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MULLINS: Christianity as a New Religion 257

JAPANESE HISTORY provides rich data for the study of thetransplantation and indigenization of religions. Thisprocess can be documented and analyzed with refer-

ence to several religious traditions in vastly different socio-historical circumstances. The Buddhist tradition was introducedto Japan via China and Korea from the late sixth century,Roman Catholic Christianity was transplanted in the six-teenth century, and various Protestant denominations beganmissionary efforts from the latter half of the nineteenth cen-tury after Japan reopened its doors to the West.

Considerable attention has been given to the study of earlyProtestant missionary efforts and the subsequent transplanta-

tion of churches from Europe and North America. By con-trast, comparatively little is known regarding the manyindigenous and independent movements that broke awayfrom the mission churches. The reference to Christianity as aNew Religion in the title of this paper is not because it is aforeign-born religion and a relatively recent arrival to Japan.Rather, newness is related primarily to the fact that indige-nous Christian movements broke away from the mission

churches and resemble New Religions in so many respects.These movements have charismatic founders and involvesignicant innovations in beliefs, rituals, and social organi-zation. In this sense, therefore, these Christian-related move-ments may be viewed as New Religions in the Japanesecontext.

CHURCH-SECT THEORY AND THE STUDY OF INDIGENIZATION

Over the course of a century scores of Protestant missionorganizations from Europe and North America establishedchurches in Japan. During this same period nativistic reactionsto these imported expressions of Christianity eventually led

Christianity as a New Religion

Charisma, Minor Founders, and Indigenous Movements

Mark R. MULLINS


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to the creation of a number of movements or sects organiza-tionally independent of the mission churches. Japanesescholars refer to many of these movements as Christian-relatedNew Religions, and several such groups were included in the

massive reference work on New Religions published in1990.1 These groups, however, do not t easily into typolo-gies of Japanese New Religions because of their indebtednessto the established Christian traditions. For this reason, in fact,SHIMAZONO (1992: 72) recently suggested that a separatetypology was needed to adequately deal with Christian-relatedNew Religions in Japan.

Adapting church-sect theory, gure 1 provides a compara-tive typological framework for understanding Christian reli-gious organizations in Japan according to three criteria: basicorientation, self-denition, and degree of indigenization. Thistypology is hardly intended to provide a denitive statement,

but it should clarify in a new way the complex relationshipbetween imported and indigenous religions. Readers willnote that some groups included in this gure are often regardedas heretical by established or dominant churches. They areincluded here because this typology is based on an interpre-

tative sociology of religion, rather than theological criteria,and priority is given to the actors denition of the situation.As BERGER and KELLNER (1981: 40) explain, sociological con-cepts must relate to the typications that are already opera-tive in the situation being studied. Therefore, groups thatdene themselves in Christian terms or in continuity with theChristian tradition are also included in this typology.

First of all, it is necessary to distinguish indigenous move-ments from the imported denominations and independent

evangelical churches in terms of their basic orientation ordominant reference group. The basic orientation of aChristian religious body in Japan tends to be either foreign-oriented or native-oriented. Transplanted religious orga-nizations, including the Anglican Church, Roman CatholicChurch, Lutheran denominations, and the United Church ofChrist (the largest Protestant religious body in Japan thatincorporates Methodist, Reformed, Presbyterian, and Congre-gational churches) are still foreign-oriented in manyrespects and therefore located at the non-indigenous end ofthe continuum. These denominations still receive foreignmissionaries and their understanding of theological ortho-

258 RELIGION AND SOCIETY IN MODERN JAPAN


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doxy and models for church polity and organization are taken

primarily from Western churches.2 Similarly, there are scoresof independent evangelical groups in Japan whose dominantreference group tends to be American evangelicalism. Whilethese independent groups are indigenous in terms of thestandard criteria of self-government, self-support, and self-propagation, their foreign-orientation is still apparent in

their literature, tracts, and theology, which is largely trans-lated materials from North America.

Indigenous movements, on the other hand, are native-oriented and do not measure their perception of religioustruth by the standards of orthodoxy dened by Western the-ology or ancient church councils. According to most indige-nous movements, Gods self-revelation did not end with thecanon of the Christian Scriptures. God continues to revealdeeper truths to those who are open to the ongoing work ofthe Holy Spirit. While some of these movements operate withthe closed canon (the Non-Church movement, for example),many share a common belief that God continues to reveal


FIGURE 1

TYPOLOGY OF INDIGENIZATION

Degree of Change

Self-Denition Indigenous Non-Indigenous(Claims to

Legitimacy) Self-support, self-control, self-propagation

Native-Oriented Foreign-Oriented

Monopolistic Spirit of Jesus Church Mormons(Sectarian) Original Gospel Jehovahs Witnesses

Baptist InternationalMission

Non-Church United Church of ChristPluralistic (Mukykai) Roman Catholic Church

(Denominational) Christ Heart Church Anglican ChurchThe Way Lutheran Church*

Baptist Church*Reformed Church

* There are a number of Lutheran and Baptist churches in Japan that repre-sent various European (German, Norwegian, Finnish) and North Americantraditions.


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new truths hidden from or as yet ungrasped by Westernchurches. Most of these groups produce their own literature,including monthly or quarterly magazines, editions of theBible (sometimes specially edited versions), and collections

of the founders writings and lectures. If not revealing radi-cally new truths, indigenous movements at least share incommon the conviction that God is calling them to develop

Japanese cultural expressions of the Christian faith that are atleast as legitimate as the national churches and denomina-tional forms that have emerged over centuries in Europe andNorth America.

Although indigenous movements share many common

features, they can be distinguished in terms of their self-understanding and claims to legitimacy. Religious organiza-tions can be distinguished by whether they claim to beuniquely legitimate, thus denying the legitimacy claims ofother groups, or collegially legitimate, thus accepting theclaims of other groups. Several movements, for example, areplaced in the denominational category (for want of a better

term) because they make only modest claims for themselves.3

The Non-Church movement (Mukykai), the Way (Dkai),

and Christ Heart Church (Kirisuto Shinsh Kydan), forexample, only claim to be Japanese expressions of Christianity,not the exclusive path to salvation.

Two groups are placed in the category of indigenous sectbecause of their tendency to emphasize exclusive truthclaims. The Spirit of Jesus Church (Iesu no Mitama Kykai)and the Original Gospel (Genshi Fukuin, sometimes referredto as Makuya or the Tabernacle movement), for example, both

regard Western churches and Christian traditions as inade-quate and distortions of New Testament Christianity. Whilesome of the publications produced by Makuya (including thewritings of the founder, Teshima Ikur) seem rather collegialand inclusive, both groups claim to have recovered authenticChristianity before it was corrupted by Hellenistic culture.This movement has cultivated ecumenical relations withmany Jewish organizations in an effort to recover the Hebrewroots of Christianity. It continues to sponsor annual pilgrim-ages to Israel and sends leaders to study Hebrew on a kibbutz,

but it has maintained a sectarian stance toward otherChristian churches.


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SOCIAL BACKGROUND TO

THE RISE OF INDIGENOUS MOVEMENTS

It has been noted in many different contexts that foreign mis-sionaries often fail to distinguish their national culture fromthe religious faith they seek to transplant. Protestant mission-aries to Japan have been no exception. Transplanting the faithhas usually included denominational distinctives and loyal-ties, church polity, forms of leadership, and church architec-ture, all born in very different socio-cultural situations.Summarizing this tendency in the early period of Protestantmission to Japan, KITAGAWA (1961: 4041) explains that:

More often than not, European and American missionariesattempted to Westernize as well as Christianize the Japanesepeople and culture. Japanese converts were made to feel, con-sciously or unconsciously, that to decide for Christ alsoimplied the total surrender of their souls to the missionaries.The task of evangelism was interpreted by most missionariesas transplanting in toto the church in the West on Japanesesoil, including the ugly features of denominationalismanunhappy assumption, indeed.

After Japanese converts were introduced to the Scripturesand went on to pursue serious theological study, many real-ized that it was possible to distinguish the Christian faith and

biblical tradition from the theology, church polity, and cul-tural values of American and European missionaries.

As native leaders gained a more critical understanding ofthe Christian tradition and became aware of the signicantdifferences in doctrine and practice among the mission

churches, they began to assert more condently their ownideas as equals of their missionary teachers. The fact thatnumerous denominations were competing for converts on

Japanese soil (each with their own doctrinal peculiarities andforms of government) indicated to many native leaders thatthere might be room for Japanese interpretations and culturalexpressions of Christianity. Missionaries, however, found itdifcult to receive instruction from their Japanese disciples.UCHIMURA Kanz (1916: 233), the founder of Mukykai (Non-Church) and one of the most articulate critics of the missionchurches, expressed the sentiments of many JapaneseChristians in the following passage:



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Missionaries come to us to patronize us, to exercise lordshipover us, in a word, to convert us; notto become our equalsand friends, certainly not to become our servants and wash ourfeet. We believe that the Gospel of Christ is the power of Godunto salvation to every one that believeth; but unless throughGods grace we save ourselves, we shall not be savedcertainlynot by foreign churches and missionaries.4 [Emphasis in theoriginal]

It is important to recognize that indigenous Christianmovements were not merely the result of personalityconicts and power struggles with foreign missionaries. Bythe late Meiji period the social climate had become decidedlyanti-Western and nationalistic, after an earlier phase of wor-

shipping everything Western (seiy shai). In his study ofattitudes toward modernization in Japan, Marius JANSEN(1965: 5) notes that the responses of representative and lead-ing Japanese were necessarily conditioned by the climate ofopinion within which they moved. This statement is equallyvalid with respect to Japanese Christian leaders active duringthis period. The establishment of State Shinto and revival ofConfucianism, on the one hand, were accompanied by paral-lel developments among Japanese Christians. Many Christiansexchanged the displacement theology of the missionaries fora fulllment theology in an effort to recover and legitimatethe cultural riches of native traditions. The approach ofmissionaries came to be regarded by many indigenous lead-ers as smelling of butter (batkusai) or smelling of theWest (seiykusai) This identication of Christianity with theWest had become a stumbling block to propagation andmany leaders became convinced that Japanization or de-

Westernization was the only way forward. Independentindigenous movements became the most extreme examplesof this process. While nationalism and conict with mission-aries were important precipitating factors that clarify thetiming of these movements, we must consider other factorsto explain their content.

THE ENABLING FACTOR:

IMPORTED AND NATIVE RELIGIOUS ELEMENTS

In referring to indigenous Christian movements as NewReligions I do not intend to suggest that they are created ex-nihilo. New Religions do not appear out of thin air: they draw


0


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on vital elements of the religious heritage (EARHART 1989:236). Consequently, we must give attention to this enablingfactor in the development of New Religions. In the Japanesecontext, New Religions draw from a vast reservoir of beliefs

and practices related to ancestors, the spirit world, Buddhist,Shinto, and Confucian traditions. Similarly, the charismaticfounders of Christian movements may have unusual insightsand be creative individuals, but they do not start from scratchwhen organizing a new church or movement. They draw onthe imported teachings, rituals, and organizational forms ofthe mission churches, as well as on various indigenous reli-gious traditions. Native and exogenous elements are creativelyadapted by minor founders and form the basis for new orga-nizations. The religious experiences of these leaders and theirunique combination of foreign and indigenous elements giverise to new formulations of belief-systems, new rituals and


MOVEMENT

Non-Church(1901)

Church of Japan(1907),

The Way (1912)

Christ Heart Church(1927)

Spirit of JesusChurch (1941)

Original Gospel orTabernacle of Christ

(1948)

Okinawa ChristianEvangelical Center

(1977)

MINOR

FOUNDER

UchimuraKanz

(18611930)

MatsumuraKaiseki

(18591939)

Kawai Shinsui(18671962)

Murai Jun(18971970)

TeshimaIkuro

(19101970)

NakaharaMasao

(1948 )

DOMINANT WESTERN

INUENCES

William S. Clark, Professor andlay Christian, Sapporo

Agricultural College, Amherst

James Ballagh, Dutch ReformedChurch, Yokohama Band,New Theology, Darwinism

Thoku Gakuin College(German Reformed Church)

Aoyama Gakuin College(Methodism), True Jesus Church,

Taiwan, UnitarianPentecostalism

Zionism,Jewish Traditions

Plymouth BrethrenMissionary inuence,

Dispensationalism

DOMINANT NATIVE

INUENCES

Confucianism,Bushid

Neo-Confucianism(Ymeigaku), Shinto

Confucianism,Buddhism, mountain

asceticism,

Kykenjutsu

Folk religioustraditions and the

ancestor cult

Uchimura Kanz andNon-Church

principles, folkreligious traditions,mountain asceticism

Okinawanshamanism

FIGURE 2

SELECTED MINOR FOUNDERS AND INDIGENOUS MOVEMENTS


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forms of religious practice, sometimes an enlarged canon, andeven new forms of social organization.

Notwithstanding the popular myth of the homogeneousJapanese, it is necessary for us to recognize the cultural diver-

sity of this receiving society in order to understand these newindigenous forms of Christianity. Religious diversity (folkreligion, Shinto, Buddhist sects, Confucianism) and compet-ing group loyalties (rival clans, social classes, and regions)provided the complex matrix for Japans encounter withChristianity. The various reinterpretations of Christianityresult from this complex interaction between imported for-eign elements and diverse native traditions. Figure 2 high-lights the dominant foreign and native inuences on selected

minor founders and movements.5 Only through in-depth casestudies will we be able to unravel and assess the actualimpact of various religious traditions on founders and adher-ents. Here we have only briey indicated that many differentstreams of foreign inuence (reformed theology, pentecostal-ism, dispensationalism, unitarianism) have been mixed inunique ways with indigenous elements to produce new expres-sions of Christianity.

MINOR FOUNDERS, INNOVATION,

AND CHARISMATIC AUTHORITY

The anti-Western social climate, growing nationalism, anddissatisfaction of Japanese Christians with Western mission-aries are important precipitating factors that illuminate thedevelopment of indigenous Christian movements. These fac-tors alone, however, do not provide an adequate explanationfor the birth of these movements. Like other Japanese New

Religions, indigenous Christian movements represent muchmore than social crisis and reaction to imported Chris-tianity. The break with Western mission churches and thecreation of viable alternative forms required strong charis-matic leaders. The innovative decision of the founder,EARHART (1989: 236) points out, cannot be completely sub-sumed by either social factors or the inuence of prior reli-gious factors. How are we to understand the charismaticleaders who play such a key role in the development ofindigenous movements? WEBER (1964: 46) made no distinc-tion between charismatic individuals who renewed an oldreligion and those who founded new religions, but subsumed



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both under the category of prophet. Werner STARK (1970: 84),however, drew attention to the need for another concept todeal with innovations within a religious tradition:

In order to describe Paul of Tarsus correctly, we need some

such concept as that of a minor founder. In Paul, we behold anarchetype which was to be re-incarnated many times in thehistory of the Church. Behind him, there appear such gures asBenedict, Francis, Dominic, Bernard, Ignatius, Alphonso, andmany others. They were all minor founders, revolutionariesand reformers and even reactionaries (goers back to the origi-nal) rolled into one, and certainly not routinizers in the senseof Kipling and Weber.

Although Starks comments are limited to the role of minorfounders in the history of European or Western Christianity,this category seems equally relevant to understanding thedevelopment of Christianity in non-Western contexts.

More recently, Anthony BLASI has drawn attention to thecategory of minor founder again in his study of earlyChristianity, Making Charisma: The Social Construction ofPauls Public Image (1991). Arguing that Paul was muchmore than a routinizer of the charisma of Jesus, BLASI

(1415) explains that he .was a minor founder, a founderwho resembles major founders in so far as he was an agent ofchange but who was more conservative than they insofar ashe maintained a basic continuity with what had come beforehim. Paul did something new, but he did it within an alreadyrecognizable Christian subculture. Similarly, the charis-matic leaders of indigenous Christian movements also createsomething new, but in recognizable continuity with an exist-ing religious tradition. Minor founders in Japan departed

from the religious traditions imported by foreign missionariesin signicant ways, but at the same time passed the Christianheritage on to people in this new cultural context. Perhapswe could summarize by saying that a minor founder is acharismatic individual who gives birth to a new religiousmovement in an effort to address the needs of a new type ofmember, while at the same time conceptualizing the move-ment as an extension, elaboration, or fulllment of an exist-ing religious tradition.

From a sociological perspective, charisma and charis-matic authority can only be understood in terms of the socialrelationship between a leader and followers. Individuals



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can claim to have direct contact with God and to havereceived new revelations, but a movement will not be born ifthe new message does not meet the needs and aspirations of asignicant audience. The message must have some appeal

and followers must be convinced that these particular indi-viduals have a special connection with the sacred. The breakwith an existing tradition, in this case with imported missionchurches, requires a powerful gure whose personhoodauthenticates the claims. While founders and movementsvary in the degree to which they reject existing traditions andintroduce new elements, at the very least they claim to havedirect access to the sacred and to have an independent basisof religious authority. UCHIMURA Kanz (1920: 592), for

example, one of the strongest advocates for an indigenousChristianity and founder of Mukykai, claimed:

Japanese Christianity is not a Christianity peculiar toJapanese. It is Christianity received by Japanese directly fromGod without any foreign intermediary; no more, no less. Inthis sense, there is German Christianity, English Christianity,Scotch Christianity, American Christianity, etc; and in thissense, there will be, and already is, Japanese Christianity.

There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almightygiveth him understanding. The spirit of Japan inspired by theAlmighty is Japanese Christianity. It is free, independent, orig-inal and productive, as true Christianity always is.

No man was ever saved by other mens faith, and no nationwill ever be saved by other nations religion. Neither AmericanChristianity nor Anglican faith, be it the best of the kind, willever save Japan. Only Japanese Christianity will save Japan andthe Japanese. (Emphasis mine)

The charismatic authority of minor founders is based ontheir convincing claims to direct contact with the sacred,sometimes additional revelations, and their persuasive per-sonalities. It is also not uncommon to nd claims of miraculoushealings in the early stages of these movements. Matsumura,Kawai, Murai, Teshima, and Nakahara, for example, ve ofthe six founders included in gure 2, each claimed to haveeither experienced personal healing or been used by God toheal others. During subsequent phases of the institutionaliza-tion process, the charismatic authority of these minorfounders is reconrmed and routinized. In some cases, theteachings and writings of the founder came to be viewed with



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equal or similar authority to the Bible. Even if religiousgroups distinguish in principle between the canon (Bible)and the founders writings, in practice they tend to functionwith similar authority in the community. Religious services

normally include readings from the Bible as well as numer-ous references to the founders teachings, example, or quota-tions from his or her writings. Just as Christians normallyview the Hebrew Bible and Jesus interpretations of theseancient texts as sacred, members of indigenous Christianmovements tend to merge the Scriptures and their foundersinterpretation.

These minor founders sometimes even become the objectof veneration and special ritual respect. Kawai Shinsui, for

example, the founder of Kirisuto Shinsh Kydan (ChristHeart Church) is paid ritual respect with bows to his photo-graph at the beginning and end of each service. His writingsare also quoted as frequently as the Judeo-Christian scrip-tures. On a number of occasions I have even heard thedeceased founder addressed in prayer (Chichinaru Kami-sama, Iesu Kirisuto, Kawai Shinsui Sensei [Father God,

Jesus Christ, Kawai Shinsui ]), as though he has become apart of the Holy Trinity in the minds of some followers. This

tendency to venerate minor founders has a long history, asNAKAMURA Hajime (1964: 454) explains with reference to

Japanese Buddhism:

One result of this absolute devotion to a specic person is thatthe faithful of the various Japanese sects are extreme in theveneration with which they acknowledge the founder of thesect and perform religious ceremonies around him as thenucleus. One has absolute faith in the master as well as in the

Buddha, without feeling that there is the slightest contradic-tion. It is not that one pays less attention to the Buddha, butthe idea is perhaps that a profound faith in the master anddevotion to the Buddha have the same signicance. [Emphasismine]

In much the same way, members of Christ Heart Churchappear to experience no cognitive conict in believing in

Jesus Christ and venerating the founder, Kawai Shinsui,who made the salvic signicance of Christ real to themthrough his teaching and example.

What distinguishes indigenous Christian movements fromother New Religions is the fact that minor founders link their



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new insights to the existing religious tradition. This can takethe form of fulllment or restorationist explanations. Infulllment explanations, the teaching of these founders isunderstood as the additional truth Jesus promised his dis-

ciples (when the Spirit comes he will guide you into alltruth). The new insight fullls or even supersedes theunderstanding of Christianity found in the Western churches.In restorationist explanations, Western churches are viewedas degenerate, and indigenous movements assert that they areonly recovering or restoring important truths once held bythe early church. No matter how severely these movementsare assessed or criticized by mission churches or the domi-nant orthodoxy, in one form or another each regards itself in

continuity with the Christian religion or, at the very least,more fully expressing the teachings and intention of Jesus.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The foregoing discussion can be regarded as no more than thepreliminary spade work needed for constructing a more ade-quate understanding of indigenous Christianity. In conclud-ing this essay, I would like to suggest areas for future study

and comparative research.First of all, we still need a basic inventory and documen-tation of indigenous Christian movements. There are at leastsix other movements I am aware of about which almost noth-ing is known. Case studies of these movements are needed

before we can move on to more reliable generalizationsregarding these types of movements in Japan. While eachmovement developed out of a particular set of circumstances(specic foreign inuences, personality conicts, and indige-

nous proclivities), comparative analysis of these groups willlikely reveal a number of common features. Religious author-ity in major Buddhist sects in Japan, for example, is transmit-ted through father-son blood lineage.6 To what extent haveChristian movements adopted or adapted this traditional pat-tern of leadership succession? So far I have discovered a sim-ilar pattern in at least three movements. While not alwayspassed from father to son, religious authority tends to stay inthe family of the founder. In the Spirit of Jesus Church,authority was transferred to the founders wife and, accordingto my informants, his daughter is in line to be the next bishop.Christ Heart Church is now in its third generation of leader-



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ship. The founders authority was rst transferred to his sonand recently to his grandson. Matsumura Kaiseki and hiswife were childless, but adopted a son to take over as head ofThe Way. The adopted sons wife, and then daughter, suc-

ceeded him as head (kaich) of this religious body. It seems,therefore, that the imported organizational forms and author-ity structures (representative forms of government) are notreadily adopted by Japanese if they have a choice. This is justone area that deserves additional consideration in futurecomparative studies.

The relationship between charismatic leadership, indige-nization, and numerical growth also needs to be addressed.According to Robert Lees Stranger in the Land: A Study of

the Church in Japan (1967), the Westernness of Christianityis a major obstacle to numerical growth. Without indigeniza-tion, he argues, signicant growth cannot be expected. All ofthe movements in gure 2 experienced signicant growth atone time in their history, but today most are barely holdingtheir own or are in a state of rapid decline. The current member-ship of these groups varies widely, but ranges from severalhundred to twenty or thirty thousand.

Mukykai, for example, was estimated to have between

fty and one hundred thousand members in the late 1950s,7

but two decades later Caldarolas study (1979) placed themembership at about 35,000. A follow-up study is needed,

but my guess is that Mukykai has continued to experiencedecline since then. In the late 1970s, the Original Gospel con-sisted of close to 60,000 members, organized into some 500home Bible-study groups around the country. In 1990, how-ever, I was informed by a leader in the Tokyo ofce that there

were only 150 groups meeting nationwide and approximate-ly 25,000 subscribers to their magazine Seimei no hikari(Light of Life). The headquarters of the Spirit of Jesus Churchreports that it has over 300 ministers, close to 200 churches,and a total membership of 420,000. The membership gure isclearly inated and cannot be accepted at face value. Thischurch practices baptism for the dead, more specically bap-tism for the ancestors of living members. Some observershave been overheard suggesting rather cynically that this is

guaranteed to be one of the fastest methods of church growth!Although still a generous gure, the active membership of23,283 reported by church headquarters provides us with a



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more accurate picture of the actual strength of this move-ment. Christ Heart Church has declined to a membership ofapproximately 1,300 and adherents to The Way number lessthan 300 nationwide. Nakaharas Okinawa Christian

Evangelical Center, the most recently organized groupincluded in gure 2, is currently in a phase of rapid growthand has baptized over one thousand adherents in just over adecade.

A study of growth and decline patterns in these move-ments raises the question of whether groups can dig theirown graves through over-indigenization. Comparativestudies of religious movements indicates that those main-taining a medium level of tension with the larger society

are the ones that are growing. STARK (1987: 16) explains that amovement must maintain a substantial sense of differenceand considerable tension with the environment if it is toprosper. Without signicant differences from the conventionalfaith(s) a movement lacks a basis for successful conversion.In the case of some indigenous Christian movements in

Japan, they have become so indigenous that there is minimaltension and ineffective mobilization of members for recruit-ment activities. This is clearly the case with Christ HeartChurch and The Way. While these two movements experi-enced signicant growth under charismatic founders, theroutinized indigenous forms have not provided an adequatefoundation for long-term growth. It is also undeniable thatthe conservative Confucian character of movements orga-nized decades ago appear rather austere to contemporary

Japanese. What will give one generation a sense of unifyingtradition, YINGER (1970: 112) correctly notes, may alienate

parts of another generation who have been subjected to dif-ferent social and cultural inuences.

Finally, we need to consider the role and signicance ofindigenous Christian movements for the larger Japanese soci-ety. To what extent, in other words, do these movements rep-resent signicant social change? In his study of the NewReligion Gedatsu-Kai, for example, EARHART (1989) discov-ered that in spite of the new elements introduced by thefounder it was in many respects a revitalization movement of

traditional Japanese religiosity, or a return to the center. Infact, involvement in Gedatsu-kai leads to increased participa-tion in traditional religious practices, such as worship before



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a kamidana (Shinto god shelf) and butsudan (Buddhist altar),and visits to the local Shinto shrine and to the familyBuddhist parish temple. Similarly, HARDACREs (1984) studyof Reiykai Kydan revealed that it attempted to revitalize

the traditional extended family (ie) and ancestor veneration,and that the role of women was largely conned to domesticand religious duties. Only a serious study of the teachings ofindigenous Christian movements, an analysis of social rela-tions, gender roles and status, and a survey of the actual prac-tices of members will reveal whether they representalternative cultural values and social roles, or in fact re-inforce traditional Confucian ideals. We may also discoverthat many indigenous Christian movements represent pri-

marily a return to the center rather than signicant socialchange.

NOTES

* A longer version of this article appears in Syzygy: Journal ofAlternative Religion and Culture 2/1 (Winter), 1993. Mark R. Mullinsis Associate Professor at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo andYokohama.

1

See INOUE

Nobutaka, et al., eds., Shinshky jiten [Encyclopediaof the New Religions], Tokyo: Kbund, 1990. This indispensablevolume contains over a thousand pages of information on NewReligions in Japan.

2 Readers should keep in mind that this framework is based on acontinuum. I am not arguing that indigenization has not occurred inthese foreign-oriented religious bodies, only that the process has pro-ceeded more slowly than in indigenous movements with minorfounders. See REID (1991) for studies of indigenization within theUnited Church of Christ in Japan, NISHIYAMA (1985) on the Anglican

Church, and DOERNER (1977) on the Roman Catholic Church.3 I have used the denominational category in order to emphasize

the self-understanding of these groups, even though they lack thecharacteristics normally associated with a denomination in the West(i.e., central bureaucracy, complex organizational structure, and a for-mal system for ministerial training and ordination).

4 UCHIMURAs (1886: 159) pessimism regarding the prospects ofWestern Christianity was expressed as early as 1886, when he wrote:Which of the nineteen different Christian denominations which are

now engaged in evangelizing Japan is to gain the strongest foot-holdthere? In our view, and let us express this view with the most heartysympathy toward the earnest endeavors of the missionaries of all thedenominationsnone of them. One reason is that mere transplanting


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of anything exotic is never known on Japanese soil. Be it a political,scientic, or social matter, before it can be acclimatized in Japan, itmust pass through great modications in the hands of the Japanese.

5 Several of the founders and movements in gure 2 have alreadybeen the focus of serious eld research. CALDAROLA (1979) provided a

helpful study of Uchimura and the Non-Church movement, consider-ing in particular the role of Confucianism and the samurai code(Bushid) in this reinterpretation of Christianity. It is not coincidentalthat Uchimura, whose Non-Church movement became the inspirationfor many other groups, was introduced to the Christian faith by a layChristian, Dr. Clark, who was not preoccupied with the ecclesiasticalconcerns of most missionaries. Caldarola also analyzed the inuenceof folk religion and shamanism on Teshimas application of non-church principles in the formation of the Original Gospel or Makuya.In an earlier paper (MULLINS 1990) I sketched the development of the

Spirit of Jesus Church (Iesu no Mitama Kykai) and considered thedual inuence of imported Pentecostalism and dispensationalism, aswell as the indigenous ancestor cult on Murais reformulation of Chris-tianity. Most recently, IKEGAMI (1991) has provided a major study ofNakahara Masao and the Okinawa Christian Evangelical Center estab-lished in 1977; this is now a rapidly growing movement combiningPlymouth Brethren Christianity and Okinawan shamanism.

Christ Heart Church and the Way are the focus of my currentresearch. The founders, Kawai Shinsui and Matsumura Kaiseki, were

both educated in mission schools dominated by the Reformed tradi-

tion. After disagreements with missionaries on a variety of matters,they began independent churches and drew on various Asian reli-gious traditions in their interpretations of Christianity. The creed ofChrist Heart Church, for example, includes the following confession:We believe the ways of the ancient saints are not destroyed butrather fullled by the coming of Christ. For Kawai Shinsui, theancient saints included Buddha, Confucius, Mencius, and others.Zen meditation and Kykenjutsu (another inuential form of bodilytraining and discipline) also greatly inuenced the religious practiceof both Kawai and his followers. Matsumura Kaiseki initially orga-nized the Nihon Kykai (Church of Japan) in order to create a

Japanese Christianity independent of Western control. He becamewidely known as an advocate of Confucian Christianity, but eventu-ally claimed to be establishing a New Religion of the eternal way.While Neo-Confucianism provided the primary categories of Matsu-muras perspective, the Christian teaching of a personal God and

Jesus teaching of neighborly love were key elements of the way.6 See FUJII (1986: 164) for a discussion of transmission of leader-

ship and authority in Japanese Buddhist sects.7

This is the estimate provided by HOWES (1957: 125) and is basedon attendance at Bible study meetings and lectures as well as sub-scriptions to Mukykai magazines.


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