1.
evangelist; missionary
A person who spreads a religious faith, especially Christianity.
伝道師が村を訪れた。
A missionary visited the village.
彼は若い頃、アフリカで伝道師として活動していた。
When he was young, he worked as a missionary in Africa.
明治時代に来日した伝道師たちは、布教だけでなく教育や医療にも貢献した。
The missionaries who came to Japan during the Meiji period contributed not only to spreading their faith but also to education and medicine.
2.
evangelist; passionate advocate
A person who enthusiastically promotes a cause, idea, or product (figurative use).
彼はIT業界の伝道師だ。
He's an evangelist in the IT industry.
和食の伝道師として世界中で活躍している。
They are active worldwide as an evangelist for Japanese cuisine.
彼女は地方創生の伝道師として、各地で講演を行っている。
She gives lectures around the country as an evangelist for regional revitalization.
A compound of 伝道 (evangelism, propagation of faith) and 師 (master, teacher). Originally a religious term, it has gained a strong figurative use in modern Japanese to describe passionate advocates of ideas, technologies, or causes.
The figurative sense is especially common in business and technology, modeled after the English use of "evangelist" (e.g., "technology evangelist").
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 伝道師として活動する: to work as a missionary/evangelist
- ～の伝道師: an evangelist for ~
- 伝道師を派遣する: to dispatch missionaries
SIMILAR WORDS:
- 宣教師: missionary — closer in meaning to the religious sense; more commonly used for Christian missionaries
- 布教者: one who spreads a faith — more formal and specifically religious
- エバンジェリスト: evangelist — the English loanword, used mainly in the business/tech figurative sense