Takie Okumura (May 12, 1865 – February 10, 1951) was a Christian minister from Japan. He was the founder of the

Makiki Christian Church Makiki Christian Church is a Christian church located in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was built in 1931, and is the only Christian church in the United States designed to look like a 16th-century Japanese castle. History In 1903, Takie Okumura, a pas ...

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

, the "Okumura Boys and Girls Home", and some of Hawaii's first Japanese language schools.

Early life

Okumura was born to a family of

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

Kochi prefecture Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of Ke ...

, Japan in 1865. He married Katsu Ogawa in 1886. He converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

on September 9, 1888, and studied at

Doshisha University , mottoeng = Truth shall make you free , tagline = , established = Founded 1875,Chartered 1920 , vision = , type = Private , affiliation = , calendar = , endowment = €1 ...

. During his time at university he was supported by John Thomas Gulick. After graduating in 1894, he traveled to Hawaii as a missionary assisting Reverend

Jiro Okabe was a member of the Japanese House of Representatives. He was a member of the Rikken Seiyūkai, the Chūseikai, and the Kenseikai. Early life Okabe was born in Kasuga-mura, Shinano Province (present-day Saku, Nagano) on September 30, 1864. ...

. He took over Okabe's ministry in 1895 when Okabe returned to Japan.

Career

One of the first things Okumura did after taking over Okabe's congregation in 1895 is start a Japanese kindergarten. His goal was to teach Japanese children living in Hawaii the

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...

, because many spoke pidgin,

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, or Hawaiian. He established the Honolulu Japanese Elementary school a year later in 1896. The school later expanded and was renamed the Hawaii Chuo Gakuin. The schools he founded were the first Japanese language schools in Hawaii. In 1896 Okumura founded the "Okumura Boys and Girls Home" after taking in a young man attending school in Honolulu. The dormitory housed 1,400 students over the years, mostly from neighbor islands. While staying at the dormitory, students had to attend church.

Spark Matsunaga Spark Masayuki Matsunaga ( ja, 松永正幸, October 8, 1916April 15, 1990) was an American politician and attorney who served as United States Senator for Hawaii from 1977 until his death in 1990. Matsunaga also represented Hawaii in the U.S. ...

was one notable resident. In 1899 he founded a baseball team made up mostly of students living at the "Okumura Home". The team was called the "Excelsiors", and was the first Japanese baseball team in Hawaii. Okumura founded the team in order to provide a wholesome entertainment venue, away from the "vice" in town. In 1904 Okumura established the

. The modern church building, which is well-known for its architectural similarity to a

Japanese castle are fortresses constructed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries, and came into their best-known form in the 16th century. Castles in Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, such ...

, was not constructed until 1932. Okumura chose that architectural style as a symbol of peace and security. After the Oahu sugar strike of 1920, Okumura traveled to every island to encourage

nisei is a Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants (who are called ). The are considered the second generation, ...

to "Americanize", and give up their

dual citizenship Multiple/dual citizenship (or multiple/dual nationality) is a legal status in which a person is concurrently regarded as a national or citizen of more than one country under the laws of those countries. Conceptually, citizenship is focused on ...

with Japan. He believed that this would solve the "

Japanese problem The Japanese Problem, also referred to as the Japanese Menace or the Japanese Conspiracy, was the name given to racial tensions in Hawaii between the European-American sugarcane plantation owners and the Japanese immigrants hired to work in the c ...

", a term coined by European sugar plantation owners. Needless to say, many Japanese plantation workers were not pleased with his decision to side with the sugar plantation owners during this tense time between the management and laborers. During this time, and later when the American government tried to impose legislation restricting foreign language schools, Okumura clashed with

Fred Kinzaburo Makino Fred Kinzaburo Makino (August 27, 1877 – February 17, 1953) was a Territory of Hawaiʻi newspaper publisher and community activist. He was the founder and first editor of the ''Hawaii Hochi'', a Japanese-language newspaper for Japanese laborer ...

. Okumura retired from the church in 1937, but remained head of the "Okumura Home" until he died on February 10, 1951.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Okumura, Takie Japanese Protestant missionaries 1865 births 1951 deaths Doshisha University alumni People from Kōchi Prefecture Protestant missionaries in Hawaii

Early life

Career

Further reading

See also

References