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Published with permission from:
Tokyo
Journal, December, 2000
Kyoko Baker got more than she bargained for when she joined a gospel choir at a San Francisco Methodist church. Not only did this 38-year-old Japanese tour reservationist find a new hobby, she also found a wonderful emotional release. "I was nearing a nervous breakdown from a destructive relationship and loneliness," recalled the petite soprano, her hands clasped on her lap. "But as soon as I began singing gospel, I started to feel warmth in my life," Baker said. Now singing every Sunday at the Glide Memorial Church, a Methodist church in a seedy part of downtown San Francisco, Baker said that she is surprised that she waited so long to discover gospel.
"Japanese people really need gospel
music. Japanese think that hiding your feelings is a good thing,"
she said referring to the Japanese term; "ganbatte!" which means,
"to fight!".
"But sometimes you can"t "ganbatte". You have to let the pain
out. Gospel singing gives you the reason to cry, release the pain
and to show affection: all things that Japanese feel awkward with,"
said Baker with a shy grin.
Baker is just one of thousands of
Japanese flocking to gospel singing workshops to clap their hands
and sing praise to Jesus. According to industry insiders, gospel
singing workshops are springing up across the U.S. and Japan in
record numbers.
The Gospel Music Workshop of America, the largest workshop of its kind in the world boasts 200 chapters compared to 150 five years ago, according to Steven Roberts, a music minister for the Oakland, Calif. center. Ronald Rucker, who runs his own gospel ministry and school in Tokyo, said that Japan offers 300 gospel workshops. Fifty of them are based in Tokyo.
According to Rucker the income generated from gospel concerts, events, CD and video sales in Japan is phenomenal.
"Gospel weddings have reached cottage
industry status in Japan," said Rucker adding that black gospel
singers can earn hefty sums singing gospel at Japanese weddings.
Gospel music experts aren"t surprised by the trend. Oral Moses,
associate professor of music literature at the Kennesaw State
University in Georgia said that even if they aren"t big on the
Baptist or Methodist religions, he can understand why Japanese
would be smitten with the power of the gospel music.
"Japanese
probably like gospel music because the music is exciting. The
Japanese that I have seen sing say they like the fervor of the
music, the commitment of the people who sing it. Japanese also
just love to sing, singing is a large part of their culture and
they are good at it," Moses said.
The professor added that since the
mid-nineties, Black gospel singers are choosing to perform in
Japan over Europe. This has also helped launch gospel singing
as a unique new hobby for Japanese based in the U.S. and in their
homeland.
"Black gospel singers used to tour exclusively in Europe. You
had many who traveled to Europe in the 1920s like Josephine Baker
who went to France, and the Golden Gate Quartet who made their
home in Germany and France. But in the past twenty years, gospel
singers" focus has shifted to Japan because the demand for their
music is truly there," Moses said.
Stapleton Carlson, founder of the Graham Magnet School Gospel
Choir in Long Island, NY noted that gospel music over the years
has been growing in popularity worldwide. "Gospel artists like Kirk Franklin,
Fred Hammond, Yolanda
Adams, Hezekiah Walker, BeBe and CeCe Winans have carried
it to a new level of acceptance," said Carlson. "It is not unusual
that some Japanese people and non-Christians would enjoy the culturally
rich expression enjoyed by the rest of the world"s population."
But gospel teachers say that the
key motivation for Japanese is that all of the hollering and swaying
feels good. Gospel music, they say profoundly alters Japanese
people"s lives.
"Most Japanese will tell you they feel "genki" after singing gospel.
They are energized by the music," said Rucker of his students
at the Rucker Gospel Ministries. Japanese also feel empowered
by gospel. "There is power in gospel music which the Japanese
feel. It is the power that gave hope to an enslaved people in
the U.S., and to tell the truth, actually helped keep Black America
from going crazy during all those years of bondage, oppression,
recession and depression," Rucker said.
When Roberts teaches gospel music in Japan, he said that the response
of the students is overwhelming. "You see a lot of tears and a
lot of emotion going on. Men and women just break down in tears.
Even those who aren"t Christian," Roberts said.
For Kyoko Baker gospel music is soul. "There is nothing like it
in Japan. When you sing gospel, all people are accepted as equal.
Gospel is about people. People make gospel to sing, laugh and
cry together. There is no sense of the same togetherness in Japanese
religion," she said adding that gospel also offers Japanese a
unique opportunity to show affection.
But while this is all good, some musicians question whether Japanese,
who are largely non-Christian can understand the soul of the gospel
produced by African American singers.
Hisaharu Tanabe, a 29-year-old computer engineer and Christian musician in New York said that while black gospel is popular in Japan, it is more that Japanese like the music style rather than the religion behind it. "Christianity is very small in Japan. Buddhism and Shinto are important, but in terms of faith and belief, many Japanese are not religious at all. But many of those people are not aware of what the gospel means or what it is used for. They don"t even know whether Jesus is related and that is sad," said Tanabe who plays piano for a gospel church band.
Rucker said that while
he is pleased that Japanese have fun with gospel, there needs
to be some kind of revival before they really get the substance
of the music.
The main problem, Rucker said, is that gospel music is a music
of the spirit.
Yet unfortunately nothing spontaneous
had ever been allowed to happen in Japan. "Gospel music is extremely
emotional. The black church is a church of emotion. Once Japanese
gospellers learn to trust their feelings, look to and trust God
to get them through whatever it is they need to get through, it
really will be "Oh, Happy Day" for them," he said.
But Janice Mirikitani, director of the Glide Memorial Church in
San Francisco dismisses any criticisms of Japanese gospel. Though
she was raised Buddhist, Mirikitani converted to Christianity
because she said the Buddhist Church offered her no love. Had
she remained Buddhist, Mirikitani reckons that she could still
have felt the power of gospel music.
"True gospel music allows all people to come together to express
their love to one another and through that they can feel a sense
of God"s love. Gospel is about soul, spirit, and growing from
the pain of the people," Mirikitani said. "If it is the gospel
music that pulls people into a church to feel that, then that"s
great."
