A memorial museum conveying the achievements of Kagawa Toyohiko. Kagawa Toyohiko was a Christian evangelist who was involved in the labor and farmers' movements as well as the consumer cooperative and cooperative insurance movements. After graduating from seminary, he worked in Kobe not only to help the poor but also in the labor movement, pushing forward to defend workers' rights even while being arrested at times. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, he moved to Tokyo and carried out settlement work in the disaster area. Settlement work means not just supporting disaster victims with food, clothing, and shelter, but also helping them become able to live sustainably through the power of mutual aid. During the war, he initially spoke out against the war, but later became cooperative with it. After the war, he was involved in the World Federalist Movement and was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He held fast to the spirit of fraternity, mutual aid, and peace throughout his life, and in the process the rights of the poor, workers, farmers, and women were expanded. He also contributed to the founding of consumer cooperatives and mutual aid insurance cooperatives, and his achievements are still highly regarded today. He was also an excellent novelist, and his autobiographical novel "Shisen wo Koete" became a huge bestseller representative of the Taisho era. He published many other novels and critical essays as well, and was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. This museum is in Kamikitazawa, where he lived, and you can learn about his life along with valuable materials. I learned just how amazing Kagawa Toyohiko was, being called one of the world's three saints along with Gandhi and Schweitzer in the Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa eras. On the other hand, I also liked that it doesn't praise Kagawa Toyohiko unreservedly but points out that he too had prejudices and made mistakes. His achievements are valued more overseas than in Japan. I think that's partly because he was a Christian and because charity work and donations were already actively practiced in Europe and America back then. A great Japanese figure the world can be proud of. I want more people to know that such an amazing Japanese person existed.

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I learned there was a memorial museum for Kagawa Toyohiko, known as the father of consumer cooperatives, and decided to visit. As I traced his achievements, I wondered why such a great person isn't well known in Japan. Who knew there was a Japanese person with a statue at Washington Cathedral alongside Reverend King! I just dropped by casually, but it was a place that made me want more people to know that such a great Japanese person existed.

I didn't know this, but apparently he was someone who, it was said, would definitely have won the Nobel Peace Prize if he had lived one more year.

+2

There was a small stained glass, and I'm glad I got to learn about things like the Kagawa issue ✨ I'd like to visit again after some time 🥹

If you want to learn about mutual aid, please do visit.