Niijima Jō (Joseph Neesima)

1843-1890 19th century

The prayer of a man praying in a half-learned language, and the desire to teach his own people held through years of exile.

Who was Niijima Jō (Joseph Neesima)?

A samurai's son, he slipped out of Japan at twenty-one, when leaving the country was punishable by death, signing on as a cabin boy on an American ship. He learned English, studied ten years in New England, and returned to found in Kyoto the school that became Dōshisha University, against Buddhist and official hostility. Married to Yamamoto Yae, a war widow of famously unruly temper, he died at forty-six, worn out.

In their own words

O God, if thou hast eyes, look upon me. O God, if thou hast ears, hear my prayer.

Letter to Alpheus Hardy, in Life and Letters of Joseph Hardy Neesima, ed. A. S. Hardy, 1891

Every night after I went to bed I prayed to the God: Please don't cast away me into miserable condition. Please let me reach my great aim.

Autobiographical narrative, sent seventeen years later, in Life and Letters of Joseph Hardy Neesima, ed. A. S. Hardy, 1891

O Lord, no man can do such goodness and mercy for me but Thou only. O Lord, wash away my sins, take up my evil heart and give me right spirit.

Prayer written in his journal, Andover, 1867 (Life and Letters of Joseph Hardy Neesima, ed. A. S. Hardy, 1891)