James Curtis Hepburn |
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Missionary from Central Pennsylvania to Japan[I] By David J. Lu [II] Revised May 2011 One day I was sitting in the upstairs
living room of Sat Eisaku[1].
In a room surrounded by the autographed portraits of Queen
Elizabeth II, the late Prime Minister Yoshida Shireru, and other
notable world figures, the former prime minister who had just
received his Nobel peace prize, was in a relaxed and jovial
mood. “Tell me, why is Bucknell so interested in Japanese
studies? Is there any special tradition behind it?” he asked. “Well, we have the
Susquehanna river that gave its name to the flagship of
Commodore Matthew Perry who opened I wonder how many in his home town know who J.C. Hepburn
was. In J. C. Hepburn was a giant among those who helped usher in Preparation The saga of this remarkable man began on
The following year, he joined the First Presbyterian
Church of Milton. The notion of becoming a medical missionary
suddenly overtook him. His father strongly opposed it, and he
tried to wipe away this notion to please his family. But his
heart was not at rest until he decided to go overseas. The sense
of mission and calling was simply overpowering. In the fall of
1838, Hepburn opened his practice in They had their eyes set on Finally there was an opening at a mission hospital in The Hepburns remained in Opening of On July 8, 1853, four days behind schedule, Commodore
Matthew Perry’s four black ships entered the Edo bay and
anchored off the Americans in The Americans and Japanese shall not do anything that may
be calculated to excite religious animosity. The Government of
Japan has already abolished the practice of trampling on
religious emblems. This was the opening that the Christian community was
waiting for. Naval chaplains on the
A Physician in
Kanagawa After leaving
In Kanagawa, the Hepburns rented as their mission house a
Buddhist temple that was located next to the U. S. Consulate. He
was soon joined by other missionaries, including S. R. Brown[5],
a personal friend whom he first met in 1842 in Unlike today’s At
the time of his arrival in Hepburn’s first priority was to establish a clinic, which
he started in a location separate from the mission house in
1861. For the next 18 years (with some interruptions caused by
the government intervention), he treated an upward of 10.000
patients. To a handful of students who wanted medical training,
he set aside a couple of days each week to teach them. During
the last five years when the clinic was in operation, he gave
Bible lessons to the waiting patients before giving them
treatment. The clinic did not rely on money sent by the Mission
Board. A small amount of donations came from foreigners living
in Translating the Bible Japanese-English
Dictionary: Another goal he set for himself was translation
of the Bible. However, before he could undertake this task, he
had to know the language, and the study of Japanese begun in
earnest. Townsend Harris helped him find a Japanese instructor
by the name of Yano Ryūzan. That was in 1860. Within a year, he
felt he knew the essence of the language and started to read
Japanese books in order to know the Japanese thought process and
to create a word list. He wanted to compile a Japanese-English
and English-Japanese dictionary as the first step toward the
translation of the scriptures. In 1866, the dictionary was completed. As he remarked in
his preface, the Japanese language was a totally new language to
the Westerners, and there were no dictionaries or grammar books
available. He had to undertake everything anew. To know the
Japanese people and their culture, it was imperative that one
knew their language first. Furthermore, without knowing the
language, he would not be able to translate the Holy Scriptures.
In The first edition of the dictionary contained a 20,000
word vocabulary and was published in The Japanese language is written with the combination of
kanji
漢字 (Chinese
characters) and kanaかな (Japanese syllabary). The dictionary had to transcribe
these words into Romanized letters. This system of Romanization
became the basis of the so-called Hepburn system of
Romanization. With some modification, and under some other
names, this system is still in use today. The New Testament:
On the matter of translating the Bible, Hepburn advised the
American Bible Society not to recognize any translation rendered
by individuals. He firmly believed that the translation had to
be a joint work, and the Society should accept only those
versions recommended by a committee of missionaries representing
all denominations in The Old Testament:
Another committee with different members was formulated to
translate the Old Testament with Hepburn as its chairman.
Hepburn was the only person to serve on both committees. In
1887, the task was completed and the following year it was
published. Hepburn knew Greek well enough, but not Hebrew. He
utilized a year of rest in
In 1886, two schools which were successors
to the The completion and dedication of the Shiloh church in By 1888, church members exceeded 200 and continued to
grow steadily. The city of The same year, the couple completed their 33 years of
missionary work in Hepburn’s Place in History Hepburn and Ballagh, along with Leroy Janes[15],
William S. Clark[16],
and Jerome Davis[17]
are the names most often cited as the most influential early
American missionaries to Why did this honor belong to an unassuming son of
1. His love and
respect for the people he served. While some other
missionaries might have considered Japanese Christians their
“spiritual children”[18]
long after they matured in their faith, Hepburn always treated
them as “fellow workers in the Lord’s vineyard.” A story has it
that in 1872 before returning to
Today we know the Japanese as a people who are
self-assured. But in Hepburn’s days, they felt that the
Westerners were vastly superior, and one of their goals was to
become like Westerners and be treated as equals. The chance of
equality in diplomacy and economy was hard to come by. But in
Christianity, they saw the example set by Hepburn. His
egalitarian principle was one of the keys in attracting the best
minds to Christianity, and Japanese Christians, while small in
number, were able to exercise a disproportionate influence in
their society.
2. Steadfastness in
his Bible-centered belief: Years after Hepburn left
The building that Hepburn bequeathed was devastated by
the Great Tokyo Earthquake of 1923. The building that replaced
it was destroyed by the
Shiloh church holds a unique place in
“The scepter shall not depart from
3. His long-term
commitment and ability to set long-term goals:
The translation of the Holy Bible into Japanese was
the crowning achievement of his ministry. Taking 18 years, he
studied the languages, and constantly toiled in the vineyard.
Denying credit to himself, and working twice as hard as anyone
else, he accomplished a feat seldom matched anywhere. He was a
remarkable team-worker, the quality that endeared him to his
Japanese and American colleagues and ensured his success. His
translation had a lasting impact, not just because it had the
imprimatur of the American and British Bible Societies, it was
done in elegant Japanese. The Psalms were rendered in such a way
that it gave inspiration to Japanese poets who were in search of
a new genre. Secular schools found no contradiction in
incorporating Biblical passages in their school songs.
His compiling of the Japanese-English and
English-Japanese dictionary was just a means toward the end of
translating the Bible. But it is this work that is best
remembered by the secular society along with the Hepburn system
of Romanization. On these alone he established a firm place in
Japanese history. In seeking the kingdom and its righteousness
first, everything was indeed granted to him.
Hepburn’s was an age of transformation which was seldom
seen in world history. In the
Hepburn’s firm belief in the need to translate the Bible,
his long-term project, was predestined for success and required
no mid-course correction. The Bible as translated filled the
cultural and moral void that existed in the age of uncertainty.
The undertaking also signified Hepburn’s belief in the Japanese
people’s ability to know God through the Holy Scriptures.
Luther’s notion of universal priesthood of all believers was, in
effect, transplanted to
4. His relative
independence from the
5.
The
role played by his wife Clara:[21]
In speaking of Hepburn’s
ministry, one can never forget his wife and partner Clara. The
attack on her in 1861 has been discussed earlier. Sustaining an
injury, she quietly returned to the States for a while, so as
not to endanger the status of her husband’s mission or those of
other missionaries. Their children’s deaths and other tragedies
visited on them. She suppressed her private grief for the
greater glory of God. Mrs. Hepburn’s school had students that
included Takahashi Korekiyo, mentioned earlier, and another
named
Hayashi Tadasu,[22]
who as
Their educational impact was not confined to politicians
and diplomats. Shimazaki Tōson, cited earlier, was one of the
three most important writers of the early 20th
century. His sojourn from naturalism to romanticism, his
exposing of social ills through his pen, and his reaffirmation
of
At the time of revising this article in May 2011, the
devastations wrought by the triple disasters of earthquake,
tsunami, and nuclear meltdown are still fresh in minds. In these
difficult times, the Japanese people have demonstrated their
resilience, good manners, and spirit of hope. It was the same
spirit that brought them back from the devastations of the IIWW,
and when combined with their work ethic, brought unprecedented
prosperity to Japan in the 70’s and 80’s. Even though it had
yielded the position of the second largest economy to
Scholars are quick to point out the power of the traditional teachings based
on Confucianism as the guiding principles that led to
History has a
curious way of finding similarities in unsuspected corners of
the world at different times. Today our scripture-based
traditional values are under attack, and we are taught to become
politically correct. The moral confusion we experience is eerie
similar to the
[1]
佐藤栄作(1901-1975)
Japan’s longest continuous
serving prime minister
(1964-72).. First Asian to
receive the Nobel peace prize in
1974 for his “Three non-nuclear
principles.”
[2]
高橋是清(1854-1936) Born in Edo
(Tokyo), studied in the United
States, taught English after his
return, became a financier,
President, Bank of Japan,
Finance Minister, Prime
Minister, head of the Seiyūkai
Party, assassinated in the
February 26 incident.
[3]
On Hepburn, I have relied
heavily on Professor Takaya
Micho’s seminal work
Hepburn (ヘボン)
which was published by Yoshikawa
Kōbunkan in 1961 as part of a
series of biographies of 100
most prominent persons who
ushered in modernization to
[4]
See David Lu,
[5]
Samuel Rollins Brown, D.D.
(1810-1880). In
[6]
James Hamilton Ballagh
(1832-1920). Arrived in
[7]
Headquarters of the
Shogun, endowed with full military and administrative power, or
Shogunate.
[8]
Recognizing this aspect of his
mission, the memorial plaque
erected in his honor at the
First Presbyterian Church of
Milton cites II Corinthians
4-9-10 “Persecuted, but not
forsaken; cast down, but not
destroyed; always bearing about
in the body the dying of the
Lord Jesus, that the life also
of Jesus might be made manifest
in our body.” King James Version
[9]
Contemporary
[10]
植村正久(1857-1925) evangelist, pastor of Fujimichō church, one of
the founders of Tokyo
Shingakusha (Seminary), a
prolific writer in defense of
evangelical faith.
[11]
47,:9, King James Version.
[12]
A seminary established in 1877
through a merger of schools
maintained by the Presbyterian
Church in the United States, the
Dutch Reformed Church in
America, and the United
Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
[13]
島崎藤村(1872-1943), poet, author of the Meij-Taishō and early Shōwa
periods. “Teachers gave their
blessings,” he wrote in his
autobiographical novel
When the Cherries Ripen
桜の実の熟する時, there were
“recitations from the Bible, the
singing of hymns, and prayers
for our departure.”
[14]
Luke
[15]
Leroy Lansing Janes (1838-1909),
a Civil War veteran, taught in
[16]
William Smith Clark (1826-1885)
While president of the
[17]
Jerome Dean Davis (1838-1910),
became a missionary to
[18]
I owe this term and Hepburn’s
differing views to John F Howes,
“Japanese Christians and
American Missionaries” in Marius
B. Jansen, ed.,
Changing Japanese Attitudes
toward Modernization
(Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1965)
[19]
The Centennial History of
[20]
Genesis 49:10, King James
Version.
[21]
Hepburn portrait courtesy of
[22]
林
董 1850
–
1913) Born in the present
day Chiba. His education at the
Hepburn school led him to be
selected as one of the 14
students sent by the
bakufu to
[23]
大村
益次郎1824
– 1869). Born in Yamaguchi.
Early on interested in knowledge
from the West that led him to
[24]
William Edwin Hoy (1858-1927) as
a missionary to
[25]
See for example Fukuzawa
Yukichi’s (1834-1901) 1885 essay
“Good-bye Asia
脱亜論” that advocated discarding of
Confucianism in favor of Western
civilization. Lu, op. cit. pp.
351-53. |