Kanamori Michitomo

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.{{Cite web|last=|first=|title=金森通倫とは|url=https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%87%91%E6%A3%AE%E9%80%9A%E5%80%AB-45803|access-date=2021-11-16|website=コトバンク|language=ja}} 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.{{Cite book|last=Anderson|first=Gerald H.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oQ8BFk9K0ToC&dq=paul+kanamori&pg=PA353|title=Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions|date=1999|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-4680-8|language=en}}

He had several children, including {{Interlanguage link|Taro Kanamori|ja|金森太郎}} and {{Interlanguage link|Jiro Kanamori|ja|金森次郎}}.{{Cite web|title=金森通倫|url=http://www6.plala.or.jp/guti/cemetery/PERSON/K/kanamori_t.html|access-date=2021-11-16|website=www6.plala.or.jp}}

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. During this period he also wrote and translated several books, such as his 1891 The Present and Future of Christianity in Japan.{{Cite book|last=Furuya|first=Yasuo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HtitCgYBOoUC&dq=michitomo+kanamori&pg=PA22|title=A History of Japanese Theology|date=1997|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-4108-7|language=en}}

Kanamori renounced his Christian faith in the 1890s because he and other pastors interpreted Christian doctrine differently. During this period he worked in the Interior Ministry{{Cite book|last=McCormack|first=Noah Y.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2CMjeY-wsgIC&dq=michitomo+kanamori&pg=PA156|title=Japan's Outcaste Abolition: The Struggle for National Inclusion and the Making of the Modern State|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-50132-3|language=en}} and in business. He returned to the church after the death of his wife in 1914. 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. He became well known for his "Three-hour sermon"{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wqJu5SsiH1MC&dq=michitomo+kanamori&pg=PA260|title=Asia in the Making of Christianity: Conversion, Agency, and Indigeneity, 1600s to the Present|date=2013-04-23|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-25129-8|language=en}} and for evangelizing.{{Cite book|last=Ion|first=A. Hamish|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LlQ9DgAAQBAJ&dq=michitomo+kanamori&pg=PA147|title=The Cross and the Rising Sun: The Canadian Protestant Missionary Movement in the Japanese Empire, 1872-1931|date=2006-01-01|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press|isbn=978-0-88920-760-8|language=en}} He later joined the Holiness Movement in 1927, but left in 1933.

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

• {{Cite book|title=回顧録－金森通倫 自伝|year=2006|isbn=978-4-902937-05-3}}

• {{Gutenberg author | id=57414 |name=Kanamori Michitomo}}

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Category:1857 births

Category:1945 deaths

Category:Japanese Protestant missionaries

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanamori, Michitomo}}