Kiyoma Yumiyama

Kiyoma Yumiyama (1900–2002) was among the most influential leaders in the development of the Pentecostal movement in twentieth-century Japan. A charter member of the Japan Assemblies of God (JAoG), he served as its first general superintendent and the first president of Central Bible Institute. Through these roles, he not only shaped the JAoG’s institutional development but also mentored generations of Pentecostal ministers in Japan.

Yumiyama was born on August 10, 1900, in a rural village in Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku. Raised in a prominent family with a traditional Buddhist-Shinto background, he entered Okayama Medical College after completing junior high school. However, during his studies, he experienced a profound personal crisis while struggling to find meaning in life. On June 10, 1920, he entered a nearby church and became a Christian. A year later, he abandoned his medical studies, moved to Tokyo, and married Fui, whom he had met in Okayama.

At the end of 1922, Yumiyama met John W. Juergensen, an American Assemblies of God missionary. Under Juergensen’s influence, he experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit and began assisting John in his Pentecostal ministry. From 1924 onward, he worked with John’s father, Carl F. Juergensen, in Tokyo’s Takinogawa district. Although Yumiyama initially remained uncertain whether to pursue medicine or ministry, a Holiness retreat led by Fujito Tsuge around 1926 convinced him to devote his life to Christian ministry.

Yumiyama became pastor of Takinogawa Church in 1927 and was ordained in 1928. His early ministry was marked by serious personal and family difficulties, and he temporarily left Tokyo. After spending several months in Korea, he returned in 1930 and resumed his pastorate. A spiritual revival at Takinogawa Church in December 1930 inspired him to establish the Takinogawa Holy Spirit Bible School in January 1931. Although Yumiyama had no formal theological education, his knowledge of English and German enabled him to study theological literature independently.

After organizational conflicts within the Japan Bible Church, an Assemblies of God denomination in Japan, Yumiyama and Marie Juergensen formed their own Takinogawa Holy Spirit Church in 1938. During World War II, Yumiyama remained in Tokyo and continued to pastor the congregation, which, after joining the United Church of Christ in Japan in 1941, was renamed Shinsho Church. Despite severe wartime hardships and extremely low attendance, the church survived, and its building escaped the destruction of Tokyo’s air raids.

After the war, Yumiyama became central to the reconstruction of Japanese Pentecostalism. When the Japan Assemblies of God was organized at Shinsho Church in March 1949, he was elected its first general superintendent, a role he held until 1973. In 1950, he also became the first principal of Central Bible Institute, a position he held until 1992.

Yumiyama envisioned a distinctly Japanese, ultimately independent Pentecostal denomination. In 1951, he articulated this vision through three principles: Jishu Keizai (self-financing), Jishu Dendo (self-evangelism), and Jishu Seiji (self-government). These principles guided the JAoG toward institutional and financial independence while maintaining cooperation with foreign missionaries. Yumiyama remained an influential spiritual and institutional leader until his death on February 10, 2002, at age 101.

This article is the author's abridged version of Masakazu Suzuki, "Yumiyama, Kiyoma," in Brill's Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism, ed. Michael Wilkinson et al. (Leiden: Brill, 2021).

For Further Reading:

Shew, Paul Tsuchido. “History of the Early Pentecostal Movement in Japan: The Roots and Development of the Pre-War Pentecostal Movement in Japan (1907-1945).” Ph.D. diss., Fuller Theological Seminary, 2003.
Suzuki, Masakazu. “The Life and Ministry of Kiyoma Yumiyama and the Foundation of Japan Assemblies of God.” Asia Journal of the Pentecostal Studies 9, no. 2 (2006), 220-243.
Suzuki, Masakazu. “The Origins and the Development of the Japan Assemblies of God: The Foreign and Japanese Workers and Their Ministries (1907 to 1975).” Ph.D. diss., Bangor University, 2011.

Kiyoma Yumiyama (1900–2002)

Country of Origin

Countries/Regions of Ministry

Traditions

Ministries

For Further Reading: