1886: Founding a Christian School in Sendai
In the early Meiji period, the lifting of the Christian ban came only in 1873 — relatively recent — and mission work in Tohoku was exceedingly difficult. Oshikawa entered Sendai in 1881 and in 1886, together with the German Reformed Church missionary W. E. Hoy, opened the 'Sendai Theological Seminary.' In Sendai, then no more than a corner of a cold country town, a base for training evangelists came into being. It began with just a handful of students, but drawn by Oshikawa's impassioned preaching and educational policy, the numbers grew, and it became the stronghold of Christian culture in Tohoku. Tohoku Gakuin, which followed, came to hold an important place as a Sendai institution of higher education.
The Yokohama Band: One Stream of Japanese Protestantism
The 'Yokohama Band' refers to the group of Japanese Christians baptized in Yokohama in 1872. Together with the Kumamoto Band and the Sapporo Band, it is called one of the three founts of Japanese Protestantism. Oshikawa Masayoshi, Ibuka Kajinosuke, Uemura Masahisa, and Honda Yoichi, among others, were its core members and were deeply involved in founding the major Christian schools that followed — Meiji Gakuin, Tohoku Gakuin, Aoyama Gakuin, Doshisha. As a leading figure of the Yokohama Band, Oshikawa went off to spread the gospel in various regions immediately after his baptism and played an especially important role in pioneering mission in the Tohoku region.