Savva24 ... Orthodox Church in Japan

[尼古拉前执事]

Could you tell us about Orthodoxy in Japan and how things have progressed since Saint Nicholas of Japan started the whole ball rolling?

[Savva24]

Dear Nicholas,

I just spent three hours writting you a reply about the Church of Japan and I don't know where it went. I pushed the submit button and I don't know what happened after that. I am so angry I could put my fist through the screen right now. What a waste! I am sorry but I will have to make you wait for awile before I bring myself to write another email.

Nicholas

[Savva24]

The Orthodox Church in Japan (ﾊﾘｽﾄｽ正教会)

I have been asked by Nicholas to write about the situation of the Orthodox Church of Japan having lived in Japan and gone to churches here for 2 years now. I am sorry for taking so long to reply but numerous things happened including once loosing what I had written after spending a few hours of work on it. As many of you probably know, this can be very distressing and cause one to loath touching the same topic for some time. Anyway, here goes.

I should mention first that it is an absolute miracle that the Orthodox Church exists here at all. I have rarely seen a place more thoroughly secular then here. From my observation, even the way Japanese view their own native Buddhist and Shinto religions is very secular, superstitions piled on superstitions, practices and rituals that will bring good ‘’’engi’’ (something roughly translated as ‘’fate’’ or ‘’luck’’) to a worldly undertaking, or help the flow of good energy in ones day to day existence. There are different idols, gods and talismans to make sure all kinds of worldly goals are met, from getting good grades in schools to making money (there is even a god you pray to for good bowel movements). There are special services, which you would hire a priest to perform, to make sure an undertaking will go well, from blessing the foundation of a house to making sure you get rid of negative energy or karma (for example the main bug spray making company has a huge service once a year to get rid of all the evil ‘’engi’’ they accumulate from helping to murder so many insects！). Even the ancestor warship of Shintoism that is so prevalent in Japanese culture seems to me mainly a way of keeping the continuity of good energy flowing from generation to generation and is mainly thought of in terms of what benefits it brings now, in this world. Over all the Japanese people are not interested in anything like eternal salvation or spiritual perfection, and I don’t think, by and large, they ever were. When Buddhism first came here in the 7th century, the Japanese quickly shaved off all of the hardcore and deeply acetic and philosophical aspects that are found elsewhere (Nepal, Tibet, etc…). Of course there are exceptions in the varied kind of extremely ascetic Buddhist sects, but for the masses, the new religion simply melted itself into the spirit of the existing folk religion, adding only a new vocabulary and iconography to the secular and earthy Shinto faith. After all, the more acetic sects were isolated to only certain groups. For example, Zen was not practiced outside of the Warrior class for many centuries. Anyway, I think you get my point. This is what St. Nicholas was dealing with when trying to spread the faith here and this is why I think it is so amazing that the Church exists here at all. Only someone truly ‘’equal to the Apostles’’ could break through this dense secularism and offer Christ.

When I first came here I picked up a pamphlet in the Tokyo Cathedral which described the Orthodox Church of Japan. According to it, there are 150 churches in Japan with about 80 clergy members and around 30,000 faithful. However, according to the priest whose church I regularly attend, these and many other figures are greatly exaggerated. In reality, there probably are about 30 or so actual church buildings, mostly in the major cities, with about 60 small makeshift churches or missions held in the downstairs of people’s houses or in shacks, barns and other structures, mainly in the countryside. The number of clergy is probably under thirty (with 2 bishops) and faithful at fewer than 20,000 on the books. This shows that the figures had dropped after St. Nicholas’ death (over 30,000 faithful at that time) and never went back up. I heard that the numbers were even lower than now before WW2 but started to slowly rise again after the war. I don’t see a huge amount of people converting in Japan, but there is a steady trickle. I would bet that most of the converts are found in Tokyo from people stopping into Nikolai-do Cathedral out of curiosity and then, being amazed by its size and beauty, an interest growing. I don’t think that outside of Tokyo the influx of converts is very high. I went to a Christmas Eve service in a rather large church in the city of Kyoto (ancient imperial capital of Japan) and there were only seven people in the church, the priest, his family, one chanter, my wife and I. This was Christmas Eve so you can probably imagine the case in many places in Japan on a regular Sunday. As a side note, something I find a little distressing is that you rarely see small children in Japanese Churches. I think that the Japanese are very wimpy when it comes to handling children, the Orthodox being no exception in this regard (I say this after two years experience of working in junior high schools in Japan). So probably, most parents think it is too hard on a child to make him or her be in church for so long and so simply decide that he or she doesn’t have to come at all. The sad consequence being that the child grows up without knowing anything about Orthodoxy and never comes back to church. I think this is one reason why the majority of people in any church is going to be converts in Japan; the new come in while the cradle Orthodox go out (or maybe come back for Pascha if you are lucky).

The Japanese Church remained under Moscow after the Revolution all the way until WW2 when the Japanese government forced all religious organizations to be headed by a person of native Japanese decent. At that time (1940) the Japanese church broke ties with Moscow and consequently the ROCOR consecrated Nikolai Ono as the first native Japanese Bishop of Japan. A small faction stayed with Moscow, mainly Russians, during this time. They still exist with several parishes (now once again in communion with the Japanese Church) as the representation church of the MP in Japan. I have been to their church in Tokyo several times and it is much more Russian in spirit than the Japanese churches, all Slavonic, 95% Russians, etc.. At this point the Japanese Church decided to put itself under the jursitiction of American Metropolia (OCA), getting American bishops to come and rule it, until 1970. Soon after it got it’s autocephaly from Russia. Being under the OCA for so long has created a bond between the Japanese and American churches which can still be clearly seen today. You meet many clergy who are graduates of either Saint Vladimir’s (including the present Metropolitan Daniel) or Saint Tikhon’s seminary.

The Church of Japan is on the Old Calendar and though I would not say it is Traditionalist in the sense that ROCOR is traditionalist, it is not Modernist either. At the grassroots level it is not Ecumenist, though unfortunately it is officially a member of the World Council of Churches (It seems to me that in many ways the Japanese Church just follows the OCA and Russia in these things without giving them much thought. Most of the concerns of the Church here have to do with practically applying Orthodoxy to Japanese life and I don’t really see much thought given to Orthodoxy outside of Japan). People have very little awareness of how far ecumenism goes, probably having to do with the fact that modern Orthodox material is not often translated into Japanese. But the opinions on the not Orthodox here seem to be largely correct. For example, I have seen Non-Chaldeconians repeatedly turned from the chalice in Tokyo (a large number of Ethiopians and Copts attend the cathedral services and sometimes try to take the Sacrament there). One matushka I talked to was in shock when I told her that people actually hold prayer services with heretics and make ‘’joint statements’’ with them. She simply couldn’t understand why they would do that without having oneness of faith. So, like I said, at the local level, things seem to be good in that department.

Orthodoxy in Japan has definitely a home grown Japanese flavor. Services, as from the beginning, are all in Japanese. The chant, though based on the Russian, has slowly acquired a definite native feel. I heard someone compare the style of some chanting to native Buddhist chanting and I can see the similarities. Also, some churches are built in traditional architectural styles, with tatami floors and wooden ceilings. In these churches one would take their shoes off before entering as is the custom in Japan. I heard of one church that was built in the style of an old Japanese temple (maybe bought and converted) and the congregation would be in seiza (a special kind of formal kneeling position) throughout the services. It may be uncanonical to kneel on Sundays but for the Japanese there is not a more reverent way to position the body (and I can’t think of a more painful one!). There are also other things that are distinctly Japanese here. As a connection with their dead ancestors is important for all Japanese, there are certain seasons in the year where one is supposed to pray especially for their dead. During ‘’O-Bon’’, the Buddhist festival of the dead, Buddhist priests will come and hold rituals for the dead in the households of families. The Orthodox Church has continuously used this as a missionary tool to bridge to the Orthodox practice of prayer for the dead. So, to this day, Orthodox priests will go to houses and serve panehidas for Orthodox Christians who have died in the houses of their descendents during these seasons. Water also plays a great role in the Shinto religion; worshipers wash themselves and drink from ‘’blessed’’ fountains before entering a shrine and praying. I heard that St. Nicholas used this fact as a missionary tool to preach about the purifying waters of Holy Baptism.

There are some things in the Church of Japan that, as a traditionalist, I find a little unhealthy. Without going into them too much so as not to step on anyone’s toes, let us just say that there are a few modernist practices that seem to come directly from being ruled by the OCA, or more precisely, having too many priests trained at St. Vladimir’s. I love the Japanese Church and people here so it doesn’t please me to say anything bad about her, but I see that you have things, such as extremely shortened services, saying the secret prayers of the priest out loud, priests that smoke and wear the ‘’dog collar’’, speak in very Protestant terms etc, etc, which probably aren’t so evil in and of themselves, but when taken together as a whole, leaves a, shall we say, not completely Orthodox ethos and vibe. This coupled with the fact that there is not one monastery in Japan to have as the ideal for parish life, makes it hard for the Japanese Church to always reflect the real spirit of traditional Orthodox practice. In my opinion, I don’t see how any Orthodox jurisdiction can remain wholly in the ethos of the Fathers forever without a monastic existence (Antiochians, et all…). It may only be a matter of time before they become secularized and protestantized without one. I hope I don’t offend anyone with this paragraph. Please forgive me if did; I don’t know how else to write something I see as a spiritual fact.

On the up side, they are in the process of starting a women’s monastery connected to the Cathedral in Tokyo. Three very pious Japanese women who seemed to have spent time in Russia are the candidates so far. They are just looking for a worthy abbess in Russia with monastic experience to hold it down. I think that this will be very good for the Japanese Church in general. Also, since the fall of Communism, the Japanese Church has moved much closer to its mother church, which I also think has opened some healthy traditional elements to the piety here.

I hope that some of you are actually interested and I haven’t wasted mine and your time and board you all by writing so much. And I apologize again, Nicholas, for taking so long to do answer your inquiry.

In Christ,

Nicholas (Savva)

[OrthodoxyOrDeath]

Nicholas (Savva),

I haven't had the chance to read the above, but I'm very interested. I thought I would mention that your problem with losing your post has happened to me too.

The problem is, when you log in, if your screen remains unchanged for 20-30 minutes or so, like when you are typing a long repsonse, your login expires. So when you do a long post, and you try to post it, you are redirected to the login screen and you lose your work UNLESS YOU IMMEDIATLY HIT BACK. You may also get in the habit on long posts to ctrl+A ctrl+c (select all, copy all) just in case - or can type long posts in Word and that way you have a copy.

Gotta go.

[Alyosha]

Thank you for taking the time to write it. This is very interesting, I think it was well-worth it writing it twice. If you have any electronic pictures of the Japanese Churches, I would be interested to see some.

Also, I just recently learned that when Orthodoxy when coming to a new land took some of pagan traditions of the native peoples and adopted them into the faith. Such as Maslennitza in Russa, Slava in Serbia, etc. It's interesting to learn about such adoptions in Japan (i.e., kneeling, etc)

Thanks again.

[Savva24]

Dear Volha,

I am so glad that someone found the above interesting and that it wasn't a waste.

I will try to dig up some pictures of churches on the net. I know there are some on various websites but most of the websites are in Japanese and would take some sifting through. For starters, here is a link to the Official page for the Othodox Church of Japan in English and it has a link to pictures of Nikolai-do Cathedral in Tokyo. It really is an amazing place. Most Japanese know about it because it is a national landmark and I have never even seen a Heterodox church half as big in the Tokyo Area, very special indeed.

http://www2.gol.com/users/ocj/TheOrthod ... nJapan.htm

In Christ,

Nicholas

[尼古拉前执事]

Thank you Nicholas, I appreciate you posting both the positive and negatives.