Black gospel finds favour in Japan

THE JAPANESE are developing a passion for black gospel reports the New York Times. The Japanese and Japanese Americans, many of whom are Buddhists, are today fascinated by gospel. Hundreds of Japanese attend a three-hour workshop each Saturday at Memorial Baptist Church in Harlem that is led by black gospel music instructors. The students clap, stomp, sing and sway, trying to feel God's Spirit, the newspaper reported. A small group has created a Japanese community gospel choir that began performing this summer at black churches and ethnic arts festivals in New York. The director, Melody Moore, says it has left audiences across the city awestruck. "Ifs an amazing thing to watch," she said. "People can see that they feel the spirit of this music. You hear their effort, and you have to believe it's God."

Music teachers in Japan say people are rushing to classes, joining choirs and buying concert tickets for any black gospel artist who visits the country, The Times reported. There is a gospel singing school in Tokyo and semi-professional choirs throughout Japan such as the Harlem Japanese Gospel Choir-Osaka, whose members, dressed in kimonos, tour Japan and the United States singing black gospel hymns. The music is having a profound effect on some of the singers' lives. "I truly feel this is what I'm supposed to do in my life, to sing gospel music to help people have hope," Yuko Ichioka told The Times. Raised as a Buddhist, she is a jazz singer who grew tired of hanging out in dark, smoky nightclubs. She said it is impossible to sing about Jesus Christ without eventually becoming a Christian. "I haven't been baptized myself but I think now deep down inside I am Christian, a child of God."