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His Grace the Right Reverend [[Bishop ]] '''Nicholas (Ono) of Japan''' was consecrated as the ruling bishop of the [[Church of Japan]] in 1941 when the militaristic Japanese government required the heads of all religious groups in Japan to be Japanese nationals. He was the first Japanese national to be consecrated an Orthodox bishop.[[Image:Nicholas (Ono) Bp of Japan.jpg|left|thumb|px200|Bishop Nicholas (Ono) of Japan]]==Life==The future Bp. Nicholas was born Kiichi Yamazaki on [[September 8]], 1872, in the village of Kannami in Shizuoka Prefecture. When he was still in elementary school, his older brother, Yamazaki Kenzaburō, was [[baptize]]d into the Orthodox faith under the name of Sabbas and became a catechist. As young Kiichi finished his education at school, he hoped to continue learning and went to Tokyo where he was introduced to [[Archbishop]] [[Nicholas of Japan|Nicholas (Kasatkin)]] and entered the [[Tokyo Orthodox Seminary (Tokyo, Japan)|Orthodox Seminary]] in Tokyo, being baptized under the name of John in 1885. John completed his education in 1892 and became a catechist, following in the footsteps of his older brother. In 1894 he married Vera (Faith) Ono accepting her family name. His wife, Vera Shin, was the daughter of Fr. John Atsure Sakai, the first Japanese [[ordination|ordained]] an Orthodox [[priest]]. On [[bishopMarch 19]], 1905, with Abp. Nicholas officiating, he was ordained to priesthood and was assigned to be the priest of the church in Takasaki where he spent over thirty years, acquiring a rich pastoral experience. Suddenly, as the wartime pressures on the Orthodox Church in Japan were mounting, he was reassigned in 1939 to the Yokohama Orthodox Church.  When in 1939 the increasingly nationalistic Japanese government passed a law requiring government authorization of all religious bodies in Japan for them to be legal. The government implementation of the law included the requirement that religious groups must be headed by Japanese nationals. In this [[Sergius (Tikhomirov) of Japan|Metr. Sergius]], who was the [[Archbishop]] of Tokyo and [[Metropolitan]]of All Japan, and the governing bodies of the Japanese Orthodox Church faced a grave predicament that resulted in a split among the church authorities into two groups on how this would be accomplished.

==Life==In early 1941, one group (Iwasawa) appeared set on a course wherein the registered head, the ''Tori'', would be a layman. This approach apparently was based on the model familiar to those educated in Russia before the revolution; that is, of church governance headed by a layman, the [[Ober-Procurator]] named by the Emperor. Dissatisfaction with this course led to a second (anti-Iwasawa) group that elected [[Archpriest]] James Shintaro Tohei as the episcopal candidate and ''Tori''.  In the meantime the Iwasawa group had approached the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia ([[ROCOR]]) for [[consecration of a bishop]]. Archpriest John Ono was elected as the Japanese candidate to episcopacy. Fr. John was then the oldest [[priest]] in the Church of Japan. As he was married, he and his wife traveled to different monasteries in Harbin, Manchuria, which at the time was ruled by Japan. In Harbin, Fr. John was [[tonsure]]d a [[monk]] under the name of Nicholas Ono and his wife Vera was tonsured a priest [[nun]] with the name Helen.[[Image:Harbin Church.jpg|left|thumb|150px|St. Nicholas Cathedral, Harbin, Manchuria, China]]On [[April 6]], 1941, Fr. John was consecrated the Bishop of Tokyo and All Japan in St. Nicholas Cathedral in Harbin by the hierarchs of the ROCOR: Metr. [[Meletius (Zaborosky) of Harbin and Manchuria|Meletius (Zaborovsky)]] of Harbin and All Manchuria, Abp. [[Nestor (Anisimov) of Kamchatka]] and Petropavlovsk, Bp. Juvenal of Qiqihar, Bp. Demetrius of Hailar and Bp. [[John Maximovitch|John (Maksimovich) of Shanghai]]. (Some sources name Abp. Victor (Svyatin) of Beijing instead of Bp. John.) Thus, Bp. Nicholas became the first Japanese national to be consecrated an Orthodox bishop. After the end of World War II, the [[jurisdiction]] over most of the communities of the Japanese Orthodox Church was assumed by the American Metropolia, the predecessor of the [[OCA]], while a minority, under the leadership of Bp. Nicholas aligned itself with the Moscow Patriarchate. On [[May 27]], 1954, Bp. Nicholas was reconciled with the Japanese Orthodox Church, then led by Bp. [[Ireney (Bekish) of New York|Ireney (Bekish)]]. Bp. Nicholas died at the age of 83 on [[November 19]], 1956. He is buried in Yanaka Cemetery in Tokyo, alongside his predecessors: St. Nicholas, the Enlightener of Japan, and Metr. Sergius.

As the Japanese military grew in power within Japan during the 1930s==Sources==*Ushimaru, Proclus (Yasuo), Priest, ''Kami no Mimune ni Ikita Gekidō no Shimobetachi'', Tokyo, Office of the government became more and more nationalist and militaristic. In 1940Metropolitan, the government passed laws that all institutions, including religious ones, must be headed by Japanese nationals. ThusOrthodox Church, [[Sergius (Tikhomirov) of Japan|Metr1985. Sergius]]*Masatoshi John Shoji, who was the [[Archbishop]] of Tokyo and [[Metropolitan]] ''The Orthodox Church of All Japan, and his choir director, [[Victor Pokrovsky]], as non1912-Japanese born members, were forced all out of the Church administration. With the forced "retirement" 1954: A Time of Metr. SergiusTroubles'', the government required that a Japanese be [[enthronement|enthroned]] as the ruling bishop. Obeying the edictMaster's Thesis, a council of the Japanese Church was held in 1941 that elected Archpriest Nicholas Ono as the new bishop. As he was marriedSt Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, his wife was sent to a monastery in HarbinCrestwood, ManchuriaNew York, which was then ruled by Japan. Fr. Nicholas was then [May 2007*[consecration|consecrated]] as the ruling bishop of Japan by Archbishop Nestor of Harbin, who was cooperating with the military governmenthttp://www. Thus, Bporthodox. Nicholas became the first Japanese Orthodox to be consecrated an Orthodox bishop in Japan and remained in that position until the end of World War IIcn/localchurch/nicholasono_en. htm Subsequently, Bp. Nicholas reconciled himself with the Japanese Orthodox Church before he died.(Ono)]