was a Japanese Christian journalist who published several books in the United States and the United Kingdom. He was born in Yonezawa, educated in the law in Japan, and was for a short time engaged in newspaper work in that country.
He sometimes wrote under the name of K. K. Kawakami. Although Japanese do not have middle names, he is said to have been a socialist in his youth, when he apparently adopted the middle name "Karl" (from Karl Marx).
In 1901 he travelled to the United States and studied at the universities of Iowa and Wisconsin. In 1905, engaged in journalism, he traveled extensively in China, Siberia, and Russia. He was a correspondent for leading newspapers in Tokyo and a frequent contributor to American magazines and newspapers.
Early life
Kiyoshi Kawakami was the youngest born into a family of three brothers and three sisters, with the given name of Yushichi Miyashita. His mother died probably related to childbirth, and his father died soon after. Within the next two years, his oldest brother died of war wounds and another brother died from an illness. He and his siblings lived with their grandmother in poverty, selling family belongings to put food on the table. When he was six years old he was put into the care of the local Shinto shrine in order to relieve food insecurity in the family.
He returned home, however, homesick, and was read to frequently by his grandmother. When he was eight years old, his grandmother sold more belongings to be able to send him to elementary school. He was able to go onto junior high school, where he learned English at the age of thirteen.
Selected bibliography
- Political Ideas of the Modern Japan (1903)
- American-Japanese Relations: An Inside View of Japan's Policies and Purposes (1912)