St Nicholas (Nikolai) Kasatkin, the Russian monk who brought Christianity to Japan in the late nineteenth century. Although the Russian Orthodox Church was the first to evangelise the islands, the Protestants and Roman Catholics quickly overtook it, as the Church was outspent by the West and Russia itself was undermined by the atheistic Communist revolution of 1917.
Part 1 of 2
IN 1860, the Russian consul in Japan wrote home to St Petersburg asking for a missionary to come to Hakodate. The man they sent was a newly ordained priest-monk, Nicholas Kasatkin.
Nicholas spent fourteen hours a day mastering Japanese language and culture by listening to storytellers and Buddhist preachers on the streets of Hakodate, and even sat at the back of a school classroom until the exasperated teacher hung up a notice that read: ‘The bearded foreigner is not allowed.’
Living in Hakodate at the same time was Yamamoto Kazuma, a student of Kendo and a skilled swordsman. A case of mistaken identity had forced him to go on the run under the name of Takuma Sawabe, and he had joined a desperate band of radicals dedicated to cleansing Japanese society of foreign people and ideas.
One night in 1865, Takuma worked himself up to a fever of outraged nationalism, and then presented himself, sword in hand, at the home of Nicholas Kasatkin, the bearded foreigner.
Précis
A monk named Nicholas Kasatkin went to Hakodate in Japan in 1860 on the invitation of the Russian Consulate, in order to preach Christianity to the Japanese. Although Nicholas tried to adopt Japanese ways as much as he could, five years later he was confronted by a sword-wielding nationalist named Takuma Sawabe, who declared his intention of killing him. (58 / 60 words)
Part Two
A view over Hakodate, which lies on the south western promonotory of Hokkaido Island, Japan. In the foreground are the tower and rooftops of the Orthodox Church, originally founded as a Consular chapel in 1859. It was rebuilt in 1913 after a fire, and is now one of the tourist landmarks of the city, famous for its bell-peal.
FATHER Nicholas looked this sword-wielding warrior in the eyes. How strange it was, he said softly, that one could kill a man for his beliefs without knowing what they were! Takuma was so taken aback that he found his fever of hatred had left him, and the two men fell into discussion.
Next morning, Nicholas sat down with Takuma and began going through the Old Testament, patiently answering his objections and queries until they began to die away.
Now it was Nicholas’s turn to wonder. Takuma absorbed every name and notion, and in due course even brought along two friends. Christianity was still distrusted by the authorities, and conversion to it was forbidden, but Takuma and his two companions were all baptised in April 1868, with Takuma taking the name of Paul.
In 1871, Paul was ordained as Japan’s first native-born Orthodox priest, and thereafter fought the good fight for Japan’s rapidly growing Christian communities alongside Nicholas Kasatkin, the man he went to kill.
Précis
A Japanese nationalist named Takuma Sawabe armed himself with a sword, and went to murder Fr Nicholas as a threat to Japanese culture and identity. However, after they began talking about Christianity Takuma’s outlook underwent a complete change, and he became both a priest and also one of Nicholas’s most trusted colleagues in the evangelisation of Japan. (57 / 60 words)
