History (cont'd)

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Vocations and Houses of Formation

First Native Vocations

Within three years of their arrival in Japan the Oblates were blessed with their first native vocations. The novitiate was canonically erected at the Aki mission on May 31 , 1952, welcoming a group of Oblate Brother novices. Of those who subsequently entered two took vows on December 8, 1953. One was Joseph Sueho TSUDA. He became the first Japanese Oblate. He was 54 years of age when he took his first vows. (Ed: Cf the article on Br. Tsuda for the description of the extraordinary course of his life) The other one was John Takaji IWO, who some four years later, in 1957, joined two other young men who wished to study for the priesthood in the Oblate Congregation: Michael Soichiro YAMASAKI, and Leonard Morio INUl. They made their novitiate in the Eastern American Province and after pronouncing vows pursued their scholastic studies at the Oblate scholasticate in Washington, D.C. On June 24, 1962 the first Japanese Oblate priest, Fr. Michael Soichiro Yamasaki, was ordained at Nakajimacho, Kochi, by Bishop Paul Y. Taguchi. The next ordination of Japanese Oblates was that of Fathers Leonard Inui and of John lwo. They were ordained in Tokushima by Bishop Francis Eikichi Tanaka, the ordinary of Takamatsu Diocese, on June 14, 1964.

Houses Of Studies

Tokyo / Sekimachi

From the beginning of the mission, missionaries arriving from abroad spent one or two years in language school before taking up their apostolic tasks. The difficulty of the Japanese language, especially its writing in Chinese characters, convinced most that a longer period of preparation for the ministry was advisable.

Learning from the Jesuits and the Salesians who were successful in bringing new missionaries to Japan before ordination, the Vicar Provincial in 1954 proposed to the General Administration that Scholastic Brothers be allowed to come to Japan after their perpetual vows. A program of two years of language school and three or four years at the newly opened Pontifical Faculty of Theology at Sophia University would hopefully provide them with the chance to acquire deeper skills in the language and further their knowledge of local customs, history and culture. Fr. General agreed in principle to the proposal and the Home province gave preliminary approval to implement the program in 1957.

An impressive, ferro-concrete residence was put up in Sekimachi, Nerima Ward, Tokyo, on a site close to the Theological Faculty of Sophia University. It was dedicated by Very Reverend Father Deschatelets on January 17, 1961. At its zenith, it housed 16 scholastics and young Fathers in language school. The vocation crisis brought on the "lean years", and the number of the community went down to three. It became impossible to maintain this building, so in 1972 the property was sold, and the community moved to a smaller residence in the adjoining Hoya City.

The first Superior was Patrick HEALY, subsequently followed by Jozef HOFMANS and Raymond BOURGOIN.

Tokyo / Hoya

The move to Hoya took place in April 1972.

At that time it was home to the scholastics who where going to the Theology Department of Sophia University in Shakujii, Tokyo. Part of their formation included involvement in the local parish, as well as running a little juku (private teaching) for English, Science and Mathematics. This was a carry over from the Sekimachi days.

One Oblate was in charge of the formation of those scholastics. Three scholastics went through in this way.

The house also served as a base community to return to on weekends and holidays for those Oblates who studied the Japanese language in the Tokyo area (Roppongi/Kamakura) at that time, with daily lodging at their language school.

Besides the formation of the younger Oblates (which naturally included monthly meetings with formators of other religious societies) the men stationed there through the years have been involved in various ministries. These took the form of teaching regular courses at schools, as well as meetings in extracurricular groups. The teaching included secular and religious subjects. Personal guidance in social and religious matters also occupied an important part of those involvements.

Although several candidates entered the novitiate and pronounced their first vows, it took from 1964 until 1993 before the next Japanese Oblate would be ordained a priest. On March 29, 1993 Leo Satoshi KAWAGUCHI received the holy priesthood in the church of Koga, from Bishop Joseph Hisajiro Matsunaga, the ordinary of the Fukuoka Diocese. During that same period with hardly any growth in native Oblate members one Oblate Brother, Dominic Nobuhiko YAGI, pronounced his first vows in 1988 , and his perpetual vows on August 4, 1991. Both of them are products of our House of Studies in Nagoya which we will now consider.

Nagoya

With the closing of the Oblate House of Studies in Tokyo there was no longer a place for future candidates. Initially this caused no difficulties, but when the "lean years" appeared to have come to an end, and new candidates presented themselves, and gradually from overseas also new Oblate missionaries were appointed to Japan, there was again a need for a center. Different possibilities were considered out of which the decision was made to start a foundation in the city of Nagoya.

The basis for this decision was that the Nanzan University of the S.V.D. Fathers provided the necessary facilities for the training of future priests, while for the new foreign missionaries there were language schools available for the study of Japanese.

Fr. Ronald LAFRAMBOISE was assigned as the Superior of the new Scholasticate and was installed by then Provincial Fr. Angelo SIANI, in the presence of the two first Scholastics-to-be, and the Superior of the Provincial House in Kochi, Fr. John Kenney MAHONEY. The ceremony was held in the chapel of the Provincial House in Kochi at 3 P.M., on September 8, 1985. At 4 P.M. of the same day the two future scholastics pronounced their first vows as Oblates in the parish church of Nakajimacho in Kochi, in the presence of many Fathers of the Vice-Province, of Fr. Desmond O'DONNELL, the Regional Superior of the Asia-Oceania Region and of the Provincials and Superiors of Delegations of the Asia-Oceania Region. The parents and relatives of the two Brothers, as well as many friends and parishioners from the two Kochi City parishes and the Akaoka parish attended the ceremony.

Although the decision was already made to have the seminarians take their courses at Nanzan University in Nagoya there was yet no place for them to stay in that city. The family of one of the parishioners of the church in Itami. Maria Kime Kubo, who had died in the Spring of 1985, generously offered the use of her house to the Oblates, free of rent. It was an old house but very comfortable. Fr. LaFramboise and the two Brothers moved into it on the evening of September 17, 1985.

The scholasticate community intended to live in that house until the following March. The Brothers would prepare for the entrance exam for Nanzan University. Meanwhile the search for a house in Nagoya continued. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart had a small house on their property in Nagoya, which they had used to house their seminarians. Since they had no seminarians at the time they agreed to rent the house to the Oblates for a year or two.

On March 25, 1986 the two seminarians-to-be, together with an Oblate Brother, took the belongings of the scholasticate community from Itami to the new place in Nagoya. The next day they were joined by the Superior, Fr. LaFramboise, and at 5 P.M. they celebrated Mass in the chapel of the main house of the Sacred Heart Fathers. it was the first Mass of the Oblate Scholasticate community in Nagoya.

Because the agreement with the Sacred Heart Fathers was only for two years the search for a house had to be continued. Shortly before Christmas 1986 a suitable and affordable place was found. After obtaining the necessary permissions from the Oblate Superiors in Rome and the local Superiors, Oblate and diocesan, a deal was concluded and the house became Oblate property on February 10, 1987.

The house, located in a nice section of the city, has three stories. It is near the subway, only four stops from the Major Seminary.

For the time being the space of the house was sufficient for the number of inhabitants, but gradually there was an increase of personnel. Ray BOURGOIN followed Ron as superior of the seminary. Young Oblate priests from abroad who had been assigned to Japan, came to Nagoya to study the Japanese language. They and a growing number of Japanese candidates filled the house to capacity. Again thoughts turned to expansion. At the present location the whole property is taken up by the existing house. So far the search for a larger facility has not yet led to a satisfactory solution; so, the search goes on. ... The first product of the seminary in Nagoya Leo Satoshi KAWAGUCHI is its present Superior.

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