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The Chrysanthemum and the “Saint”: Kagawa's Statue in the Washington National Cathedral

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2021

Bo Tao
Bo Tao*
Affiliation:
Visiting Research Fellow at Waseda University
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article takes as its central site of interrogation the stone sculpture of Kagawa Toyohiko (1888–1960) in the Washington National Cathedral, asking how a statue of a Japanese Christian leader came to be constructed inside one of America's most important religious institutions. At first glance, the statue appears to be a simple instance of commemoration for an individual who dedicated his life to helping the poor and spreading the gospel within his native country of Japan. What emerges from a close examination of the National Cathedral's archives, however, is the story of a religious leader whose international standing and reputation underwent a significant shift over the course of his career. By tracing the construction of Kagawa's image as a globally renowned Christian pacifist during the interwar period, and the challenges to this image brought on by his subsequent wartime activities, this study seeks to place the Cathedral's building of the statue into historical context. In doing so, it illuminates the politics of national representation inherent in this project of cross-cultural commemoration, while also highlighting the lessons it offers about the rise and fall of Christian internationalism in the mid-twentieth century.

Keywords

KagawaJapanAmericaWashington National CathedralChristian internationalism
Type
Articles
Information
Church History , Volume 89 , Issue 3 , September 2020 , pp. 567 - 591
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Society of Church History

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Footnotes

Special thanks are due to Diane Ney, Head Archivist at the Washington National Cathedral, for her steadfast help in locating the archival records that made this study possible. I would also like to thank Adam Minakowski of the Nimitz Library at the U.S. Naval Academy for his reference assistance. An early version of this article was presented at the Columbia Graduate Religion Conference in April 2018, during which I received invaluable feedback from Gale Kenny of Barnard College on how to improve the manuscript.

References

1 When referring to Japanese persons in the text, I follow the convention of Japanese naming customs, wherein the surname precedes the given name.

2 While a number of scholars have examined Kagawa's American ties in recent years, none seem aware of the fact that the Japanese Christian leader has a statue of his likeness in the Washington National Cathedral. See, for example, King, David P., “The West Looks East: The Influence of Toyohiko Kagawa on American Mainline Protestantism,” Church History 80, no. 2 (June 2011): 302–320CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Shaffer, Robert, “‘A Missionary from the East to Western Pagans’: Kagawa Toyohiko's 1936 U.S. Tour,” Journal of World History 24, no. 3 (2013): 577–621CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Shaffer, Robert, “A Japanese Christian Socialist-Pacifist and His American Supporters: Personal Contacts and Critical Internationalism,” Peace & Change 39, no. 2 (2014): 212–241CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Byrd, Brian G. and Loucky, John Paul, “Toyohiko Kagawa and Reinhold Niebuhr: The Church and Cooperatives,” Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 28, no. 1–2 (2016): 63–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Thompson, Michael G., For God and Globe: Christian Internationalism in the United States between the Great War and the Cold War (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Thompson, Michael G., “Sherwood Eddy, the Missionary Enterprise, and the Rise of Christian Internationalism in 1920s America,” Modern Intellectual History 12, no. 1 (April 2015): 66–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Thompson, For God and Globe, 197–198. See also Aydin, Cemil, The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia: Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 On the topic of “aspirational cosmopolitanism,” see Bose, Sugata and Manjapra, Kris, eds., Cosmopolitan Thought Zones: South Asia and the Global Circulation of Ideas (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 1–20Google Scholar.

6 An in-depth treatment of the issue of Kagawa's image construction can be found in Bo Tao, “Imperial Pacifism: Kagawa Toyohiko and Christianity in the Asia-Pacific War” (PhD diss., Yale University, 2020). For an account that focuses on Kagawa's depiction in The Christian Century, see King, “The West Looks East,” 304–320.

7 Robert, Dana L., “The First Globalization: The Internationalization of the Protestant Missionary Movement between the World Wars,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 26, no. 2 (April 2002): 50–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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9 Kagawa's novel Shisen o koete was published by the socialist publishing house Kaizō in 1920. It was then translated into English in 1922 and reissued to a wider circulation in 1924. Kagawa, Across the Death-line, trans. Ichiji Fukumoto and Thomas Satchell (Kobe: Japan Chronicle Office, 1922); Kagawa, Before the Dawn, trans. Ichiji Fukumoto and Thomas Satchell (New York: George H. Doran, 1924).

10 Wilson P. Minton (1888–1969), a missionary of the Christian Church of America (Disciples of Christ), was one among many foreign visitors who called on Kagawa in Kobe. He recounted his 1920 meeting with the “most noted slum worker in Japan” as one of the highlights of his trip. See Wilson P. Minton, A Tour of Japan in 1920: An American Missionary's Diary with 129 Photographs, ed. David W. Carstetter (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co, 1992), 250–256.

11 “Dear Friends,” 20 September 1922, Box 3, Folder 68, George Sherwood Eddy Papers (RG 32), Special Collections, Yale Divinity School Library.

12 “Mother (née Genevieve Faville) Topping,” “Henry Topping,” Coll. 34/32/7, Helen Faville

Topping Papers, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Hereafter cited as HFTP.

13 Kobayashi Noriyoshi, “Tappingu no ie no hitobito,” Eigakushi Kenkyū 1989, no. 21 (1989): 155–167.

14 For an analysis of the Toppings’ partnership with Kagawa from the perspective of cross-cultural friendship, see Robert, Dana L., “Cross-Cultural Friendship in the Creation of Twentieth-Century World Christianity,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 35, no. 2 (April 2011): 104–105CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 The Japanese fellowship group, founded in 1921, was called Iesu no Tomo Kai, which I have literally translated as “Friends of Jesus Society.” Kagawa's 1924–25 itinerary in California included appearances at the L.A. Rotary Club, City Club, Occidental College, the University of Southern California, Pomona College, Japanese American citizens’ groups, and a number of Japanese and non-Japanese churches. Kagawa Toyohiko, Unsui henro (Tokyo: Kaizōsha, 1926), 60–68.

16 “Ōbei tsūshin,” Kumo no hashira, June 1925.

17 In his writing, Kagawa refers to the Kagawa Cooperators as the “Kagawa Supporters’ Association” (Kagawa kōenkai). “Tabi makura yori,” Kumo no hashira, June 1927.

18 Mullins, Mark R., “Christianity as a Transnational Social Movement: Kagawa Toyohiko and the Friends of Jesus,” Japanese Religions 32, no. 1 & 2 (2007): 79–80Google Scholar; Mark R. Mullins, “Kagawa Toyohiko (1888–1960) and the Japanese Christian Impact on American Society,” in Encountering Modernity: Christianity in East Asia and Asian America, ed. Albert L. Park and David K. Yoo (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2014), 168–169.

19 Kagawa, “Christian Internationalism,” 4 May 1927, Japanese transcript of speech delivered at Helen Topping's welcome party, Kagawa Archives and Resource Center, Tokyo.

20 Kagawa, “Christian Internationalism.”

21 Paul Hutchinson, “Twenty-Six Years Later,” Friends of Jesus, February–April 1931 (Shanghai Number), 2.

22 The locations included Geneva, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Korea, the United States, the British Isles, Myanmar, Canada, and China. Friends of Jesus, August 1932 (Weishien Number), 72.

23 “Entire Family Works with Kagawa,” MRL 7, Kagawa Papers, 1/1/4, Burke Library, Union Theological Seminary. Cited hereafter as Kagawa Papers.

24 Kagawa, Toyohiko, Love, the Law of Life, trans. Fullerton Gressitt, J. (Philadelphia, Pa.: The John C. Winston Co., 1929)Google Scholar; Kagawa, Toyohiko, New Life through God, ed. Saunders, Kenneth J., trans. Kilburn, Elizabeth (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1931)Google Scholar; Kagawa, Toyohiko, The Religion of Jesus, trans. Topping, Helen (London: Student Christian Movement Press, 1931)Google Scholar; Kagawa, Toyohiko, Christ and Japan, trans. Axling, William (New York: Friendship Press, 1934)Google Scholar, Kagawa, Toyohiko, Jesus through Japanese Eyes: A Study of the Daily Life of Jesus, ed. Wilson, Richard Mercer, trans. Topping, Helen and Draper, Marion R. (London: Lutterworth Press, 1934)Google Scholar; Kagawa, Toyohiko, Meditations on the Cross, trans. Topping, Helen and Draper, Marion R. (Chicago: Willett, 1935)Google Scholar; and Kagawa, Toyohiko, Songs from the Slums, trans. Erickson, Lois Johnson (Nashville, Tenn.: Cokesbury Press, 1935)Google Scholar.

25 Rufus Jones, “Foreword,” Love, the Law of Life, vii.

26 Sherwood Eddy, “Introduction,” Songs from the Slums, 12.

27 Kenneth Saunders, “Introduction,” New Life through God, 16.

28 “Kagawa: Gambler for God by Allan A. Hunter,” Shin Sekai, 1 September 1931.

29 For the biography, see Axling, William, Kagawa, (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1932)Google Scholar.

30 The overseas distribution network for the Kagawa Calendar included the following locations: Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Columbus (Ohio), Glendale (Ohio), Shelbyville (Kentucky), Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis (Missouri), Los Angeles, Berkeley, Melbourne, Warrnambool (Australia), and London. Kagawa Calendar, 1938, 1/1/3, Kagawa Papers; “Entire Family Works with Kagawa,” n.d., 1/1/4, Kagawa Papers.

31 On the background of T.T. Brumbaugh, along with that of William Axling, Helen Topping, and former head of the Japan YMCA Galen Fisher, see Shaffer, “A Japanese Christian Socialist-Pacifist and His American Supporters.”

32 Carpenter was executive secretary of the National Kagawa Co-ordinating Committee, which comprised seventy-five members who were responsible for organizing the tour.

33 “Raise Funds for Kagawa,” Rafu Shimpō, 21 January 1935.

34 For an examination of the historical significance of Kagawa's 1936 tour, see Shaffer, “‘A Missionary from the East to Western Pagans’: Kagawa Toyohiko's 1936 U.S. Tour.”

35 H.Y. Benedict to Helen Topping, 5 July 1935, Coll. 34/21/4, HFTP.

36 For more on Kagawa's relationship with President Roosevelt, see Bo Tao, “The Peacemaking Efforts of a Reverse Missionary: Toyohiko Kagawa before Pearl Harbor.” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 37, no. 3 (July 2013): 171–176.

37 In his NBC broadcast, Kagawa urged the building of a system of international cooperative trade that would “abolish the causes of war,” and declared that there was no likelihood of war between Japan and America. “Kagawa Bids Farewell,” New York Times, 1 July 1936, 4.

38 See Kagawa, Toyohiko, Brotherhood Economics (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1936)Google Scholar.

39 Besides the United States, these countries include China, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Wales, Andorra, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, San Marino, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. Kagawa Toyohiko, Yūai no seiji keizaigaku, ed. Nojiri Taketoshi, trans. Kayama Hisao and Ishibe Kimio (Tokyo: Nihon Seikatsu Kyōdō Kumiai Rengōkai Shuppanbu, 2009), 166.

40 “Japanese Christian Starts an American Church War,” Newsweek, 25 April 1936, 42.

41 Norris, J. Frank, Sovietizing America through Churches, Colleges, and Consumers’ Cooperatives (Rochester, N.Y.: Interstate Evangelistic Association, 1936)Google Scholar. Norris also went around asking denominational bodies to cancel their invitations to Kagawa, to no great success. “Pastor Opposes Kagawa Speech at Convention,” Washington Post, 14 May 1936.

42 “Michigan Church Honors Nippon's Toyohiko Kagawa,” Rafu Shimpō, 9 December 1936.

43 “Michigan Church Honors Nippon's Toyohiko Kagawa,” Rafu Shimpō, 9 December 1936.

44 Richard King, “Orientalism and the Modern Myth of ‘Hinduism,’” Numen: International Review for the History of Religions 46, no. 2 (April 1999): 146–185.

45 An insightful study on the significance of the FOR and Gandhi to Christian nonviolence in America can be found in Joseph Kip Kosek, Acts of Conscience: Christian Nonviolence and Modern American Democracy (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009). See also Danielson, Leilah C., “‘In My Extremity I Turned to Gandhi’: American Pacifists, Christianity, and Gandhian Nonviolence, 1915–1941,” Church History 72, no. 2 (2003): 361–388CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 Appelbaum, Patricia, Kingdom to Commune: Protestant Pacifist Culture between World War I and the Vietnam Era (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 97–101Google Scholar.

47 According to an interview with two longtime peace activists who were brought up as Methodists, prewar pastors regularly mentioned Kagawa, Schweitzer, [Wilfred] Grenfell (a British medical missionary), Lester, and Addams together—“always in groups.” Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 247n28.

48 Gregg, Richard Bartlett, Training for Peace: A Program for Peace Workers (Philadelphia, Pa.: J.B. Lippincott, 1937), 20Google Scholar.

49 Saunders, Kenneth J., Whither Asia? A Study of Three Leaders: Mahatma Gandhi, Hu Shih, Kagawa (New York: Macmillan, 1933)Google Scholar; and Hunter, Allan A., Three Trumpets Sound: Kagawa, Gandhi, Schweitzer (New York: Association Press, 1939)Google Scholar.

50 For an analysis of the personal meeting between Gandhi and Kagawa, which took place on January 14, 1939, see Tao, “Imperial Pacifism,” 129–152.

51 Harold E. Fey, “Play Fair with Kagawa,” The Christian Century, 11 October 1933, 1270–1272.

52 For a comparative analysis between the constructed image of Kagawa and his real-life actions as a subject of imperial Japan, see Tao, “Imperial Pacifism,” 38–298. On the topic of cross-cultural friendship and its post-World War II denouement, see Robert, “Cross-cultural Friendship in the Creation of Twentieth-century World Christianity,” 100–106.

53 Admiral Fleck was serving on a destroyer at Pearl Harbor when Japanese forces attacked it on December 7, 1941. After having survived the attack, he served in the European theater during World War II, before being assigned to advisory duty in occupied Japan. For his work in the latter capacity, the Japanese government decorated him with the Order of the Sacred Treasure (3rd class) in 1954. “Obituary: Francis Edward Fleck Jr.,” 16 July 1990, Washington Post; Yoshida Shigeru, “America gasshūkoku kaigun taisa Franshisu Edowādo Furekku Junia o kun 3-tō ni joshi Zuihōshō o zōyo suru ni tsuite,” 25 June 1954, National Archives of Japan.

54 “Francis Edward Fleck, Jr. ’34,” n.d., Shipmate (official alumni magazine of the U.S. Naval Academy).

55 Feller to Severson, 21 November 1969, 161.9.18, Washington National Cathedral Archives. Cited hereafter as WNCA; Contract Agreement between the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia and William C. Severson of Scopia Studios, 9 April 1970, WNCA. The standard procedure for producing stone carvings called for the creation of a plaster model first, often by an independent contractor, after which the design would be worked into statues by stone craftsmen, many of whom hailed from Italy. For a detailed examination of the craft and art of stone carving, see Marjorie Hunt, The Stone Carvers: Master Craftsmen of Washington National Cathedral (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999), 77–132.

56 Feller to Severson, 21 November 1969, WNCA. In the end, the plan to keep the North Outer Aisle exclusively non-American was not realized, as can be seen from the current configuration, which includes figures such as Isabella Thoburn, an American Methodist missionary known for her establishment of educational institutions in North India, and the influential Baptist minister and civil rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr.

57 Feller to Severson, 30 April 1970, WNCA.

58 By 1958, for example, Russian Orthodox, Ukrainian Orthodox, and the Polish National Catholic churches worshipped in the Cathedral on Sunday mornings. The Cathedral also served as the temporary home to the Syrian Orthodox church, which held its services in Arabic, and the Temple Sinai Jewish congregation until they were able to build their own places of worship. Frederick Quinn, A House of Prayer for All People: A History of Washington National Cathedral (Harrisburg, Pa.: Morehouse Publishing, 2014), 122.

59 These included a larger-than-life-size statue of Abraham Lincoln in what is now called the Lincoln Bay, and the installation of the west rose window, a 26-foot stained-glass window located above the main entrance that symbolizes the majesty and mystery of creation.

60 Feller to Severson, 28 May 1970, WNCA.

61 Feller to Severson, 28 May 1970, WNCA.

62 The Cathedral's Lincoln statue and Lincoln Bay had not yet been constructed at this point.

63 Feller to Severson, 28 May 1970, WNCA.

64 “William Conrad Severson,” internal memo, n.d., WNCA.

65 “William Conrad Severson,” internal memo.

66 Severson to Feller, 18 November 1970, WNCA.

67 Severson to Feller, 18 November 1970, WNCA. Severson enclosed a few photographs of his preliminary model with his letter. The photos could not be found in the Cathedral archival folder.

68 Feller to Severson, 27 November 1970, WNCA. Francis B. Sayre Jr. was born in the White House as the first grandchild of President Woodrow Wilson, and later served as Dean of the Washington National Cathedral from 1951 to 1978. An outspoken opponent of segregation during the civil rights movement, he hosted Martin Luther King Jr. for the latter's last Sunday sermon at the Cathedral on March 31, 1968.

69 Feller to Severson, 27 November 1970.

70 Feller to Severson, 27 November 1970.

71 Feller to Severson, 27 November 1970.

72 Severson to Feller, 2 December 1970, WNCA.

73 Severson to Feller, 2 December 1970.

74 Severson to Feller, 2 December 1970.

75 Severson to Feller, 2 December 1970.

76 Severson to Feller, 2 December 1970.

77 Many of Kagawa's radio broadcasts were monitored and recorded by U.S. intelligence agencies such as the Office of War Information and the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service. The motivation and context of Kagawa's propaganda broadcasts is discussed in Tao, Bo, “Kagawa Toyohiko, Topping-ke to America, senchū no kiretsu kara sengo no kankei shūfuku e,” Toyohiko Kagawa Society Review 24 (2016), 73–102Google Scholar; and Tao, “Imperial Pacifism,” 257–266.

78 On MacArthur's attempt to promote Christianity in postwar Japan, see Moore, Ray A., Soldier of God: MacArthur's Attempt to Christianize Japan (Portland, Maine: MerwinAsia, 2011)Google Scholar.

79 “Heiwa utau Xmasu,” Yomiuri Hōchi, 22 December 1945; “Japanese Christians to Fete Xmas; Cooperating with Occupation Forces in Religious Service, Festivities,” Nippon Times, 23 December 1945.

80 Barnard Rubin, “Under Christian Guise, This Jap Fostered War,” Stars and Stripes (Pacific Edition), 20 December 1945.

81 “Columns on Kagawa Censored, Rubin Says,” Stars and Stripes, 13 February 1946.

82 Deane, Hugh, “Toyohiko Kagawa: Japan's Lost Leader,” Christian Register 125, no. 4 (April 1946): 158–159Google Scholar.

83 Brumbaugh, T.T., “Another Niemoller?” Christian Register 125, no. 6 (June 1946): 256Google Scholar. For more on this debate, see Schildgen, Robert, “How Race Mattered: Kagawa Toyohiko in the United States,” The Journal of American-East Asian Relations 5, no. 3/4 (October 1996): 227–253CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

84 Emily Hinz (Salinas, Kansas) to J. Edgar Hoover, 17 July 1946, RG 65 (Records of the FBI), Box 79, Folder 100-041138, National Archives and Records Administration.

85 Daniel A. Poling, “Japan's Two Men of Destiny,” Christian Herald, March 1950, 1/5/3, UTS. For the circulation figures of the Christian Herald, see Elesha J. Coffman, The Christian Century and the Rise of the Protestant Mainline (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 69.

86 On New Year's Day 1946, at the request of SCAP, Emperor Hirohito issued the Humanity Declaration, in which he denied the concept of his being a living god and renounced all political power, thus making him a purely symbolic monarch.

87 Thompson, For God and Globe, 167–189.

88 Severson to Feller, 25 January 1971, WNCA.

89 Feller to Severson, 19 February 1971, WNCA

90 Severson to Feller, 25 January 1971, WNCA.

91 Canon Sharp to Feller, Memorandum regarding Kagawa Statue (Fleck Memorial), 2 March 1971, WNCA. In her conversation with Cathedral officials, Mrs. Fleck suggested, in vain, that instead of the chrysanthemum, they could use the Kagawa family crest on the corbel design.

92 Severson to Feller (handwritten note), 30 May 1971, WNCA.

93 Severson to Feller (handwritten note), 30 May 1971.

94 Severson to Feller (handwritten note), 30 May 1971.

95 Feller to Severson, 2 November 1971, WNCA.

96 Feller to Severson, 2 November 1971.

97 As part of the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the founding of the nation, the National Cathedral planned to hold a formal opening of its renovated nave on Easter Sunday (April 18, 1976). A series of bicentennial events and celebrations were to follow, culminating in a visit from the Queen of England in July.

98 Feller to Severson, 2 November 1971.

99 Severson to Feller, 16 November 1971, WNCA. Severson agonized over the rejection of his work, telling Feller that he should have done away with all the clothing and depicted Kagawa “naked as a shorn sparrow with a smiling countenance,” apparently in reference to the latter's desire to “walk naked in the world.”

100 Feller to Severson, 22 December 1971, WNCA.

101 Feller to Severson, 24 December 1975, WNCA.

102 Feller to Severson, 24 December 1975.

103 Benedict, Ruth, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946), 248Google Scholar.

104 Benedict, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, 249–250.

105 Kagawa was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947 and 1948, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954, 1955, 1956, and 1960. “Nomination Archive,” The Nobel Foundation, accessed October 26, 2019, https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/.