Thoughts from Nyokodō

de Takashi Nagai

Nyokodō, the Place of Love to Yourself, is the tiny six-by-six foot wooden hut where Takashi Nagai spent the last three years of his life, in the heart of the Nagasaki district which had been reduced to ashes by the atomic bomb. In that dwelling he lived in voluntary material and spiritual poverty, confined to a bed by leukemia but in an unstoppable race towards the discovery of the Truth of himself and of life and death. Thoughts from Nyokodō is now translated from Japanese for the first time. It is the last autobiographical work by Takashi Nagai, which collects letters and short writings that are precious to follow, in family intimacy with him, his steps towards the final encounter with Christ. "The light of the new morning shines on the devastation of the atomic wasteland. It is the moment when the bell of the big church on the hill rings […] I ask that the sound of the bell becomes louder and louder, that it spreads more and more, that it echoes farther and farther, to awaken men and bring them into the new light, to transform the deserted heath into a wonderful hill in bloom. So that all may dedicate themselves to making this place the city of the civilization of peace"