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Kumamoto Band

Image:熊本バンド有志（1892年）.jpg

{{Short description|Informal Meiji-era group of Japanese Protestant Christians}}

The Kumamoto Band was a group of Christian men educated at the Kumamoto Yogakko by Leroy Lansing Janes. Alongside the Sapporo Band and the Yokohama Band, the members of the Kumamoto Band became an influential Protestant Christian group in Meiji era Japan.{{Cite journal|last=Shun'ichi|first=Takayanagi|date=1966|title=Review of Kumamoto bando kenkyū, Nihon protestantism no ichi genryu to tenkai, (Studies on Kumamoto Band, A Stream of Japanese Protestantism and Its Development), Institute for Humanistic Sciences, Dōshisha University|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2383384|journal=Monumenta Nipponica|volume=21|issue=3/4|pages=415–417|doi=10.2307/2383384|issn=0027-0741}}

History

The Kumamoto Yogakko, a school of Western studies in Kumamoto, Japan, was founded by Leroy Lansing Janes in 1871. Janes was recommended for the position by Guido Verbeck.{{Citation|last=Aizan|first=Yamaji|title=The Pledge of Mount Hanaoka|date=1999|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.22854.18|work=Essays on the Modern Japanese Church|pages=97–102|series=Christianity in Meiji Japan|publisher=University of Michigan Press|doi=10.3998/mpub.22854.18|isbn=978-0-939512-93-5|access-date=2021-11-15|last2=Squires|first2=Graham|last3=Ion|first3=A. Hamish}} Many of the students came from former samurai families, and had entered the school in an attempt to regain their former status that was lost with the abolition of the feudal system in 1868.{{Cite book|last=Scheiner|first=Irwin|url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/6108vd315|title=Christian Converts and Social Protests in Meiji Japan|date=2002|publisher=University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies|isbn=978-0-472-90193-7|language=en|doi=10.3998/mpub.9340282}} After the students became proficient in English, Janes began teaching them about Christianity in 1874. He converted 35 students. In January 1876 the students climbed to the top of Mount Hanaoka and signed the Hanaoka Pledge, a confirmation of their faith. The conversion of these students is attributed to the loss of the system of morality that was a part of the feudal system.{{Cite journal|last=Notehelfer|first=F. G.|date=1971|title=Review of Christian Converts and Social Protest in Meiji Japan|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2718731|journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies|volume=31|pages=339–346|doi=10.2307/2718731|issn=0073-0548}}

In 1877 the school was closed by the Meiji government, and many of the students moved on to Doshisha University, where nine more students were added to the band. Many of the students went on to become missionaries and politicians.

Notable members

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  • Ebina Danjo
  • {{Interlanguage link|Fuwa Tadajiro|ja|不破唯次郎}}
  • Harada Tasuku
  • {{Interlanguage link|Ichihara Morihiro|ja|市原盛宏}}
  • {{Interlanguage link|Ienaga Toyokichi|ja|家永豊吉}}
  • {{Interlanguage link|Kameyama Noboru|ja|亀山昇}}
  • Kanamori Michitomo
  • {{Interlanguage link|Kato Yujiro|ja|加藤勇次郎}}
  • Kozaki Hiromichi
  • Kurahara Korehiro
  • {{Interlanguage link|Matsuo Keigo|ja|松尾敬吾}}
  • {{Interlanguage link|Miyagawa Tsuneteru|ja|宮川経輝}}
  • {{Interlanguage link|Morita Kumando|ja|森田久萬人}}
  • {{Interlanguage link|Okada Matsuo|ja|岡田松生}}
  • {{Interlanguage link|Osada Tomoyuki|ja|長田時行}}
  • Shimomura Kotaro
  • Tokutomi Sohō
  • {{Interlanguage link|Uehara Horyu|ja|上原方立}}
  • {{Interlanguage link|Ukita Kazutami|ja|浮田和民}}
  • {{Interlanguage link|Yamazaki Tamenori|ja|山崎為徳}}
  • Yokoi Tokio
  • {{Interlanguage link|Yoshida Sakuya|ja|吉田作弥}}
  • {{Interlanguage link|Yufu Takesaburo|ja|由布武三郎}}

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References

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Category:Japanese Protestants