Introduction

Biography

In 1905, Vor­ies went to Omi­ha­chi­man un­der the aus­pic­es of the Young Men’s Chris­tian As­so­cia­tion (YMCA). He stayed in Ja­pan the rest of his life, act­ing as a mis­sion­ary, bu­si­ness­man, ar­chi­tect, so­cial work­er and edu­cat­or.

One of his great­est ac­comp­lish­ments was the es­tab­lish­ment of the Chris­tian Omi Bro­ther­hood to sup­port his mis­sion­ary work. He was al­so a suc­cess­ful en­tre­pre­neur, es­tab­lish­ing the Vor­ies Ar­chi­tec­tur­al Com­pa­ny (1907) and the Omi Sales Com­pa­ny (1920).

Vories de­signed over 2,000 west­ern style build­ings in Ja­pan, Ko­rea and Chi­na. He al­so estab­lished the Om­iha­chi­man YMCA, the Omi-Bro­ther­hood Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal Com­pa­ny, the Omi Sa­ni­ta­ri­um and Hos­pi­tal, and the Omi Chris­tian School Sys­tem.

After World War II, Vories was in­stru­ment­al in ne­go­ti­ations be­tween Ge­ne­ral Doug­las Mac­Ar­thur and Em­per­or Hi­ro­hi­to; some gave Vor­ies cre­dit for Hi­ro­hi­to’s re­main­ing em­per­or.

To this day, nu­mer­ous Ja­pa­nese vi­sit his birth place in Lea­ven­worth, Kan­sas. In 1997, Lea­ven­worth and Omi­ha­chi­man, Ja­pan, be­came sis­ter ci­ties.

Works

• The Ev­an­gel­iz­ation of Rur­al Ja­pan, 1915
• Designing My Home, 1923
• The Fa­ci­li­ties of My Home, 1924
• Goro Ta­ka­gi, Mu­si­cian, 1933
• A Bio­gra­phy of a Young Mu­si­cian, 1933
• W. M. Vor­ies & Com­pa­ny Arc­hi­tects, 1937
• The Omi Bro­ther­hood in Nip­pon, 1940
• A Mus­tard Seed in Ja­pan, 1948
• Poems of the East and West (Day­ton, Ohio: Omi Bro­ther­hood, 1960
• The Au­to­bio­gra­phy of a Fail­ure, 1970