Toyohiko came from a rich non-Christian family. In the course of his education he sought instruction in English from a Christian mission in the city of Tokushima. He was taught from Luke's gospel and found the picture there of the love of Christ increasingly attractive. He was 15 years old when he committed his life to the Lord. His prayer was, “O God, make me like Christ.”

Kagawa was eventually baptised, an event which brought disinheritance by his family. For about 4 years he attended a Presbyterian theological college in Kobe, during which time he became painfully aware of the appalling social conditions under which so many of his countrymen and women lived. On Christmas Day 1909 he went to Shinkawa, a slum area of Kobe. He began living in a room two metres square with no window. His daily food consisted of two bowls of rice gruel. Anything else given to him he gave away. He became the acknowledged guide and leader of the countless poor in that industrial city. He preached, taught and lived love, peace and social justice. “If we could learn to love one another,” he said, “it would be a solution to our problems.” But, he insisted, the way of love is the way of the cross. “The knowledge of the Love of God comes only by way of the Bloody Cross; he who fears to bear it cannot know the Love of Christ.”

1914 - With Church support, he went to Princeton University in the USA, where he spent 3 years studying social problems.

1917 - On his return to Japan he devoted his effort to improving the conditions of the poor. He worked towards bringing trade unions to Japan which brought him into conflict with the government. He was on the list of dangerous radicals, and for many years was watched constantly by the police.

1 September 1923 - An 8.0 magnitude earthquake hit Japan known now as the Great Kanto Earthquake. The port city of Yokohama was levelled and the government called on him to lead the work of reconstruction there and in Tokyo.

1928 - A pacifist from his youth, Kagawa founded the National Anti-War League, he later denounced both Japan and the allies for WWII.

1930 - He had been constantly involved in evangelism and began the Kingdom-of-God Movement travelling extensively overseas to preach and teach.

After WWII, he was called upon once again to help with reconstruction and became a leader in Japanese moves towards democracy. A great Japaneseevangelist and social reformer Toyohiko Kagawa had such fearlessness and strength of purpose, that when he was brought before the Japanese emperor he spent the whole time expounding the gospel of peace. He became one of Japan’s outstanding writers both in fiction and religion. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947 and 1948, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1955. After his death, Kagawa was awarded the second-highest honor of Japan, induction in the Order of the Sacred Treasure. The claim of Christ upon his life, love and service was his guiding principle.

BORN:10 July 1888, Kobe, Japan

DIED:23 April 1960, Matsuzawa, Japan.