The following is gleaned from Volume 1 of a 2-volume biography of Mokichi Okada, The Light from the East (MOA Productions, 1986):


MOKICHI OKADA was born December 23, 1882 in Tokyo. His father was a dealer in second-hand merchandise, who sold his wares in a night market, in a street stall on the grounds of a Buddhist temple. Mokichi grew up in impoverished circumstances, but with obvious intelligence and reverence for learning. He was frail and ill throughout his youth -- into his 30s, in fact. At age 26 he developed typhoid fever and wrote his Will, not expecting to survive; and then recovered in 3 months.

As a child, he loved to draw pictures and dreamed of being a professional painter. He entered the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, but was soon plagued with double vision and withdrew. He developed pleurisy and tuberculosis, which he eventually healed with a vegetarian diet. His eyesight also improved, and he became interested in making lacquerware. He studied and learned the complex process, and began to make pieces that drew some acclaim.

The family's financial situation improved, and Mokichi acquired a "sundries" store. He made a great success of it, then created a wholesale business. In 1907, at 24, he married a young woman named Taka Aihara. In the midst of these good times, though, came an injury that ended his fledgling career of making lacquerware. He cut the tendon of his index finger and lost the necessary precision of movement. He began to design jewelry instead, and his work was quite popular. His business prospered. He hired more and more employees. His wealth grew -- and so did his belief in atheism and materialism.

Then, in 1919, began a series of personal disasters. Okada had developed a practice of lending money to investors in the stock market, and delegated these affairs to one of his employees. The employee had opened accounts for this, in Okada's name, in a certain bank. The bank declared bankruptcy, Okada's accounts were wiped out, and the employee began borrowing money elsewhere to replace them, at very high rates of interest, keeping all this a secret from his employer. By the time Okada found out, his own bankruptcy was impending. Legal action was taken against him, and he was burdened by debts for the next 22 years.

Only months after the loss of his bank accounts, he lost his wife and a child. Taka had been pregnant, then contracted typhoid fever. The baby was born prematurely and soon died, then Taka died a week later. The couple had lost 2 babies previously, one stillborn and one soon after birth.

MOKICHI MARRIED AGAIN by the end of the year, to Yoshi Ota, 15 years younger than himself. Still, these crises proved to be a great turning point for Okada. They devastated his confidence in his own ability to direct his life, and his belief in materialism. In June of 1920 he joined a religious group called Omoto Kyo. In October of that year, Yoshi gave birth to a daughter, named Michiko; then, in December of the next year, a son named Michimaro.

"I realized that human beings enjoy the protection of spiritual and divine beings," he later wrote, "and that if one does not know about the existence of spirits, one is empty as a human being."

Hardship struck again in 1923, in the form of the Great Kanto Earthquake. Okada's business survived the quake itself, but things were difficult financially for everyone in the aftermath. He became much more involved in Omoto at this time, and deeply interested in learning about the spiritual world. "I realized that human beings enjoy the protection of spiritual and divine beings," he later wrote, "and that if one does not know about the existence of spirits, one is empty as a human being."

IN 1924 A MYSTERIOUS THING happened. A certain Mr. Noguchi came to see Okada, with questions about the Omoto religion. During their conversation, Mr. Noguchi began staring at Okada's face. He asked whether Omoto had any connection with Kannon, and Okada said there was none. Mr. Noguchi then told him that he was seeing, seated next to Okada, a life-size image of the Bodhisattva Kannon. When Okada left the room, Kannon left with him. When Okada returned, Kannon returned.

Hearing this, Okada himself was skeptical; and then other such incidents followed, when the presence of Kannon was seen around Okada by other people. In fact, a small image of the bodhisattva appeared mysteriously in a 1934 photo, in the air above Okada's head. Well before that, however, the presence of Kannon in his life became undeniable.

In 1925 Yoshi gave birth to a second daughter, Miyako.

One night in late December, 1926, Okada felt a "strange sensation," an "irrepressible urge to speak." He told Yoshi to get a brush and paper and write down whatever he said. Then a "torrent" of "words about things I could not have imagined" began to pour out of him.

"A step at a time I came to grasp the reality of the realm of God through various miracles."

These revelations continued for almost 3 months, filling hundreds of sheets of paper. Topics included very ancient history (from 500,000 years ago) and events in the future, as well as Okada's personal destiny.

During these years there were many spiritual revelations in Japan, and many religious groups being born, and they were all subject to governmental suppression. Meetings and offices were sometimes raided by the police, and spiritual leaders arrested, interrogated, even tortured (Okada would have his own experiences with the police soon enough). In this atmosphere, he realized the danger these automatic writings put him in. For a long time, he kept them hidden under his veranda. Finally he burned them. And it was not until after World War II that he felt it was safe to reconstruct a few of them from memory.

THESE INITIAL REVELATIONS in 1926 were the start of a huge transformation in Mokichi Okada. He later wrote, "Some enormous power was moving me freely at its will. A step at a time I came to grasp the reality of the realm of God through various miracles." And, "The more that I doubted, the more miracles occurred to dispel my doubts."

"In my abdomen there is a sphere of light," he wrote. "This is the spirit of one of the highest of the divine beings." And, "Using me as its instrument, it orders me to help each and every living creature." He began to help by devoting himself to the practice of chinkon kishin, an ancient Shinto technique resurrected by Omoto Kyo. Here is the description in The Light from the East:

Okada soon discovered that he indeed had the ability to heal even so-called incurable diseases. Word spread, and he became busier and busier practicing this chinkon with people. In 1928 he "retired from active participation in Okada Enterprises," in order to devote himself totally to religious work. This was 8 months after the birth of his third daughter, Itsuki. By this time also, he was realizing that his own spiritual growth was taking him beyond the boundaries of Omoto Kyo -- though he did not resign from that organization until 1934. Shortly before that, he refined his chinkon method of healing and began calling it Okada-Style Spiritual Finger-Pressure Therapy (which conjures up a very different image than the way in which Johrei is given today). The term "Johrei" was not used until much later, 1947.

ON HIS BIRTHDAY (December 23) in 1934, Okada held a "provisional inauguration" of the Japan Kannon Society, at which he was designated "spiritual leader" (the Japanese word is "Meishu," and his followers have called him Meishu-Sama¹ ever since.

The official inauguration of the Kannon Society followed on January 1, 1935 -- and its dissolution on July 6, 1936, as a result of increasing suppression by the police.

"The objective of Johrei is not to cure illness. Johrei is a means of giving birth to good fortune."

On May 15, 1936, Okada started the Japan Health Association, to carry out healing work separate from religious aspects. Nevertheless, 2 months later, the police closed down this endeavor, issuing an order for "cessation of therapy" -- which was ultimately rescinded in October of the following year, with help from an Army general whose daughter had been treated by Okada.

In December 1940 Meishu-Sama, after more police pressure, "retired" from giving treatments and stopped teaching his Okada-Style Finger-Pressure Therapy. While these activities were still carried out by his followers, Okada himself withdrew and focused much of his energy on writing. Over the next 3 years, he published a 3-volume work, Medicine for Tomorrow, the seed of which had appeared years earlier as a pamphlet.

"What is called illness Is a cleansing action Of body and soul, And represents a blessing Of the supreme God."

Not only did his spiritual teachings and healing work upset the government and the medical establishment, he also had to be careful not to say things that might be taken as unpatriotic, especially in the years leading up to and during World War II. Before the War even started, he had foreseen how it would end. He knew Japan's defeat was necessary and inevitable in the great cosmic scheme of things. He said to one of his followers, "If I were to tell you what will really happen, I would be arrested, so I will not say. But it will be terrible."