The history of the relationship of St. Nicholas of Japan with the St. Petersburg metropolitans (1860-1912).

St. Nicholas (Kasatkin) was engaged in enlightenment and missionary activity in Japan in 1860-1912. During all this time he had to solve a variety of issues, among which a special place was occupied by the question of financing the Mission. An equally serious problem was the shortage of capable Mission personnel from Russia. For resolving these and other issues, St. Nicholas repeatedly addressed letters and requests to St. Petersburg metropolitans, in charge of whom were all foreign, including consular, churches in the synodal period. In the indicated period, the Capital’s Metropolitan Chair was alternately occupied by three metropolitans: Isidor (Nikolsky) (from 1860 to 1892), Palladiy (Raev) (from 1892 to 1898) and Antony (Vadkovsky) (from 1898 to 1912). In the article, on the basis of archival materials and published sources, it is shown that the Mission in Japan was most seriously dependent on St. Petersburg’s metropolitans. And the fact that the Mission took place, is in a certain sense a merit, including the Capital’s Metropolitans. This is especially true concerning Metropolitan Isidor (Nikolsky). The article is a supplemented and revised version of the report, which was presented at the International Conference “Saints Nikolas of Japan and Innocent of Moscow: Culture of the Peoples of Russia, Japan and America” in Tokyo on November 8, 2017.