Yakov Tikhai

Yakov Dmitriyevich Tikhai (Russian: Яков Дмитриевич Тихай pronounced tee-'high) was a Russian orthodox composer, liturgist, and missionary.

Yakov Tikhai came from the Romanian village of Tărăsăuţi, in the Hotin district in northern Moldova (Bessarabia), and arrived to Japan in early 1874 to assist his brother the Archimandrite Anatoly at his assignment to the parish in Hakodate, Japan.

Nicholas, Yakov arranged the music for almost all the needed texts used in the Divine Liturgy, major feasts, baptism, funerals, the first week of Great Lent, and Passion Week.

Sergius needed to do, Yakov found it necessary to change the music to meet the different sense and structure of the Japanese language.

Yakov married Yelena Yokoi, daughter of a prominent Japanese family, in 1876.