Мы глубоко благодарны также г–ну Саркисову из Института востоковедения РАН, который давал полезные для реализации проекта советы, проявив понимание важности издания для развития научных связей между Японией и Россией.

Мы благодарны директору издательства «Гиперион» Сергею Смолякову и всем сотрудникам этого издательства, которое осуществило издание «Полных дневников».

Мы благодарим также Ксению Кумпан и Альбина Конечного, которые составили именной и предметно–тематический указатели к первому тому Дневников св. Николая. Эти чрезвычайно подробные указатели, несомненно, будут полезны всем читателям дневников.

Мы выражаем признательность за предоставленные ценные фотографии, связанные со святителем Николаем и Японской Православной Церковью, следующим лицам: митрополиту Даниилу (Нусиро), протопресвитеру Иустину (Ямагути), Кэйдзи Оотэра, Нака Канэиси, Тадао Есимура, Эцуко Накамура, архиву института Байка Гакуэн, Кооти Префектуральному ботаническому саду имени Т. Макино, учебно–воспитательному учреждению Токио Икусэйэн и Государственной Парламентской библиотеке Японии.

Мы также глубоко благодарны священнику Николаю Дмитриеву, который искренне трудится на благо Японской Православной Церкви, основанной святителем Николаем, и Русской Православной Церкви, сыном которой был св. Николай.

Настоящее полное издание «Дневников святого Николая Японского» смогло увидеть свет благодаря содействию большого количества людей, перечисленных выше, в том числе и составителей и всех оказавших помощь в выпуске «Дневников святого Николая Японского» издания Хоккайдского Университета. Выражаем всем им глубокую признательность.

Мы также от всего сердца благодарны нашей супруге Эцуко Накамура, которая самоотверженно помогала на всех этапах работы по изданию «Дневников» на протяжении 24 лете момента обнаружения их в 1979 году. Без ее понимания и поддержки эта книга не появилась бы на свет.

Мы выражаем здесь глубокую признательность директору РГИА А. Р. Соколову, проявившему понимание значения публикации Дневников св. Николая Японского для международных японо–российских научных исследований и согласившемуся на настоящее издание.

В заключение мы выражаем глубокую благодарность Святейшему Патриарху Московскому и всея Руси Алексию II и Высокопреосвященнейшему Даниилу, Архиепископу Токийскому и Митрополиту всея Японии, с благословения которых издана настоящая книга.

Желаем, чтобы «Дневники св. Николая Японского» внесли свой вклад в укрепление взаимопонимания между Японией и Россией.

Кэнноскэ Накамура

Март 2003 года

By the middle of 19th century the Tokugawa shogunate was being forced to terminate its Sakoku (’National Seclusion’), which had been adopted in 1639 and maintained ever since. On the 8th of July, 1853, the American Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrived off the coast of Japan with a squadron of four ships, which frightened the Japanese people. Perry demanded that the Japanese government conclude a treaty of amity with the United States. It was the sort of strong pressure from outside which Japan had never experienced for a long time. As a result, in March, 1854, the Kanagawa Treaty of Peace and Amity between the United States and Japan was signed. In August, 1856, the first American consul–general, Townsend Harris, arrived in Japan, reopening the country to the world.

One month and a half after Perry’s visit, on August 22, 1853, the Russian Vice–Admiral Evfimii V. Putiatin arrived at Nagasaki on the flag ship Pallada, accompanied by four other vessels. And next year (1854) he came to Japan again with a single vessel, the frigate Diana. Although Putiatin negotiated with the representatives of the Japanese government peacefully, he had been assigned a task similar to that of Perry — to initiate relations with Japan and to reopen the country.

For the Japanese people, the Russian delegation was also perceived as frightening Kurofune (’black ships’) from abroad. However, in Feburuary, 1855, the Russo–Japanese Treaty of Amity was concluded. Later (in August, 1858) the Russo–Japanese Treaty of Friendship and Commerce was signed.

In September, 1858, Iosif Antonovich Goshkevich (the first Russian consular representative) arrived in Hakodate with his staff. He had previously visited Japan in 1854–1855 as a Chinese–language interpreter for the Russian expeditions under Putiatin.

In July, 1860, Vasilii Makhov, chaplain of the consular chapel, returned to Russia due to ill health. Goshkevich had sent in 1859 through the Asiatic Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a letter requesting the Holy Synod in Russia to send to Hakodate a successor to the post of chaplain. In the letter he wrote that «the chaplain of our church will also be able to promote the propagation of Christianity in Japan». It is worthy of notice that Goshkevich saw the prospect of missionary work in Japan as early as this time, when Christianity was still strictly prohibited throughout Japan.

Goshkevich was the son of a village priest. He was educated at the seminary in Minsk, and graduated from the Theological Academy in St. Petersburg. He

worked in Peking as a member of the Russian Orthodox Mission for nearly 10 years. Upon his return to Russia, he became a member of the Asiatic Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry and (as previously noted) served as the Chinese interpreter for Putiatin during the Russian expeditions to Japan. In Goshkevich, we can find the genesis of Russian Orthodox missionary work in Japan. When he was appointed as the first Russian consular representative in Japan, Goshkevich must have expected that the prohibition of Christianity there would be removed in the near future.

When Vasilii Makhov was about to leave for Russia, Goshkevich must have sensed the opportunity to realize his long–cherished dream. He asked the Holy Synod to send not a chaplain who would merely handle church functions for the consular staff, but a highly–educated missionary who could preach the gospel to the Japanese people.

Goshkevich wrote in the letter to the Holy Synod that the next chaplain should be «one who had completed the course of the theological academy and will be competent not only in ecclesiastical functions, but in scholarly activities as well, and who will present an excellent example of our clergymen through his private life, both to the Japanese and foreigners living here». (RGIA, f. 796, ed. khr. 572, d. 1859).

In response to this request, there arrived in Hakodate from St. Petersburg the 25 year–old Hieromonk Nikolai. To the great good fortune for the Japanese, this young priest was equipped with all the abilities that Goshkevich had asked for, though this was not proved for certain until Nikolai began his work. It can be said that Goshkevich recognized that the Japanese people were fairly cultivated, and thus endeavored to bring to Japan the sort of excellent missionary who was qualified to teach them Christian doctrine.[4]

Goshkevich returned to Russia in 1865, worked in the Asiatic Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry and retired from public service in 1867. About that time, he informed the Orthodox Missionary Committee that Hieromonk Nikolai had secretly begun to engage in missionary activity in Hakodate, and arranged for Nikolai to receive financial assistance from the Committee. Moskovskie vedomosti (The Moscow Herald) of October 8 (20), 1867, reported that «the Board of the Orthodox Missionary Committee received very encouraging news of the work of Hieromonk Nikolai Kasatkin in Japan… Can we leave this respectable Hieromonk without help? In western countries everywhere these missionaries enjoy the general support of the people. We hope that our society will also respond to the appeal by the Committee for subscription. Only recently, on September 13, the Committee learned for the first time through Mr. Goshkevich of the activities of Hieromonk Nikolai and of the needs of our mission in Japan».