“Saturn is almost invisible” (the unknown seminary)

The article analyses the history of the Tokyo Orthodox seminary, established in 1875 at the Russian Orthodox Mission in Japan (the Russian Spiritual Mission to Japan). The study was inspired by the most interesting document that was found by one of the authors of the article in the State Archivesof the Russian Federation while examining the archival fund of the well-known church figure Archpriest P.I. Bulgakov (GA RF, F. Р597, Inv. 1, D. 135). The document is entitled “The School of the Imperial Russian Orthodox (Tikhon) Church for Educating Japanese Spies” and signed with a penname of “Ivan Goremyka” (Luckless Ivan).

It considers from a completely new perspective the activities of the Tokyo Seminary, which in Russian historiography has always been positioned as one of the highest achievements of the “soft power” exercised to promote the Russian influence on the Japanese archipelago. Such an approach necessitated a thorough analysis of all the aspects of the functioning of the described educational institution, to which most of the proposed article is addressed.

Special attention is given to the activities of seminarians after seminary graduation and the extent to which mission leaders are held accountable for the charges. A special attention is given to the seminarian activities after the graduation from the Seminary as well as to the degree of responsibility of the Mission leaders for the accusations brought against them.

It should be mentioned that the noninvolvement (except for some naivety) of Saint Nicholai of Japan, the Primate of Eastern Orthodoxy in Japan, glorified as Equal-to-the-Apostles (secular name Ivan Dmitrovich Kasatkin) was questioned neither by the “whistle-blower” himself nor by any other representative of the Russian colony in Tokyo.

However, his successor as the ruling bishop of the Japanese Orthodox mission Sergii (secular name Georgiy Alexeyevich Tikhomirov) aroused certain suspicions, so that “Ivan Goremyka” merely accused him of aiding the Japanese intelligence agencies.

Finally the authors came to the conclusion that despite being too negative and categorical, “Ivan Goremyka’s” arguments are not far from the truth: indeed, the Japanese authorities somehow managed to even use the Russian Orthodox seminary in their anti-Russian actions.

The article considers separately the fate of the Russian seminarians, the father of the Russian Sambo martial art V.S. Oshchepkov among them, who helped the Russian counterintelligence in its attempts to mitigate the negative aspects in the activity of the Seminary.

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