russian Orthodox Church, and the characteristics of its faith has not yet been provided. There have been few students of the history of the Orthodox Church in Japan.
It is true that we have basic data for the compilation of its history during the Meiji era — for example, the twice–monthly newsletters Kyokai–Hochi (1877–1880) and Seikyo Shimpo (1880–1912). And two attempts at the history of the Church, Nihon Seikyo Dendoshi, edited by Kisaburo Ishikawa, and The Life and Deeds of Archbishop Nikolai, edited by Fr. Peter Shibayama, were published in 1901 and 1936 respectively. But they don’t give us a ’bird’s–eye view’ of the whole history of the Church. We must say that the history of the Japanese Orthodox Church and the achievements of Nikolai and his faithful followers during the Meiji era have long remained outside the mainstream of research interests concerning the history of Christianity in Japan.
Only recently have some researchers begun to shed light on this subject. Since the late 1970s, they have been writing books and papers about these subjects, and have produced Japanese translations of the papers and reports written by Nikolai which were published in Russian journals. Also, many local Orthodox churches in Japan, upon celebrating their centennials, published their own histories. As a result of these recent works, various aspects of the history of the Japanese Orthodox Church are gradually being brought to light.
The Diaries of St. Nikolai of Japan provide materials of inestimable value for the study of Church history. In these diaries, we find many interesting and valuable facts (especially about the main center of the Orthodox mission in Japan) which have remained hitherto unknown. With these diaries, the field of study will move forward with rapid strides and will rest upon much firmer and objective bases.
The Diaries contain the private diaries kept by Nikolai, founder and head of the Japanese Orthodox Church. They are the first and most reliable source for historical knowledge of the Church. There were many hidden facts in its history which were kept secret between Nikolai and the persons concerned, and which we could not possibly be aware of without seeing his diaries.
From that source we may learn, for example, how Nikolai was supported financially by the Holy Synod and Missionary Society, and how he felt about the living conditions of Russian prisoners of war in Japan, as well as how he rated the efficiency of his Russian colleagues and Japanese catechists.
Nikolai sometimes made extensive tours, visiting local churches throughout Japan. He kept up his diary during these tours, giving a full account not only of parish congregations but also of life in rural communities. We can know from his travel diary, for example, how eagerly Japanese Orthodox farmers of the early Meiji years were practicing new styles of Western singing, and under what conditions young women were laboring in provincial towns. Few foreigners knew Japanese provincial life of the time so well at first hand as did Nikolai. His travel diaries are, as it were, the field notebooks of a sociologist gathering materials on the rural life of Japan.
The Diaries of St. Nikolai possess, in addition to historical values, an autobiographical aspect. In Japan Nikolai had no trusted adviser with whom he could talk freely. His diary was thus an indispensable companion to which he had been making a full confession for many years.
For example, in the diaries for 1871 and 1872 we can read a long and harsh criticism of his first colleague Father Grigorii, which faithfully reflects the genuine missionary enthusiasm of the young Nikolai, which we could never know without his diaries.
In his diaries for the period of the Russo–Japanese War, we can learn his views of the Japanese people and Russo–Japanese relations. The comparison ofjapan (a maritime power) and Russia (a continental one), which he made in the diary entry for May 20, 1905, is an interesting topic even today.
Nikolai’s diaries are full of frank confessions and straightforward thinking. They will captivate not only those persons who are interested in the history of the Japanese Orthodox Church, but also those who are interested in vital human documents in general. Reading Nikolai’s diaries, we can reach the conclusion that he was of good health in both body and mind. He was not excessively intellectual or logical. He was very abundant in his feelings of both joy and anger. He was candid and sincere. Together with this richness in emotion, he was also a man of coolness and stoicism.
According to many of Nikolai’s Japanese pupils, he readily displayed feelings of joy and anger. In the diaries he himself acknowledges his weakness of having a hot temper, but he often had ample reason for angry. He was stirred to anger when the faithful of the Japanese Orthodox Church were persecuted by ’heathen’ Japanese, or when his Russian and Japanese colleagues were intolerably lazy in their missionary efforts, or when someone lied to him intentionally. Of course he felt deep sorrow when his Seminary pupils were drafted into the military and were killed in battle. In the diaries, he expressed his sincere gratitude to those colleagues and laymen who worked diligently for the Church. Nikolai was apt to become excited, but he was fair in his feelings and dealings.
As a monk, Nikolai held deep religious beliefs, which were ’unspoiled’ by modern rationalism. Nikolai was not a visionary mystic such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, who was anxiously expecting a sudden transfiguration of the universe. Nikolai kept his firm belief in the sacred invisible (about which he wrote, for example, in the entry for October 5, 1903). When he learned of the 1905 revolution in Russia, he had an eschatological foreboding that human history was drawing to an end. He firmly believed in miracles, though he did not speak of them in public. He had such a fear of blasphemy that he became furiously angry when he heard that the Church in Kyoto had been used as the site for an enlightening lecture foreign to religious worship.
Nikolai did not despise the popular beliefs of Japanese people, but regarded them as a rich ’soil’ full of religious feelings. He made extensive travels throughout Japan, and everywhere encountered archaic folk beliefs of Jizo (a guardian deity of children) and Inari (the fox deity), writing in his travel diary: «Along the way, I met groups of dressed–up pilgrim women. They were dragging themselves, it seemed, to Jizo… On the whole, there is everywhere the desire of the people for pilgrimage. It is remarkable. It is impossible not to bear in mind this desire of the people when you introduce Christianity among them». (June 10, 1881.)
American or English Protestant missionaries probably thought much differently of such cherished beliefs of the Japanese people.
Of Buddhism, Nikolai wrote, «the teachings of fullness of Buddha’s love, of his readiness to save men at their first appeal, of insufficiency of men’s power for salvation, and of grace (tariki) irresistibly amaze us. It is possible that, listening in a Buddhist temple to some sermon, you will forget yourself and imagine you were listening to a Christian preacher». («Japan from the Viewpoint of Christian Mission», 1869.)
Nikolai thought that Japanese people, although they were ’heathens’, were experiencing deep religious feelings and that Christianity could become firmly rooted in such natural religious feelings. This was how Nikolai intended to go about implanting Orthodox beliefs in the minds of Japanese people. He did not want to lure them out of their native religious feelings by Western learning, but attempted to transplant Christianity into the traditional religious ’soil’ of Japan — to infuse Orthodox Christianity into the Japanese spirit. His good knowledge of
Japanese religious culture and history must have suggested to him this way of propagating the Gospel. He was convinced that by this method, he could gain an advantage over Protestant and Catholic missionaries in Japan.
In general, the Japanese Orthodox Church has had a tendency to put more value upon Japanese traditional formalities than other Christian groups. It may be said that its conservatism has been partly due to Nikolai’s respect for Japanese culture.
During the Russo–Japanese War of 1904–1905, few Orthodox Japanese were tortured by spiritual conflict between their Orthodox faith (introduced by Russian missionaries) and their own patriotism. Although they were Orthodox Christians, they prayed fervently for divine favor to Japan. Nikolai himself, in one speech and two circular letters to his flock, summoned Orthodox Japanese to fulfill their duties as faithful subjects — to pray for the victory of the Japanese Imperial forces. His diaries also tell us that he thought it was natural for Orthodox Japanese to pray for the victory of their fatherland. Nikolai seems to have regarded the Orthodox belief, once implanted in Japan, as Japanese Orthodoxy.
Nikolai himself was a truly patriotic Russian. His patriotism was not an abstract idea but an ardent emotion. And so he was terribly depressed when he heard the news that Russian army had suffered defeats in Manchuria and that Japan won the naval battle in the Sea of Japan.
He also had a genuine and steadfast love for Japanese Orthodox Church, which had been established and developed by him, and which was like his child. When the Russo–Japanese War broke out, he was forced to devide his love into two — his mother country (Russia) and his ’child’ (the Japanese Church). He understood that it was natural for the Japanese people to openly rejoice over the news of Japanese victory, but he could not help feeling so sincere pity at Russia that he sometimes could not participate in the liturgy.
As we have seen, The Diaries of St. Nikolai of Japan are a document of great value both to historians and to the reading public. With these diaries, together with the newsletters Kyokai Hochi and Seikyo Shimpo, we will be able to obtain a complete picture of the Japanese Orthodox Church in the Meiji era. In other words, we cannot relate the truth of the Church history without these diaries.
It had been known that Nikolai was writing a diary. Bishop Sergii (Tikhomirov), Nikolai’s successor in the overall control of the Japanese Orthodox Church, wrote in his memoirs on Nikolai («Before and After the Passing Away of Archbishop Nikolai» of 1912), that Nikolai was writing about the state of his disease in his diary. However, it was not expected that his diaries would come down to us. Most of the archives relating to Nikolai had disappeared during the chaos following the Great Earthquake of 1923, and no diary was found at the Cathedral of the Resurrection in Tokyo (Nikolai–do, Nikolai’s Cathedral). No Soviet Japanologists or historians were aware that Nikolai’s diaries had been safely kept at the Central State Historical Archive in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).
It appears that between the time of Nikolai’s passing away (1912) and the Great Kan to Earthquake (1923), a certain Russian who was close to Nikolai sent the diaries to Russia, perhaps into the keeping of the Archive of the Holy Synod. The person who sent them to Russia must have been Bishop Sergii.
A few clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church during the Soviet era knew of the preservation of Nikolai’s diaries in the Archive, but during that time Soviet sciences and the Church were under the complete control of the Communist Party. There was so little interdisciplinary communication or interchange that research fellows of the Soviet scientific institutions never learned of the existence of the diaries from the churchmen. Of course, there was no attempt made to decipher the handwritten diaries and publish them.
The first Japanese reader of Nikolai’s diaries in the Archive at Leningrad was Prof. Kennosuke Nakamura of Hokkaido University, the author of this preface. In the autumn of 1979, he confirmed the existence of the dairies and acquired a microfilm copy of them from the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Since then, Nikolai’s diaries have become the focus of much academic research.
In December, 1981, K. Nakamura asked Mr. Konstantin Ivanovich Logachev (a Slavic researcher in Leningrad) and his wife Larisa Nikolaevna Logacheva, a couple to whom he had been introduced by Prof. S. Batalden of Arizona State University in 1979, to decipher the texts of the didaries for him. They readily consented to his request.
Subsequently, K. Nakamura, Yoshikazu Nakamura (Hitotsubashi University), Ryohei Yasui (Waseda University), and Mitsuo Naganawa (Yokohama National University), collaborated in translating a portion of the deciphered diaries into Japanese and published them serially in the quarterly Mado (The Window) (Tokyo), from 1986 to 1988.
K. Nakamura
June 1994
Thank you so much for this. I love Saint Nicholas of Japans so much, please don’t stop this project! In my prayers 🙏🙏🙏