United Church of Christ in Japan Shimamura Church

A Church Born in a Silkworm-Egg Village

United Church of Christ in Japan Shimamura Church (日本基督教団島村教会, Nihon Kirisuto Kyōdan Shimamura Kyōkai) is a Protestant church in Sakaijimamura, Isesaki City, Gunma Prefecture, whose chapel of 1897 and nursery school main building of 1950 were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008. It stands among fields on the flat land along the Tone River.

Shimamura was famous from the Edo period for producing silkworm eggs, sold to raisers as seed. According to the Isesaki tourism association, Christianity reached the village in the early Meiji years through egg dealers who traveled to Yokohama on business.

Isesaki City records that in 1887 a preaching station of the Methodist Episcopal Church, known in Japanese as Mii Kyōkai, was set up inside the home of the egg dealer Tajima Zenpei. As the congregation grew the house became too small, and in 1897 the present chapel was built in the Shinno section of the village. The church describes itself as founded by the farming believers of Shimamura.

A 2-storey meeting room was added in 1950, and in 1959 the pulpit on the north front of the sanctuary was enlarged.

A Church That Opened a Nursery

The church opened Shimamura Megumi Nursery School for local children. The nursery gives its founding year as 1950, while the church's own page says 1955; the sources differ. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the nursery main building to 1950.

Isesaki City describes the chapel and nursery buildings together as a symbol of the local historic landscape. A small Meiji chapel beside a postwar timber nursery shows how a rural congregation served both as a place of worship and as a place to look after children.

The Registered Buildings and a Prefectural Border

Three buildings were registered together on April 18, 2008: the chapel (number 10-0257) and the nursery main building (number 10-0258) on the Gunma side, and the nursery annex (number 11-0119) on the Saitama side.

This page covers the 2 Gunma buildings on the church lot. The annex stands diagonally across the intersection, and that plot lies in Yokose, Fukaya City, Saitama Prefecture. The prefectural line here zigzags, following old courses of the Tone River. The annex has its own page as a Saitama property.

Details of each building are on the pages for the chapel and the nursery main building.

Visiting and Getting There

The exterior of United Church of Christ in Japan Shimamura Church can be viewed at any time. The Isesaki tourism association says interior visits are possible for groups only, by reservation through the Isesaki City Cultural Properties Division (tel. 0270-75-6672). The nursery is in operation, so view the buildings from the road rather than entering the grounds, and take particular care at drop-off and pick-up times.

Nearby is the Former Residence of Tajima Yahei, a component of the World Heritage site Tomioka Silk Mill and Related Sites. Walking between them gives a sense of the egg-dealing village the church grew out of; the association's walking plan puts the church about 10 minutes on foot from the Tajima residence.

By public transport, take the Isesaki City community bus Aozora from Sakaimachi Station on the Tobu Isesaki Line to Shimamura Kaiko no Furusato Park. The park has a parking lot, so drivers can leave the car there and walk.