Protestant Missionaries in Japan

[Missionaries]: [Hawaii]: [Japan]:

[Annotated Vernacular Photograph Album Documenting American Christian Missionaries in Hawaii and Japan].

[Various locations in Hawaii and Japan: 1927-1928]. [12] leaves, illustrated with 123 mounted sepia-toned photographs, many captioned in the image area, occasional manuscript captions on the album leaves. Oblong folio. Contemporary pictorial cloth illustrated with various Japanese motifs, string tied. Minor wear to cloth. Internally clean. Very good. Item #12860

An attractive and informative vernacular photograph album memorializing the experiences of Protestant missionaries in the Pacific. Protestant missionaries came to Hawaii starting in the 1820s, and eventually became quite socially and politically influential. The first Protestant missionaries arrived in Japan in the mid-1840s. They were relegated to treaty ports and prohibited from proselytizing, but once these restrictions were lifted, they were fairly successful, with 300 churches and 34,000 converts by 1889. Their main avenue was education, and by the 1920s they were well established in this sector. The present album of photographs were taken by an American missionary in Hawaii and Japan in 1927 and 1928. It is not entirely clear whether the photographer did any missionary work in Hawaii or if it was just a stop on the way to Japan; the photos from Hawaii show Honolulu harbor from the deck of the President Madison, the "Club House," and Diamond Head.

The photographs from Japan are more clearly missionary. The photographer was involved in teaching in Kyoto; captions include "Kami Kyoku Bishamon Cho" (listed as a theological school in the 1928 Japan Mission Year Book) "Japanese Language School," "The Faculty," "Nihongo Faculty," and "St Agnes Ena -- Music." There are two St. Agneses in the Year Book, both middle schools, one in Tokyo and one in Kyoto. Two photos of an older Japanese man in a clerical collar captioned "Mr Hayakawa" suggest this is the St. Agnes in Kyoto, as Mr. K. Hayakawa is listed as the head of that school. Other individuals listed in the Year Book include Sally Rembert, Thora Johnson, and "Maxine," who is probably Maxine Schannep with the ABCFM. Generally the school shots are exteriors of buildings and people posing outside of them; there are also shots of Christmas trees at St. Agnes, the students of "Helen’s Kindergarten" in Koriyama, girls in school uniform with deer at Nara Park, and several of the nurse's home at St. Luke's Hospital in Tokyo.

Other photos show life around Kyoto and other cities, including Nikko and Fukui. Most of the men are in Western dress, while the women and children wear kimono. Two photos of Buddhist monks included in the album were taken by Japanese photographer Kurokawa Suizan; these show a Komusō in a tengai hat playing the flute and a kasa-hatted monk on the steps of a building. Finally, some uncaptioned shots show a procession taking place in front of an audience. Some in the procession carry flags, a few are on horseback, and a few carry plants on their heads, and part of the procession carries a litter.

Overall the album documents both religious education and everyday life in late 1920s Japan; of particular interest to historians of Protestant missionaries.

Price: $1,250