Merrell Vories Hitotsuyanagi

Merrell Vories Hitotsuyanagi
一柳 米来留
Vories (circa 1905)
Born
William Merrell Vories

(1880-10-28)October 28, 1880
Leavenworth, Kansas, United States
DiedMay 7, 1964(1964-05-07) (aged 83)
MonumentsVories Commemorative Museum
NationalityAmerican (former)
Other namesMereru Hitotsuyanagi
CitizenshipJapanese (from 1941)
Alma materColorado College
Occupation(s)educator, architect, entrepreneur, missionary
Employer(s)Vories & Co. (founder)
Omi Sales Company (founder)
OrganizationOmi Brotherhood (founder)
Known forfounder of the Omi Mission in Japan
Notable workCollege Memories and Other Rimes, Much of Which Has Appeared Before in the Colorado College Tiger (1903)
A mustard seed in Japan (1911)
Poems of the East and West (1960)
Spouse
Makiko Hitotsuyanagi
(m. 1919)

Merrell Vories Hitotsuyanagi, also known as Mereru Hitotsuyanagi (一柳 米来留, Hitotsuyanagi Mereru); born William Merrell Vories (October 28, 1880 – May 7, 1964), was an educator, architect, entrepreneur, Christian lay missionary, and founder of the Omi Mission. Born in the United States, he later became a naturalized Japanese citizen.

Merrell lived and worked mainly in Shiga Prefecture in Japan. With only limited formal training as an architect, he founded an architectural office in Shiga which employed over thirty professional staff and was responsible for the design of well over 1000 residential, commercial, and church structures in Japan and occupied Korea, prior to the Second World War.