Reports on the state of the Orthodox spiritual mission in Japan written by St. Nicholas (Kasatkin) as a historical source

The article written on the basis of archival materials offers an overview of the annual reports on the state of the Orthodox spiritual mission of the Equal-to-the- Apostles Nikolas of Japan, which the saint sent to the Holy Synod from 1870 to 1912. It was possible to find out that in the Russian State Historical Archive at the moment there are 30 out of 42 possible reports. These reports are a unique and extremely important historical source for studying the history of the Japanese Orthodox Church. They contain information about the members of the Mission, the number of Orthodox Christians in Japan, the state of the parishes, churches, schools, etc. Separately, Saint Nicholas was given a financial component, so the information on the Mission’s income and expenditure has always been quite detailed. The most important annual reports are obtained in comparison with Archbishop Nicholas’s “Diaries”. Complementing each other, these sources will allow a new look at known facts and even open new ones, thus enriching the history of Japanese Orthodoxy.