World
Citizen

The Founder,
Walter Russell Thornton Lambuth（1854-1921）
His Footsteps around the World
Walter Russell Lambuth, founder of Kwansei Gakuin, was an American missionary
from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was born in 1854 in Shanghai,
where his parents served as missionaries. After studying medicine and theology inthe United States, he returned to China to serve as a missionary while practicing
medicine. He then came to Japan in 1886 at the age of 32.
In 1889, Lambuth made plans to establish a boysʼ school, with the aims of training
ministers and educating young people based on the principles of Christianity.
A wooden school building was built in Harada-no-mori (located in the present-day
Nada Ward of Kobe) and the school was named Kwansei Gakuin. At the start, thesmall school had only ﬁve teachers and nineteen students.
During his four-year stay in Japan, Lambuth left a major mark on the country byengaging in the establishment of many churches and schools. Even after leaving
Japan, this remarkably committed man continued to pursue his mission actively,
traveling to various places around the world, including South America, Cuba, Africa,
Europe, Siberia, China, and the Korean Peninsula. He was particularly passionate
about serving as a medical missionary in Africa, because he considered it to be hismost important life work.

A monument in the Lambuth familyʼs hometown in the state of Mississippi commemorates his distinguished service.
The following inscription honors Walter Lambuth : “World Citizen and Christian Apostle to many lands.”●World Missionary Conference ●Medicine bottles
he brought with him

LondonBy describing Kwansei Gakuin
as a “learning community,” we understand that education and research arecollaborative endeavors. KG wasfounded on “the principles of Christianity,” and these principles continue as
the core of its existence. This refers tolearning about the theological andcultural aspects of Christianity,
including the signiﬁcance of Jesus
Christ, but it also means that all thegoals and values of this community are
ﬁrmly rooted in Christian ideals. Humanrights, peace, respect for nature, social
justice, and cross-cultural understanding are prime examples of such values

that guide our studies and life together
toward an inclusive community.
Through this educational environment, all the members, who include
students and their families, faculty,
staﬀ, and alumni, are motivated to seek
new knowledge, and the full life that ismost suited to each, based on
individual talents, interests, andabilities, as well as social needs.
“Life missions” also include
vocations in Christian Ministry, one ofthe original courses at Kwansei
Gakuin, and this training continues as
an important element of the Christian
principles. The content of a KG

education nurtures people to develop
social, moral, and academic skills thatallow them to participate creatively
around the world, and take leadershipas agents of change in the societies
where they live, thus actualizing theideal of“world citizen.”Like Kwansei
Gakuinʼs founder, Walter R. Lambuth,world citizens have the skills tocommunicate and empathize withothers, and then take responsibility forcreating a better world. KGʼs motto,“Mastery for Service,”is explained
further by emphasizing that its motivation must be the care and concern forothers.

Edinburgh
Belgium

Paris●Mission in Africa ●Suzhou Hospital

Siberia

PolandCzech Republic●Beijing Union Medical College Hospital

BejingNew York
Virginia

Tennessee
SuzhouShanghai

Yokohama
Kobe

Mississippi
Mexico

Cuba

Congo

Brazil●Kwansei Gakuin
in Harada-no-mori●The Lambuth family in Kobe ●Mission in Asia

●Pearl River Church※ These are places where
Dr.Lambuth left his footsteps.

World Citizen

2

The Spirit of Kwansei

Our
College
Motto

SchoolMotto

Cornelius John Lighthall Bates（1877〜1963）
The Fourth Chancellor, the First Dean of Kwansei Gakuin College Department
C. J. L. Bates, the fourth chancellor of Kwansei Gakuin, was a missionary from the
Methodist Church of Canada, born in Ontario, Canada in 1877. He graduated from
Queenʼs University in 1901, and received a doctorate in theology at the Wesleyan
Theological College in Montreal in 1918. In 1902, he came to Japan to devotehimself to mission work in Asia.
In 1910, when the Methodist Church of Canada joined in the management of Kwansei Gakuin, Dr.Bates was assigned
to that educational institution. Two years later, he became the dean of the newly established Kwansei Gakuin College
Department, and in 1920, he assumed his post as the fourth president of the entire Kwansei Gakuin Institution.
“Mastery for Service,” which he had proposed as the dean of the College Department, was adopted as thegroup-wide motto of all Kwansei Gakuin when he assumed the presidency. He was committed to the development of
the group as its president for 20 years. Notably, when Kwansei Gakuin decided to obtain university status, which had
been an earnest desire of both students and board members, Bates went all the way to the United States and Canada
to gain the approval of the North American Joint Educational Commission, as well as the American and CanadianMission Boards. His eﬀorts led to the establishment of Kwansei Gakuin University in 1932, and the further
development of the institution.

“Mastery for Service”

̶Truth, Independence, and Service̶
Today, “Mastery for Service” is recognized as the school
motto of Kwansei Gakuin. Since it was proposed in1912 by C.J.L. Bates, the ﬁrst Dean of Kwansei Gakuin
College Department, this motto has been passed down
throughout the years. It is also sung in the school song
“Sora no Tsubasa” and engraved on the school emblem
exhibited on the clock tower on campus.
Through the school motto, all members of Kwansei
Gakuin are encouraged to acquire knowledge and skills(mastery) to make full use of their God-given talents andto develop their moral character. And equally important,the ultimate goal of their eﬀorts is to serve theirneighbors, society and the world, thus contributing to
the well-being of humanity (service).
This motto contains the signiﬁcant contrast between“master” and “servant.” Speciﬁcally, one is required to
become a master to serve, that is, a master ofnecessary knowledge and skills and a controller of

The Spirit of Kwansei

3

School Motto

oneself in order to be a servant who can contribute to
the world. The paradoxical words of Christ in the Bible
share the same spirit ̶“whoever wants to become greatamong you must be your servant, and whoever wants to
be ﬁrst must be your slave” (Matthew 20:26-27).
To be a true servant requires being a person of freedom
who is not bound by conventional wisdom, and an
independent person who does not constrain
himself/herself. As expressed in the motto with an evenlonger history, “The truth shall make you free andMaster of yourself”(Bates), Kwansei Gakuin
understands that by pursuing the truth written in the
Bible, one can become a person of freedom who is able
to be a true servant. The Kwansei Gakuin thatproclaims,“Glorious Liberty, Mastery for Service,” willcontinue to pursue this very type of whole-person
education.

Our College Motto “Mastery for Service”
Dean C.J.L. BATES, M.A.
Human nature has two sides, one individual and private,
the other public and social. There is a life which eachman must live alone, into which no one else can enter.
That is his personal individual life. But a man's life ismore than that. It has another side, which it shares withother men. And it is our duty and privilege to keep before
our minds these two sides of our nature. There is an idealof life corresponding to each side. One is self-culture, theother, self-sacriﬁce. These ideals are not contradictory,
however, but complementary. Neither is complete byitself, nor independent of the other. Self-culture pursued
for its own sake produces selﬁshness. Self-sacriﬁce as
the only rule of life leads to weakness. But self-culture asa basis for self-sacriﬁce is not only justiﬁable, butnecessary. And self-sacriﬁce on such a basis is truly
eﬀective.
Now these two phases of our nature are implied in ourcollege motto "Mastery for Service". We do not desire to
be weaklings. We aim to be strong, to be masters - mastersof knowledge, masters of opportunity, masters ofourselves, our desires, our ambitions, our appetites, ourpossessions. We will not be slaves whether to others, tocircumstances, or to our own passions. But the purposeof our mastery must be not our own individual enrichment,
but social service. We aim to become servants ofhumanity in a large sense. In England the oﬃcials arecalled civil servants, and the highest oﬃcials Ministers ofState. That implies a true conception of the nature of thework of an oﬃcial. His duty is not to command, but toserve. In fact, a man is great only to the extent to which
he renders service to society.

This then is our college ideal, to become strong,eﬀective men, not weak incompetents; men who will berecognized as masters. But having become masters wedesire not to inﬂate, and enrich ourselves for our own
sake, but to render some useful service to humanity inorder that the world may be better for our having lived init.
Our ideal business man is neither a gambler nor amiser, but a man who succeeds because he is a master,a man who understands the fundamental principles ofbusiness, who knows what to do, and who by industry
and honesty is able to succeed where other men might
fail−a man whose object in life is not merely to increase
his credit balance in the bank, but to use his ﬁnancial
power to improve the condition of society; −a man who
has public spirit, and a keen sense of social duty. Such aman will be revered by his employees, and respected byhis customers.
Our ideal of the scholar is not a kind of intellectual
sponge that always takes in, but never gives out until it issqueezed; but it is a man who loves to acquire knowledge
not for its own sake, much less for the sake of his own
fame, but whose desire for knowledge is a desire to equip
himself to render better service to humanity.
It is said that on the monument of a certain man there
were cut the words "Born a man and died a carpenter. "We desire no such fate. For such an end is failure. Nor
would it be any greater success if it were written "Born a
man and died a merchant" - or "a millionaire" - or "apolitician." To be a man, a master man and at the sametime a true servant of humanity is our ideal.
This essay was published in 1915 when Kwansei Gakuin was an all-male school.

Our College Motto

4

The Spirit of Kwansei

History

A New Integrated Education（1947）

Founding of Kwansei Gakuin（1889）
The origin of Kwansei Gakuin can be traced back to the Methodist
movement in England in the 18th century. John Wesley, the founder ofthe movement, said, “I look upon all the world as my parish.” Based on
John Wesleyʼs teachings, Walter Russell
Lambuth, a missionary of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South (MEC-S), USA,
carried out missionary work around the world,
and in 1889, founded Kwansei Gakuin in
Harada-no-mori in Kobe, Japan. At the timeof founding, it was a small school with only
ﬁve teachers and 19 students.

Original Constitution of Kwansei Gakuin

Education Based on Principles of Christianity（1899）
As described in the words of the Kwansei Gakuin Constitution “theintellectual and religious culture of youth in accordance with theprinciples of Christianity,” the objective of the school was to provide
whole person education for students, with Christianity as its founding
spirit, so that they could serve the world. The issuance of Education
Ministry Decree No. 12 forbidding religious education in 1899
endangered the existence of Kwansei Gakuin, but the second president,
Yoshikuni Yoshioka ﬁrmly maintained the schoolʼs conviction saying,“Without Bible or Chapel Service,
Kwansei Gakuin will lose its.” Thus, since the founding ofKwansei Gakuin, education based on
the principles of Christianity has
been highly valued and passed down
to the present.

Radical Students' demonstration

New Developments at Kwansei Gakuin（1995）
In 1995, a new campus was constructed in Sanda City, and the Schoolof Policy Studies was established. In 2001, the School of Science wasreorganized as the School of Science and Technology and moved to the
Kobe-Sanda Campus. After that, professional graduate schools, such as
the Law and Business schools, were established. In 2008, the Kwansei
Gakuin Elementary School was established in Takarazuka, and the
School of Human Welfare Studies was set up in the university. In 2009,
the School of Education opened in the Nishinomiya Seiwa Campus
together with Seiwa Junior College and Seiwa Kindergarten. In 2010,
three schools (Middle and High Schools of Senri International School,
and Osaka International
School) became members of
the Kwansei Gakuin
educational foundation. In thesame year, the School ofInternational Studies, the 11th
school of the university, wasestablished.
Kobe - Sanda Campus

School Seal

In 1894, a few years after the founding of Kwansei
Gakuin, a committee consisting of both teachers andstudents was set up to determine the design of a school
uniform and cap. In the committee, students and teachers
proposed a pattern depicting a new moon and a stylized
set of letters K.G., respectively, as a school seal to be
attached to the uniform and the cap. As a result, the two
proposals were combined into the current school seal. The
school seal symbolizes our desire to reﬂect God's light,
just as the moon glows because it reﬂects the sun s light,
and our determination to make progress pursuing ourideals single-mindedly, just as the new moon gradually
grows, aiming to be the full, perfect moon.

The Methodist Church of Canada
Participates in the Management（1910）
In 1910, the Methodist Church of Canada began to participate in the
management of Kwansei Gakuin. In 1912, Kwansei Gakuin College
Department was established. Bates, the ﬁrst Dean of the College
Department and later the fourth president of the entire Kwansei Gakuin
educational foundation, proposed the motto “Mastery for Service.” Thesewords were later adopted as the oﬃcial Kwansei Gakuin motto, which has
been cherished now for generations. In 1929, Kwansei Gakuin moved to
Uegahara in Nishinomiya City, with the aim of establishing a university. In
1932, the Education Ministry approved the establishment of Kwansei
Gakuin University, and in 1934,
the two schools of “Law andLiterature” and “Economics andBusiness Administration” were
set up in the university. In 1933,
the oﬃcial school song, “sora no
tsubasa” was adopted.
Aerial View : Uegahara Campus After Completion

5

History

In 2019, the Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi Campus was established (the relocationsite for the Law School), and at present, Kwansei Gakuin is a comprehensive
educational institution which spans eight campuses, with about 30,000
students at schools ranging from kindergarten to graduate schools.
In 2014, the Senior High School was selected as a Super Global HighSchool under the program launched by the Japanese Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Senri International
High School was also chosen in 2015), and Kwansei Gakuin was selected
for the Top Global University Project funded by the Japanese government.
In 2019, the Senior High School was selected as a hub school for theWorldwide Learning Consortium (the follow-up project to the Super Global
High School Program), and Kwansei Gakuin is aiming to further develop as
an educational institution which nurtures people who can contribute asworld citizens.
Additionally, the Kobe-Sanda
Campus underwent reorganization in
April 2021, based around the “Be aBorderless Innovator” concept, andbegan its new journey as a campus
with ﬁve schools: Science,
Engineering, Biological andEnvironmental Sciences,
Senri International Campus
Architecture, and Policy Studies.

School Emblem

Placed on a base with the School Motto, Mastery for
Service, a cross at the center of a shield divides theemblem into four symbols. The upper right symbol has a
new moon representing the Middle School; the upper left
has a Bible, which represents the School of Theology; thelower right has the staﬀ of Hermes, the god of commercein Greek mythology, which represents the Commercial
Course of the College Department ; and the lower left has
a torch with pens in the background symbolizing
knowledge and culture, which represent the Literary
Course of the College Department. This was designatedas the oﬃcial school emblem by the fourth president C.J.L.
Bates, when Kwansei Gakuin moved its campus to
Uegahara in 1929.

Location

Kwansei Gakuin is a comprehensive educational
onal institution including schools from kindergarten to postgraduate.
In addition to its main Nishinomiya Uegahara Campus located between Osaka and Kobe, Kwansei Gakuin has
e metropolitan areas of Osaka and Tokyo.
six other campuses in locations, including the

Kobe-Sanda

A Comprehensive Educational Institution（2014〜）

Teachers & Students

The Spirit of Kwansei

After World War II, the education system was reformed in Japan. Under
the new system, Kwansei Gakuin reopened its junior and senior highschools and university to provide a new integrated education for its
students. In the high-growth period of the 1960s, an increasing numberof students who felt dissatisﬁed with their situations started to struggle forchange and held protests throughout Japan. Kwansei Gakuin University
also underwent large-scale student protests in the period between 1967
and 1969. The then acting president
Takeshiro Kodera proposed various
reform programs, including those to
introduce small-group andinter-departmental courses, which
resulted in a transformation of
education at Kwansei Gakuin.

Symbol&Location

Nishinomiya Uegahara Takarazuka
Nishinomiya Seiwa
NishinomiyaKitaguchi

Senri International
Osaka Umeda

Tokyo Marunouchi

Harada-no-mori

The Original Campus

Symbol & Location

6

The Spirit of Kwansei