When Archimandrite Nicholas moved the center of his mission from Hakodate to Tokyo in 1872, his initial efforts were to establish a school for [[catechist]]s and the Russian language as he had recognized the need to establish a 'native' base for evangelizing Orthodox Christianity. His early converts, [[Paul Sawabe]], John Sakai, and others had been very successful in reaching out to the Japanese population. As money was raised, this move was followed a year later by a new building to support the schools. Additionally he started a school for women. After teaching music himself for two years, Nicholas began looking for a professor of Church Music. Hieromonk [[Anatoly Tikhai]], who had succeeded to Nicholas' Hakodate position, recommended his brother [[Yakov Tikhai]] who was graduating from a seminary [[Chişinău Theological Seminary]] in MoldaviaKishinev, Moldava. Jakov Yakov accepted the position and arrived in Japan in late 1874 and quickly began learning the Japanese language.