The ) is an

Orthodox Church Orthodox Church may refer to: * Eastern Orthodox Church * Oriental Orthodox Churches * Orthodox Presbyterian Church * Orthodox Presbyterian Church of New Zealand * State church of the Roman Empire * True Orthodox church See also * Orthodox (di ...

in the city of

Ishinomaki, Miyagi is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 138,538, and a population density of 250 persons per km2 in 61,919 households. The total area of the city is . Geography Ishinomaki is in northeastern Miya ...

, in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains a ...

of northern Japan. It is dedicated to St. John the Apostle. The original structure was built in 1880. It is the oldest wooden church building among existing wooden churches in Japan. After the establishment of the

Japanese Orthodox Church The is an autonomous Eastern Orthodox church within the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. History Early Orthodox Christianity The first purpose-built Orthodox Christian church to open in Japan was the wooden Russian Consulate chapel of th ...

by Ivan Dmitrievich Kasatkin (1836-1912), later St. Nicholas of Japan, in

Kanda, Tokyo is an area in northeastern Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It encompasses about thirty neighborhoods. Kanda was a ward prior to 1947. When the 35 wards of Tokyo were reorganized into 23, it was merged with Kojimachi to form the modern Chiyoda. Kanda ...

in the early

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

, he gathered a number of disciples, some of whom were from the Oshika District in what s now part of the city of Ishinomaki. Led by Watanabe Takuma, 29 men from the area were baptised in 1877, leading to the construction of a small church building, and 22 more converts were made the following year. Within the next 20 years a total of 10 churches were established in the area. However, the popularity of the religion suffered a tremendous setback due to the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

of 1904–1905, and the establishment of the

Soviet union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1917, and many of the churches were subsequently closed. The Saint John the Apostle Orthodox Church was completed in 1880. The architect is unknown, and was possibly a local parishioner. The structure has a cross-shaped floor plan, with a tiled roof. The first floor meeting room is covered in ''

tatami A is a type of mat used as a flooring material in traditional Japanese-style rooms. Tatamis are made in standard sizes, twice as long as wide, about 0.9 m by 1.8 m depending on the region. In martial arts, tatami are the floor used for traini ...

'' mats. The sanctuary is on the second floor, which is carpeted, and connected to the first floor by a steep staircase. The exterior of the building is whitewashed, and has a columned octagonal

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

often found in Western style architecture of the Meiji era. As the church building was damaged by the

1978 Miyagi earthquake The occurred at 17:14 local time (08:14 UTC) on 12 June. The epicentre was offshore of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It had a surface wave magnitude of 7.7, JMA magnitude 7.4, and triggered a small tsunami. The earthquake reached a maximum inten ...

, it was reconstructed in a new location on an island in the middle of the

Kitakami River The is the fourth largest river in Japan and the largest in the Tōhoku region. It is long and drains an area of . page 793 It flows through mostly rural areas of Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures. The source of the river is the Mount Nanashirug ...

as part of park which includes the

Ishinomori Manga Museum , also known as the Ishinomaki Mangattan Museum, is a museum in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It opened in 2001 to commemorate the works of manga artist and author Shotaro Ishinomori, who was born in what would become the present day Ish ...

. It was declared an Important Cultural Property of Ishinomaki City in 1990 and opened to the public in July 2001. However, during the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

, the site was severely damaged, with flood waters reaching the second story. Restoration work was completed in 2016.

References and sources

*八木谷涼子・編『別冊太陽　日本の教会をたずねて II』平凡社

External links

石巻ハリストス正教会（聖使徒イオアン聖堂）
- A page in Official Site of Eastern Diocese of the Orthodox Church in Japan (Japanese)
石巻ハリストス正教会教会堂（聖使徒イオアン会堂）
- A page in Official Site of Ishinomaki-City municipality (Japanese)

- Pictures of inner space Churches in Japan Orthodox Church in Japan Eastern Orthodox churches in Japan Religious buildings and structures in Miyagi Prefecture Buildings of the Meiji period Churches completed in 1880 1880 establishments in Japan Ishinomaki Giyōfū architecture 19th-century Eastern Orthodox church buildings 19th-century churches in Japan {{Orthodox-church-stub