Ikurō Teshima

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Abraham Ikurō Teshima (手島アブラハム郁郎, Teshima Abraham Ikurō^?) (1910- 24 December 1973) was the founder of a Christian, Zionist Japanese New Religion called 'Makuya'.

A native of Kumamoto, Japan, he was baptized as a Protestant at the age of fifteen, and soon afterwards joined the No-Church Movement started by Uchimura Kanzō. He served as a civilian employee in Korea and China during World War II, and returned to Kumamoto in 1945. Two years later, a warrant was issued for his arrest, after he opposed and obstructed the destruction of a local school building. He fled to Mt. Aso in central Kyūshū, and lived there in a cave for two weeks, where he claimed to have had a religious revelation. According to Teshima, God spoke to him and commanded him to return home and spread the correct teaching of the Christian Bible. Returning home, he discovered the warrant had been repealed; Teshima closed his business enterprise, and opened a Bible study center, which he originally called Genshin Fukuin Undo or 'Original Gospel Movement.' The name 'Makuya' came about shortly afterwards, deriving from the Hebrew word mishkan, meaning 'tabernacle'. It was perhaps around this time that he took on the name 'Abraham,' and required all members of Makuya to take on Hebrew names as well.

Unlike many in more mainstream branches of Christianity, Teshima believed in a return to more Judaic modes, and rejected many of the more common or major tenets of Catholicism and Protestant Christianity. For example, in addition to rejecting the adoration of the Virgin Mary and the cross, Makuya is a non-trinitarian sect, rejecting the concept of the Holy Trinity, and affirming a single god. Teshima studied the Hebrew language, Jewish religion, culture, and history extensively. He was enrolled for a time at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, and translated a number of texts from Hebrew into Japanese, as well as writing articles, periodicals, and books of his own.

Teshima fell ill and died on Christmas Eve 1973, but Makuya continues on under the leadership of his widow and son-in-law, and today claims 60,000 members in Korea, Taiwan, Hawaii, and California, as well as in Japan.

[edit] Teshima and Israel

Teshima traveled to Israel for the first time in 1961. He returned two years later, making Kibbutz Heftsi-bah, near Mt. Gilboa, a base for his students. Starting in 1964, Teshima and his students began to make annual pilgrimages to Israel, parading through Jerusalem in happi (Japanese traditional festival coats) decorated in blue and white, carrying Zionist banners and singing Hebrew songs.

In 1967, just before the outbreak of the Six-Day War, Teshima sent several of his students to aid Israel in its time of need. Four years later, he organized a pro-Zionist demonstration outside the United Nations Building in New York. The following year, the Japanese Red Army attacked the Lod Airport in Tel Aviv, and Teshima rushed to Israel to apologize on behalf of Japan, and to donate money to the families of those killed.

In 1973, just weeks before his death, Teshima organized the first pro-Israel demonstration to be held in Japan. Three thousand members of Makuya marched along the Ginza, singing songs like "Am Yisrael Chai" and carrying banners displaying slogans such as 'Oil is Light, Faith is Heavy.'

[edit] Teshima and the Common Origin Theory

Teshima believed in what has come to be known as the Common Origin Theory: the idea that the Japanese people, in whole or in part, are descended from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. He explained in his writings the proposition that the Hata tribe mentioned in several of Japan's oldest epic legends and histories, was in fact a Tribe of Israel, and that the name 'Hata' is derived from the word 'Yehuda' (Judah). This Jewish Hata tribe, he purports, contributed much to the development of Japanese language and culture.