Dead Sea Café
at the Ark
Christianity, coffee, tea and Japan.
You are invited to the next DSC...
Dead Sea Café Number 31
will be held on an unusual day and time:
Sunday, 18 November 2007, at 2 P.M. at the Ark Five College Episcopal Center, 758 North Pleasant Street in Amherst, Massachusetts (directions below).
Refreshments will be served.
Amherst and Japanese Christianity
by John F. Howes, Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia, Department of Asian Studies.
Dr. Howes is the award-winning author of the 2006 book Japan's Modern Prophet: Uchimura Kanzô, 1861-1930. The link between Amherst and Uchimura is remarkable. Uchimura Kanzô was one of Japan's foremost thinkers, whose ideas have influenced contemporary novelists, statesmen, reformers, and religious leaders.
John Howes was born in Chicago in 1924. He attended several colleges including Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio where he obtained an AB in history in 1950. From 1950-1961, he attended Columbia University where he obtained an AM in 1953 and a Ph.D. in 1965. While working on his graduate degrees, John Howes also took courses at Tokyo University (1953-1956) and Kyoto University (1959-1960). He joined the Department of Asian Studies at University of British Columbia as an Assistant Professor in 1961.
We are hoping that Prof. Howes will be joined by long-time friend and colleague Prof. William Holland. Prof. Holland is also a Professor Emeritus of the University of British Columbia. William Holland was born in New Zealand in December of 1907. (That is not a typo... 1907!) He was the "chief architect and coordinator of the research program for the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR), initiated path-breaking series of studies in economic, social and political history." Some say the IPR was the model and inspiration for today's powerful NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations). He started the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia in 1961, bringing with him 5,000 volumes of Asia-related material from his distinguished career as Secretary General to the Institute of Pacific Relations.
You could say the Amherst-Japan connection began in 1867. That is the year that a young Japanese Christian convert named Niijima Jo (aka Joseph Hardy Neesima) (12 February 1843—23 January 1890) arrived here to study at Amherst College. Upon graduating in 1870, Mr. Neesima became the first Japanese person to receive a degree from a Western institution of higher learning.
In 1876, William Smith Clark (July 31, 1825 - March 9, 1886), the third president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College (MAC) (now UMass Amherst) went to Sapporo as the founding Vice President of the Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University). President Clark had a profound effect on his students and many of them converted to Christianity. After Prof. Clark returned to Amherst his students urged younger students to become Christians. One of these younger converts was Uchimura Kanzo. He ended up coming to Amherst College and graduated in 1887. Uchimura became the founder of the Nonchurch Movement (Mukyokai) of Christianity in Japan.
Please come and learn about Amherst and Japanese Christianity.
Hoping to see you at the Ark,
- Baird
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T. Baird Soules, Curator
Dead Sea Café
Box 42, Amherst Center P.O.
Amherst, Massachusetts, USA 01004-0042
(413) 687-4710... in case you get lost
www.deadseacafe.org
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Directions to the Ark:
Terse directions and a tiny map are posted at http://thearkcenter.org/directions.html
The Ark is located at 758 North Pleasant Street - just one house north of the UMass Lederle Graduate Research Center (GRC). If you are walking from UMass, just walk north on the west side of North Pleasant Street // cross the intersection north of the Lederle GRC // and turn left into the first driveway // proceed to the entrance to the Ark at the end of the driveway // walk in, take off your shoes and grab a mug of Rao's coffee or PG Tips tea.
By PVTA bus: From Amherst Center by bus, take a Sunderland or a North Amherst bus to the Arnold House (UMass) stop (across from the Lederle GRC).
By car: Please park across the street in the UMass Totman Gym lot. You will not need a permit to park there on Saturday.
Access the Ark by walking in the first driveway north of the North Pleasant St/ Eastman Lane/Governors Drive traffic signal.
Architecturally, the Ark is quite marvelous. It was designed by the architect and UMass professor Ray Kinoshita Mann. It is minimal and yet warm.
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