Icon of St. Nikolai of Japan - 20th c | Lithography mini icon print on Wood | Size: 2,5" x 3,5"

Commemorated on February 3 and 16th

St. Nicholas of Japan (baptized as Ivan Dimitrievich Kasatkin) brought Orthodoxy to Japan in the 19th Century. In 1861 he was sent by the Church of Russia to Hakodate, Hokkaido, as a priest at a chapel of the Russian consulate. Though the contemporary Shogun's government prohibited the Japanese conversion to Christianity, soon some neighbors frequently visited the chapel. In April 1868, among them three converted -- Nicholas's first three converts in Japan. While they were his first converts in Japan, they were not the first Japanese to do so—some Japanese who had settled in Russia had converted to Orthodoxy.

Apart from brief trips, Nicholas stayed in Japan, even during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), and spread Orthodoxy nationwide, being appointed as the first bishop of the Church of Japan. Nicholas founded the Cathedral of Tokyo in Kanda district and spent over fifty years of his life there; hence Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Tokyo, Japan) was nicknamed Nikolai-do by Kanda citizens.