Uchimura Kanzô was one of Japan’s foremost thinkers, whose ideasinfluenced contemporary novelists, statesmen, reformers, and religiousleaders. He lived at a time of increasing modernization and rapidsocial change. Known as the originator and proponent of a particularly"Japanese" form of Christianity known as mukyôkai, Uchimurastruggled with the tensions between his love for the homeland and hislove for God. Articulate, prolific, passionate, and profound, he earneda reputation as the most consistent critic of his society and the mostknowledgeable Japanese interpreter of Christianity and its Bible. Inaddition to teaching and giving public lectures, he wrote numerousbooks and articles -- in both English and Japanese -- edited newspapersand periodicals, and founded several magazines. Through the prism ofthis exceptional man’s life, John Howes charts, in this tour deforce, what it meant to live during the introduction of Christianity toJapan.

"This huge, ambitious study is the final product of 50 years of research and reflection, and should become an indispensable first reference for anyone seeking detailed information in English about Uchimura. A welcome addition to the fast-growing body of valuable new writing on Japan." - Choice

"In researching this masterful work, Howes delved deeply into Uchimura’s writings, diaries and letters in order to portray his subject as a passionate yet conflicted man influenced as much by internal pressures as he was by external forces ... With this book, Howes has made an important and detailed contribution to our understanding of Japanese Christians in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries." - Pacific Affairs, vol. 78, no. 4, winter 2005/2006

"This long-awaited critical biography of Uchimura, by John Howes, professor emeritus of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia, represents over fifty years of dedicated study ... The book is skillfully structure, enabling Howes to link his sensitive analysis of Uchimura’s intellectual development to the major events in his life and the world around him." - International Bulletin of Missionary Research, vol. 30, no. 3, July 2006