Pastor. He was born in Kobe, and lost his parents in childhood and moved to Tokushima Prefecture. He was baptized while attending Tokushima Middle School in 1904. He entered the preparatory course for the Faculty of Theology at Meiji Gakuin, and transferred to Kobe Theological Seminary, graduating in 1911. He studied abroad at Princeton University in the United States in 1914 and returned to Japan in 1917. In addition to devoting his life to evangelism, he also devoted himself to social movements such as the labor movement and the cooperative movement, as well as social work to alleviate poverty. His autobiographical novel Shisen o koete (Crossing the Line Between Life and Death), published in 1920, became a bestseller. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, he moved his base of operations from Kobe to Tokyo to assist with relief efforts. He gained worldwide recognition and was later nominated for both the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as member of the House of Peers by Imperial command from March 1946 to May 1947.