The impetus for all the activities of the Johrei Fellowship is the inspiration of one man, Mokichi Okada, who was born in Japan on December 23, 1882. In his later life, those around him who recognized his vision for a new civilization and worked to bring it about called him Meishu-sama which could be translated as "Master of Light."

This is only appropriate since light as an idea and as a reality, is at the center of all the Fellowship's precepts. It is also fitting here because the phrase, "the light from the east," steeped in the antiquity of western civilization aptly describes Okada’s birth and life of activity in Japan, which has traditionally been considered as the most eastern part of "The East."

Indeed, in this age of relativism, talk of "East" and "West" may seem old-fashioned, or even politically incorrect. To a certain extent, we have to acknowledge the relativity of all things, of all phenomena, but at the same time, terms like "East" and "West", "good" and "bad", and "sickness" and "health", provide recognizable points from which to gauge world and human activity.

Meishu-sama was born in the easternmost country of "the East", in the eastern part of Tokyo, the "eastern capital" of this country in 1882. He was indeed a man from the East.

The forces of the world do not work in only one direction, however. Fourteen years after his birth, the American Navy sailed into Japan and forced it to participate actively in the modern, technical age that had its roots in Europe. Japan had been isolated for three centuries, but was still not entirely unfamiliar with events and ideas that were happening around the world; Japan had just not chosen to become involved in the western, material revolution. Commodore Matthew Perry and his fleet's arrival on Japan's shores served notice that this country must now participate in the modern world.

On December 23, 1882, the person who would grow up to show a new direction for a tired world civilization appeared in the East. In accord with the principle of action and reaction, within this easternmost nation, Meishu-sama's activities would unfold along a westward direction. Going from eastern to western Japan, he would establish prototypes of what the new civilization could look like; if humanity banded together to work sincerely for the goal.

Meishu-sama was born into a poor family that had seen better days. His family instilled in him a sense of justice and righteousness that complemented his artistic inclinations. At the same time, however, Meishu-sama was not a healthy youth and indeed his various afflictions and diseases kept him from realizing his dream of becoming an artisan. In addition, the best doctors in Japan pronounced his case of tuberculosis incurable. Although from the commercial and not of the intellectual classes, Okada held an atheistic world view that was popular in modernizing Japan. Faced with an incurable illness, he did not turn to any divine beings, but analyzed his medical treatment and concluded that the modern attitudes towards medicines were keeping him from recovering his health.

Following a vegetarian diet, he gradually recovered and with the death of his father, became the sole support of his family. Able to secure enough capital, he opened a small retail store in Tokyo for women's accessories. His acute business sense and the artistic ability he had been forced to abandon due to illness contributed to the success of his enterprise. During the next twenty years, the periods of success alternated with times of abysmal failure. He lost his wife and their baby due to complications of childbirth. At one point, the failure of his main bank plunged his firm into bankruptcy. Later a major panic created havoc with the entire Japanese economy. Finally, the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, in addition to destroying much of Tokyo, ruined him financially, along with thousands of others.

Around this time, Meishu-sama began to search for a spiritual meaning to life. His life, from that point onward, lead to the awareness of his mission. It was a mission to turn civilization in the right direction, slowly preparing the people to help him accomplish this and showing, by physical example, how this new civilization could be constructed.

After World War II, he was now free to teach the existence of the divine plan for a new direction for humanity. He pointed out the mistakes in material civilization, and the limitations of medical science, which is based on a purely physical understanding of the human being. He was able to start the construction of prototypes of paradise on earth, that would be the physical examples for humanity to follow in its turn of direction, from a purely materially based civilization, to one that was a balance of both the spiritual and the physical viewpoints. The tax policies of the American occupation army allowed art treasures long held by Japan’s ruling class, to be sold in the open market, since they had to raise money for higher taxes. Meishu-sama was able to buy these works at prices never before and never after so low.

These pieces became the exhibits for the art museums that were planned and built as the center of prototypes of paradise.

By showing the Japanese people the fallacies of material civilization and demonstrating how they can be helped through Johrei, Okada started a firm basis for disseminating his message to the world, beginning with sending missionaries to the United States in 1953. These missionaries were Kiyoko Higuchi and Harutami (Henry) Ajiki. In a sense, the departure of these two missionaries for America was the continuation of the westward movement of his work.

Okada's work and message continues to be realized and spread through the world. If anything, time has ever more proved the validity of Okada's message.