Gospel Hymns Consolidated: Yokohama, 1887. Yokohama, Japan: 1887. [9592]
Limp black cloth, 7 x 4 3/4 inches, 126 pp., inscriptions on ffep, some page creases & wear. Good. Softcover.
426 selections in English, words only, no music. With an index of first lines.
Signed by Kiyoshi "Karl" Kawakami (1873-1949), b. Kawakami, Japan. He was a Christian journalist who contributed to both the Japanese and the American press, and also wrote several books. He studied law both in Japan and at the universities of Iowa and Wisconsin.
"Kawakami's prewar writings sought to whitewash the Japanese military and economic penetration and invasion of China and Manchuria, presenting Japanese actions as saving China from chaos and disintegration...He was regarded in the United States as an apologist for Japanese imperialism and was briefly arrested after the outbreak of war." - prabook online.
Wikipedia notes that he was 15 when he met his first foreigner, American Methodist missionary J. G. Cleveland who taught English at the Yonezawa junior-high school. It is very probable that Rev. Cleveland gave this hymnal to Kawakami, as his signature was made in November of 1888, when he was 15 years old.
A later inscription (Feb. 11, '94) shows that Kawakami gave this book to Mr. S. Yoshizawa, "with my best wishes" in English.
