Arai Ōsui

School "Kenna"

Arai Ōsui ( Japanese 新 井 奥 邃 ; born May 29, 1846 in Sendai ( Rikuzen Province ); died June 16, 1922 ) was a Japanese teacher of unorthodox Christianity.

Live and act

Arai Ōsui came from a samurai family of the Date clan in Sendai. He studied at the school of the domain Yōkendō (養 賢 堂) and then in Edo . When he learned of the defeat of the shogunate in the battle of Toba-Fushimi , he went back to Sendai and joined the coalition of the daimyō in the northeast, the "Ō-U-Etsu reppan dōmei" (奥 羽 越 列 藩 同盟).

In 1871 Arai traveled to the United States with Mori Arinori , a minister in the new administration. Mori introduced Arai to Thomas Lake Harris , an unorthodox Christian utopian. Arai then remained a member of the Brotherhood of the New Life for 30 years and became the leader after Harris retired in 1892.

In 1899 Arai returned to Japan and taught Harris ideas in his classroom in Tōkyō, which he called "Kenna-sha" (謙和 舎). By 1903 it had already attracted a number of university students and intellectuals. One of his followers, the reformer Tanaka Shōzō , stood up for his fellow human beings in the village of Yanaka who suffered from the environmental toxins of the Ashio copper mine .

After Arai's death from 1930 to 1931 his collected writings were edited by one of his students under the title "Ōsui Kōroku" (奥 邃 廣 録) in five volumes.

Individual proof

1. ↑ Illustration of the Arai Ōsui training center .

Remarks

1. ↑ Today it corresponds to Miyagi Prefecture .

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Arai Ōsui . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993. ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 46.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Arai is the family name, Ōsui the first name.