Japanese Christian Yearbook for 1920

Hi all

Some fellow researchers may be interested in this link:

http://www.archive.org/stream/japanchristian19unknuoft/japanchristian19unknuoft_djvu.txt

It is the full text (although strangely formatted in places!) of the Japanese Christan Yearbook for 1920.

It includes some information about Shinto-based sects that were around then (i.e. in Usui's time) including Oomoto and Taireido and lists several books which were commentaries about/against them.

It also gives an idea about how popular Christanity was becoming in Japan.

It is quite a large document so I suggest looking through the Table of Contents and/or using the search function in your browser.

Many thanks bro!

Now we're also seeing the connection with christianity & Taireido, and also, as James has mention in his site/this forum a possible link to CKR & Nao hi, of which the founder of Omoto Kyo speaks of, with his sect used aspects of christianity also.

Is it really so hard for one to seriously consider Usui sensei may indeed have had some form of Christian connection.

Milarepa wrote:Now we're also seeing the connection with christianity & Taireido, and also, as James has mention in his site/this forum a possible link to CKR & Nao hi, of which the founder of Omoto Kyo speaks of, with his sect used aspects of christianity also.

Is it really so hard for one to seriously consider Usui sensei may indeed have had some form of Christian connection.

If he did, then it should be verified in some way other than unsupported assertions about links to Doshisha University and the University of Chicago. (I know you know that.)

Bruce

For sure, if he was a minister. If he incorporated aspects of christianity into his life, it'd be harder to verify. I guess i was trying to allude to the later, sorry, i shouldda been more precise Bruce, .

I don't think we should completely discount the story of Usui attending Chicago University as I would imagine that people looking through the records for him would have been looking for someone called Mikao Usui.

However, it was very common for immigrants to change their name help them fit in better and make it easier for other people to say and spell their name. For example, the founder of Doshisha University, Niijima Jo, became known as Joseph Hardy Neesima when he was in America (Hardy was the surname of the owner of the ship he sailed over to America on).

Here is an interesting article which explains many reasons for people changing their name on reaching the US:
http://www.genealogy.com/88_donna.html

So what might Mikao Usui have changed his name to? Michael Sui, maybe?

Not finding Mikao Usui among the records of Doshisha University might be harder to explain, if he really was a teacher/professor there as he would have presumably kept his Japanese name.

Colin wrote:... Niijima Jo, became known as Joseph Hardy Neesima when he was in America (Hardy was the surname of the owner of the ship he sailed over to America on).

Alpheus Hardy and his wife also acted as Niijima's 'sponsor', funding his stay in the US (including his education - in Massachusetts - at the Philips Academy, then at Amherst College, and Andover Theological Seminary)

Not finding Mikao Usui among the records of Doshisha University might be harder to explain, if he really was a teacher/professor there as he would have presumably kept his Japanese name.

Perhaps. Perhaps not

Niijima Jou didn't keep his Japanese name.

and there are numerous 'Western Names' to be found scattered throughout the historical lists of both staff and students

So what might Mikao Usui have changed his name to? Michael Sui, maybe?

Well, there was a seminarian named Michael O'Shea at Andover...

As always James good info.

Michael O Shea went to Phillips Academy

The legend becomes even more doubtful when it recounts how Dr Usui decided to begin his search for the secrets of healing like Jesus, in America - namely the University of Chicago.

Why not Harvard Divinity School?

Has michael a brother, Rick, anyone know? Rick O Shea...

Otherwise pronounced - Ricohet..