Kanamori Michitomo

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Kanamori Michitomo
金森通倫
Black and white photograph of a man wearing a kimono
Kanamori Michitomo
BornOctober 2, 1857
Higo province
DiedMarch 4, 1945
Kōriyama
Resting placeTama Cemetery, Tokyo
Other namesPaul Kanamori
EducationKumamoto Yogakko, Doshisha University
OccupationChristian minister

Kanamori Michitomo (金森 通倫, October 2, 1857 – March 4, 1945) was a Japanese Christian minister. He also went under the English name Paul Kanamori and published as Kanamori Tsurin.

Early life and education[edit]

Kanamori was born in Higo province, Japan, in what is now Tamana, Kumamoto prefecture on October 2, 1857. He was born into a samurai family.[1] He attended the Kumamoto Yogakko, where he was a member of the Kumamoto Band. He converted to Christianity in 1875. He continued his education at Doshisha University and graduated in 1879.[2]

He had several children, including Taro Kanamori [ja] and Jiro Kanamori [ja].[3]

Career[edit]

After graduation Kanamori became a missionary in Okayama prefecture. His work was sponsored by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He then moved to Tokyo and served as a pastor for a large congregation there. He was later invited to teach theology at Doshisha University by Joseph Hardy Neeshima.[2] During this period he also wrote and translated several books, such as his 1891 The Present and Future of Christianity in Japan.[4]

Kanamori renounced his Christian faith in the 1890s because he and other pastors interpreted Christian doctrine differently.[4] During this period he worked in the Interior Ministry[5] and in business. He returned the church after the death of his wife in 1914.[4] From 1915 onward he travelled all over Japan giving sermons for thousands of people. He later also travelled to Taiwan, China, Korea, Hawaii, and the United States to give sermons to the Japanese-speaking populations there.[2] He became well-known for his "Three-hour sermon"[6] and for evangelizing.[7] He later joined the Holiness Movement in 1927, but left in 1933.[3]

Kanamori died in Kōriyama, Japan on March 4, 1945. He is buried at Tama Cemetery in Tokyo.[3]

Further reading[edit]

  • 回顧録－金森通倫 自伝. 2006. ISBN 978-4-902937-05-3.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "金森通倫とは". コトバンク (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  2. ^ a b c Anderson, Gerald H. (1999). Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8028-4680-8.
  3. ^ a b c "金森通倫". www6.plala.or.jp. Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  4. ^ a b c Furuya, Yasuo (1997). A History of Japanese Theology. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8028-4108-7.
  5. ^ McCormack, Noah Y. (2013). Japan's Outcaste Abolition: The Struggle for National Inclusion and the Making of the Modern State. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-50132-3.
  6. ^ Asia in the Making of Christianity: Conversion, Agency, and Indigeneity, 1600s to the Present. BRILL. 2013-04-23. ISBN 978-90-04-25129-8.
  7. ^ Ion, A. Hamish (2006-01-01). The Cross and the Rising Sun: The Canadian Protestant Missionary Movement in the Japanese Empire, 1872-1931. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-88920-760-8.
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