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NCC Center for the Study of
Japanese Religions
New members of the board of trustees Interreligious Studies in Japan Program The next full course is planed to begin in April 2004. Partial participation is also possible.
Annual Seminar: Mission and reception of Christianity. Learning from the situations in the Tokugawa and the Melji periods (early 16th and late 19th Centuries). Thirty persons from six nations belonging to a Buddhist school, two new religions, and six Christian denominations, met for two days to discuss indigenizations and contextuali-zation of Christianity. The annual NCC Center Seminar was held in Kyoto, October, 22-23. The keynote speakers were Professor emeritus Suzuki Norihisa (Rikky6 University, Tokyo), Professor lkuo Higashibaba (Tenri University, Tenri), and Dr. Martin Repp (NCC Center). The focus on reception helped us to understand the need for more attention to ordinary Christians, when we want to evaluate mission. We commonly think that Japan's "Christian Century" (1549-1639) ended when the suppression of Christianity forced out foreign missionaries, and Japanese Christians were given the choice to surrender their faith or die. Among those who choose to apostatize, we know some continued their Christian practices as "hidden Christians" -their numbers were higher than the martyrs. The practice of these Christians is of great interest, and we were reminded that many of them were second, third or even fourth generation Christians, when they were forced to give in publicly. Some of them apostatized by swearing to God, Jesus and the Virgin Mary, that they were no longer Christians. In studies on the second wave of Christianity, which began in 1859, the focus is usually on the few elite Japanese Christians, and the apparent failure to attract more than one per cent of the population ever since. In his lecture, Suzuki Norihisa suggested to pay more attention to the "ordinary" Christians, and to the relative strong influence Christianity has had on modern Japanese in general. He mentioned, for example, Nitobe's Bushido (Way of the Warrior) published in English in 1905 and then in Japanese (1906). According to an advertisement by lwanami Publishing House, the readers counted it among their one hundred favorite books in the lwanami Bunk6 (Library) since its start (Iwanami ad 2003). Norihisa believes it will remain a long seller, and because the author was a Christian who attempted to accommodate samurai values, his image of Christianity as a religion of the gentleman remains strong even today. Based on these inputs, the participants had a fruitful discussion on how we are to evaluate the present state of Christianity in Japan. Has the effort been too focused on the churchgoer's mind - education - or should Christians be "satisfied" with the significant cultural contributions stretching from hospitals to Christmas cakes?
Lecture As part of the Interreligious Studies in Japan Program a public lecture is held every semester. On December 5 the guest speaker is Ueda Shizuteru on "Bukkyo to wa nanika" (What is Buddhism).
Kyoto Christian Culture Museum Most people with an interst in Christianity's history in Japan know the 26 martyrs of Nagasaki. Few know most of them came from Kyoto. In the 16th century, Kyoto was a center of Christianity. To inform about this and later connections between Kyoto and Christianity an ecumenical group of individuals plans to set up Kyoto Christian Culture Museum. For more information contact:
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