| Japanese “Midrash” Stirring Bible Boom? |
| By David Humble |
| SHIZUOKA, JAPAN --
Japan has long been a country full of surprises. To the utter amazement
of the rest of the world, she rose out of the devastation of World War II
to become an innovator in the areas of electronics and manufacturing, even
to the point of becoming the world’s second largest economy in the
1980s. People around the world continue to marvel at the latest devices
and products to come out of this country -- everything from cars, digital
TV broadcasting, and home multimedia systems to last summer’s favorite:
spray-on stockings for women! However, one of the most surprising, but as yet little-known developments has the potential of drawing Japan and Israel together in a way unheard-of before: the first “midrash” for the Japanese and the possible beginnings of a “Bible boom” in this nominally Buddhist-Shinto, but predominantly secular country. The item that is responsible for this amazing development is a recently-published book by author Kenichi  Nakagawa that seeks to provide
Japanese-speaking people with the message of the Bible in the form of a
historical novel. Entitled The Bible
Story for the Japanese ("Nihonjin
ni Okuru Seisho Monogatari"), Nakagawa says that his approach is based
upon the rabbinic method. “I tried to use illustrations from Japanese
history,” he said, “that would help take the reader from something
that’s familiar into the realm of what he as yet doesn’t understand
about the message of the Bible. You might say that I’m the first
Japanese writer, then, to develop what might be called a ‘midrash’ for
the Japanese.”And it’s getting the attention of a lot of folks. Published at the beginning of September by Bungeisha, one of Japan’s largest secular publishers, the book shot to the top of the best-seller list almost overnight. Kinokuniya, one of Japan’s largest booksellers, rated it number one for the first week of September at their main store in Tokyo’s busy Shinjuku Ward. Sales continue to be so brisk that Bungeisha officials authorized a third printing before the end of the year. Bungeisha’s editor for the project, Mitsuo Katayama, remarked that though this is the first Bible-related project he’s been involved with during his 25 years as an editor, it’s been a thoroughly enjoyable challenge. “Everybody in the publishing field knows that the Bible is the book that has been read by more people in the world than any other,” he said. “It’s a fascinating book and everyone wants to give it a try. I, myself, had tried to read it once several years ago. I started with the New Testament, but the list of people in the first chapter made me abandon the idea of reading it all the way through. When I started reading Mr. Nakagawa’s manuscript, however, I could read it smoothly to the end. “As a publishing specialist,” he continued, “I was curious as to how he’d done this. I began to analyze it and realized what a bold attempt this was. It tells the story in a plain style and in novel form – not as merely the holy scripture of Christianity. The people in the Bible come alive in the presentation. I was able to thoroughly enjoy the world of the Bible, so I’m really looking forward to the sequel.” Indeed, three sequels are currently planned and the whole series – like the first volume -- will be liberally illustrated with the work of colored-ink artist Katsuyuki Fujii. This first volume deals with the book of Genesis, focusing upon the lives and influence of the Patriarchs. A second volume will cover the rest of the Old Testament, spotlighting the lives of Moses, the prophets, and the events which would be preparatory to the coming of the Messiah. The third volume will focus on the life of Jesus Christ the Messiah, and the concluding work will cover the events in the book of Acts, on up to the modern state of Israel. As Nakagawa says, the complete series will trace the common thread that runs through and unifies the whole Bible. The first Japanese translation of the whole Bible was completed in 1888 and three major revisions have taken place since then. Currently, according to Japan Bible Society statistics, more than four million Japanese-language Bibles or Bible portions are produced each year. Though the total Christian population has never exceeded more than one percent of the general population since the almost-280-year period of brutal sanctions against Christianity was ended in 1873, Christianity has played a significantly influential role in Japanese society. Through the establishment of numerous highly-respected education institutions, charity and welfare organizations, and leadership lent to various social reform movements, Christians have impacted Japan in ways that belie their numbers. Consequently, there seems to have long been an underlying interest in the Bible, but the extent of it wasn’t particularly noticed by the Japanese publishing world until The Book of God, Dr. Walter Wangerin’s popular Bible-as-a-novel project, was translated and published in Japan in 1998. It became an instant best-seller in this country, as well. Wanting to build upon that Bible interest and convinced that the time for a more Japanese-friendly presentation of the Bible was ripe, Nakagawa began some preliminary talks with various publishers early in 2002. He says that he’s particularly pleased that a secular publisher like Bungeisha thought enough of his idea to commit their considerable resources and a nationwide network of bookstores to the project. They very much liked the idea, he said, of helping people enjoy the Bible by illuminating the people in the narrative and the world of the Ancient Near East with illustrations and parallels from Japan’s own history. A former pastor and church-planter in the Tokyo area, Nakagawa has, since 1986, been the director of Harvest Time Ministries (Japan’s largest producer of Christian television programming) and host of a TV series seen by over one million viewers per week. He is the author of half a dozen other books dealing with biblical topics and the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. He has personally visited Israel well over 40 times and is well-versed in the historical, cultural and archeological background of the Bible lands. But this current project, he says, is different from all of his other writings in that it attempts to tell the whole of the story of the Bible in a way that Japanese-speaking people can readily grasp and even enjoy. “This is not only an introduction to the Bible,” he said, “but it’s also a well-written historical novel that readers can enjoy as literature. I’m convinced that Japanese people have an interest in the Bible, but because of the time gap, language, geography and cultural differences, they just can’t grasp it very well. I’m praying that this book will open up the doors for them.” And, gauging from the responses from readers that are already coming in, doors are, indeed, opening up. Nakagawa said that people who have read the book constantly come up to him and tell him how real the Bible stories have become to them. Reviews appearing on Amazon’s Japanese website are profuse with praise for the book. “I figured that I’d get tired of a historical novel like this long before I finished it,” commented one reviewer. “However, I found it to be so fascinating that I stayed up all night reading it! It’s so good, in fact, that the Bible itself starts to grab you. You start thinking, ‘Hey, maybe I ought to pick up THAT big old book and give it a good read.’” Others echoed those sentiments with comments like: “From the time you start reading, you’re thinking that this is different from your regular novel. You really get drawn into the world of the Bible that the author paints for you.” Another said, “You see things like Abraham struggling, trying to understand the supernatural things he’s seen. It seemed to me like the Bible characters you meet here weren’t so very different than folks these days." A Japanese reviewer from California gave the book five stars (as did most of the reviewers) and drew the agreement of virtually all the others with a comment on the book’s didactic qualities: “The further you read into it, it’s as if you start to encounter a number of ‘hooks’ that the author seems to have placed along the way. There are clues readers can discover that will help crack the Bible’s tough-looking exterior and lead them to an understanding of it.” Already hard at work on the second book in the series (due for publication in the fall of 2004), Nakagawa is elated that sales are booming and interest in the sequels is already high. Likewise, he’s hopeful about the prospects of this work playing a major role in helping to move Japanese people closer to the Bible. “Christians as well as non-Christians can enjoy the spiritual truth to be found in the writing,” he said. “However, it’s a huge undertaking and I’m asking for prayer support. It’s my greatest desire that these four volumes would be used mightily by God to help bring revival in Japan.” It may just be that even bigger surprises from Japan are just around the corner.
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