A Circle of Like Minds
My Life at Doshisha, Japan’s Leading Christian University by Jeffrey Folks
In 1864, at the age of 21, a young samurai stowed away on the Wild Rover, headed for America. That brave young man, Niijima Jo, who later took the name of Joseph Hardy Neesima, brought with him the intention to study at a Christian university. In pursuing this dream, Neesima risked his life by breaking the long-standing prohibition against travel abroad by Japanese citizens.
Determined to achieve his goal, Neesima overcame enormous obstacles, eventually becoming the first Japanese citizen to graduate from an American university. After earning degrees from Amherst College and Andover Theological Seminary, he returned to Kyoto, Japan, where he founded Doshisha Academy (later Doshisha University), the first Christian university in Japan.
Today, the spirit of “Jo,” as he is still known among many Japanese, lingers over the campus that he founded in 1875. Located directly across the street from the ancient imperial palace, Doshisha University is steeped in a sense of history and tradition. The oldest campus building dates back to when Neesima was still alive. His home, a few blocks away, has been preserved as a museum. In honor of his youthful adventure, the university’s athletic teams are known as the Wild Rovers.
The university’s name itself, “Do-shi-sha,” which could be translated as “circle of like minds,” refers to the common purpose of the college’s founders. The college song makes this evident: “One purpose, Doshisha, thy name/ Doth Signify one lofty aim:/ To train thy sons in heart and hand/ To live for God and Native Land.”
An Inside Look
When I arrived at Doshisha’s Graduate School of Letters in 1999, I was the first Westerner to accept a permanent appointment teaching literature at the university. As such, I had an opportunity that relatively few foreigners have: to learn about Japanese academic life and Christian education from the inside.
My sense of shared purpose was especially apparent in my relations with eager, inquisitive students. After one three-hour evening class during which I had lectured on Flannery O’Connor, I was approached by a quiet, reserved young man who inquired whether I was, indeed, a Christian. From my comments on the importance of redemption in O’Connor’s writing, it should have been obvious that I was. But this, I suspect, was not really the point of the student’s question. What he wanted was to open an exchange of religious views in a manner that is still quite unusual in Japan. After I answered him in the affirmative, he looked into my eyes and whispered, “I, too, am a Christian.”
What followed was a cordial exchange of views on Christian denominations, services, and values. It was a memorable experience, but partly because it was so rare. Among most young Japanese, even those attending Doshisha, a certain embarrassment attends the open discussion of religion. Perhaps this is because their country’s Shinto faith was closely associated with the emperor cult, which played a central role in the tragic events of World War II. Many now simply profess atheism and find in the popular culture of the West a confirmation of their lack of faith.
In their taste for pop music, casual dress, and American films, my students were thoroughly up-to-date. Yet they often seemed to harbor a bleak, disheartened outlook, as if university life were just a brief and pointless spree before entering the deadening life of the salaryman. Many in my classes had already closed their minds, perhaps forever, to religious belief. No wonder Japan has the third highest suicide rate in the world and one of the highest rates of alcoholism as well.
Yet among the two percent who are Christians, one discovers a palpable sense of purpose and shared delight in their acceptance of a redemptive faith. On our walks in Kyoto, my wife and I often passed a small school operated by a Protestant denomination. At this little school, modestly housed in a one-storey church annex, singing was one of the favorite activities for the children, and we could often hear thirty to forty small voices intoning hymns familiar to our ears, albeit with Japanese words. Here were smiling faces filled with the confidence and joy that was otherwise so often missing in the schools and offices that we visited every day.
Jeffrey Folks is retired from over thirty years of teaching in Europe, America, and Japan, most recently as Professor of Letters in the Graduate School of Doshisha University, one of Japan’s leading private universities. He has published numerous books and articles on American literature, including In a Time of Disorder: Form and Meaning in Southern Fiction from Poe to O’Connor (2003), and Damaged Lives: Southern and Caribbean Narrative from Faulkner to Naipaul (2005).
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