Japanese Shoeshine Preacher

THE Osaka, Japan, edition of Mainichi Shimbun, December 18, 1958, carried the following report of the preaching activity of one of Jehovah’s witnesses in that city, together with a photograph of him with Bible in hand:

“SHOESHINE MAN GIVES YEAR-END STREET SERMONS. HOLDS CONVERSATION WITH HIS CUSTOMERS ON BIBLE TEACHING AND MATERIALISM.

“In one week Christmas will be here. There will again be much festivity this year. However, taking no part in all this revelry is a shoeshine man who is preaching, ‘The teaching of the Bible is this.’ Ten years have been like one day to him.

“This person is Mr. Yoshitaka Isobe, 55 years of age, who lives at 2 Sano Cho, Seijo Ku, and who used to be a jazz-band trumpeter at the Minato Cabaret. However, he was disgusted with the world of ‘wine and women,’ and when a missionary who lived at the same Sano Cho happened to preach to him, he started studying the Bible with him. Becoming absorbed in this study, he began to think, ‘I want to convey this teaching to others.’ Hence he chose the shoeshine trade, so that customers could listen to him for the few minutes that he polished their shoes.

“Mr. Isobe immediately opened a shop in front of the subway of Umeda. Eight years have passed. . . . Except for Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday mornings, when he goes preaching from house to house, he is to be seen every day at his stand in the street. He now sits at a corner in front of Naniwa Station, and it is said that some others have also become preachers through listening to his street sermons.

“His family co-operates wholeheartedly in his street sermon activity. In fact, his daughters Mariko (16) and Miyoko (12)—who is in sixth grade at Kanezuka Primary School—are so zealous as to go preaching with him. It is his hope that in the future the four members of his family will pioneer the way with him to the land of Hokkaido [where the need is great] for the preaching work. Today, as usual, he took out his thumb-marked Bible and asked, ‘What do you think of the world of materialism?’ of a young man who sat in front of him.

“Mr. Isobe says, ‘The Bible never said that we may overeat and overdrink. There are only a few who understand the spirit of the Bible. I want to convey this precious teaching to as many people as possible.’”