シオンの竪琴

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Missionary brother, Willis Enhle, hired a Japanese German professor to translate the Zion’s Harp into Japanese from the German language. This professor was not converted so he did not understand the spiritual meaning and his translations were very poor. The brethren in Japan examined the translation of the first hymn and felt it was unacceptable.

The translation project was stopped until a Japanese sister, Reiko Furuya, undertook the translation work. Sister Furuya used both the German Zionsharfe as well as the English Zion’s Harp. It took many years but she translated three or four verses of each hymn and wrote them by hand in Japanese between staves of music. This handwritten method produced a very large book which was used in church services and was very much appreciated by the users. Later, this same Sister (now a college professor) used a computer to print the Japanese characters and put 128 of the most sung hymns into a book which is currently being used in the two Apostolic Churches in Japan: Tokyo and Shioda.

Sister Furuya is now in her 70s, still single, and has finished her responsibilities at the university (which is owned by her family). She is now working on translating all of the verses which were not translated for the first edition.