The Culture of Japan through the Eyes of St. Archbishop Nicholas (Kasatkin). Based on the Collection of the Orient Department of the State Hermitage Museum

This article attempts to recreate, basing on individual exhibits of the Orient Department of the State Hermitage Museum, the original culture of the Land of the Rising Sun of the Meiji era (1868–1912), which St. Nicholas met during the Orthodox sermon in Japan. The study is written with the involvement of the diaries of St. Nicholas, as well as the memories of his contemporaries, who in their letters and memoirs noted the special qualities and achievements of the founder of the Russian Orthodox Mission in Japan. St. Nicholas plunged into the world of original culture, which he studied, analyzed and sought to understand. In the new country, he was surrounded by original things, which then entered his everyday life. In the article we turn to the writing instruments of the Meiji era from the collection of the Orient Department of the State Hermitage Museum, which were probably included in the arsenal of traditional objects of art of St. Nikolas during his time of learning Japanese and implementing internal communication. Turning to exhibits from the Orient Department of the State Hermitage Museum and original written sources allows to take a new look at the personality of St. Nicholas and the State Hermitage collection itself, which can become the basis of a separate exhibition entitled “The Culture of Japan through the Eyes of St. Archbishop Nicholas”.