Mokichi Okada was the founder of the Church of World Messianity, in which he is known by the honorific titleMeishū-sama. He is also the founder of Johrei, a healing ritual that claims to use "divine light" to dissolve the spiritual impurities that are the source of all physical, emotional, and personal problems.
Biography
According to his official biography, Okada was born to a poor family in Tokyo and, after many trials and tribulations, eventually made his fortune in the jewellery business. Initially a follower of Shinto offshoot Oomoto, Okada claimed to have received a special revelation from God in 1926, leading him to found a new religion in 1935 to spread the teachings. Okada soon expanded to open a rehabilitation center centering on the healing powers of light, but it was shut down in 1936 as a violation of the Medical Practitioners' Law. The Sangetsu school of ikebana, inspired by Mokichi Okada, was founded in June 1972. The Mokichi Okada Association was established in 1980 to continue his work "toward the creation of a new civilization to be undertaken without confining Okada's principles and their implementation within a religious framework". Much of Okada's extensive art collection is now housed in the MOA Museum of Art in Atami, Japan.
In 1936, Okada established an agricultural system originally called "no fertilizer farming" or "Nature Farming". Offshoots such as the Sekai Kyusei Kyo, promoting "Kyusei nature farming", and the Mokichi Okada Association formed after his death to continue promoting the work in Japan and South-East Asia. According to the International Nature FarmingResearch Center in Nagano, Japan, it is based on the theories that:
Fertilizers pollute the soil and weaken its power of production.
Pests would break out from the excessive use of fertilizers
The difference in disease incidence between resistant and susceptible plants is attributed to nutritional conditions inside the body.
