Senkichi Awaya
Japanese judoka (1893–1945)
Senkichi Awaya (粟屋 仙吉, Awaya Senkichi; 7 November 1893 – 6 August 1945) was a Japanese public official who was killed by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima while he was its mayor. He was one of the key figures in the historic clash between the Japanese police and the Imperial Japanese Army in 1933. He is also known for his Christian activity in the Nonchurch movement and his close relationship with its early leaders.
Early life
Senkichi Awaya was born the second son of Eisuke Awaya (粟屋 頴祐, Awaya Eisuke), a railway bureaucrat and nephew of Viscount Inoue Masaru, in the city of Sendai, after which he was named. He spent his high school years in Yonago, Tottori and then entered the First Higher School, the preparatory division of the Imperial University of Tokyo, where he studied German law.
Eisuke had a drinking problem, over which his wife often went to seek help at a local Christian church with her children. Christianity, therefore, was the most familiar religion for Senkichi since his childhood. One day, when he was a high school student, Senkichi was advised by his minister to read Kanzō Uchimura's The Biblical Studies, which impressed him and made him a devout Christian. Unlike his father, he grew up to be a teetotaler.
Awaya started judo in his early teens, and later obtained a fifth-degree black belt and became a higher-ranking winner in the national police judo championships.
“Senkichi Awaya” enters the record as japanese judoka (1893–1945). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Senkichi, Awaya and Japanese can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5734227. VIAF identifies the subject as 66334079. The Library of Congress control number is nr92028101. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1893, 1945 and 1933.
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