Nikolai Yaponsky and the Russian Orthodox Mission to Japan during the Meiji Period: encounters and tensions between Russia, Japan and the West

Thesis

This thesis offers a full account—the first in a Western language—of the activities of the Russian Orthodox missionary Nikolai Kasatkin in Japan in the second half of the 19th and the early 20th centuries. In my study of this important page in the history of Christian missionary work, I draw on extensive resources—both archival and published—that Kasatkin left behind. His diaries provide the most sincere and detailed account of his work and have recently been published in Russian and Japanese, while most other sources are held in various archives in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Tokyo. On the basis of these sources, I demonstrate that Kasatkin’s work can be divided into three distinct periods.

The transitions between these periods are not strict but are by and large determined by the broader historical context. It is, therefore, important to contextualise Kasatkin’s work within the tripod scheme of historical developments in Japan and Russia—which he knew well—and in the West, which he observed through interactions with other missionaries, correspondence, and newspaper reports. This thesis is structured in three main chapters that correspond to the three periods, with a fourth chapter that addresses the core issue of Nikolai’s approach to the status of the Church, which remained unchanged throughout his life. The thesis forms a unique contribution to the history of Orthodox missionary work and Christian missiology in general for a number of reasons. In addition to the fact that the described encounter between Nikolai and Japan is different from most studies in the field, Nikolai was no simplistic evangeliser; he was a remarkable person with a sharp gift for observation who entrusted his soul to his diaries and provided an honest account of his life and work and the historical, political, and social events around him.

Authors: Puzanova, O

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-kovpaa49b
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Russo-Japanese religious ties; St Nicholas of Japan; Orthodox Christianity in Japan; Nikolai Yaponsky
• Subjects: Theology; Missiology; Church History