This was outside a school on Shodo Island where Mr. and Mrs. Katirai, standing on the right, went for teaching. They were accompanied by Mr. Toshikazu Taniguchi, a fairly new Bahá'í from Takamatsu, standing to the left with his arm on Farzad Katirai. Next standing is Mr. Tatsuo Shiomoto and Mr. Masazo Odani. Mr. and Mrs. Shiomoto were the first Bahá'ís of Shodo Island, 1959.
This was taken at one of the early meetings in Takamatsu, Shikoku Island. Mr. and Mrs. Katirai are seated in front. In the back row, fourth from the left is Mr. Ando, the first Bahá'í of Shikoku. Mr. Odani is standing third from the right. Mr. Hisashi Taniguchi, father of Toshikazu, is standing between Mr. Odani and Mr. Shiomoto who had accompanied the Katirais. Mr. Shiomoto introduced the Katirais to the Taniguchi family. Four of them became Bahá'ís, active through the years.
A discussion of the Faith among students of Shimane University in Matsue, May 1959. Mr. Moghbel, standing second from the left, accompanied Miss Alexander (next to Mr. Moghbel) and Mr. and Mrs. Torii, standing next to Miss Alexander. Miss Alexander and the Toriis had gone to Matsue for a conference for the blind.
At the end of that year, the first believer Mr. Akira Yamamoto, standing far left, enrolled in the Faith.
This photograph was taken at the home of Professor Mizoue in 1960. She is seated between Mr. Moghbel and Mr. Masazo Odani. Mr. Shimabara is standing, left. Miss Matsuura is in the middle and Mr. Yamamoto is standing to the right. It was the second trip for Miss Matsuura. She and Mr. Odani were among the first Japanese Bahá'ís to arise to actively teach the Faith in other cities. Professor Mizoue, and the student Mr. Shimabara, were friends of Bahá'ís but did not become Bahá'ís.
Seeing Miss Alexander off at Hiroshima station in 1958. Miss Alexander, second from the left, often visited Hiroshima. From the left are Hiroshima residents, Mr. Sharif Sharifi, Miss Matsuura and Mrs. Assassi. It was the next year that Miss Matsuura went to Matsue alone. Miss Alexander wrote to her that she was an example for other Japanese women.
Mr. Muhammad Labib took this interesting photograph of the third summer school in Japan in 1959, with a rather antique camera. He printed large copies for distribution, and also made it into a cover for note paper. Being one to seize every opportunity to proclaim the Faith, he also made it into a post card, shown here.
At this summer school the average daily attendance was one hundred and forty-five.
Miss Alexander often went around to the different communities to help with the teaching. Here she is with her typical smile, with Mr. Kiyoshi Nonoda and Mr. Yoshihiro Ogawa, two of the early believers in Osaka. Mrs. Nonoda is standing second from the left. The other women were friends of hers. The photograph was undated but was probably taken in the late 1950s or early 1960s.
Mr. Gekie Nakajima (standing at the left) and Mr. Rouhollah Mumtazi with Ainu friends during their trip to Hokkaido, June 1957.
Mr. Yoshiro Sasaki and Mr. Kinkichi Shimatani, the first in Hokkaido to declare their belief in Bahá'u'lláh, 1957.
Hand of the Cause Miss Alexander with three of the first Ainu Bahá'ís, Mr. Umegae, his father Mr. Moritake and Mr. Sumiyoshi, December 1961.
January 1962 in Shiraoi. The middle row from the left, Mr. Umegae, Mr. Sumiyoshi, Mrs. Moritake, and Mr. Moritake who had become Bahá'ís just the month before. Miss Sandra Sims, standing holding the framed "Greatest Name" was a youth travel-teacher who stayed with the Moritake family for a few days. Mr. Muhammad Labib, standing at the right, was visiting Hokkaido. Mr. Kuriyama standing at the far left was the first Bahá'í of Shiraoi.
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The First Youth to Travel-Teach for an Extended Period in Japan.
Miss Sandra Sims (Fotos), as a child, pioneered to Japan with her parents who came during the first year of the Ten Year Crusade. As a teenager, she gave up one semester of her college education to spend three months travel-teaching in Hokkaido, 1962.
She was young, alone, and it was during the snowy winter so she attracted much attention. In those early days foreigners were rather rare, especially in the remote areas. She was written up in two newspapers and made an appearance on television. She went to thirteen cities and towns, and obtained introductions to visit city officials, schools, museums and libraries. She helped with the community in Sapporo and stayed with the new Bahá'ís in Shiraoi.
Miss Sims is shown here with Mrs. Haru Fujiyama, an Ainu woman who was originally from Sakhalin Island. The woman was in a hospital in Tokoro and had heard of Miss Sims and wanted to learn about her religion.
Pioneer Jack Davis, sitting in front, during a meeting in the Ainu village of Nibutani, 1963. Mr. Umegae (in profile) is at the right. One of the women in front has the traditional tattoo around her mouth. Done when she was young it indicated that she was of marriagable age.
Dr. Yasuyuki Hosoda, of Tokyo, (second from the right), with Mr. Umegae, (left), are teaching a family in Hokkaido. The man is looking at Dr. Hosoda's teaching album. Years later Dr. Hosoda was to become one of Japan's most eminent heart surgeons.
Mr. Hideya Suzuki (left) watches as his brother Dr. Toshio Suzuki translates from English to Japanese for Hand of the Cause Miss Alexander. Dr. Suzuki went from his home in Nagasaki to help with this first conference in Hokkaido.
Miss Alexander is sitting in the middle with Mr. Moritake and Mr. Umegae to the right of her. Mr. Leach is standing in the back row to the left. A total of about seventy people attended.
Mr. Umegae is shown here with Hands of the Cause Miss Alexander and Dr. Muhajir shortly after his appointment to the Auxiliary Board in 1965. This photograph was taken at the Tokyo Bahá'í Center during a national assembly meeting the three attended. Mr. Umegae had worked very hard a few days before coming to Tokyo to finish carving the "Greatest Name" which he presented to the national spiritual assembly.
Mr. Umegae's appointment fulfilled the Guardian's words about the Ainu arising to teach their own people. In the years following he travelled extensively throughout Japan, including Ogasawara Islands, teaching the Faith.
This photograph was taken at the dedication of the Tomikawa Haziratu'l-Quds, 1969, in the town of Tomikawa which is along the remote southern coast of Hokkaido. About one hundred Bahá'ís attended the dedication, many coming from the main island of Honshu. It was the eighth Haziratu'l-Quds in Japan. Counsellor Mumtazi is sitting in the middle, to the left of the woman holding the frame containing the "Greatest Name."
In 1974 the National Spiritual Assembly of Japan emerged from the National Spiritual Assembly of North East Asia. When the new national assembly was voted into existence, was it not fitting that a Japanese of Ainu ancestry be elected to it? Mr. Matsuo Chiba of Tomikawa, Hokkaido, served faithfully on that assembly for eight years until he was obliged to curtail his activities due to reasons of health.
This picture, taken in 1983 in Shiraoi, shows Mr. Umegae, now sixty, with granddaughters Emi, 7, and Maya, 3, during a demonstration of Ainu culture.
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