William Merrell Vories was born in Kansas in 1880 and came to Japan in 1905 to work as a missionary and English instructor, based in Shiga Prefecture. Along the way, he fell into architecture despite having no training in the field, and is responsible for some 1,600 of the earliest Western-style buildings in Japan. Among these is the Brown Chapel at Kyushu Gakuin. He later married the daughter of viscount Suenori Hitotsuyanagi and became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 1941, adopting his wife’s family name to create Hitotsuyanagi Mereru - with an interesting accompanying kanji rather than katakana, 一柳米来留. He is also credited with, for better or worse, introducing the Hammond Organ to Japan. He died in 1964 and was posthumously honored the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd class, by the Japanese government.
There will be an exhibition of his works at the Kumamoto Museum annex from 1/16 to 1/21. Admission is free. - William
