Sapporo Independent Christian Church

The Sapporo Independent Christian Church (Japanese: 札幌独立キリスト教会, Hepburn: Sapporo Dokuritsu Kirisuto Kyōkai, or Sapporo Christian Church) is a church located in Sapporo, Japan. It was founded in 1881 by students of William S. Clark at the Sapporo Agricultural College.[1][2] These students became known as the "Sapporo band" of Christians.[3] Although Clark had returned to the United States by the time the church was founded, he supported it financially and corresponded with its members through letters.[2] Members of the church include Uchimura Kanzō, who went on to found the non-church movement, and Nitobe Inazō, who became president of the Tokyo Women's Christian College, an under-secretary at the League of Nations, and was the author of Bushido: The Soul of Japan.[1]

Sapporo Independent Christian Church
A black-and-white drawing of an old wooden church. The church is small and has no steeple.
Sapporo Independent Christian Church in July 1885.
Location of Sapporo Independent Christian Church in Japan.
Location of Sapporo Independent Christian Church in Japan.
Sapporo Independent Christian Church
Location of the church in Japan.
43°3′23.8″N 141°19′25.7″E / 43.056611°N 141.323806°E / 43.056611; 141.323806
LocationSapporo
CountryJapan
DenominationIndependent
Websitewww12.plala.or.jp/dokuritsu-kyokai/index.html
History
FoundedOctober 2, 1881 (1881-10-02)
Founder(s)Uchimura Kanzō
Associated peopleNitobe Inazō

References edit

  1. ^ a b Duke, Benjamin C. (2009). The History of Modern Japanese Education: Constructing the National School System, 1872-1890. Piscataway, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-8135-4648-3.
  2. ^ a b Beauchamp, Edward R.; Iriye, Akira (1990). Foreign employees in nineteenth-century Japan. Boulder: Westview. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-8133-7555-7.
  3. ^ Oshiro, George M. (2007). "Nitobe Inazō and the Sapporo Band: Reflections on the Dawn of Protestant Christianity in Early Meiji Japan" (PDF). Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 34 (1): 99–126.

External links edit