Rev. Toyohiko Kagawa
Some people may ask, “Who was Toyohiko Kagawa?” ToyohikoKagawa (1888 -1960) was a dedicated Japanese Christian pastor,evangelist, pacifist, social reformer, humanitarian, labor activist,writer, and founder of
the Friends of Jesus movement. Before World War II, he wasconsidered the most famous Japanese in the western world andwas often compared with Albert Schweitzer in Africa and Mahatma Gandhi in
India as one of the greatest modern saints.
Kagawa was born in Kobe on July 10, 1888 to the concubine of a wealthybusinessman. Both parents died while he was only four years old and he wasconsequently sent to Shikoku to live with his father’s legal wife. His newstepmother who was not very pleased to have Kagawa with her and herfamily. He attended junior high school in Tokushima and also studied Englishwith American Presbyterian missionaries. He became a Christian throughtheir influence and was baptized at the age of 15.
As a strong pacifist, Kagawa often spoke out against Japan’s war with Russia(1904-1905). When he finished high school, he felt a strong call to be aminister, so one of the missionaries enrolled him in the Presbyterian College,Meiji Gakuin in Tokyo. After two years at Meiji Gakuin, he transferred to theKobe Theological Seminary. Kagawa was greatly influenced by his readingsof John Wesley, Saint Francis of Assisi, and Leo Tolstoy. Through hisreadings and his own faith, Kagawa felt that love was the essence ofChristianity.
In seminary, he became troubled by what seemed to be theseminarians‘ over-concern for Christian doctrine and wanted to act upon hisfaith rather than just talk about it. He was inspired by the story of the GoodSamaritan and took action. Therefore, on December 24, 1909, at the age of21, Toyohiko Kagawa moved into the Shinkawa slum area to live among thepoor and offer aid to those most in need.
From 1909 to 1923, (except for the three years from 1914 to 1917 when hewas studying in the US), he lived among the slums in a small, broken down
shack which he often shared with others. In 1913, he married one of thevolunteers who worked alongside him, Haru Shiba. They later had threechildren, two sons and a daughter.
Part of Kagawa’s deep concern for workers and labor unions came about
while he was studying at Princeton Theological Seminary and Princeton
University. It was during that time he had gone to visit an economicallydepressed area in New York City. It was also in New York he observed ademonstration of 60,000 workers and he realized that to change the situationof the economically oppressed, he had to be in solidarity with the oppressed
working people.
Upon his return to Japan, Toyohiko Kagawa worked for the organized labor
movement, economic cooperatives, and universal suffrage. He also led
strikes against the major factories in Kobe and was arrested in 1921 andagain in 1922 for his leadership in the strikes.
He wrote a book in English about the cooperative movement, brotherhood
economics while on board a ship to the United States in 1936 and also wrote
a three part auto biographical series of novels (Crossing the Death Line:
Before the Dawn, A Shooter at the Sun and Time to Hear the Voice ofGod) . These books became bestsellers in Japan with sales of over 4 million
copies. He used the revenues from his substantial book sales to fund hiswork in the slum, cooperative movements, and other ministries.
In 1923, a powerful earthquake hit Tokyo and Yokohama. The day after theearthquake, Kagawa went to Tokyo to help. The government back then wasoverwhelmed by the many needs so they asked Kagawa to be the Chief ofSocial Welfare. He accepted and he helped rebuild the areas devastated bythe earthquake. For this he was honored despite his insistence that he wasonly doing what God had called him to do.
As a strong pacifist and community organizer, Kaagwa started the National
Anti -War League in 1928 and also organized the Federation of Labor. In the1930s he addressed world problems, such as soil erosion, by persuading
many of Japan’s farmers to plant fodder trees to conserve soil, supply food,and feed animals (the three dimensions of his system). His interest in helping
the farmers sell their produce and getting food to the people was among themany reasons he was involved in establishing retail food cooperatives.
During his 1930 -1936 visit to the U.S., Kagawa was estimated to havespoken in 150 cities and 44 states before audiences of 75,000 persons
according to Christian Century magazine (edition 53, no. 29, July 25, 1936).
After Japan’s invasion of China, Kagawa publicly asked the Chinese people
for forgiveness. On August 25, 1940 he was arrested for his anti-war activities
and questioned by the military police (Kempeitai). After his release fromprison, he visited the United States in April 1941 in order to try to avert war asa member of the Cristian Peace Mission from Japan. Later, after returning toJapan, E. Stanley Jones (a Methodist missionary who have been amissionary in India but was stranded in the U.S. during the war) sent a cableto Kagawa on December 1, 1941 asking him to call a week long anti-war
prayer vigil which was held in churches on both sides of the ocean.
After the war was over, Kagawa was part of the transitional Japanese
government and became a leader in the postwar movement for democracy inJapan. In 1945 he established the International Peace Society in Tokyo.
Japan was also experiencing severe food shortages and exceptional inflationin 1945 and Kagawa helped establish co-ops across Japan. Within two years
over 3 million people became co-op members.
In 1946 Emperor Hirohito asked Kagawa to visit him. During that visit Kagawa
asked the Emperor to get closer to his people and fill them with a desire fordemocracy and justice. About a week later the Emperor appeared in public for
the first time and visited Kagawa at the settlement Kagawa had established inTokyo where 20,000 were refugees were located. (Kagawa had establishedmany such settlements in the larger cities and country areas of Japan.)
When Kagawa was in the U.S. on a preaching tour in 1950 he visited 37
places and gave 400 lectures in five months to an estimated audience of
350,000 people. Although he suffered from ill health off and on (tuberculosisand trachoma which he had contracted in the early days of his ministry in theslums), he continued speaking and writing extensively throughout his life andpublished over 300 books and leaflets.
Kagawa was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947 and 1948.
He was nominated for the Noble Peace Prize in 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1960.
After his death at the age of 71 on April 23, 1960 he was awarded the second
highest honor in Japan - the Induction into the Order of the Sacred Treasure.
Kagawa’s legacy lives on. His writings and books have been translated intoover 38 languages. On April 23 every year he is commemorated in theEvangelical Lutheran Church in America and Episcopal Church as a “renewerof society.”
There have been many books and articles written about him. One excellent
book is Toyohiko Kagawa: an Apostle of Love and Social Justice by Robert E.
Schildgen. There is a manga written in Japanese about Kagawa which has
been translated into English and Korean. A movie was also made about
Kagawa’s life. His last book, Cosmic Purposes, was published in Japanese in1958 and has also been translated into English.
There are five Kagawa resource centers/museums in Japan. Two are inTokyo, one in Shikoku, and two in Hyogo prefecture. The Kagawa Memorial
Center in Kobe is a community center with a café known as Tengokuya

(Heaven’s) Café, a museum, a robust day care program, afterschool careprograms for children with special needs, a tutoring program for children in
Japanese schools, and other various programs for children and adults in thecommunity.
Interest in Toyohiko Kagawa has been revived as people read his books andlearn more about the history of the Co-op. It is with sincere hope that future
generations will learn and be inspired by Kagawa‘s life work and histremendous impact on society. He was a man who truly lived his Christ, lived
his faith and made a great impact on Japanese society.

By Rev. Claudia Genung -Yamamoto, UMC missionary in Kobe