JJRS > Volume 28 Issue 1-2 "Messianity Makes a Person Useful": Describing Differences in a Japanese Religion in Brazil

Matsuoka Hideaki

Download PDF

In the forty-five years since its introduction to Brazil in 1956, the Church of World Messianity has attracted some 300,000 followers, over ninety-five percent of which are non-Japanese Brazilians. Messianity is known for its practice of jōrei, meaning “purification of the spirit” in Japanese, the foundation of all its activity. By using “experience-near” and “experience-distant” as analytical concepts, this article elucidates the reasons why Messianity has crossed the ethnic barrier and been accepted in Brazil, and tries to locate Messianity in the Brazilian religious arena.