An Unexpected Evangelist to the People of Japan
Returning from our tour of a Buddhist temple in Tokyo, Japan, I listened with great interest as the other tourists peppered our guide with questions about the meaning of the rituals we had witnessed during our visit. With patience, this young lady who considered herself a practicing Buddhist, concluded her answers with a statement totally void of hope. “Most Buddhists don’t really believe any of these rituals will help us, but they won’t hurt us, so we do it as a tradition.”
My short visit to Japan occurred over forty years ago, and according to statistics released in 2018 by the Government of Japan, I should not have been surprised by our guide’s expression of spiritual hopelessness. With 69.0% of the population practicing Shintō, 66.7% practicing Buddhism, and only 1.5% practicing Christianity, the spiritual darkness oppressing this population manifests itself in tragic ways. In an article titled J.S. Bach in Japan and appearing on First Things website in 2000, alarming facts are presented about this lovely country. “No other country in the developed world keeps as many palm readers busy. None produces as much pornography; nearly half the world’s smut is made in Japan. Suicide rates have risen from 23,000 in 1996 to 25,000 in 1997 and 32,000 in 1998. According to opinion polls, 60 percent of the population admit to being afraid every day.” The number of suicides in Japan during the period between January 2016 and December 2021 was 78,969 for men and 37,609 for women.
What do all of these grim facts about the people of Japan have to do with a musician who died in relative obscurity in Germany in the year 1750? Let us examine only a small fraction of Johann Sebastian Bach’s life and work to explore the connection.
J.S. Bach, the Man
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany in the year 1685 into a family of musicians. His was a family of neither notable wealth or poverty. After losing both of his parents by age nine, he lived with his older brother Johann Christophe in Ohrdruf, Germany to continue his education.
At age 15, Bach earned a university scholarship in Luneberg, Germany. By age 21, he married his second cousin, Maria Barbara Bach. The couple had seven children together, some of whom died as infants. Maria died in 1720, and the following year, Bach married a singer named Anna Magdalena Wulcken. They had thirteen children together; more than half of them died as children. Only a small amount of personal information remains to provide a glimpse into the life of the Bach family, but one of his sons is quoted as saying their home was like a beehive filled with constant activity. Bach clearly shared his love of music with his children. From his first marriage, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach became composers and musicians. Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach and Johann Christian Bach, sons from his second marriage, also enjoyed musical success.
In 1740, Bach began to lose his eyesight. In 1749, he started a new composition called “The Art of Fugue,” but did not complete it. He tried to fix his failing sight by having surgery the following year, but the operation ended up leaving him completely blind. Later that year, Bach suffered a stroke. He died in Leipzig on July 28, 1750.
J.S. Bach, the Musician
To encapsulate the musical contributions of Bach in a few sentences would be impossible. Although mostly lauded for his masterful compositions, Bach was an accomplished soprano singer until his voice changed. He then utilized his musical knowledge as an instrumentalist playing violin, harpsichord, and organ. He possessed great skill as an organ builder as well.
Employed to compose for the church as well as royals and nobility, his secular compositions also reflected his deep commitment to his faith with him often writing the initials I.N.J. for the Latin, In Nomine Jesu, or “in the name of Jesus,” on his sheet music. In the documentary, Glory to God Alone, a musical historian noted, “composition for him was to be involved in the act of creation that was a pale imitation, I think he would say, of the creativity of God.”
Drawing from more information in the documentary, we, unfortunately, learn that, “in the decades following his death, his music would be replaced by newer, more popular styles. Although his productivity forged a musical legacy which composer, Wagner, praised as the most stupendous miracle in all of music, Bach’s music was largely ignored until seventy-nine years after his death when composer, Felix Mendelssohn performed St. Matthew’s Passion by J. S. Bach sparking a revival that has influenced the music of every generation.”
“Music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul.”
Johann Sebastian Bach
“I play the notes as they are written, but it is God who makes the music.”
“Where there is devotional music, God is always at hand with His gracious presence.”
“God’s gift to his sorrowing creatures is a joy worthy of their destiny.”
J.S. Bach, the Missionary
These are the words of a musician whose last musical composition, “Before Thy Throne I Come” was dictated from his bed well over two hundred years ago. Swedish theologian and Lutheran archbishop Nathan Söderblom (1866-1931), called Bach’s music “the fifth Gospel.” Why is J. S. Bach having such a remarkable impact on the new evangelization in the country of Japan?
Writer George Weigel sheds some light on that question. He writes, “Classical music fans sensed that something intriguing was afoot when a series of exceptionally high-quality CDs by an ensemble called the ‘Bach Collegium Japan’ began to appear in the stores a few years ago. Under the direction of its founder, Masaaki Suzuki, the Bach Collegium is recording every one of the master’s cantatas.” Almost 200 cantatas were composed by Bach and this project took 18 years to complete. But why on earth would a Japanese choir be doing Bach’s religious works?”
Ponder the responses of Japanese musicians as they consider the genius of the musicality and theological truths presented in Bach’s compositions. A Japanese musicologist named Keisuke traveled all the way to Bach’s home church in Germany to study the biblical basis for Bach’s cantatas. He ended up seeking out a pastor and asking, “It is not enough to read Christian texts. I want to be a Christian myself. Please baptize me.” Another Japanese musician, a female organist, and a former Buddhist named Yoko said, “Bach introduced me to God, Jesus, and Christianity. When I play a fugue, I can hear Bach talking to God.”
In the words of the renowned organist Masaaki Suzuki, founder, and conductor of the Bach Collegium Japan, explains the thirst for the Living Water offered in the music of Bach in these words.
“What people need in this situation is hope in the Christian sense of the word, but hope is an alien idea here. Our language does not even have an appropriate word for hope. We either use ibo, meaning desire, or nozomi, which describes something unattainable.”
After every one of the Bach Collegium’s performances, Suzuki is crowded on the podium by non-Christian members of the audience who wish to talk to him about topics that are normally taboo in Japanese society—death, for example. And then they inevitably ask him to explain to them what ‘hope’ means to Christians. Suzuki sees himself as a missionary. “I am spreading Bach’s message, which is a biblical one,” he stated.
Uwe Siemon-Netto, a foreign correspondent based in New York City, adds, “Suzuki makes sure his musicians, mostly non-Christians, get that point. During rehearsals, he teaches them Scripture. ‘It is impossible to say how many of my performers and listeners will ultimately become Christians,’ Suzuki said. He believes, however, that Bach has already converted tens of thousands of Japanese to the Christian faith.”
Here is a sample of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. It is worth noting he always initialed every finished piece with the letters, SDG, Sole Deo Gloria, Glory to God Alone.
