The Reverend Jonathan Goble (1827–1897) was an American

Free Baptist Free Will Baptists are a group of General Baptist denominations of Christianity that teach free grace, free salvation and free will. The movement can be traced back to the 1600s with the development of General Baptism in England. Its formal est ...

minister and

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

, Japan. He travelled with

Matthew C. Perry Matthew Calbraith Perry (April 10, 1794 – March 4, 1858) was a commodore of the United States Navy who commanded ships in several wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). He played a leading role in the op ...

to Japan in 1853. While there, he learned the Japanese language. He returned as the first Baptist missionary to Japan in 1860. It is said that around 1869, he built the first

rickshaw A rickshaw originally denoted a two- or three-wheeled passenger cart, now known as a pulled rickshaw, which is generally pulled by one person carrying one passenger. The first known use of the term was in 1879. Over time, cycle rickshaws (also ...

to transport his invalid wife Eliza Goble around the city. However, there are numerous other theories about the origin of the rickshaw.

Name

His name is listed variously as ''Jonathan Scobie'', ''E. Jonathan Scobie'' and ''Jonathan Goble''.

In culture

Musical Theater: Jonathan Goble appears as a character (played by the narrator) in act two of the musical '' Pacific Overtures'' who explains how he came to invent his rickshaw while a series of local residents working as runners pulling his rickshaw die of exhaustion, each instantly replaced by a new runner.

References

Baptist missionaries in Japan Baptist missionaries from the United States 1827 births 1897 deaths American expatriates in Japan 19th-century Baptists {{christianity-bio-stub