Rapporteur

Michael Houseman

Chapter seven: The annual Tenrikyo European Seminar: cultivating followers through a structured training, constructing a virtual social world…………….…………...….329 a. Integrating and reinforcing belonging in the social world of TEC and the broader realm of Tenrikyo…………………………………………………………….……….329 The European Seminar as my introduction to the TEC community and to the broader Tenrikyo social modality………………………..……………………………………..…………..329 Being at home at TEC, becoming increasingly embedded in the TEC community……….……331 Propagating a transnationally shared "Tenrikyo culture" in a localized context….…….………338 Interpretational flexibility in combination with fixed structure: the role of the Service in transmitting the faith……………………………………………………………….……346 Constructing inclusion in a community through interpersonal and visual means…….…..…….349 b. Establishing a connection with each other and the religious world of Tenrikyo through the body…………….………………………………………………….……352 Morning and evening hinokishin: repeated bodily engagement in communally orchestrated chores………………………………………………………………………………...….352 Uniting with others and with the faith through structured moments of sacrality that took place in the sanctuary through ritualized tasks………………………….………...……………...360 Feeding bodies, feeding community: the important role of women's efforts in the kitchen…... 366 c. Transmitting the religion through a transnationally shared pedagogy…………….373 Text-based classes: Structured schooling of a transnationally-shared Tenrikyo knowledge base……………………………………………………………………………………...373 Learning the sacred Service, practicing a Tenrikyo mode of interaction……………….………381 Conveying important components of Tenrikyo through repetition, embedding people in a religious realm…………..………...……………………………………………...…..…386 Chapter Eight: The European Seminar as a social microcosm reflective of the broader social world of TEC……………………….……………………….…………….…….390 a. Seminar participants as representative of different aspects of the wider TEC and Tenrikyo spheres…………………………………………………………….………….390 Being part of the seminar, being part of a social world…………………………………………390 Seminar cohort of the English-speaking class: a case study of multiple facets of the multifarious "TEC community"………………………………………………………...………...…..391 Stephanie: an example of differing perspectives on a participant's present and potential religious identity………………………………………………………………...………392 Kenta: an example of the fluidity of followers coming from and leaving to Japan…………….397 Yuta: An example of being and becoming part of a multilayered social world…………..…….402

CONCLUSION: Transportations, adaptations, and social linkages: multiple layers of group construction and solidification……………………………….517

How is a community constructed between interwoven social spheres……….…………………518 TEC as a bridge to a broader "Tenrikyo culture" and a site of localized community construction…………………………………………………………………….……..…520 The TEC Monthly Service as a connector to the wider realm of Tenrikyo through sensorial, material, and intentional factors………………………………………...……….………522 Factors of localization displayed in the TEC sanctuary that rendered it semi-place specific…...526 The multilingual feature of TEC as reflective of its unique social composition………………..530 Binding vocabulary and action amidst diversity: the example of multiple ways of talking about, conceptualizing, and engaging in hinokishin…………………………...…….…………532

Résumé en français……………………………..……………………………….536

Bibliography…………………………………………….………………….……615

English and French references……………………………………………………………..……615 Japanese references……………………………………………………………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To say that the journey involved in my research and the composition of this thesis would not have been possible without the help and support of others would be a vast understatement. First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my directrice, Véronique Bénéï, for guiding me through all the stages involved in this process. I am particularly thankful to her for the formation she provided in helping me attune and give credence to what the body, the senses, and emotion can teach us about the social realities present in our world and how to think about putting these often unspoken parts of the human experience into words. Although I have only touched the surface of this way of exploring the collective and individual realities that this method can provide and how to convey insights gained from this level of focus to others, I feel very fortunate to have been directed in approaching the world and the academic discipline of anthropology aimed at attempting to better understand the humans who inhabit it in this manner. I must also thank her for her patience, understanding, and encouragement and for remaining consistent in her willingness to provide support through all the chapters these years of study have entailed.

Secondly, but also firstly because gratitude cannot always be ranked in numerical order, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the members of my research population who welcomed my presence and were open to helping me with this academic endeavor. I am also grateful for the friendships that came about, and the many insights into the world and how one may go about living joyously in it (which, as I will discuss in my text, is the main aim of Tenrikyo) that I gained through our shared time which I will no doubt carry with me for the rest of my life. I would like to specifically thank the people I refer to in my text as "Mr. Sugimoto" and his wife "Yuko"1 , who were positioned according to Tenrikyo tradition as my spiritual parent(s)2 and according to the anthropological model as my key informants, for figuratively holding my hand in learning about Tenrikyo and the social world(s) of it that they inhabited and for remaining everwilling to respond to my many questions to the best of their ability. Additionally, I would also like to specifically thank the head of TEC and his wife, who I refer to in my text as Mr.

Kawakubo and Eriko, for their openness to my academic interest in the site they were charged with overseeing, as well as for the warmth and generosity they provided.

As may very well be strikingly evident by my choosing to focus on the concept of community in my thesis, community and having a sense of it is something I personally ascribe great importance to in a way far beyond intellectual theorization about it. Thus, I would like to thank the organizers of two seminars that I regularly attended over the course of numerous years during my doctoral studies, which in addition to the wide range of research put forth in them that I benefited from, was also motivated by the grounding sense of an academic community that they provided. This expression of thanks is directed to Emma Gobin, Viola Teisenhoffer, and Anne-Marie Losonczy for organizing "Approches Comparées du New Age" and to Marika Moisseff and Michael Houseman for organizing the atelier "Nouvelles Formes de Médiation Relationnelle." I would like to thank my thesis committee member, Jean-Bernard Ouédraogo, who was part of my doctoral process from the beginning by listening to the presentation of my initial research proposal and providing advice that I carried with me into what my research focus developed into.

I am also grateful for the advice he provided through our thesis committee meetings and occasional impromptu chats that contributed to the development of my thesis. I would also like to again extend my thanks to Emma Gobin, this time for serving on my thesis committee and for the recommendations she provided me with that were helpful in the shaping of my ideas and my text.

I also wish to extend my gratitude to my many colleagues who provided me with company in the fifth-floor student work room for their presence and comradery. Additionally, although I will not mention by name the many researchers I got to know throughout this process, I would like to nonetheless express my appreciation to them in this acknowledgements section for the fascinating insights into different research contexts and different theoretical approaches and ways of doing research that our interactions provided.

Additionally, I also direct my gratitude to Masato Kato, who was well into his own doctoral studies focused on TEC and Tenrikyo's presence in Europe when my own research on this topic began, partially inspired through our initial exchanges. As is demonstrated through my ample use of his texts in my thesis, particularly his thesis that was successfully defended several years before my own thesis came to completion, I greatly benefitted from the wealth of information he put forth. I would also like to express my thanks to Madeline Scully for her help in editing my thesis with an attentive eye and a drive to get my text to where it needed to be within a limited timeframe amidst the other things she had going on. Bethan Whelan and Thomas Witzeling's kindness in helping me with the French summary of this text is another crucial component for which I am extremely appreciative. I also benefitted from financial assistance from the IIAC (EHESS) for my fieldwork trip to Japan in 2016 and my attendance of the EASR conference in 2017, both of which were enriching experiences.

Moreover, the behind the scenes support I received from those close to me who accompanied me through this process was a key part of it, including in the formation of ideas that I put forth in my thesis. First, I must thank my mother, I will not say more than this because there is simply too much to say. I also am grateful for my father's encouragement and for reminding me that a thousand-mile journey takes place one step at a time. Continuing with my familial thanks, I extend my gratitude to my brother for his encouragement and for the discussions we shared along the way. I also wish to express my gratitude to Jackie Rogers, Shanna Allen, Audrey Malone, Cynthia Stinnett, Randi Pucak, Yaya Guisse, Beate Strøm, and to be sure, Hannah Sanders for accompanying me on this journey and the many conversations we shared over the course of this process, bits of which are sprinkled throughout this thesis. Christine Lasee's help with the final part of getting this document finalized is also an interwoven part of this text through both the motivation she provided and the numerous issues involved in the final part of putting together this document that she assisted me with. Additionally, I must acknowledge Yael Dansac and Jung Yeon Kim, who in addition to being friends were academic colleagues with research topics close enough to my own for our conversations on our respective research projects to provide fruitful inspiration for my own study.

Needless to say, a great deal of people have been omitted from this textual outpouring of gratitude. I am also thankful to the many unnamed people who provided support, illuminative conversations, and a multitude of perspectives all along the way who contributed to the formation of my ideas.

ABSTRACT

This thesis discusses an eclectic conglomeration of people connected in various ways to the principal European site of the Japanese new religion of Tenrikyo, Tenrikyo Europe Centre (TEC), located in a Parisian suburb. I refer to this collection of interconnected people as the "TEC community" and it is on this "community" that my textual exploration is focused. This term imposed itself from my observations and perspective after several years of fieldwork to succinctly describe my research population. My usage of this notion is meant to highlight the social complexities based at, but not exclusive to, TEC that came together to form a larger social whole.

Although TEC itself was based in a Parisian suburb and the majority of its key actors were Japanese, the "TEC community" spanned beyond the Paris region and included various nationalities, countries of residence, and even religious identities. Despite such spatial, personal, and social diversities, the social actors included in my study constituted an unbound "community" with complex, ever-developing webs of connection.

In addition to an introductory grounding section, my text is divided into three overarching sections based on my fieldwork. First, I discuss the local side of the "TEC community" that involved mainly people living in the Paris area. This principally included locally based followers, young adult missionaries from Japan on several year assignments, and local non-faith based social affiliates. Thereafter, I direct focus to the broader European continent, addressing both the presence of this religion in various European countries and the unification of these religious actors at TEC. The last section shifts focus to the pilgrimage town of Tenri City in Japan, where Tenrikyo is spiritually and organizationally rooted. Although my research was chiefly based in Europe, the "TEC community" was inexorably linked to Tenri City and was, in fact, a bi-local social construction. Its existence was tied with both the imagined and experientially lived connections that many of its members had to both TEC and to Tenri City and was promoted by collectively shared moments that occurred in both locations.

In my discussion of how this "community" was formed, and why it constituted a community, I emphasize the way in which membership in the "TEC community," and by extension, the broader Tenrikyo socio-religious world of which it was a part, occurred through conceptual and enacted means as well as through bodily experiences. My thesis is, in sum, an exploration of how different facets of this social world came together to form a greater interconnected social whole.

b. The diverse collection of participants coming from inside France……………....407

French-language cohort participants: A linguistically based separation largely reflective of an in-country/ out-of-country residential distinction……………………………..……..407 Ji-young: A connector to another diasporic Tenrikyo sphere………………………………...…409 André: An outspoken French follower's appreciation of and opposition to various aspects of the Tenrikyo religious scene………………………………………………………………...414 Nathalie: making the choice to be rooted to the "Western church" of Bordeaux Kyokai………419 c. Representing the religion and its connected social world through seminar instructors……….……………………………………………………………………424 Visiting seminar instructors from outside of Europe: links between TEC and the greater transnational context of Tenrikyo………………………………………………….……424 European-based seminar instructors: core members of the TEC community who serve as connectors to the European and broader spheres of the religion…………….………….428

SECTION IV: "Becoming Tenrikyo" in Tenri City: the centrally important component of the TEC community located on the other side of the world…432

Section Introduction……………………………………………………………………….……432

Chapter nine: "Coming home" to Tenri City: Lived and imaginary connections to a pilgrimage site……………………………………………………………….…………433

a. The sustained and prominent connection to the Jiba………………………………433

The bi-local nature of the TEC community………………………………………..……………433 Being connected to the spiritual through sacred materiality: the primary three Tenrikyo sanctuaries………………………………..……………………………………………..439 "Coming home" to the Jiba: constructed familiarity with a pilgrimage town…………...……..445

b. Uniting around the Jiba for the Monthly Service, creating a Tenrikyo world….….447

A mystical point of focus that reverberates out from the Jiba to TEC through experiential and imaginative mean……………………………………………………………..…………447 Constructing a collective experiential and conceptual reference by means of the Monthly Service……………………………………………………………………………..……451 c. Constructing belonging through presence and familiarity……………..…………..454 Reconnecting with an emotionally evocative tale of motherly love through ritual, place, and recounted events…………………………………………………………………...……454 Staying in one's followers' dormitory, fostering connectedness with one's lineage and a Tenrikyo mode of communal life……………….……………………………………………..…..461 Spending time at "parent sites" of one's lineage as a complementary component of "returning" to Tenri City……………………………………………………………………..…………469

Chapter ten: Spending time in Tenri City for education and events, cultivating experiential familiarity and togetherness……………………………………………………………….….478

a. Religious and academic trainings that contribute to the personal construction of followers and their relation to the pilgrimage town and to the religion………….478

The ongoing return to Jiba for organized reasons………………………………………….…....478 Acquiring the distinction of "Yoboku," "becoming a member" in Tenri City………………….479 Religious trainings in Tenri City: constructing understandings Religious trainings in Tenri City:

constructing understandings of and personal relationships to the faith and the pilgrimage town in which it is based……..…………………………………………………….……487 Schooling in Tenri City: an experiential connector between TEC and the pilgrimage town via of the TEC community……………………………………………..…….…………494

b. Connecting with the greater Tenrikyo sphere via special events……………...……496 The 130 th anniversary of Oyasama's withdrawal from physical life: celebrating in Tenri City and via distance at TEC, two layers of engagement by the TEC community….….496 The International Young Men's Association Hinokishin Corps: creating a transnational male space of social connection and religious engagement…………………………..………499 Tenri Forum: An international gathering of English-speaking followers, reuniting with members of a linguistically based sphere of Tenrikyo……………………………………….……502

c. The festival of the "Children's Pilgrimage to Jiba": reuniting with a familiar context of joy and with members of the TEC community…………………………….……..505 Fostering connectedness with fellow members of the TEC community, Tenri City, and the faith through an annual children's festival……………………………………………….…...505 The presence at TEC of the Children's Pilgrimage: an example of the outstretch of events in Tenri City to TEC………………………………………………………………….…508 Reuniting with past and present members of the TEC community at the Children's Pilgrimage to Jiba: the continuation of a shared social world………………………………….………510 Figure 6: Organizational and affiliational connections between Ji-young and sites with which she was connected…………………………………………………………………...………410 Figure 7: Multidirectional official and unofficial connections between Mary and sites/spheres with which she was connected…………………………………….…………………….423

List of Figures

Figure 8: Flow of monetary offerings between sites…………………..………………………..461

List of Images Introduction

My research was centered at, but not exclusive to, the principal European site of the Japanese new religion of Tenrikyo3 , Tenrikyo Europe Centre (TEC), located in the Parisian suburb of Antony. From this research, my thesis is focused on an eclectic conglomeration of people connected to TEC, and to each other, in various ways who I collectively refer to as the "TEC community." This term imposed itself from my observations and perspective after several years of fieldwork to succinctly describe the interconnected social actors included in my research population and the social world that they together formed which was primarily based at TEC, but also included more than this precise context. My discussion of this notion as the focal topic of my study is meant to highlight the multi-sphered social complexities based at and connected to TEC that came together to form what presented itself as a larger interconnected social whole. In this text, I will explore how this diverse and dispersed collection of people constituted an unbound community through both conceptual and experiential linkages.

Although TEC itself was based in a Parisian suburb, the "TEC community" spanned beyond the Paris region, as it similarly did of precise moments in time or any overarching, singular description, including those of nationality, country of residence, or even religious identity. I demonstrate in this text how this multifarious collection of people did, in fact, constitute a "community" and furthermore, that the "TEC community" is an accurate description of the group on which I conducted my research, despite its lack of singularity.

In my discussion of how this "community" was formed, and why it constituted a community, I will accord emphasis to how becoming and being part of the "TEC community," and extendedly, the broader Tenrikyo socio-religious world of which it was a part, occurred both via conceptual and enacted means and also through bodily experiences. As I will expand upon and explore in numerous parts of this document, Tenrikyo's main religious ritual of the "Service" is composed of a scripted series of songs with accompanying dances which is a primary conveyer of Tenrikyo theology through its performance by these ritual actors. In this, religious engagement is largely positioned as a sensorially rich bodily experience. Beyond this ritual, the human body is positioned as both a key source of spiritual insight and a central reason that humans are taught to have divinely directed gratitude, thereby encouraging focal emphasis to be accorded to the body and physical experiences. I will expand upon both of these interconnected concepts later, but at this point, I would simply like to explain that I position mutually-shared, embodied, sensorial experiences as a key means through which linkages are constructed both between individuals themselves and also between these individuals and the broader group of which they are, and feel themselves to be, a part.

I will show that the interactions that promoted a sense of "community" through sharing space were often focused on working together toward the same aim. This includes both a larger goal such as orchestrating a multi-day event or, for a "core" faction of this group4 , promoting

Tenrikyo's expansion in Europe, or much smaller goals, such as washing dishes in the kitchen of TEC via a collaborative model of symbiotic cooperation that is similarly present in the religion's main ritual of the "Service" and relatedly, also an important component of its cosmology and idealized social model. Working together toward a greater collective goal is a key Tenrikyo tenet, as manifested and embodied through its Service ritual5 . Such collaborative efforts fostered a sense of belonging in the social microsphere of which the social actors were immediately a part and also functioned as a binding element of the broader group through their experiential commonality, and additionally, through the overlap between these precise spheres and the presence of the involved social actors in numerous of them, thereby functioning as social linkages.

By spending time at TEC and taking part in its social world, participants were increasingly inculcated with the norms associated with being at this center and spending time with a segment of its "community." For Tenrikyo followers familiar with, and often strongly grounded in, the Tenrikyo religion in other contexts who came to TEC, many of these norms, though not all, were part of the broader realm of Tenrikyo with which they were already familiar, thereby providing an integrational bridge of familiarity into the precise context of TEC and its connected "community" which also involved its own particularities that they would increasingly learn, internalize, enact, and then transfer to others. This increasing absorption of norms encouraged people to feel and function as part of its greater whole. As will be shown, both fictional and real kinship linkages included in the social world of TEC which contributed to both the interconnectedness of its members and the familial feel of the broader group. I will extensively discuss these features later in my text. First, I will explain the multi-layered collection of social actors who comprised my research population.

Defining a multi-layered research population

The interconnected and multi-layered social world of TEC that I refer to collectively as the "TEC community" and position as my research population is one that is difficult to succinctly summarize or relegate to a single context. Yet, through multiple years of involvement in the multifarious social world connected to TEC, it became evident that the numerous interconnected "spheres" of, and connected to, this center together formed a greater whole. As previously explained, the multi-layered social collectivity that I will demonstrate to have constituted a "community" included individuals connected to TEC through numerous channels. They were physically based in and connected to a multitude of locations and included in this group were people of various nationalities. Furthermore, between them, there were variegated understandings of and relationships to the Tenrikyo religion itself. Some members of the "TEC community" did not view themselves as members of the religion at all but were nonetheless part of its social world. Despite such spatial, personal, and social diversities, they were an interconnected social group that together constituted an unbound community that involved a complex, ever-developing symphony of social flows and webs of connection. My thesis is, in sum, an exploration of how different facets of this social world came together to form a greater interconnected social entity.

One factor that positioned TEC as a centralizing point of "community" between these diverse social actors connected in various ways to this center and its associated social world was that there was no set criteria to be part of it, thus creating a lack of clear distinction between "insiders" and "outsiders." Gatherings at TEC often brought together a multitude of diverse social actors with varying relationships to the center, life situations, and perspectives on and relationships to the Tenrikyo religion. In such settings, if one directs one's focus to the micro-worlds of the people present, there was a multiplicity of individual and small group experiences included. Yet, if one took a more expansive perspective, that they collectively comprised a more expansive social entity was manifest.

If so many micro-contexts were present in such scenes, and moreover in the broader collection of people connected in various ways to TEC, what was it that rendered them to collectively constitute a "community"? One important factor that facilitated this was that the boundaries between the numerous channels of connection to the center and its connected social world were not solid, but rather were differentiated through perforated compartmentalizing markers through which crossovers and interconnections were common. Some people were part of the "TEC community" for a while, then faded largely, though often not entirely, away from this social world. Others were more constantly part of this "community" over prolonged periods of time.

This fluidity in who was included in the social world of, and connected to, TEC and how they were connected was a key feature that was consistent over time in concert with the variability in the precise composition of people actively included in the ongoing social world of TEC at any given time.

While most Tenrikyo followers who came to TEC were Japanese, there was also a variety of followers of other nationalities who also came to the center. Some followers were more ardent believers and practitioners of the religion than others. Correspondingly, a variety of understandings and ways of practicing the religion were included in the collection of religious actors who came together at TEC. For some people included in my research population, it was not clear if they should be counted as members of the religion or not. While, as noted previously, others who came to TEC and were part of its social world, and thus its "community," did not even view themselves as members of the religion at all.

A somewhat remarkable feature of TEC, which is no doubt partially due to its location next to a major cosmopolitan city, was the number of people born and raised outside of France who came there. At any major TEC event, such as its "Monthly Service" ritual, which I will further explain later in this introductory section and expand upon in subsequent parts of my text, beyond the perhaps more expected presence of Japanese people, due to Tenrikyo being a "Japanese religion" or as it is most commonly categorized in Japan, a "Japanese new religion," it was common for people of about ten different nationalities6 to be in attendance.

The most common nationality-based demarcation in this "community" was between Japanese and non-Japanese people7 which involved a Japanese social core along with the inclusion of people of numerous other national backgrounds. Because Tenrikyo is a "religion8 " that came about in Japan, where it continues to be organizationally and spiritually based and where the vast majority of its present-day followers reside, and because almost all of the key Tenrikyo religious actors in Europe were Japanese, being Japanese was often associated with being part of or having easier access to the inner sphere of TEC. This was only a general theme, though, as some Japanese people were more peripherally involved in the social world of TEC and conversely, some non-Japanese people were highly involved in the religion and regularly present at TEC.

Occasionally in my thesis, I also employ the complex terms of "Western" and "Westerner" to reference both people and cultural systems. My use of these somewhat ambiguous and sometimes contentious terms is reflective of the collection of people included in my research population meant to primarily differentiate people from European, North, and South American 9 cultural backgrounds from people of Japanese, Congolese, and Korean cultural backgrounds. My categorization of people and cultures of Europe, North, and South America as "Western" is reflective of the definition of this term which positions the Western world as Europe and the areas whose populations have had a large European ethnic presence since the 15 th century Age of Discovery's imperialism and the notion of a Modern West. My use of this term is not meant to be in an economic sense, which may exclude numerous Central and South American countries, and extendedly is also not reflective of sociopolitical analyses, such as that of Huntington (1996), which positions Latin America as intimately connected to the West, but divided as to its belonging in it. I also wish to elude certain polarizing connotations associated with the term, such as that of Said (1978).

Because the primary nationality-based distinction in my research context was between Japanese and non-Japanese people and my text is reflective of this, my references to "Westerners" and "Western" contexts, by default, exclude Japanese people and contexts, thereby rendering the complicated question of if Japan is or is not included in the "West" irrelevant for my use of this term. Although this term is contentious and carries with it numerous definitions, in the context of my research, it was a meaningful category, partly as an emic one that I observed to be conceptualized and expressed by members of my research population.

Another referential term that I use to demarcate a segment of my research population is the word "core." My use of this word is reflective of the largely two-tiered character of the "TEC community," composed of a "core" group of people who served as its social foundation and a secondary layer of people of multiple categories and ways of being connected to and involved in this social world. Most, though not all, "core" members of this group were Japanese religious actors born and raised in the Tenrikyo faith. Furthermore, the majority of them were actively charged with promoting this religion in Europe as "missionaries," either through shorter periods, most often several years, while dispatched from Japan for this purpose, during which time they most commonly taught Japanese at the Association Culturelle Franco-Japonaise de TENRI (ACFJT), or as longer term residents of Europe who hosted Tenrikyo sites of worship in their homes. The secondary, more peripheral level of people included in what I collectively refer to as the "TEC community" is more difficult to briefly summarize because it included people of multiple categories who were involved in this social world through numerous capacities. I will expand somewhat on the collection of people who together comprised my research population in the overview of my thesis that I offer slightly later in my introduction and then to a much greater extent throughout my thesis.

Methodology

During my fieldwork and afterward, I was often asked overarching questions about my thesis research. The more time I spent "in the field," the more I understood the response to this question, that was seemingly simple but was, in fact, a rather complicated and unclear matter, in a tangible and up-close manner. Despite the intimate micro-understanding obtained through firsthand observations and involvement that I held and developed throughout the majority of the two years of my "focused fieldwork" on the expansive social world of TEC, it remained difficult to succinctly put into words who precisely was included in the multilayered social world on which I had entered and subsequently chosen to conduct my research, and on what precise topic my thesis would focus.

Most often, when such questions were posed to me, I simply stated vaguely that I was studying something involving the Japanese new religion of Tenrikyo in Paris, in France, and extendedly, in Europe. I did not think such a response adequately described what I was observing and participating in but lacked a better way to briefly describe the multi-sited and multilayered contexts of my fieldwork. It was only after I decided to close this two-year period of focused fieldwork and put distance between myself and my research context that I had become very much involved in, located in the same geographic region that I was otherwise living and academically based, that, through taking a step back, the topic on which my thesis would focus, and relatedly who in fact composed my research population and why, became clear.

This lack of definedness regarding my research topic and research population during this lengthy period of fieldwork was principally because I had not planned to focus my study on TEC and its social world. Rather, my investigation shifted to being focused on this group in a largely undefined way through several unplanned developments after having initially started my doctoral studies with a different intended topic of inquiry, which then evolved into another, before becoming focused on its present research population in some yet to be determined way. Both of these earlier research topics involved Japanese migrants 10 in Paris but neither gave much thought 10 Throughout my thesis, I use the term "migrant." My use of this word is meant to refer to people from one country who "migrate" to live in another country, regardless of country of origin or migratory motivation. While "migrant" is commonly used to refer to people from developing countries who relocate to another country for economic or politically motivated reasons, this is not always the case. As explained by Benson and O'Reilly (2016) in to the realm of religion. Finally, through a combination of factors and events detailed in chapter three that, in sum, came about through my studying the Japanese language at a "non-religious" (laique) Japanese cultural center and language school, Association Culturelle Franco-Japonaise Shortly after participating in this religious seminar, in combination with several exchanges with members of this group afterward, I decided to request permission from "them" (meaning the people of TEC-which is an ambiguously defined group) to conduct my doctoral research on the social world into which I had entered. I did not yet fully understand how TEC and Tenrikyo functioned but viewed the senior officials of TEC as the people to whom I should direct this request. To do so, I sent an email to my key contact of the group, my Japanese teacher, Mr.

Sugimoto, who had invited me to participate in this training, to express my interest in conducting research on "Tenrikyo in France, chiefly on TEC," with a request to meet with him and several other senior staff members of the religious center, including its head, to discuss the possibility.

their article on "lifestyle migrants," which also included discussion of various other types of "migrants " and "migrations," including "retirement migrants," there is often overlap between various categories employed in migration studies in which assigning groups of people to exclusively one category of migrant or migration is frequently problematic. In my use of this term, I wish to underline the movement-based ("migratory") character of the social actors I reference with this term who are living in a country other than the one in which they were born and raised rather than as an implied reference to their reason(s) for displacement.

Several days after sending this email, I received a response from my teacher that said he could "accept my proposal with pleasure." 11 Subsequently, it was at Mr. Sugimoto's familial home that I would attend the Monthly Services of his lineage-based "mission station." Connectedly, because it was Mr. Sugimoto who first invited me to religious events at TEC and thus he who had "introduced me to the path," it would be Mr. Sugimoto who was positioned as my "spiritual parent" (ri no oya 理の親) in the religion.

When I learned of this, I felt taken aback because I had never chosen to be part of this religion.

To the contrary, I had expressed my involvement being motivated by my conducting anthropological research or my thesis rather than a personal search for religion. This ambiguity of being positioned first and foremost as a person coming to learn about and becoming involved in the Tenrikyo faith by a multitude of followers with whom I was associated in my fieldwork and my own perspective which positioned myself as first and foremost a researcher interested in this socio-religious world, and not a follower or potential follower of the religion, was a prominent component of my fieldwork.

This complication was present throughout the slightly less than two years that I refer to as the period of my "focused fieldwork," or alternatively, "concentrated fieldwork." This period was from July 2015 when I participated in the three-week seminar at TEC until July 2017, at which time I chose to largely exit from the socio-religious world that I had become a regularly present and highly involved "member"12 in order to create distance which I felt was needed to better think about and analyze this social world without simultaneously being highly involved in it. I continued thereafter to be connected with some members of this group and to a lesser degree, the socio-religious world on which my research was focused and also continued to live in the Paris area, thereby lessening the absoluteness of a divide between being "in the field" and "at home." 13 During my concentrated period of fieldwork throughout which I continued to spend time at TEC and got to know a variety of people connected to the center in various ways as the primary, though not sole, site of my fieldwork, it became apparent that in focusing on TEC, I was not solely looking at the presence of Tenrikyo in France. Rather, I was also looking at Tenrikyo in Europe more broadly as TEC serves as the gathering point between followers and Tenrikyo sites dispersed throughout multiple European countries. Furthermore, this site was intimately connected to people and structures outside of Europe, mainly in Japan but also elsewhere, primarily the United States and additionally, the inclusion of non-Tenrikyo people, such as those linked to TEC through its connected non-religious cultural center and language school of ACFJT.

Thus, while my research was focused at TEC, it involved multiple connected sites and multiple layers of social actors and groups who were connected to TEC in various ways, and often, to each other. Coming and going was a prominent theme of this center's social world, as was the multiplicity of ways people were connected to this center and to the "TEC community."

To briefly describe my two-year period of concentrated fieldwork, I was based in the Paris region (as I had been previously and would continue to be afterward) and became a regular presence at almost all of the organized events and activities at and connected to TEC that I will reference and discuss throughout my thesis. My involvement entailed some form of engagement almost every week at least once, often more. I also continued to attend the twice-weekly Japanese classes at ACFJT taught by the man who had become my "spiritual parent," according to the Tenrikyo system of organization, during my first year of concentrated fieldwork. He would also host me in his familial home for the Monthly Service ritual every month.

My fieldwork also included almost a month and a half in Japan during the summer after I chose to focus my research on this socio-religious world. This took place primarily, though not exclusively, in the pilgrimage town of Tenri City, which I will describe to some extent slightly later and then in more detail in subsequent parts of this text. My observations also included a digitally based element. A main contributor for which was from my increasing connectedness to members of this socio-religious world via Facebook, both those living in Europe and to a lesser degree, others living in the US and Japan, generally with the other person initiating the "friend request." These connections offered insights into many of the social actors included in, and connected to, the unbound social world on which my research was focused and further showed the interconnectedness between numerous disparate people I met throughout the span of my research.

My involvement during this two-year period of concentrated fieldwork was, in general, one in which whenever an opportunity presented itself to participate in the eclectic world of and connected to TEC and Tenrikyo in a way I felt to be appropriate, I took it. My overzealous involvement was paired with my abstention from certain types of engagements which I viewed to be inappropriate for me to take part in, in relation to my own self-understanding of being a non-Tenrikyo researcher who was involved with the Tenrikyo faith out of "anthropological" interest rather than an adoption, or potential adoption, of Tenrikyo as my own religious tradition and source of spiritual faith which I was open about and maintained14 throughout my fieldwork and afterwards. As such, I often had one foot in and one foot out of this religious context, with navigation and negotiation of what I would and would not do included as an ongoing componentof my fieldwork.

To offer the reader a concrete example of this ongoing negotiation and navigation, when I was in the pilgrimage town of Tenri City, I attended seven of the nine "Besseki" lectures required to become a "Yoboku" (an important Tenrikyo designation that I will explain slightly later, along with an accompanying explanation of the required Besseki lectures). My attendance of seven of these lectures was reflective of my anthropological interest in the experience of attending them, as they are positioned as an important component of religious involvement and "initiation" in combination with the encouragement from my "spiritual parents" (and others) to do so. Because I did not view myself as a follower of the Tenrikyo faith, however, I chose to only attend seven of the nine required lectures as I did not feel it appropriate to undergo the sacred rite of becoming a Yoboku and thus abstained from acquiring the eligibility requirement of having first attended all nine lectures. This choice was in contrast to the wishes of several followers with whom I was connected, as Tenrikyo is an evangelic religion that seeks to attract new followers, but was nonetheless accepted.

This balancing between taking part in aspects of religious involvement that Tenrikyo followers included in my research population expressed a desire for me to engage in and my own level of comfort and perspective on what types of engagement I should and should not participate in, in relation to my personal understanding of my own, rather atypical, relationship to the faith was occasionally present throughout my fieldwork. In saying this, I should also explain that while I purposefully had one foot in and one foot out of the religion, I was highly involved in my research context in a genuine and personal way and my engagement with the religion itself was also conducted in this manner.

For example, as explained, I chose to not attend all nine Besseki lectures that would open up the possibility of becoming a Yoboku, which I was adamant in not doing because of my perspective that it would not be sincere and thus not something I should do. Similarly, I also declined a hopeful invitation for me to serve as a ritual performer in the TEC Monthly Service as I did not want to present myself as something I did not view myself to be (a Tenrikyo follower) or take part in this form of ritual engagement with the sacred. Nonetheless, this did not negate my having personal experiences with its rituality. On two separate occasions for instance, I performed the Morning and Evening Service "religiously," as is prescribed in the faith and which actively practicing followers (ideally) do, on my own at home over approximately one-month periods.

Although I did not generally discuss this personal ritual engagement with the religion with members of my research population, nor do I write directly about this experience in my thesis, my engaging in this form of religious practice was done with as much sincerity as was possible from my conceptual position and provided intimate insights regarding this important aspect of Tenrikyo.

I do not wish to insinuate that my own experiences in doing this were the same as every person included in my research population who also performed this twice daily ritual act, which is no doubt an impossibility because people understand and experience it differently. Rather, I mention this private experiential engagement to convey one of numerous ways by which I was heavily involved in my research context not as a complete "insider" (if such a thing even truly exists in a sizable and eclectic group) nor as an unaffected observer, but as a person from a particular personal background and a particular current life situation learning about and becoming increasingly part of this social world. Just as other people do, according to their own backgrounds and current life situations in a real and sincere way that permeated my being and spanned beyond the precise moments I was taking part in "fieldwork, in the field" to become a part of my overall life and self.

My findings are principally derived from my lived participation in the eclectic socio-religious world that I would come to call the "TEC community," including reference to a multitude of informal conversations that were illuminative, aided with the assistance of the numerous journals that contained my fieldnotes. My research also included semi-structured, digitally recorded interviews with fifteen people representative of numerous aspects, or "spheres," of my research context. Unfortunately, although many of the insights gained through these interviews are included in my thesis, the actual digital recordings of these interviews were lost after I had already concluded my two-year period of fieldwork. Regarding this aspect of my research, some of my requests to interview members of the TEC community were met with reticence, in which although they did not directly15 say no, their preference to decline was expressed in a roundabout way, often through omission of a direct yes or no, paired with instead mentioning something related to our unfolding conversation but that directed it in a slightly different direction, thereby eschewing the request. I took this to imply that I should use caution in asking people to participate in structured interviews as it was proving to be an uncomfortable request for some people to whom I posed this question.

Interactions that were less directed than semi-structured interviews with a digital recorder and most often, an open-ended questionnaire, proved to provide a wealth of information in comparison to a number of these recorded interviews. This was due, in large part, to the increased ease with which people spoke when "off the record," particularly after we had gotten to know each other 16 . Thus, after losing this limited number of recorded interviews, I did not anew conduct recorded interviews with members of my research population in order to acquire direct quotes to include in my thesis. This was partially because I did not think it was necessary for my discussion which was, by that point, well on its way to being developed in combination with having deliberately transitioned from this socio-religious world, and also, as time went on, time (and energy) constraints that suggested I should focus on using the wealth of information that I had already obtained rather than return to "the field" for the sake of acquiring direct quotes. This is only a brief overview of how I conducted my research. My "methodology" is also an interwoven component of my text. I would like to note before moving on that all names of people included in my study are pseudonyms 17 . This is my own choice, rather than reflective of a request from the people I discuss. I also blur the faces of people in the photos included. This is also my own choice, rather than at the request of the people shown.

Thesis overview by chapter

The organization of this thesis is one that, to a great extent, presented itself organically through my involvement in the eclectic social world that occurred at and was connected to TEC. More specifically, in addition to this introductory section and its counterpart of a brief conclusion at the end of my text, my thesis is composed of four sections. The first section, composed of two chapters, will lay the groundwork of my research context to situate the reader for the other three sections that follow, developed primarily from my own fieldwork.

In this first section, the first chapter focuses principally on the early history of Tenrikyo during the life of its foundress and the early developments of the faith. In this chapter, I will also discuss the establishment of "religion" in Japan as a defined and overarching category into which Tenrikyo came to be included during this same period. The second chapter will continue with providing a contextualizing framework from which to put forth my own ethnographic discussion by explaining basic elements of Tenrikyo theology and practice, the religion's initial, albeit short lived, efforts to spread the path to Europe via England at the beginning of the 20 th century and the beginnings of TEC over half a century later. In this second chapter, I will also address the somewhat complicated question of how many Tenrikyo followers there are both globally and in the more precise location of Europe that is coupled with an exploration of numerous ways 17 Excluding when citing authors included in this "research population".

"membership" in this religion can be determined. As this first section is soon to follow in this text, I will not accord it more of a detailed explanation at this present point.

The three latter sections are mainly reflective of the space-based divisions of where the "TEC community" was constructed, existed, and was linked. The second section, composed of three chapters, is focused on the local side of the "TEC community" that involved mainly people living in the Paris area. The third section is also composed of three chapters and expands its range of focus to the broader spatial domain of the European continent. The fourth section is composed of two chapters and shifts its focus to approximately halfway around the world to the pilgrimage town of Tenri City in Japan, where Tenrikyo is spiritually and organizationally based, which is also an important component of the group on which my thesis is focused.

Chapter three begins at my own introductory point to what would become my research context:

the cultural center and language school of ACFJT. This third chapter is both an introduction to my research context and an account of my own experience of learning about and becoming involved in it. As I will explain in more detail shortly, a primary reason for the existence of ACFJT is to serve as a bridge to introduce the Tenrikyo faith to members of the Parisian populace 18 . This goal, it should be noted, is coupled with the fact that this religion is not discussed within its walls due to its categorization as a secular (laique) cultural center in a country with a strict division between contexts in which the presence of religion is or is not considered appropriate and/or permitted. In this third chapter, I will introduce multiple spheres of the "TEC community," including a collection of locally living people who were socially involved with TEC and its social world despite not being Tenrikyo followers themselves and furthermore, many of them not involving themselves in the religious side of TEC.

The majority of these non-Tenrikyo locally living group members came to be connected to, and involved in, the "TEC community" through getting to know Tenrikyo "missionaries" working at ACFJT, along with accepting invitations to come to TEC for events and activities that did not have an overtly religious focus. I argue that despite not being "members" of the religion, that they were nonetheless "members" of the "TEC community" (albeit to varying degrees) through their involvement, often over the span of multiple years, in combination with the type of interactions that were conducive to community construction and their inclusion therein.

Chapter four, then, slightly shifts its focus from ACFJT and the locally living non-Tenrikyo component of the "TEC community" to the residential sphere of TEC where young adult 19 Japanese followers sent abroad by the religious organization of Tenrikyo as "missionaries," most often to work at ACFJT as Japanese language teachers, along with the head of TEC, his20 family, and several others live. In contrast to the locally living non-Tenrikyo "members" of the "TEC community," who I position in more of the peripheral level of this group, these TEC residents were core members of the "community." More precisely, many of these residents were very much a part of TEC and its ongoing social world during their time of living at the center. Some of these residents then transitioned to being longer-term core members of the group through moving away from TEC but becoming residents of France over more prolonged periods, but most returned to Japan, after which they remained connected to TEC and members of its community, though to a lesser degree.

I demonstrate that this residential sphere of people living communally at TEC constituted a socially constructed family, which I refer to as the "residential TEC family," that was made and remade over time through people solidly grounded in both Japanese culture and "Tenrikyo culture" (a term I will discuss later) coming to TEC and becoming woven into life there through experiential formation, then at some point thereafter, parting from this residential sphere. Despite the precise composition of this residential sphere changing over time through a semi-constant inflow and outflow of residents, its existence and many of its features remained largely constant over time. Amongst their numerous contributions to the broader group of the "TEC community"

was their serving as a social base and hosts to those who came to TEC, particularly newcomers and people situated in the periphery of this group, who did not feel at home there themselves.

These missionary residents were most often born into and raised at Tenrikyo churches, either through their father21 serving as the church's head minister, or otherwise through their family living on church grounds to provide support, thereby habituating them to life at a Tenrikyo site. It was also common for these residents to have undergone academic and/or spiritual trainings in Tenri City where they stayed in communal housing, further rendering a communal "Tenrikyo" mode of residentiality a part of their habitus. In coming to TEC, they were bringing with them their experiences of living in these other Tenrikyo contexts which they then transferred to this European center. I argue that the material, social, and spiritual congruence between TEC and other Tenrikyo sites encouraged previously formed ways of being that were developed in other Tenrikyo contexts to be transferred to TEC and that this contributed to the continuation of a Japanese Tenrikyo culture at TEC.

Chapter five continues to focus on the local Paris level of the "TEC community," but expands out from the more intimate sphere of residential life at TEC to that of the center's main ritual of the Monthly Service. This ritual is divided into three components which each have a different composition of ritual actors, with each segment requiring fifteen people, thereby holding the potential for a multitude of people to actively take part in its performance. Despite this, it was generally "core members" of the "TEC community," who were most often Japanese and born into and raised in the faith 22 who served as ritual performers, while others in attendance, many of whom were positioned in more of the peripheral layer of the "TEC community," watched and listened to this ritual performance from the audience section of TEC's sanctuary. This was one repetitive instance, amongst others, by which the two-tiered character of the "TEC community" was physically manifested. Whether one was a ritual actor or in the more passive role as exclusively an attendee in the audience section, through attending the Monthly Service, one was taking part in a sensorially immersive experience that is enacted in like manner at other Tenrikyo sites, regardless of location, thereby experientially linking the TEC Monthly Service with the broader sphere of Tenrikyo.

Another experiential similarity between the Monthly Service at TEC and at most other Tenrikyo sites was the ritual itself being followed by an amical commensality shared by those in attendance. At TEC, this was in the form of an elaborate meal that usually lasted longer than the ritual portion of this gathering that spanned between one and a half and two hours and was prepared by (generally) locally living core female members of the "TEC community" the day prior. In addition to the "spiritually" based connection between those in attendance that the ritual encouraged, the amical sharing of food and drinks that followed, which was a similarly notable component of other TEC events, was an important contributing factor to the construction of the "community" that was based at and linked to this center. In both the ritual itself and the shared meal that followed, beyond any ascribed theological meaning, it was via the physical bodies of those in attendance that this occurred, thus underlining the role of the physical bodies of those involved in the construction of a "community" through this event. This is a prominent theme that runs throughout my thesis.

Chapters six through eight comprise the third section of my thesis which expands its range of focus to the religion's presence in the broader European continent, which still mainly concerns

France, along with several other nearby western European countries, and this broader region's contribution to the "TEC community." Chapter six discusses the presence of lineage-based sites of worship in Europe, of which there were twenty-three during my fieldwork. As I will discuss later, the Tenrikyo religion is constructed through a lineage-based model that is reflective of the Japanese household (ie) organizational system. Each person categorized as a "member" of Tenrikyo, which is itself a largely undefined category as I will explore in chapter two, is rooted to a particular lineage-based site, which I refer to throughout my thesis as their "home site 23 ," and its connected "church lineage."

Similar to most other Tenrikyo lineage-based sites throughout the world, lineage-based sites in Europe are located in the home of the person designated as the site's head. Each lineage-based site 24 is supervised by a "parent church," which is in turn supervised by another "parent church" if there are more hierarchical links before reaching the religion's spiritual and organizational center: Tenrikyo Church Headquarters (Tenrikyo Kyokai Honbu 天理教教会本部). Almost all lineage-based sites in Europe were founded (and headed) by Japanese people born and raised in families strongly implicated in the religion, often at Tenrikyo churches in Japan either headed by their parent (generally, their father) or otherwise in a family living on church grounds in order to play a supportive role of assistance.

Most families who headed these European lineage-based sites were long-term "core members" of the "TEC community." Most who lived in the Paris area were regularly present at TEC. Families who headed lineage-based sites outside of the Paris area were at TEC less regularly, but generally came multiple times a year, most often for larger events aimed at bringing together followers living throughout the European continent, reflective of one of the center's main purposes. The presence of these families at TEC over prolonged periods of time, along with their prominent roles in promoting this religion in Europe, anchored them as core members of the group, in which their coming to this center was much akin to their coming back to a familial context. Extendedly, their presence at TEC for a variety of gatherings provided a sense of there being a long-term community connected to this center into which newcomers were welcomed and more peripherally positioned people were included 25 . According to the general Tenrikyo system, it was these lineage-based sites that were charged with attracting newcomers to the path of Tenrikyo and thus were an important component of this religion's presence in Europe more broadly and were therefore an important contributing component to the wider "TEC community," beyond the families, themselves, who operated them.

Most of these lineage-based sites were small. Several people who hosted them, in fact, told me that although they had some people come to their homes to participate in their Monthly Services, which is the chief task of lineage-based sites 26 , that these people were not followers and the sites which they headed had no official members outside their immediate families 27 . Several of the lineage-based sites in Europe, though, had more sizable numbers of locally living people rooted to them. The most prominent of which was "Bordeaux Kyokai28 ." Although Bordeaux Kyokai was not the main focus of my research, it was a notable component of Tenrikyo's presence in Europe due to both its relatively large membership size in comparison to all other European lineage-based sites and to the fact that almost all (or all) of its members were French, as was its head minister. The latter component of a Tenrikyo site being headed by a "Western" person was quite rare and was a notable feature for which it was internationally known and demonstrates another feature of the eclectic composition of people and precise situations involved in the broader group on which my study is focused. Amongst other purposes, chapter six offers an insight into a layer of the "TEC community" that was both longer-term and disbursed over multiple European countries.

Chapters seven and eight discuss the Tenrikyo European Seminar: an annual three-week training program held at TEC which welcomes followers (or people otherwise connected to Tenrikyo) coming as students and staff from multiple European countries 29 . These spiritual trainings function, in practice, as intensive gatherings of people included in Tenrikyo's presence in Europe with core members of the "TEC community" coming to help with the orchestration of the seminar as staff and with a smaller collection of people who take part in the program as students, including occasionally "core members" of the "TEC community"most often the young adult children of Japanese missionary families who grew up in Europe.

In chapter seven, I primarily discuss the orchestration of this event and how multiple components of it were conducive to community formation, with my ethnographic focus largely directed toward my first year of participation in it. Then, in chapter eight, I offer ethnographic vignettes of its participants to provide examples of people who contributed to the micro-context of this annual training, and extendedly, the social world of TEC. I discuss the personal situations of the three people, along with myself, who comprised the English-language student cohort the first year of my participation and three of the four people with whom I participated in the French-language student cohort the second year of my participation. I also discuss the collection of followers who served as instructors for a portion of this program, with particular focus accorded to the "guest instructors" who came to teach a portion of the English-language cohort during my two years of participation in this training, with both of these individuals raised in the US and of Japanese ancestry.

Chapters nine and ten comprise the fourth and last section of my text, after which I offer some reflections in a short conclusion. These final two chapters take the reader to the pilgrimage town of Tenri City, Japan. Although my research was based primarily in Europe, it was inseparably connected with the home of this faith, located in Tenri City. As I discuss in a subsection of chapter nine, while the conglomeration of people who I collectively refer to as the "TEC community" was primarily interconnected through their mutually held linkages to TEC, this "community" was, in fact, bi-local. It was constructed through both the imagined and experientially lived connection that many of its members, most notably its core members, had to both TEC and to Tenri City. This chiefly bi-local community construction was promoted by collectively shared moments between numerous of its members that occurred there, again most notably core members. In these final two chapters, an important element of my discussion concerns how being in Tenri City and taking part in various experiences there encouraged a sense of connection with the religion and with other followers.

Chapter nine discusses various aspects of this pilgrimage town which demonstrate the connection between Tenrikyo sites and followers elsewhere and this religiously focused location, along with several of the main components generally included in the experience of being there. These components include the three primary sanctuaries located in the center of this pilgrimage town dedicated to the ancestors, God the Parent, and the foundress; I discuss the latter two figures slightly later. I argue that by these three spiritual entities being materially honored in large form through these sanctuaries, and in a much smaller form through the altars that represent these entities at Tenrikyo sites elsewhere, there was a materially manifested connection between them 30 and that this was one of the numerous ways through which in being at a Tenrikyo sites elsewhere, including TEC and the lineage-based sites in Europe, one was intrinsically connected with Tenri City.

In chapter nine, I also discuss the "real" Monthly Service performed in Tenri City in the Main Sanctuary around the sacred point of the "Jiba" that is positioned in the faith, as I will expand upon first in chapter one and then in later parts of this thesis, as the location at which humans came into existence, thereby rendering this point our original home, the point from which global salvation will come about, and moreover the point at which "God the Parent" resides. Followers commonly include attendance of this ritual in their pilgrimage visits to Tenri City, evidenced by this town becoming much more enlivened with followers coming from elsewhere in the days leading up to this ritual.

Important to this chapter is my focus on the emotional and conceptual significance of this pilgrimage town to Tenrikyo followers. Additionally, I also discuss the "followers' dormitories" (tsumesho 詰所) there. Each church lineage has its own followers' dormitory where followers of their respective lineages "coming home" to Tenri City generally stay. These dormitories are pertinent to my overall discussion because they provide insight to the dual-connection Tenrikyo followers included in the "TEC community" had to both the social world of the TEC and to that of their church lineage. Furthermore, these followers' dormitories also convey another instance of how staying communally with others in a religiously focused residential environment is a commonly present component of the overall Tenrikyo experience, as demonstrated through earlier discussed instances of this at TEC.

I also include in chapter nine my experience elsewhere in Japan of visiting the directly supervising church and its "parent" grand church of my "home site 31 ." I discuss these visits in this chapter because for followers coming from overseas locations, particularly those highly involved in the religion, and in my observations of people in my research population, also those who travelled to Tenri City for the first time, visiting such "parent" sites was often included in the overall trip to Japan, for which such first-timers were often accompanied by their spiritual parent (of their spiritual parent's spouse, as was the case in my own experience 32 ). Similar to numerous other core members of my research population, the parent church of my designated home site was where the family of my "spiritual parent" had lived for multiple generations, thus rendering his connection to this site more than purely "religious." I also discuss my visit to the church where the wife of the man officially positioned as my spiritual parent 33 was raised. The church was headed by her father and previously, by his patrilineal predecessors in accordance with the most commonly followed Tenrikyo model of lineage-based leadership positions being passed from father to eldest son 34 . In contrast to the two hierarchically positioned supervising churches of my designated home site, my visit to this third church was less reflective of the typical experience of someone from overseas going to Tenri City for the first time as this site was not of the lineage to which I was rooted.

After giving a broad overview of Tenri City and various aspects involved in the experience of making pilgrimages there in chapter nine, in chapter ten, I discuss specified reasons for which Tenrikyo followers (or people somehow associated with the religion), including members of the "TEC community," spend time in this pilgrimage town. These specified reasons include both spiritual and academic training programs and a variety of special events held there. Having taken part in numerous of these specified reasons for being in Tenri City was a common component in the lives of the collection of people who together composed the "TEC community." I argue that 31 My "home site" refers to the lineage-based site in the Paris area at which I attended Monthly Services throughout the course of my fieldwork. 32 To be more precise, I was also accompanied by the older brother of my "spiritual parent" during part of my trip. 33 In practice, they assumed this role jointly. 34 As is common for Tenrikyo women, upon marriage, reflective of the general "household" model of Japanese culture, she was then no longer part of this church, its connected lineage, nor to her natal household, but to those of the man she married.

these mutually shared experiences, and in certain cases, the experience of having taken part in the training or event with other group members, was a contributing factor to the creation and development of their social bonds. In regard to these training programs, the religious content they conveyed, particularly in the case of spiritual trainings and academic programs that included study of the Tenrikyo faith, promoted a shared conceptual framework associated with this faith based in the realm of the imaginary that encouraged social linkages between followers who shared this framework.

The most prominent of these spiritual trainings are the invariably identical Besseki lectures delivered in a specific hall for this purpose. As stated previously, having attended nine of these lectures is the main requirement to be eligible to undergo the rite through which one becomes a

Yoboku. These lectures convey key aspects of the faith's teachings, with the theory being that through repeated exposure to these lectures and the spiritual content therein, the attendees' "spiritual maturity 35 " is advanced. The status of being a Yoboku is an important feature of the construction of religious identity which I will reference at numerous points of my thesis. To briefly explain this designation, a person with this status is able to perform a type of faith healing known as the "Sazuke," which is one of the key components of the Tenrikyo faith. In practice, though not officially, this designation is often associated with being a fully initiated adult member of the religion.

The repetitive process of attending these nine identical Besseki lectures provides a prominent example of a notable pedagogical model of Tenrikyo in which a person is formed and spiritually developed through repetitive experiential exposure over time. Followers living in Japan 36 are only able to attend the Besseki lectures once a month, thereby making the process span over a minimum of nine months. I sometimes heard followers, particularly Japanese followers closely implicated in the religion, explain this to be akin to it taking nine months for a baby to form 35 Japanese: (kokoro no) seijin (心の) 成人. In Japanese, the word "seijin" generally refers to the attainment of maturity or adulthood itself. ("Kokoro no" translates to "of the heart/mind"). In Tenrikyo literature, the term comes to have a deeper connotation of spiritual maturity, which often includes the idea that by increasing one's "spiritual maturity," one is becoming more human, meaning human in the way God the Parent created us to be.

36 Followers coming from overseas locations are permitted to attend these lectures consecutively in a shorter span of time due to an allowance made in consideration of the potential difficulty for followers to come to Tenri City from overseas nine separate times.

inside their mothers' womb. One simply needs to be present at these lectures (even if one sleeps through a portion) to acquire eligibility to become a Yoboku. It is very much the physical attendance of these lectures, rather than how they are intellectually received, that is in the forefront of importance. Similarly, from a more global perspective of Tenrikyo, it is through people's enacted engagements in faith-based practices and activities by which their religious affiliation was largely defined. As I will expand upon later, this shows that "being a member" of Tenrikyo is not exclusively, or even primarily, positioned in the realm of belief, but rather, is

strongly associated with what one does.

In addition to several other spiritual trainings held in this pilgrimage town that I discuss, I also look at the academic trainings that occur there, largely via two high schools and one university affiliated with the religion 37 that numerous members of my research population had attended, or in the case of younger group members, were attending or planning to attend in the future. Among other contributions to the formation of people who attended these schools was that they provided a context through which they lived in Tenri City for multiple years, thereby deepening their experiential connection to the town. Furthermore, social connections formed during these periods contributed to an expansive network of Tenrikyo people, many of whom were from families highly involved in the faith, such as by heading Tenrikyo churches, and with many of these alumni going on to later hold roles in the religious organization, including at TEC.

In this chapter, I will also discuss several specific events that were held in Tenri City during the span of my fieldwork in which numerous members of my research population participated and which more generally functioned as gatherings of various segments of Tenrikyo's international presence. I reference the 130 th anniversary of the foundress' "withdrawal from physical life," which I participated in via distance with others at TEC while approximately thirty members of the TEC community, almost all of whom I position as "core members," attended the event in person.

I also include two international gatherings that occurred in Tenri City while I was there. One was the Young Men's Association Hinokishin Corps, which I did not participate in because I am not a man. The other was a two-day symposium for English-speaking followers throughout the 37 These Tenrikyo schools are recognized as accredited academic institutions by the Japanese government.

Tenrikyo diaspora, which I did take part in as I am an English speaker and relatedly, was encouraged to do so.

Additionally, I accord a more extensive look at the "Children's Pilgrimage to Jiba38 " festival, which I participated in with about forty members of the TEC community as a group. In addition to participation in this festival being a part people's mutually shared experiential lexicon that encouraged social connections via perceived commonalities, it was also an important ongoing mechanism of community construction and continuation of the group on which my research was

based. Thinking about their collective participation provides us with a prominent example of the bi-local (or more) nature of the experiences that solidified the involved individuals together as a collective group in which although this "community" was primarily based at TEC, its ongoing social world was multilocal.

First though, before exploring the precise context on which my research was focused, I will hereafter ground the reader in my research context by means of a foundational introductory section. As previously explained, in the first chapter of this section, I accord my focus primarily to the early history of this religious tradition during the life of its foundress and the early developments of the faith. The second chapter, then, will focus on providing the reader with a basic overview of Tenrikyo theology and practice, along with discussion of the initial efforts to spread the faith to Europe via England at the beginning of the 20 th century and the founding of TEC approximately fifty years later. Also included is an exploration of numerous ways "membership" in the Tenrikyo faith can be determined and connectedly, the difficulty in accurately ascertaining the number of "members" globally or in any given location.

SECTION I: INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH CONTEXT

Chapter one: The beginnings of Tenrikyo: a "Japanese new religion"

In this introductory section, a significant portion of the information I present is included in structured Tenrikyo trainings that are commonly undergone by Tenrikyo followers, including the majority of people I position as "core members" of the "TEC community," as well as a significant number of those socially situated in more of the periphery of this multi-layered social group.

Because of this, not only am I explaining the early history of this religious movement which helps to contextualize Tenrikyo as it exists in modern-day, but I am also putting forth components that exist in the collective imagination of Tenrikyo followers, including many of those included in my research population. This conceptualization by its followers influences how this religion is lived and experienced.

In this section and throughout this thesis, I discuss information concerning Tenrikyo, most notably that of its theology, put forth by the religion as fact. This is reflective of my position as an anthropologist in which my focus is on the social realties of those I study rather than on the "truth" of these realities, particularly in the realm of complex theological assertions which I regard as beyond the scope of my present analysis. It is chiefly for this reason that my discussion of the Tenrikyo religion is primarily put forth from an emic perspective rather than one looking at Tenrikyo from the outside for which I would accord more analytic focus, for example, to

Tenrikyo's developments in relation to broader societal developments and other religious movements in Japan around the same time.

In this introductory grounding section, the historical information is mainly borrowed from The Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo (1996) whereas the doctrinal information is mainly from

The Doctrine of Tenrikyo (1993), although there is some crossover with each category taking information from both books. As I will discuss later in this text, these books are commonly utilized official Tenrikyo references published by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters which followers are often exposed to, such as in structured religious trainings that are largely focused on the study of these works. In my own experience, my familiarity with these works largely came from attentively reading through them in classes focused on them, supplemented with lectures and discussions on them, through participating twice in the three-week Tenrikyo European Seminar held at TEC annually. For the sake of brevity, I often do not include specific citations for general Tenrikyo information, particularly in the first part of this introductory grounding chapter.

a. Founding of the Path

Tenrikyo was founded by an agrarian Japanese woman named Miki Nakayama 39 who was born on the 18 th day of the fourth month of 1798 in Sanmaiden Provence (present-day Nara Prefecture). In Tenrikyo literature, she is commonly described as having been diligent in household work and a devout adherent of Jodo Shin Buddhism since early childhood. In 1810, she married Zenbei Nakayama at the age of thirteen and moved to his family's residence in the nearby village of Shoyashiki (present-day Tenri City). Miki was initially opposed to entering into this marital union as she wished to become a Buddhist nun, but eventually complied with her parents' wishes for her to do so. In 1813, shortly after entering this marriage and becoming part of her husband's household, she was entrusted with the running of this household, which is explained in Tenrikyo discourse to be noteworthy in relation to her young age and evidence of her impressive character. Then, in 1821, she gave birth to her first child, a son named Shuji, and subsequently to five daughters, two of whom died early (Tenrikyo Doyusha Publishing Company 2014:1-27 [cited in Kato 2017a]).

In 1837, Shuji was afflicted with leg pain. To address this ailment, the Nakayama family called upon a shugen (ritual practitioner associated with a mountain religious sect) who performed prayer rituals for him intermittently over the following year. On the 23 rd day of the 10 th month, an incantation (yosekaji) was performed for Shuji with his mother, Miki, serving as the spirit medium needed for this ritual. His mother only served in this role as a last-minute improvisation because the woman who usually functioned as the medium in these healing ceremonies was not available on that particular day. During this ritual, as is explained in Tenrikyo doctrine, God descended into Miki and expressed through her, as is cited in the faith: "I am God of Origin, God in Truth. There is causality in this Residence. At this time I have descended here to save all 39 Nakayama is the name of the family she was married into.

or occasionally by the name she is commonly referred to by her followers: "Oyasama44 " ("our beloved parent,") which I will elaborate on slightly later.

The foundress as the "Divine Model": adherence to and departure from the established order

The next fifty years of the foundress' life are referred to in Tenrikyo as the "Divine Model" (hinagata). It is purported in the faith that during this time, her mind was in complete accordance with God's will. During the first three years following this momentous religious event, she secluded herself in a storehouse, thereby neglecting her household duties of wife and mother.

Later, following the divine command conveyed by God the Parent (a referential term I will explain in the next subsection) through the foundress: "Fall to the depths of poverty," she began giving away their household belongings and insisted, eventually successfully, upon the dismantling of their household residence, where in present-day, the "Main Sanctuary" of this religion now stands (The Life of the Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo 1996).

As is recounted in Tenrikyo discourse, the foundress' husband, who was the head of the Nakayama household and thereby charged with making important decisions concerning the collective group, initially refused God the Parent's commands conveyed over time to take down different parts of their large residential structure. This familial home had been passed down in the Nakayama family for multiple generations from his ancestors and thus, its dismantlement would, according to normal human thinking 45 , not only be a hardship for his collective family group living there at present but would also be an afront to his ancestors who had built up this structure of familial wealth and passed it on to their descendants over multiple generations.

He was persuaded to obey God the Parent's first command to dismantle a part of it only after the foundress fell ill following his initial refusal to do so and was confined to bed for twenty days, rejecting all food, then several times again afterwards, with her husband acquiescing only because the dire repercussions to the foundress if he did not heed these requests were too great (The Life of Oyasama: Foundress of Tenrikyo 1996: chapter three). The dates when this sequential dismantling occurred is not precisely specified in commonly circulated Tenrikyo literature other than it being somewhat more than ten years prior to the building of the initial structure dedicated to the Service ritual in 1864. It is explained in the religion that the foundress coming to live at this location (through an arranged marriage that she was initially opposed to entering into) and her divine revelation to tear down this residential structure were both due to the sacred point of the Jiba being located there, which would thereafter be revealed in 1875.

To understand the significance of the foundress' husband agreeing to dismantle their familial home, one must look at the socio-historic context in which it occurred. The Edo period (1603-1868), the tail end of which coincided with the initial years of Tenrikyo, is often asserted to be what made Japan, Japan, including its shaping of gender expectations which continue to influence how gender is constructed and lived presently in Japanese society. Somewhat prior to this period, the influx of Confucian ideas from China are commonly asserted to have eroded women's ability to hold power. These ideas promoted hierarchy, male dominance, integrity, and righteousness and rendered women subservient (Sugihara and Katsurada 2000). Among numerous others, the introduction of the Confucian ideal of the patriarchal and patrilineal family that had long been dominant in China to Japan presented a major challenge to traditional Japanese approaches to gender roles and relationships. More precisely, the adoption of Chinese law codes first eroded the control that Japanese women were able to exercise regarding their own children, and eventually, to their overall status relative to males (Stearns 2015).

The "household" (ie) system, which I discuss extensively in chapter six, largely in relation to the organizational model of Tenrikyo "lineages," originated in Confucian China and continues, to a large extent, to be followed in modern-day Japan. This system is generally thought to have come about sometime around the beginning of the Edo period 46 . In this system, the household is patrilocal, patrilineal, and patriarchal 47 . Prior to this system, women could generally maintain more autonomy in property ownership and personal identification. In the ie system, although households are largely female run, their recognized heads are male, thereby creating a duality of official and externally recognized leadership being male while unofficially, households were, and remain to be, largely operated by women and a female domain.

An illuminative insight into ideal gender roles during the Edo period, or more specifically, those of women, can be seen in Onna Daigaku (The Great Learning for Women), an educational text on the role of women in the family and in society that was frequently gifted to new brides during this period, with the oldest version dating to 1729. In this text, it is stated that "men pursue their duties without, while women govern within." Through the ie system, husband and wife were supposed to form a harmonious complementarity of roles by which their household would prosper. This ideal of the complementarity of male and female roles is also a prominent component of Tenrikyo, expressed through the concept of two-in-one (futatsu-hitotsu) relationships, which I will come back to at various points of my text, most notably in chapter four.

The Edo period also featured the societal division of people by social classes, one of which was the "peasant class" of farmers, of which the Nakayama family was one of high rank. In this social class, families were focused on increasing (or at least maintaining) their wealth and honor within their class rather than breaking class boundaries by moving up to an entirely different higher class. Their dream of wealth and honor remained tied to their home and farm, and these ambitions were coupled with the fear of losing everything (Katsumi 1980). Thus, the voluntary sequential dismantling of the Nakayama family's residential structure, which only occurred after the foundress' husband gave his permission to do so, despite his and his family's opposition, demonstrates the coexistence of the divine power which occupied the foundress and the respect accorded to the patrilineal and patriarchal household system.

Furthermore, connected to the fact that in the ie system of the foundress' time the household was more important than any single member, the foundress' husband's agreement to dismantle the Nakayama family's residential structure (and wealth) is rendered even more in contrast to the societal norms in place at that time, which the foundress' teachings are commonly explained to be aimed at reshaping so that we may draw closer to constructing the world of the Joyous Life. As we can see in relation to the importance that was placed on prioritizing the wealth and status of the collective household over any one member's individual interests, particularly a woman who had married into the family, her husband granting his accord to this seemingly bizarre request conveyed by his wife was a significant transgression against both societal norms and gender roles.

In any age, it is a matter of great difficulty for a family to sell its dwelling, but much more so in those days, when to honor things transmitted from father to son was deemed the most important of all filial duties. For Zenbei 48 , therefore, who was one of the great landowners in the village and who also held the position of village headman, it was simply disquieting that anyone, even God the Parent, should order him to pull down the mansion handed down to him by his forefathers… They (Zenbei's friends and relatives) minced no words in their vehement remonstration (against the dismantling of his familial home), telling him that if he said, after dismantling the mansion, that he had done it because he had been ordered to do so by a woman whom he had taken into the family as his wife, not only would he be at a loss as to what to say to his ancestors, but he was also sure to fall in stature in the public estimation. Some of them even carried the matter further, telling him that they would break all ties with him if he did not refrain from doing such a thing. (The Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo 1996: 21).

That her husband finally acquiesced to this request is often framed as evidence of both the urgency of following this command from God the Parent in relation to what it would have meant otherwise, most notably to his wife who was serving as the Shrine of God, which had also first necessitated his permission, and relatedly, how seriously he took his wife being occupied by this divine force. It is explained in Tenrikyo that he tried several times to drive out the evil, or otherwise mischievous, spirit from her if this was, in fact, the culprit of her present state because of the extreme hardship that his wife's spiritual occupation was causing. Once these efforts proved futile, as it is explained in the faith, his conviction was increased that she was truly conveying the words of God the Parent.

This duality of feminine and masculine power that is a prominent theme of Tenrikyo, in concert with the Japanese ie system which generally positions males as the heads of their collective group, helps to contextualize the central role that the foundress holds in the faith being coupled with the religion's being primarily male. This coupling of the maternal love and divine strength 48 Zenbei was the first name of the foundress' husband.

ascribed to the foundress (i.e. our original and ever-living benevolent mother) and leadership roles in the religion being generally occupied by men can be extended to gender roles that are common in this religion. Although women usually occupy less prominent positions, from an internal perspective, the supportive "foundational49 " role which they occupy, generally thought to be best filled by women who have been bestowed with feminine qualities 50 , is held to be equally important, though different, to the roles generally filled by men.

As noted by Kato (2017b), despite the Tenrikyo faith51 originating from religious teachings conveyed by a woman, it has developed and maintained a predominantly male-centric organizational structure, for example, with only one female to have held a Honbuin (Tenrikyo Church Headquarters official) position (Watanabe 2015: 15). While the foundress included among her numerous teachings that males and females are both necessary and equal, something which I heard Japanese followers explain on occasion to have been revolutionary at that time in Japan, she largely maintained conventional gender roles, with women being primarily associated with the domestic sphere and motherhood and men being associated with roles in the broader society, including leadership roles in the religion. She also emphasized marriage as the ideal way of life for most adults. Despite the rather defined gender roles and familial model she put forth as being generally best suited to people's nature, happiness, and spiritual growth, these gendered life models were not absolute imperatives and there were instances in which the foundress encouraged individuals to pursue other life models, thereby promoting doctrinal room for casedependent variations.

Coming back to the budding development of the spiritual path that was being slowly put forth by the foundress, as explained previously, after she became the Shrine of God serving as an ideal model of human existence, her actions, such as notably her insistence that her family should purposefully fall into poverty, elicited suspicion and disapproval from her relatives and others in the village. Then, slightly after the dismantling of the Nakayama residential structure, in 1854, the foundress bestowed her first act of mystical healing, that of the Grant of Safe Childbirth (obiya yurushi), intended to ensure safe childbirth without the observation of traditional customs and taboos associated with women's defilement (kegare) (Tenrikyo Doyusha Publishing Company 2014:40-70 [cited in Kato 2017a]). As postulated by Watanabe (2015: 27 [cited in Kato 2017b]), among others, the foundress may have used this practice to convey to those around her the idea that "divine providence" is most evident in the body of a woman during pregnancy, which embodies the fundamentally passive nature of the human body. On occasion throughout my fieldwork, I also heard that her first act of bestowal of "miraculous salvation 52 " being one that was exclusively for women was to demonstrate the importance of women in the male-dominated society in which she was conveying her teachings.

Also included in the foundress' teachings through her lived example serving as the Divine Model that overrode conventional customs is that she is said to have included people of the outcast Buraku group in her interactions with people seeking healings. This, too, was a significant breech against established societal taboos and further led to her ostracism from others in the village (Kato 2017b, Ikeda 2006 [cited in Kato 2017b]). During this stage of the foundress' conveyance of the faith, she is reported to have been repeatedly confronted, at times with violence, by doctors and mountain ascetics who were losing clients to her and the mystical healing she bestowed. (Tenrikyo Doyusha Publishing Company 2014 [cited in Kato 2017a]). Hardacre (1994) puts forth

an interesting supposition that the opposition she encountered was related to the foundress' presence as a female religious leader being a challenge to the mountain ascetics' male-oriented religious authority.

Revealing sacrality through spatial, textual, conceptual, and enacted means

After the dismantling of the foundress' familial residential structure, upon the initiative of the foundress' main disciple, a carpenter named Izo Iburi, the construction of the Tsutome Basho ("place for performing religious Services") began in 1864 in the same spot where the Nakayamas' residential structure had stood. Then, in 1866, the foundress began to teach her 52 Fushigina tasuke followers the Service ritual (tsutome) 53 . These sacred songs and their accompanying dances, collectively known as the Mikagura-uta ("Songs for the Service,") which I will further discuss later, were taught by the foundress between 1866 and 1875 and are positioned as a centrally important part of the faith's practice and one of the three Tenrikyo scriptures54 . Through them, "performers portray and spiritually enact religious symbols through the use of their bodies in the Service." (Kato 2017a: 60). These ritual songs and dances would come to be performed at the sacred point of the "Jiba55 " that was identified by the foundress in 1875, in the place where her family's residential structure had stood, as the precise point at which the original conception of humans had occurred through the workings of God the Parent, who still resides at that point (Kato 2017b). Later, the Main Sanctuary of Tenrikyo that currently serves as the principal religious structure of this faith was built around the Jiba in segments from 1911 until 1984 (Tenrikyo Resource Wiki: 2012-April).

During the period that the foundress was conveying the Mikagura-uta songs and dances to her followers, this budding faith was undergoing significant development and expansion in response to the opposition that the foundress and her followers were being confronted with. Despite the foundress' reluctance, her followers sought to gain official authorization from the Yoshida Administrative Office of Shinto (Yoshida Jingi Kanryo) in Kyoto so that they could hold gatherings at their private residence without hindrance. Official authorization was granted from this body in 1867, but then was voided slightly later in 1870 when this administrative office was abolished (Kato 2017b, Tenrikyo Doyusha Publishing Company 2014 [cited in Kato 2017a]).

This was the faith's first formalized association with the category of Shinto that would be revisited again multiple times in what is framed, in modern discourse, to have been out of pragmatic necessity rather than being a truly appropriate categorical association.

Also around this time, from 1869 until 1882, through divine inspiration, the foundress wrote a text composed of 1,711 verses in seventeen parts written in the waka style of poetry known as the Ofudesaki ("Tip of the Writing Brush"). This text is also regarded as one of the faith's "Three Scriptures," with the third being the Osashizu scriptures that were conveyed somewhat later and which I discuss slightly later in this subsection. During this period, in 1874, the foundress began to wear red clothes (akaki). This sartorial act is explained in Tenrikyo discourse to have been a

turning point in the religion's development as it was quite unusual at the time for an old woman to dress in red clothes and is positioned as an occurrence that marks the foundress' public declaration of herself as the Shrine of God. Her commonly cited words on this development are as follows:

Until now, since I kept Myself behind a bamboo screen, nothing was able to be seen. This time, as I have come out into brightness, everything will be seen quickly.

What do you think of these red clothes? Tsukihi 56 dwells within. (Ofudesaki VI:61-63) In this same year, the foundress began to bestow various forms of "the truth of the Sazuke" ("the Divine Grant,") which allowed her followers to conduct healing prayers for those suffering from illness 57 (Kato 2017b, Tenrikyo Doyusha Publishing Company 2014 [cited in Kato 2017a]). This, too, I will expand upon later in this text. Somewhat later, in 1881, the foundress began the construction of the Kanrodai (the Stand for Heavenly Dew), which materially is a hexagonal stand of thirteen stone blocks marking the sacred point of the Jiba. After the stones for this 56 Tsukihi (literally: moon sun) was the second name of God conveyed through the foundress.

57 Also in 1874, the Japanese Ministry issued another proclamation in article 22, which stated: "Healing by means of prayer rituals [kin'en kito] are obstructing the government and are prohibited henceforth." (Kyobusho 22, 7.6.7, Horei Sensho, cited in Josephson 2012: 181). Josephson (ibid.) argues the terms of other ordinances issued by the Ministry of Doctrine in the same period suggest that the agency's chief aim in this proclamation was probably not to eliminate obstacles to Western medicine but to regulate practices at temples and shrines and to suppress noninstitutional charismatic leaders.

religious marker were confiscated by the police in 1882, the construction of this stand was halted (Kato 2017b, Tenrikyo Doyusha Publishing Company 2014 [cited in Kato 2017a]). Subsequently, a wooden replica of the kanrodai has been used in its place, which is replaced occasionally as needed due to weathering of the wood, until present. Another notable development in this spiritual path being increasingly put forth by the foundress at this time was that from about 1880/1881, she began to orally convey various stories to her followers that contained divine teachings, which they transcribed and are known in the religion as the kōki (the Divine Record) (Kato 2017a, Tenrikyo Doyusha Publishing Company 2014 [cited in Kato 2017a]). Notably included in the kōki was Tenrikyo's creation story, which is further discussed in the next subsection.

b. Becoming a "religion"

The establishment of the category of "religion" in Japan

During this period of the faith's rapid development, when the foundress was increasing her prominence, teachings, and increasingly attracting new people to the spiritual path she was putting forth, the foundress and her followers also encountered significant surveillance and prosecution from political authorities as a non-authorized religious group. This was to a great extent a result of the broader societal changes that came about through the Meiji Restoration (1868), which was largely focused on modernizing the country, and connectedly, included an officialized differentiation between formalized religions and folk beliefs and the prohibition of faith healing (that was commonly part of the latter "religious category") in favor of medical doctors, despite their lack of accessibility that was a widespread problem at this time 58 . 58 The difficulty in having access to medical doctors, despite that this was now the means through which people in Japan were supposed to address illness was particularly problematic in relation to the disease epidemics of this period which were exacerbated through increased urbanization and poverty. During this time, the need for medical care was far greater than its availability. Thus, while the Ministry of Doctrine's article 22 discouraged established Buddhist and Shinto sects from engaging in healing rituals, sick and injured people were driven toward the spirit mediums and wandering ascetics this article sought to suppress (Josephson 2012). Josephson (ibid: 182) furthermore states that this situation reached an even greater level of crisis through the massive cholera epidemics of 1879, 1882, 1886, 1890, and 1895, which left more than sixty thousand people dead. He argues that this increased need for healing rituals contributed to the boom in new religious movements and charismatic cults that occurred in the early 1880s (Takeda 1991).

groups were frequently suppressed under the pretext that the groups were engaged in faith healing 60 .

To further explain the context in which Tenrikyo was developing at that time, I will discuss in some detail the circumstances of this period of intentional modernization and the appearance in Japan of the category of "religion" associated with the significant societal reworkings that occurred during this period, also drawing on Josephson's 2012 work. When American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in 1853, despite being aware that this was in direct violation of Japanese law, reflective of the country's seclusion policy, they ignored shots fired by cannons in the bay and subsequently repulsed Japanese boarding parties with threats and brandished weapons, expressing their unwillingness to leave unless two letters were delivered to the Japanese emperor. The word "religion" appeared twice in these letters, both times to (falsely) assure the Japanese that the US had no interest in violating Japan's centuries-old prohibition of Christianity.

When the translators encountered the word "religion," they did not know what this word meant as there was no equivalent term in the Japanese language for something as broad as religion nor a systematic method of distinguishing between "religions" as members of a general category (ibid: 79).

Essentially, Josephson (2012: 2-4) asserts, Japan got "religion" as a demarcated concept because it was imposed on them by a treaty. This treaty was the Treaty of Kanagawa signed by Japanese governmental officials 61 and Commodore Mathew C. Perry of the United States Navy which resulted in the opening of two ports to American vessels and the granting of "freedom of religion," firstly to Americans residing in Japan, along with numerous other articles aimed at benefitting the American side and promoting relations between the two countries. Notably, this meant an end to Japan's 220-year-old policy of national seclusion during which time foreign trade was only maintained with the Dutch and the Chinese and conducted exclusively under a 60 A regulation passed in 1876 that officially required all medical practitioners to have studied Western medicine. This marked the radical elimination of indigenous medical practices, as they were believed to be bad for the health of the nation. The process of training Western-style doctors was slow, though; thus, only wealthy urbanites had access to Western medicine (Josephson 2012: 145-146, 182).

strict government monopoly. It also precipitated the signing of similar treaties that established relations with other Western powers.

The Japanese recipients of this demand for freedom of "religion" recognized that Christianity was the main issue at stake yet remained vexed by the unclear meaning of "religion." The few translation materials available to these officials offered seemingly contradictory possibilities, including this term referring to cultural customs, essentially a type of education, or simply a name given to rites directed toward the foreigners' gods (Josephson 2012: 79). They produced multiple translated versions of these letters, in which they rendered "religion" with a range of terms, each of which implying something radically different (ibid: 1). Josephson (2012) argues that in Japan, religion (shūkyō 62 ) had to be invented and that the concept of "Japanese religions" is a historically conditioned category that was consciously formulated to meet political ends, which I will discuss further slightly later.

For the moment, let it simply be said that for more than thirty years after Perry's arrival, Japanese intellectuals grappled with the concept of "religion." Similar to the multiple translations of the term "religion" contained in the translations of Perry's letters, during this period, they produced numerous translation terms, each implying something different: a type of education, something unknowable, a set of practices, a description of foreign customs, a form of politics, a kind of Shinto, a near synonym for Christianity, a basic human impulse. Josephson (2012: 8) states that the existence of numerous terms with very different meanings suggests that it was far from evident during this initial period of attempting to contend with what analogs corresponded to the Western concept contained in this word. Beyond Japanese intellectuals and translators producing different terms for this concept, they also debated which indigenous traditions and practices belonged to this category. 62 The word "shūkyō," which was popularized in Japan in the 1870s as a translation for the Euro-American word "religion" was then exported throughout East Asia. In Chinese, this term was rendered as "ziongjiao" and in Korean as "chonggyo" (Josephson 2012: 7). The transferal of this term was facilitated by the fact that these three languages used the same logographic Chinese characters, referred to in Japanese as "kanji," in which the meaning of the characters remains constant between languages, but their pronunciation may differ.

Continuing with the insights conveyed by Josephson (2012), in the latter part of the 19 th century, a new generation of Japanese elites had travelled to Europe and North America where they encountered Christianity firsthand and attained the linguistic skills and textual sources needed to participate in global intellectual currents and contribute to the conceptualization of the concept of "religion" through the application of their acquired knowledge (shaped through their own aims).

In Japan's first academic journal, Meiroku Zasshi, a number of future governmental officials argued that modernity involved some form of religious freedom, but that freedom needed to be bound to allow for the purification of "backward customs" and "evil cults" (ibid: 20). Ultimately, the Meiji government declared in the mid-nineteenth century that "Shrine Shinto" did not fall under the category of "religion."

As explained by Josephson (2012), this allowed for the use of Shinto educational materials and participation in Shinto rituals to be mandatory without breaching guarantees of religious freedom.

This move had its origins in discourse of this period that rendered Shinto a science and a matter of fact rather than a contested faith. This resulted, in short, in the allowance of belief in Christianity and some forms of Buddhism, while at the same time, officials consigned the popular practices of "indigenous shaman and female mediums" to the category of "superstition" deserving no protection under "religious freedom" and beyond the sphere of tolerance 63 (ibid: 21). This is an important point regarding the early difficulties that the budding religious movement which would later come to be known as "Tenrikyo" experienced as its foundress was a female "shaman/medium"-type figure 64 . Isomae (2007: 93) also offers an illuminating analysis of the importation and interpretation of "religion" in Japan:

[U]nder the encroaching dominance of the West… following the principles of Westernstyle enlightenment, 'religion' (shūkyō) was entrusted to the sphere of the individual's interior freedom, while the 'secular' sphere of morality (dotoku) was determined to be a national, and thus public, issue. With a clear differentiation between the religious and moral categories, being made along the private-public dichotomy, Western modernity came to be comprehended in terms of a dual structure. From the beginning, the very notion of an individual with an interiority was for the first time made possible as a form of self-understanding only through the transplantation of Christianity and the related concept of religion. Krämer (2013:90) asserts that Isomae's argument is supported by the wording of key legal texts of the Meiji period, but that it is less clear why and how this specific understanding was introduced to Japan. Or, as Krämer explains is more appropriate to say, how the Western concept of "religion" was appropriated by Japan through complex processes of cultural transfer and translation between Japan and "the West" in the latter half of the nineteenth century. According to Krämer's analysis, Japanese elites appropriated a certain understanding of religion in the 1870s

for their own purposes and with their own agendas. He asserts that the appropriation of "religion" had little to do with Western precedents or debates shaped by Western concerns and that this is made obvious once the little studied question of why religion came to be translated as "shūkyō" ( 宗教), rather than by other translation terms that were in use until the second half of the 1870s, is explored.

Around 1869 marked the climax of anti-Buddhist attempts by Shintoists within the central government to establish Shinto as the one and only state religion (Krämer 2013: 97). Krämer explains that this prompted Buddhist activists to intensify their search for a new role for Buddhism in the new Meiji state 65 . He asserts that the terminological choices by the Shin Buddhist priest, Shimaji Mokurai (1838-1911), one of the first Japanese not only to use the term "shūkyō" but to attempt to define it, offers a little-utilized insight into the history of the term and the general story of the appropriation of "religion" in modern Japan. Krämer's central argument is that the main motive for Buddhist authors in defining the term "shūkyō," the modern-day term generally understood to mean "religion," was to come to terms with Shinto in the modern polity.

This, Krämer contends, was a purely domestic concern hardly affected by Western cultural dominance.

Continuing with Krämer's 2013 discussion, Shimaji is best known for a short essay in which he reflected on the relationship between politics and religion that he wrote in December 1872 while sitting in a hotel in Paris during his travels through Europe as part of a study group of the Honganji faction of Jodo Shinshu. Krämer (2013: 92) states that in his essay, Shimaji was clearly politically targeting the Meiji government's policy directed toward shrines and temples by arguing that the difference between politics (sei 政) and religion (kyo 教) should never be obscured, as the former is a human affair and only governs outward forms, whereas the latter is divine action and governs the heart. Between 1872 and 1874, Shimaji then conspicuously shifted his dichotomous thinking, Krämer (2013: 92) explains, evidenced through an essay by Shimaji in 1874 (1874a) in which he states:

I have not penetrated this thing called Shinto completely yet, but what I can say for sure is that it is not a so-called sectarian teaching (shūkyō 宗教). If one now nonetheless attempts to make it into a sectarian teaching, the harm for Japan and the shame from outside will be enormous. In olden times, when Buddhism had not yet entered Japan, only a civic teaching (jikyō 治教 66 ) existed in our country. There is thus no obstacle to the coexistence of a sectarian teaching and a civic teaching, but how could one possibly have two sectarian teachings at the same time?

According to Krämer's (2013: 93-94) analysis, in this passage, "shūkyō" could be reasonably translated into English as "religion," but the newly appearing oppositional term "jikyō" clearly did not mean "politics." He then links this to another Buddhist author from the same year (1874):

Senryu Kusonoki (1834-1896), a priest of the Otani branch of the Jodo Shinshu school of Buddhism who also positions these two terms as essentially different. In this work, Kusonoki states, 66 Krämer (2013: 93) poses the question of if jikyō was not simply a synonym for Shinto in this writing, but then replies to his own question by saying that this does not seem likely based on other writings by Shimaji in the same year (Shimaji 1874b, 1874c) which imply it likely that jikyō was not identical with Shinto but refers to something like political indoctrination.

Well, there are two ways of teachings (kyo 教). These are called civic teachings (jikyō)

and sectarian teachings (shūkyō)… Yes, while "civic teachings" (jikyō) reward and punish outer forms and past events, they neither promote nor chastise the right and wrong of the inner heart nor that which has yet to take shape. Krämer (2013) explains that Kusonoki further argues that while civic teachings and sectarian teachings differ in their purpose, political aims will not work without sectarian teachings because while politics (sei) can punish a wrongdoer with penalties or chastise them with laws, it does not address the evil lurking within the heart that led to the wrongful acts. This is the task of sectarian teachings, evidenced by Kusonoki going on to say in this essay: "It is sectarian teachings that make people sincere, upright, and good by chastising the evil that has yet to surface and by fostering the good in life." Krämer asserts that Kusonoki's text is remarkable for clearly specifying religion as an affair of the human interior. He notes, based on other parts of Kusonoki's essay, religion is centrally defined as that which deals with death, something Krämer says is certainly a plausible definition from the vantage of Japanese Buddhism, with its focus on funeral practice 67 since the early-modern period of Japan 68 .

Important to Krämer's (2013) argument is his highlighting that while Kusonoki and Shimaji appear to both affirm the legitimacy of the sphere of "civic teachings," they also position this category as inferior to religion and less central for human life. Krämer centers his attempt to understand the coinage of the term shūkyō as the word for "religion" through the term jikyō, which he positions as one of its opposites as conveyed in these essays. He does this by discussing the four stages of meaning that jikyō 69 passed through chronologically and frames his analysis around looking at prominent texts of different periods that use this term and how they use it. In the first half of the Tokugawa period (1603-1868), the term was exclusively used in a Confucian context, though not in a single, unified sense. Adherents of various neo-Confucian schools of this period used it to mean the art of governing or to refer to the ideal behavior of a ruler.

67 It is common for modern-day Japanese people to engage in Shinto rituals for issues pertaining to current, thisworldly issues and as a means of taking part in "traditional culture," Buddhist practices for funerary rites and practices pertaining to the dead, and yet, to view largely themselves as essentially non-religious. 68 The early modern period of Japan is regarded as having lasted approximately from the beginning of the 17th century until the mid-18th century.

69 alternatively pronounced: shikyo Later, Krämer (2013) clearly position Jikyo as a way of elevating exclusively the Great Way (i.e. Shinto). These texts also stressed, for the first time, that Jikyo was not only a concern of the rulers, but something that also encompassed the subjects. This was expressed through Jikyo's dimension of indoctrination now also being stressed.

Then, Krämer (2013) explains, the Buddhist priest Shimaji Kusonoki and others used the close association between jikyō and Shinto to yet again reinterpret the word. Krämer (2013: 106) argues that their opposing jikyō with shūkyō marked a decisive step in the history of the appropriation of "religion" in Japan. To support this idea, he states that shūkyō clearly seems not only to have been employed but was formed in conscious opposition to the more established term: jikyō (治). While jikyō is obsolete in modern Japanese, Krämer contends that it was of paramount importance to "religious policy" during the first years of the Meiji period. To support this claim, he explains that shūkyō (宗教) was an "attributive character combination," using the older umbrella term, kyō (教), but singling out one subsphere of it. In this, we can see that religion is part of the older 70 The Mito School (Mitogaku (水戸学) arose initially in 1657 as a school of Japanese historical and Shinto studies with a fundamentally Neo-Confucian approach based on the notion that historical development follows moral laws. Its primary founder, Mitsukuni Tokugawa (1628-1700) believed that Japan had long been unified as a nation under rule of the emperor and was a perfect example of a nation according to Sinocentric thought. This school compiled historical works centered around the idea of Japan as ruled by emperors and with emphasis placed on respect for the imperial court and Shinto deities. Around the end of the eighteenth century, began to address social and political issues and thus began the era of the Late Mito School and then later became one of the main driving forces of the Meiji Restoration.

71 Kokugaku, literally "national study," was an academic movement as a school of Japanese philogogy and philosophy originating during the Tokugawa period. This movement is commonly attributed with having led to the eventual collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868 and the Meiji Restoration period that began thereafter.

category of "teaching(s)" that remains when civil education, politics, and secular morals are removed from it. From this perspective, he explains, it is clear that "religion" was crucially appropriated in the 1870s by Shin Buddhists through their drawing on older understandings of "kyō."

Shūkyō, Krämer asserts, was formed not in opposition to politics but to civic teaching. He states that this distinction is important because while the distinction between the state/politics and religion was shaped by Western thinking, the differentiation between shūkyō and jikyō was a purely Japanese affair. He then goes on to say that no contemporary European observer would be able to make sense of this dichotomy or even render it in their own language. This is because had the "Shinto problem," from the Buddhist perspective, not existed, the early 1870s Buddhist authors would not have come up with the term "shūkyō." Krämer's central thesis in this argument is that there is a fundamental problem with scholarship that stresses how the introduction of the Western concept of "religion" resulted in various problems because of its incompatibility with religious traditions that had already existed in Japan. Krämer (2013: 107) argues that it was, in fact, the other way around: because of the "Shinto problem" that was already present in Japan, historical actors deeply involved in everyday politics appropriated a specific kind of understanding of religion from the West, and thus a specific concept that would make it possible to situate Shinto outside the domain of "religion" understood in this way.

Tenrikyo's inclusion in the category of "religion"

I include this lengthy discussion on the Japanese concept of "religion" and how it came to exist as a conceptual component of Japanese modernity because it helps contextualize the broader societal milieu in which Tenrikyo came about as this is the historical period in which the "religion" on which my thesis is focused was increasingly picking up momentum in its development. Notably, this is pertinent to the question I commonly encountered from non-Tenrikyo, non-Japanese people in my explanation of my research being focused on "the Japanese new religion of Tenrikyo," often accompanied by a brief explanation of Tenrikyo tenets and/or practices, of if

Tenrikyo is actually a "religion." My generally succinct response to this question was that Tenrikyo is a religion because its "insiders" position it as such. Sometimes I would expand that the Japanese concept of "religion" as a separate, demarcated category came about at the same time as the "religion" of Tenrikyo, and sometimes would note that the latter syllable (and kanji character 72 ) of Tenrikyō (kyō) is the suffix attached to "religions" in Japan, which approximately means, "the teachings of…."

For example, Christianity is called "kirisuto-kyō 73 " (キリスト教) in Japanese, meaning "the teachings of Christ" and Buddhism is called "Bukkyō" (仏教), meaning "the teachings of Buddha." Likewise, "Tenrikyō" (天理教) has the same suffix and can be literally translated as "the teachings of 'Tenri'." More precisely, it could be translated in two similar ways, either as "the teachings of Tenri-O-no-Mikoto" (the divine name of God the Parent which the foundress conveyed in the initial period after becoming the shrine of this deity). Or, in a more literal manner according to the meaning of the three kanji which compose this word, "the teachings of heavenly logic," or another variation thereof reflective of the possible translations of these kanji as discussed previously.

The first appearance of the term "Tenrikyo" 74 to refer to this spiritual path was in a petition filed to the governor of Osaka Prefecture to form the "Tenrikyo Church" (Tenri Kyōkai 天理教会 75 ), on April 29, 1885 76 . After this request was denied, a second request was made, this time to establish the "Shinto Tenrikyo Church" (Shintō Tenri Kyōkai 神道天理教会), which was also denied (The Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo 1996: 199-204). Nonetheless, these early 72 Kanji characters are locographic written characters originating from China in which each symbol conveys a specified meaning, but depending on the other written characters it is paired with, can be pronounced in multiple ways 73 "Kirisuto" is the Japanese rendition of "Christ."

74 This is the first appearance of the term "Tenrikyo" mentioned in commonly circulated Tenrikyo literature.

75 "Kai" (会) is generally translated as "association" and "kyōkai" (教会: literally: "teaching, association") generally as "church" (this term is most commonly linked with Christian sites of worship, but is also used in Tenrikyo). Thus, there is some ambiguity if this should be rightly viewed as the first time the term "Tenrikyo" was put forth in official documentation. (Kaitei tenrikyō jiten 1997: 319) 76 Prior to this, the "Meisei Fellowship" of this budding spiritual path was spreading the teachings as moral philosophy, thereby escaping persecution. On May 9, 1884, a petition was submitted to establish an organization under the name, "Tenrin-O-Sha: Institute for the Study of Practical Ethics." A reply was received on May 17, stating, "This office has no authority to grant such a request; therefore, the petition is denied (however, we have no objection to your purpose." Thus, an office of Tenrin-O-Sha was opened in Osaka (The Life of Oyasama: The Foundress of Tenrikyo 1996: 200).

attempts to mitigate the persecution that this movement was being confronted with through seeking official authorization mark the documented initial introduction of it being labeled with the suffix "kyo," the modern marker of "religion" in the Japanese language.

During my fieldwork, I was curious about Tenrikyo's categorization as a religion and sometimes discussed my pondering about this with Tenrikyo followers, most but not all of whom were Japanese. One illuminative insight came about through a casual exchange with a Japanese young adult born and raised in a heavily Tenrikyo-focused context in Japan who was living at TEC as a missionary. To my informed questioning of if Tenrikyo was actually a religion and why, he told me that Tenrikyo currently took the form of being a "religion" because this classification conforms to the categorically delineated structure of the world, but that this categorization is a present-day human construct and he didn't think it would necessarily be categorized as such forever or that it needed to be. For this religious actor who had been significantly educated on this "religion" before coming to TEC as a missionary, Tenrikyo's position as a "religion" was a societally dictated and modern construct rather that something intrinsic to this divinely predestined spiritual path. In this, we can see that while Tenrikyo is a "religion," this is a categorical construct closely associated with the historical circumstances of the defining of this category which occurred at the same time that this path was being initially conveyed by the foundress.

c. The forming of a religion after the life of its foundress

Oyasama's withdrawal from physical life to hasten the path As a result of the governmental restrictions and animosity directed toward "religious" groups and movements outside of those sanctioned by the government during this first part of the Meiji period, which is commonly framed in Tenrikyo discourse to have resulted in significant governmental persecution toward it, Tenrikyo was subject to high levels of suppression that included prohibition or severe restriction on the execution of the centrally important Service ritual. These restrictive efforts included frequent police intervention at the site of the Residence where the Service was performed. During the latter part of the foundress' life, between 1875 and 1886, she was taken into police custody and detained or imprisoned on seventeen or eighteen separate occasions 77 . In Tenrikyo, it is explained that these hardships did not bother her, which is contrasted with the sorrow many of her followers felt that she should endure such treatment (The Doctrine of Tenrikyo 1993: 38-39).

In an attempt to lessen the difficulties that this religious movement, and its leader who was conceptualized as their original mother, encountered from governmental authorities and the associated restrictions it faced, the foundress' son, Shuji, obtained a permit in 1876 to operate a steam bath and inn so that the foundress could allow her followers to gather at the Residence to receive her teachings and worship. Shuji also gained authorization from the Jifuku Temple of Kogosan and established the movement, referred to in this instance as Tenrin-Ō-Kosha, as a legitimate sub-organization of the Jifuku Temple in 1880 to mitigate the difficulties it was facing.

Two years later, both the officially authorized Tenrin-Ō-Kosha and the bath house and inn would be abolished (Tenrikyo Doyusha Publishing Company 2014 [cited in Kato 2017a]).

Relying largely off Kato's (2017a) overview of these commonly conveyed aspects of the early years of the Tenrikyo faith for the summary I am putting forth here that I was also exposed to through Tenrikyo trainings, commonly circulated Tenrikyo written works, and by followers' spoken references, despite the difficulties the foundress and the religious movement were facing, she consistently opposed complying with the authorities in any way that could compromise her teachings. In another attempt to mitigate tensions, her grandson, Shinnosuke, who had become the head of the Nakayama household and would later become the first Shinbashira 78 , began an initiative in 1882 to establish an independent church (Kyōkai setsuritsu undō), again associating this path with the category of Shinto out of pragmaticism. During this general period, there was internal tension between the foundress, who was adamant that her followers perform the Service ritual, and Shinnosuke and other followers who were focused on gaining official authorization 77 During this period, such difficulties were not exclusive to the foundress of Tenrikyo. Others were similarly taken into police custody and charged for similar reasons, such as the offense recorded on police file of "dazzling" (genwaku) the public with "false theories" (mosetsu). Because the Japanese government sponsored its own truths about divine rituals and divine prophecy, it discouraged sundry groups from claiming equal access to the supernatural and actively strove to eliminate any obstacle to its new ideology. This led to people being imprisoned, fined, or even killed for promoting forbidden beliefs or engaging in a range of banned cultish practices (Josephson 2012: 164-166). 78 Leader of this religious movement, a role I will expand upon later in this text.

before doing so openly in its entirety so as to prevent additional hardship, particularly for the foundress. This generalized period of difficulties that the path and its early followers went through is a commonly referenced theme by modern followers, particularly in reference to their serving as models of perseverance, dedication to the path, and courage, with gratitude expressed toward their efforts and to that in modern times, almost anywhere in the world, followers are free to follow this faith, and more precisely, perform the Service ritual, without fear of governmental persecution.

Finally, culminating the difficulties that the path had been encountering during this period, upon the incessant urging of the foundress, the final Service during the foundress' physical life was performed in its entirety on January 26, 1887 79 : a date that would then be accorded particular importance in the religion. Prior to the performance of this ritual that culminated in Oyasama's "withdrawal from physical life," the foundress, who in appearance had grown physically weak, asked her followers, through the mouth of her principal disciple, Izo Iburi, if they wished her to "open the portals or keep them closed to level the ground." Izo was able to speak on her behalf because he had received the "Grant of Divine Utterance" from her and she referred to him as her "workplace," which meant that followers could approach him to inquire about God the Parent's intention and receive council through him on private matters rather than going directly to the foundress for their inquiries.

Not fully understanding the question, her followers replied that they wished her to open the portals and level the ground. Then, upon Oyasama's persistence of its paramount importance, the Service was scheduled to be performed the next day, despite her followers' apprehension, mainly as it is explained, because of their desire to spare Oyasama further hardship at her advanced age of 90 years as the public performance of this ritual act could result in her arrest once again. Once it was decided that the Service would be performed the next day, followers were urged to only perform in it if they were willing to risk arrest and imprisonment due to the heightened level of governmental prohibitions against such rituals, and the intensity of police control against 79 January 26, 1887 is the commonly cited date of this important event and the date commemorated both annually and through larger commemorations every ten years. This date, in fact, was actually that of the lunar calendar that was being phased out at the time through Japan's process of modernization going on that time, which coincides with February 18, 1887 according to the Gregorian calendar, but this issue did not to appear to be of significant consequence to modern followers.

religious and spiritual groups that did not conform with the newly implicated governmental restrictions. Often emphasized in discussions of this commonly referenced historical feature of the religion is that despite these difficulties, the foundress remained insistent that the Service must be performed, thereby adding to its attributed importance amongst modern followers as this adamance was communicated by the figure regarded as our original mother, thereby imbuing it with the sense of a parental command.

The Service ritual began the next day at about 1pm, with the foundress laying in a nearby room in a physically critical state, positioned in the faith to have been reflective of the urgency of this moment of the path's development. When the Service was concluded about an hour later, the foundress drew her last breath, which in Tenrikyo is referred to as her "withdrawal from physical life" (utsushimi o kakushita). It is explained that she did this voluntarily in order to hasten the spreading of her teachings and the practice of the Service throughout the world. Her age of 90 was 25 years prior to the 115-year lifespan she taught her followers as the natural term of life that humans would attain once the "dust" that hinders our physical, emotional, and social well-being had been adequately swept away from our hearts/ minds, which the Service is aimed at effectuating. This unexpected event was a considerable blow to her followers as they had expected her to live until the age of 115 years in accordance with her teaching. This is positioned in modern discourse, often inferentially, as a sacrifice that the foundress made to hasten the spreading of her teachings and was demonstrated in my observations to continue to imbue a strong emotionality amongst present-day followers.

Although it is explained that fellow followers considered Izo to be one of their comrades, because of the role he occupied as the principal disciple of Oyasama who had been endowed with the Grant of Divine Utterance which allowed him to convey revelations on behalf of the foundress, it was to him that her grief stricken followers consulted when they realized that the foundress' breathing had stopped and she had grown cold. Through the mouth of Izo, they received the following words:

Because of My love for you, My children, the Parent shortened Her life by twenty-five years to step out and save the world from now. (Osashizu, February 18, 1887) Through this statement, it was communicated that her physical passing was a purposeful choice made to hasten the spread of her teachings throughout the world. This "divine directive" was highly influential in the shaping of this religious movement by positioning the foundress' withdrawal from physical life as a profound act of motherly love toward humanity, as her children. After this momentous event through which her followers lost their living, breathing spiritual guide, Izo became the Honseki (literally: "main seat") of the faith, thereby serving as its spiritual leader through his transmission of the foundress' divine guidance. Over time, he transmitted what is known as the Osashizu ("Divine Directions,") which is a written record of the oral revelations he delivered later considered in the faith to be the last of the three Tenrikyo scriptures. The entirety of this scripture, which was conveyed by Izo during moments of divine inspiration and transcribed by others between January 04, 1887 and June 09, 1907, is currently published in seven volumes and contains around 20,000 "divine directions 80 ." When particular questions or problems were raised to him, he would transmit the foundress' will, often holding a fan while receiving her communications.

In concert with Izo operating as the faith's spiritual leader, the foundress' grandson, Shinnosuke, served as its administrative leader through holding the position as the religious movement's first Shinbashira 81 ("Main Pillar,") as was established, according to Tenrikyo texts, by the foundress when Shinnosuke was still in his mother's womb 82 . This leadership role was initially associated with the faith's administrative leadership, and then later, with its spiritual leadership as well, which continues until present to be the dual function of this position. The role of Shinbashira has been continued, until now, through the foundress' direct male descendants, generally via the passing of this role from the acting Shinbashira to his eldest son. At the time of this thesis' publication, the fourth Shinbashira, Zenji Nakayama, was serving in this position. Daisuke 80 In contrast to the other two Tenrikyo scriptures that were directly conveyed through the foundress' mouth and hand which constitute much shorter single volume works that were frequently present in my fieldwork observations, although I sometimes heard the Osashizu and particular teachings contained therein referenced, I never saw the Osashizu directly used during my two-plus years of fieldwork and heard only minimal reference to the text.

81 Shinbashira is also sometimes spelled with the alternate spelling of "Shimbashira."

82 Shinnosuke was the son of the foundress' daughter, Haru, and Haru's husband, into whose patriline he was born and raised. He was officially adopted into the Nakayama family on September 23, 1881, at the age of fifteen, and became the family's legal successor on September 22, 1882.

Nayakama (né Nakata) is the successor-delegate to this position. Daisuke's being next-in-line for this important position is due to his being adopted by the acting Shinbashira and his wife as their heir in 2013, when Daisuku was twenty-two years of age, due to their not having any biological children 83 . Daisuke is commonly described as the first son 84 of Honbuin (Tenrikyo Church Headquarters Church Headquarters executive staff member), Zenusuke Nataka, and his wife, Michiko. His birth parents are the extended kin of the acting Shinbashira, providing an example of the intermingling between kinship and the organizational structure of Tenrikyo that is a common feature of its composition historically and in modern-day.

Coming back to the early years of this religious movement, somewhat after the foundress' withdrawal from physical life, another commonly referenced Divine Direction was conveyed through Izo, in this instance regarding how the foundress' physical passing and her existence thereafter is conceptualized in the faith:

Sah, sah, I am still living here. I have not gone anywhere, not gone anywhere. You must look at the path of daily life and ponder. (Osashizu, March 17, 1890) In this, it is taught to have been conveyed that despite the foundress no longer being alive in physical form, her spirit remains on earth. An important aspect of the Tenrikyo religion is that the foundress is regarded to still be alive in spiritual form, continuing to oversee the path of Tenrikyo and guide her followers, and extendedly all of humanity, with motherly love, striving for their salvation (Kato 2017b, Tenrikyo Doyusha Publishing Company 2014 [cited in Kato 2017a]).

Although the foundress no longer dwells in a physical body, she is held to reside in the Foundress' Sanctuary, located in the central area of Tenri City adjacent to the Main Sanctuary, where specially selected female attendees serve her three meals a day, set out a fresh red kimono for her to put on every morning and draw a bath for her each evening, amongst other things, 83 The adoption of adults is a centuries-old Japanese practice used as a mechanism for families to extend their family name, estate, and ancestry without reliance on a bloodline when a family does not have a capable son to function as its heir. Furthermore, adoption as a means to secure an heir, often from a relative or person otherwise closely associated with the adopting family, is also sometimes extended to younger children and babies. This practice existed among members of my research population and was demonstrated in my observations to also include the adoption of females.

84 Less noted in Tenrikyo discourse is that Daisuke is Zenusuke and Michiko Nakata's second child.

tending to her as if she were still living in physical form. Further contributing to her mystique is that her photograph has never been made public by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters, which I heard speculated to likely be out of concern that her image may become an object of worship. This serves as a way of preserving the sacredness of the spiritual notion of the foundress as the Shrine of God and our benevolent original mother apart from her being tied to a physical body (Kato 2017a).

Developing a religious tradition amidst the development of Japanese modernity and thereafter

As noted by Kato (2017a), the diffusion of State Shinto (Kokka Shinto,国家神道 or 國家神道) in the wider realm of Japanese society during the latter part of the 19 th century associated with the Meiji Restoration resulted in its permeation into various religious groups, including Buddhist sects and "new religions" (Murakami 1982 and Victoria 2006 [cited in Kato 2017a]), the latter category of which Tenrikyo is included. To briefly introduce a reader unfamiliar with the category of "Japanese new religions," I would like to first explain that scholars generally classify all Japanese religious organizations founded since the middle of the nineteenth century as Japanese new religions (shinshūkyō 85 新宗教) 86 . The temporal demarcation associated with this category is reflective of the great social turmoil and rapid modernization associated with the early part of the Meiji period (1868-1912) and connectedly, the forced signing of Perry's treaty that led to the existence in Japan of a category called "religion" (shūkyō). Tenrikyo was one of three new religious movements, along with Kurozumikyo and Oomoto, that emerged during this transitional period leading up to the beginning of the Meiji period which are sometimes called the "Nihon Sandai Shinshūkyō" (Japan's three large new religions). Since this time, a great number of "new religions" have come about in Japan and this umbrella term is understood as its own category both by most Japanese people and by scholars of Japanese religion.

85 Shin 新 translates into English as "new."

86 This is the most common temporal marker from which time religious movements in Japan are thought to belong to the category of "Japanese new religions." Other proposed temporal demarcations for this category include the beginning of the 19th century, the beginning of the 20th century, or the period following World War II. (Inoue 1991: 10).

In numerous ways, Tenrikyo developed into a modern religious organization at the turn of the 19 th century during a time of intense pressure to conform to the accepted form of religious doctrines and practices of that period (Kato 2017a: 75-76). This historically based conformity is, from both an official and informally held emic perspective that I heard expressed during exchanges with a variety of followers, largely why the religion organizationally, structurally, ontologically, and in form shares numerous commonalities with Shinto.

Although Tenrikyo is internally understood to be a set of teachings conveyed by God the Parent through its foundress distinct from other religious traditions, it is recognized to share commonalities with numerous aspects of the broader realm of Japanese culture. This includes its religious traditions due to both pragmatic adaptations made in relation to the privileging of State Shinto and also because Japan is where the religion was founded and primarily developed, rendering the inclusion of aspects of this culture into Tenrikyo, as it is practiced and conceptualized, an unsurprisingly feature of its development. This demonstrates that in addition to this contributing feature of how Tenrikyo developed being a historically influential factor, it is also a commonly circulated one, albeit to varying degrees, that exists in the realm of the imaginary realm of this religion as it is conceptualized in modernity.

Shortly after the foundress' withdrawal from physical life, in 1888, out of pragmatic necessity, this developing religious movement gained official authorization as "Shintō Tenri Kyōkai" under direct supervision of the Shinto Main Bureau, thereby rendering it authorized and legitimated by the governmentally linked authorities. From this time until 1908, Tenrikyo operated under the umbrella of one of the thirteen State Shinto sects. This is explained in modern Tenrikyo discourse to have been due to governmental restrictions that accompanied the drastic changes which came with the beginning of Japanese modernity at that time (Meiji era). Tenrikyo only ceased to be classified as a Shinto sect by the Japanese government in 1970.

Despite the hardship that followers experienced through the physical passing of the foundress and the complications that arose from governmental restrictions, during the years following this momentous event, the religious movement grew rapidly. The most common means through which it gained new followers was through the administration of the Sazuke faith healing ritual to people suffering from physical ailments. Upon the perceived successful healing from this ritualized act, the recipient and/or those close to them would then become themselves followers of the faith, joining the "church" and its connected lineage of the person who administrated the Sazuke act of healing. Once a church acquired a significant enough number of followers rooted to it and certain other criteria were met, it was common for subservient new religious fellowships to split off from it, forming new "churches." By 1896, there were some 1,300 churches of this faith established in Japan. The religious movement's rapid growth and its emphasis on faith healing invited societal criticism, particularly from journalists who labeled the movement as an "evil cult" (inshi jakyō) on the grounds that it was based on superstition and magical healings over modern medical treatment. Comparable criticism was directed toward other similar religious movements, such as Renmonkyo, during this period (Josephson 2012: 238-240).

This tension resulted in the Japanese Home Ministry (Naimu-sho 内務省) issuing its Directive No. 12 in 1896 which necessitated strict control and surveillance over the religious movement.

Contained in this directive were accusations directed toward Tenrikyo of improper co-mingling of male and female parishioners and the use of banned rituals for magical healing. Tenrikyo leaders deemed a response necessary for the organization to survive. Thus, they instituted a number of internal reforms, including diminishing conflicts with state medical policies by limiting the distribution of amulets for painless childbirth, restricting the practice of faith healing to its being performed with the consent of a doctor, and reducing the presence of women and musical instruments in their ritual practice (Josephson 2012: 239-240, Nakayama 1997 [cited in Josephson 2012: 240]) 87 . Also in response to this directive, the group that would later become known as Tenrikyo began in 1899 to campaign for sectarian independence (ippa dokuritsu undo).

In order to meet the government's criteria at that time to be considered a legitimate religious organization, the movement developed an institutionalized religious organization and a systematized doctrine, known as the Meiji version of the Tenrikyō Kyōten (The Doctrine of Tenrikyo 88 ), which complied with the governmental requirement for religious doctrines to be in accordance with State Shinto (Kato 2017a).

In 1908, the group successfully received permission to become an independent religious organization as one of the thirteen sects of Sect Shinto sects (Kyōha Shintō 教派神道 ) (Kato 2017a; Astley 2006, Tenrikyo Overseas Mission Department 1998 [cited in Kato 2017a]). Once this religious group became categorized as an officially recognized Sect Shinto sect, by this time operating under the name "Tenrikyo," it was free of most political and societal pressures it had dealt with previously. Thus, Tenrikyo increased its propagation efforts during this period which resulted in its rapid growth in the years leading up to 1920, particularly in the growing urban areas that had been receiving an influx of people coming from more rural areas (Kato 2017a; Lee 1994, Oya 1996, Tenrikyo Overseas Mission Department 1998 [cited in Kato 2017a]).

The religion's developments, namely its doctrinal and ritual developments, came to be hindered again in 1939 through a governmental change known as the "adjustment" (kakushin) following the National Mobilization Act (Kokka Sōdōin Hō) connected with the nation's war efforts. In compliance, Tenrikyo removed certain verses from the Mikagura-uta songs that were deemed problematic to the nationalistic agenda of that time and also withdrew the Ofudesaki and Osashizu texts from circulation (Kato 2017a; Tenrikyo Overseas Mission Department 1998 [cited in Kato 2017a]). Tenrikyo underwent a further process of institutionalization during the years preceding the end of the Pacific War amidst the Japanese imperial government's initiative to forge national unity under the religio-political system of State Shinto. This led to Tenrikyo during this time incorporating nationalistic ideas which included political ideologies of State Shinto into their religious discourse and practices (Kato 2017a).

Following the end of World War II, the second Shinbashira 89 , Shozen Nakayama, announced on August 15, 1945 the restoration (fukugen) of Tenrikyo's teachings back to how they had been originally conveyed by the foundress. As explained by Kato (2017a), this reformation led to a 88 In a revised version, The Doctrine of Tenrikyo is currently one of the main Tenrikyo texts. 89 The Shinbashira (literally: "main pillar") is the administrative and spiritual leader of Tenrikyo. This role was set up by Oyasama who first designated the role to her grandson. The current Shinbashira, Zenji Nakayama, is the fourth to occupy this role, all of whom have been direct male descendants of Oyasama.

rather abstracted, de-nationalized interpretation of its prewar counterpart but with some of its underlying structures remaining intact, thus producing an ambiguity regarding the place of "Japan" in this religious tradition. The changes he initiated included ritual changes and also public restoration of Tenrikyo publications that had been rescinded due to governmental restraints. They also included the publication of several written works that were common references during the time of my fieldwork and which were composed as part of the efforts to restore the faith to how it had been originally conveyed by the foundress.

Continuing to rely on Kato's (2017a) work, additionally included in the second Shinbashira's efforts during this time were increased efforts to propagate the religion overseas, which I further discuss in the next chapter. In 1970, Tenrikyo left the Sect Shinto Union (Kyōha Shintō rengokai). In 1976 and then again in 1986, it abolished some Shinto-related materials that had been included in Tenrikyo's ritual and material culture. 1970 was also the year of TEC's founding, albeit under a slightly different name. The historical details involved in TEC's founding and its developments afterwards are also something I will expand upon slightly later.

First, however, I will next lay the groundwork for my thesis by providing a summary of the Tenrikyo religion that is meant to function in complementarity with information on its historical development by situating the reader with a general familiarity of the religion that was at the center of my research context.

Chapter Two: The faith, its expansion into Europe, and the complicated question of membership size and who is a member

a. Summary of the Tenrikyo religion

Tenrikyo teachings on the nature of human existence and of God

To begin situating the reader in a general familiarity with Tenrikyo, I will provide a summary of its cosmological foundation. Tenrikyo is a highly humanistic religion focused on issues of this world and explanations of human nature and the world's functioning. According to Tenrikyo doctrine, as explained to have been conveyed orally by the foundress 90 , in the beginning, the world was a muddy ocean. Finding this world to be unbearably tasteless, God the Parent (a title I will expand upon shortly) decided to create humans as its 91 children so that we could live joyously and help one another as brothers and sisters, with God the Parent's doing this being motivated by a desire to share in the joy of its children just as human parents share in the joy of their children 92 . This creation is said to have taken place 900,099,999 years before the founding of Tenrikyo in 1838 (The Doctrine of Tenrikyo 1993: 20-23). Central to this creation story is that God the Parent created humans to lead the Joyous Life (yōki gurashi), which is a happy, self-less state of human life to be attained in this world rather than in an afterlife (Kato 2017a, The Doctrine of Tenrikyo 1993). The Joyous Life is explained to be one of gratitude and working toward the well-being of others; with mutual help (tasuke ai) and human harmony positioned as central pro-social dynamics promoted as the true reason for which humans were created and the ultimate ontological trajectory of our existence.

As noted by Kato (2017a), Tenrikyo's idea of this-worldly salvific truth is also characteristic of other Japanese new religions. According to Tenrikyo doctrine, the foundress, upon becoming the "shrine" of God, successively communicated several names for this deity over time, which in Tenrikyo is explained to have been done to increasingly convey the true nature of God to the 90 This creation story is documented in the "kōki" referenced in the previous subsection.

91 I discuss my use of the pronoun "it" in this subsection. 92 The Tenrikyo story of human creation (Moto no Ri, or as it is translated into English: "The Truth of Creation") that is understood to have been enacted by God the Parent at the Jiba is highly significant in the faith but is not something I discuss in detail in my text.

early followers in accordance with the progression of their "spiritual growth93 ," a frequently referenced concept in this faith. This was explained to be because as God the Parent had never before been openly revealed in the world prior to taking the foundress as its shrine, this allencompassing deity could not be understood in the pre-existing conception of God in Japan at that time.

First, God the Parent was referred to as "God" (kami: 神). This Japanese term merits discussion because it is important to understanding the broader cosmological system existent in Japanese culture, which is highly reflective of Shinto ontology. "Kami" does not lend itself well to a direct translation into English, but can be approximately translated to "spirit," "god," "essence," or with slightly more words: "the energy generating the phenomena." In Shinto, kami can refer to the divinity or essence that exists in rocks, trees, places, objects, animals, and/or people. Kami exist in the same world that humans exist in and are positioned as part of the physical world rather than apart from it. Thus, by this divinity first being referred to as "Kami," it was conveying its position as a god, though through this word, with somewhat different connotations than it holds in Abrahamic religious traditions. Nonetheless, in English Tenrikyo translations, kami is systematically translated as "God94 ."

In Tenrikyo discourse, in addition to the additional three "official" names of God discussed hereafter, this term is often accompanied with modifying words such as "God of Origin" (moto no kami) and "God in Truth" (jitsu no kami) "to convey that God the Parent is the true God."

Later, the Ofudesaki refers to God the Parent as "Tsukihi" (Moon-Sun). Prominent explanations circulated in Tenrikyo include that it was to convey the idea of God the Parent in concrete terms to make people more familiar with God the Parent's existence because the workings of the sun and moon shine impartially all over the world and also because the sun and moon were commonly conceptualized as gods in Japan around this time.

Finally, this deity was referred to by the foundress as "God the Parent" (Oyagami sama), which remained the common name of reference for this divine entity thereafter in this (then-budding) religious tradition, emphasizing its parental nature. I would like to discuss the etymology of this term of reference to further lay the groundwork for explaining this religion. It is composed of three kanji characters 95 : 親神様. The first character, 親 (oya), means "parent" and is a gender neutral word. The second, 神 (gami), is the Japanese word of "kami," meaning "god" or "spirit" discussed previously 96 . The third character, 様 (sama), is an honorific suffix more reverential than the more commonly used "san."

As the reader may have noticed, "oya" is also employed in the term of reference for the foundress, "Oyasama 97 ," which is frequently used by Tenrikyo followers as a familial term of address for this religious figure conceptualized as the original mother, which implies her benevolent maternal character. "Oya" is, in fact, a gender-neutral term and its employment in the name of "Oyagamisama" is not meant to imply gender as this deity is held to be gender-neutral, or perhaps, as I occasionally heard speculated, such as in relation to the name of "Tsukihi" (Moon-Sun), dual-gendered. In Japanese Tenrikyo discourse, a gender is never linguistically assigned to God the Parent under its multiple terms of address, to which the Japanese language lends itself well. In contrast, in English Tenrikyo texts, the masculine pronoun of "he" is commonly employed.

When I asked several English-speaking followers closely connected to the faith who had studied it in formal contexts and were aware of the lack of its gender specification in Japanese Tenrikyo discourse why the pronoun "he" was frequently employed in English translations, the response I most commonly received was that this was a difficult issue to navigate in translation. They supposed that translators probably opted for the masculine pronoun in English because "he" was usually employed in this language for God, particularly as it was sometimes noted, in Christian discourse which often linguistically served as the model for Tenrikyo's English translations. In this response, it was communicated that the "he" frequently employed in English Tenrikyo 95 Often, though not always, Oyagamisama is written in the Tenrikyo religion with hiragana syllabic characters: お やがみさま 96 As is common in Japanese compound words, the "k" of "kami" became a "g" in its phonetic pronunciation of this compound word.

97 "Sama" in "Oyasama" is the same reverential suffix used in "Oyagamisama."

discourse was not meant to communicate the masculine nature of this gender-neutral deity, but was meant rather to infer this pronoun's gender-neutral usage reflective of the masculine version of words serving also as their genderless version, which I would like to add, in current times, has become less prevalent. In this thesis, I chose, instead, to employ the genderless pronoun of "it" to refer to this divinity. This was a stylistic choice on my part to convey its genderless character, as is taught in the faith and conveyed in its discourse in Japanese: the language through which this religion came about and continues to most prominently function.

During my fieldwork and after, I sometimes discussed this religious tradition with non-Tenrikyo, non-Japanese people. Sometimes, they posed the question or the supposition that God the Parent was the male parent (i.e. the father) and Oyasama was the female parent (i.e. the mother) and that it was through their union that humans were created. This idea is not, in fact, reflective of Tenrikyo theology which states in its creation story, that in the beginning the world was a muddy ocean, which God the Parent found tasteless, and thus, decided to create humans in order to see them live the "Joyous Life." Looking through the muddy waters, God found a fish and a serpent to serve as the models of husband and wife respectively98 . Oyasama is explained to have the soul of the serpent which served as the feminine side of this union99 , who conceived and gave birth to It is taught that the sacred name of God the Parent conveyed through the foundress' revelations is

Tenri-O-no-Mikoto (てんりおうのみこと or 天理王命 100 ). This term of reference is used in prayer, particularly in the scripted versions of prayer via the Service ritual and the administration of the Sazuke faith healing ritual. The etymology of this divine term of reference (and connectedly, the name from which "Tenrikyo" is derived) is an important component to understanding its theological position. This divine name is written with four kanji characters. The first, 天 (ten), is most commonly translated into English as "heaven," but as I heard from a bilingual English-Japanese instructor of the Tenrikyo European Seminar training at TEC, in this context, this kanji can also be translated as "supernatural," "transcendental," or "metaphysical."

The second kanji character, 理 (ri), this instructor explained, can be translated into English as "way," "path, "reason," or "truth," the latter being the most common translation currently used in this religious tradition. The third character, 王 (O), he explained, can be translated as "ruler" or "king," but can also mean "moral leader." The "no" in this term is a somewhat inconsequential syllable. The final kanji, 命 (Mikoto), is an honorific suffix used for deities, such as in Shinto.

Thus, the sacred name of "Tenri-O-no-Mikoto" can be translated into English as "the Divine Ruler of Heavenly Reason" or some other variation derived from the term's etymology.

Conceptualizing the physical body and the heart/mind in Tenrikyo

In addition to the faith's central teaching pertaining to the reason God the Parent created humans and the ultimate destiny and goal of human existence and the path of Tenrikyo, there are several other teachings that are pivotal to the faith. The most prominent is that the body is lent to us from God the Parent (conveyed most prominently in Tenrikyo as kashimono-karimono 101 -"a thing lent, a thing borrowed") and that only the heart/mind (kokoro) is our own. This brings us to another important point for understanding Tenrikyo theology and teachings in relation to its original Japanese texts and teachings that will resurface at various points of this thesis. Because

Tenrikyo teachings were originally conveyed in Japanese, and as the wording of these teachings was often rather vague and open to multiple interpretations (as is common for religious/ spiritual texts and traditions), translating Tenrikyo teachings and texts into European languages, such as English or French, can be quite difficult because their culturally-linked systems of classification and codification are, in some instances, quite different. One important instance of this is the Japanese word kokoro (心).

かしもの かりもの

"Kokoro" is most often translated in standard dictionary definitions into English as "heart" and correspondingly, into French as "coeur." In Tenrikyo discourse, although "kokoro" is frequently translated into English as "heart," it is also sometimes translated as "mind" and in French, sometimes as "esprit" (mind/spirit). While from a Western perspective, these terms may be understood to belong to separate categories of the self, in Japanese, the precise sense of "kokoro" is difficult to define and pertains to multiple realms of a person that are positioned as distinct in the linguistic systems of English and French. An example of the more expansive meaning of "kokoro" in comparison to its English and French counterparts can be found in the Japanese term invented for the discipline of "psychology," shinrigaku (心理学), written with the kanji characters of "kokoro" (心), reason/logic (理), and study (学).

In my exploration of trying to better understand the meaning of "kokoro," I asked various Japanese people, both Tenrikyo followers and otherwise, to show me where on their body their "kokoro" was located. Some people would gesture to their chest, while others, taking a broader view of this term, would gesture to their general being from their head to their torso, saying they supposed it was about all that, though they weren't really sure. The specific definition of "kokoro," its translational terms in languages such as English and French, and where on the body these terms are understood to reference is an interesting point to consider in relation to how

Tenrikyo references to them are perceived, and experienced, particularly emotionally, by speakers of these languages. As argued by Bénéï (2008: 94-95), "It is not language that structures a human being but a relationship to body and emotion that is mediated by language and ideology… Inasmuch as emotions are socially and culturally constructed, then, we should pay closer attention to what local discourses of emotion have to say about their concrete location." A key reason for this is that a phenomenological approach to emotions allows us to reconcile the categories of public/ emotion vs. private/ feeling that may at first glance appear to be radically different by acknowledging social actors' perception of them as embodied.

Although reference to "kokoro" conveyed a concept, and most likely an association with a certain part of the body, or at least bodily attribute, which I am not sure to have ever fully grasped despite being included in numerous conversations between Japanese Tenrikyo followers and followers of other nationalities trying to clearly define this term according to the English and French linguistic systems, its vagueness or open-ended location on the body does convey something in and of itself. Its translational terms also conveyed bodily locations and culturally imbued emotional (or "intellectual") meanings that altered the underlying physical and emotional meaning, depending on the term employed. Thus, on a very concrete, intimately sensed manner, it is questionable to what degree everyone in my multilingual research context understood this term associated with key Tenrikyo teachings in the same way or, extendedly, many other linguistically framed components of the faith. Although this is not an issue I put in the forefront of my study, it is one of numerous contributing aspects of the diversity of perspectives and ways of experiencing the world that was included in the multifarious nature of my research population that I do reference.

In this thesis, I use both "heart" and "mind" to connotate "kokoro," with my use of one word or the other being reflective of the word generally used in Tenrikyo English translations. I choose to not use its original Japanese term in my text because my research context was multi-lingual and included Japanese, French, and English 102 . Thus, it was not necessary to rely on the original Japanese terms of this faith as the nuances and complexities of their translation into English and French were part of my fieldwork.

In coming back to the Tenrikyo teaching that the body is lent to us from God the Parent and the mind alone is our own, in this religious tradition, when a person dies, they are said to be "passing away for rebirth" (denaoshi 出直し: "to make a fresh start"). According to Tenrikyo cosmology, humans have been reborn many times, each time into a new body lent by God the Parent for use during that life. The existence of the body lent to us by God the Parent, and extendedly its functioning, is enabled through the "Ten Providences of God the Parent 103 " (Juzen no shugo 十全 の守護), for which followers are taught to have gratitude. Physical ailments are said to be, in fact, physical manifestations of loving guidance from God the Parent for the misuse of our minds, resulting in harmful "dusts" (hokori: ほこり) on our hearts, which the path of Tenrikyo is meant to help clear away, sometimes with the particular ailment one is suffering from correlated with a particular "dust" and/or a misalignment of a particular Providence of God the Parent.

102 Other languages were also occasionally also included in my observations.

To expand on the concept of these "dusts," in Tenrikyo, the "Eight Dusts" are taught to be eight harmful tendencies of the heart/mind metaphorically equated with "dusts." More specifically, they are miserliness (oshii), covetousness (hoshii), hatred (nikui), self-love (kawai) grudgebearing (urami), anger (haradachi), greed (yoku), and arrogance (koman). With this, listing, it is usually noted that falsehood (uso) and flattery (tsuisho) also should be avoided. Because humans have free use of their hearts/minds, over many lifetimes, they have accumulated these harmful "dusts" onto their hearts, thereby hindering their physical, emotional, and societal well-being.

This, it is explained, is the result of the misuse of our hearts/minds over time since the conception of the first humans was facilitated by God the Parent.

The accumulation of these "dusts" are believed to develop into one's "causality" (innen 104 ) overtime, thereby affecting one's circumstances in one's present life as well as in one's future lives. The principle aim of the path of Tenrikyo, and its centrally important ritual of the "Service," along with performing acts of "hinokishin, 105 " is to "sweep away" these dusts from one's heart, over time, increasing one's own well-being and also that of the world, thereby helping to bring about the salvific state of the world of the "Joyous Life106 ," free from physical and social ills. It should be stated regarding this teaching, though, that according to Tenrikyo doctrine, negative outcomes that come about due to the "dusts" on one's heart are not punishments, but rather loving "divine guidance" (tebiki) from God the Parent urging us to purify our self-centered thoughts (Kato 2017a, The Doctrine of Tenrikyo 1993). As explained by Kato (2017a), the human mind (and heart) plays a key role in Tenrikyo's soteriological discourse. The mind is positioned as the determinant of human experiences and all phenomena in the world.

According to this view, God the Parent is believed to provide humans with blessings, such as good health and harmonious relationships, depending on the way in which they use their minds.

104 Innen: although this word exists in the Japanese language more generally, its use in Tenrikyo is somewhat different, reflective of the meaning I explain in the main body of this text.

105 Hinokishin is expressly defined in Tenrikyo as performing acts of service for others as an expression of gratitude to God the Parent for having lent us a physical body and for facilitating its functioning. I sometimes heard followers discuss hinokishin as also helping to sweep away "dusts" from one's heart, though how much focus should be accorded to this potential benefit varied according to the person.

Relatedly, I would also like to further explain the "Ten Providences of God the Parent" at this point. They are regarded as ten aspects of God the Parent taught by the foundress to be present in human bodies and the physical world which enable their functioning. The foundress gave these properties "sacred names" identical or similar to those present in Shinto, each of which is associated with an animal depiction. These Ten Providences are taught to have been enacted in this formation by God the Parent at the point of the Jiba in Tenri City in order to facilitate the initial conception of humans. This formation of active divine agents is ritualistically reenacted around the sacred point of the Jiba in Tenri City each month in what is regarded as the "real"

Monthly Service, something which I will discuss in further detail in chapter nine, thereby rendering it an important ongoing component of the religion through the ritual actors who represent these sacred providences during this reoccurring and centrally important endeavor.

The general consensus that I heard from people in positions of conveying the teachings was that while some people (which most often implied non-followers) interpret this component of the religion to mean that Tenrikyo is polytheistic, this is a misinterpretation. According to modern discourse that I heard on this matter in a variety of settings and from a variety of Tenrikyo followers, Tenrikyo is monotheistic; the foundress framed this teaching in such a way so that it would be comprehensible to her 19 th century followers in rural Japan against the cultural backdrop of this time and place. In this modern view, while early followers largely thought of each of the providences as a separate god, contemporary followers are more advanced and thus understand this to not be the case. This is but one of many instances of a flexibility contained in Tenrikyo that permitted it to evolve, thereby rendering it simultaneously fixed in its original form and also adapted to the time and place-based contexts in which it currently exists. Show hereafter is an illustration of the Ten Providences of God the Parent as depicted in the "Truth of Origin"

(moto no ri 元の理), which in Tenrikyo explains how the conception of the first humans was facilitated by God the Parent.

Tenrikyo as an enacted faith

As the reader has likely by this point ascertained, the body is of central importance in Tenrikyo, thereby rendering the focus I accord in this thesis to the physical body and embodiment a logical theoretical emphasis, such as by looking at the influence of sensory experiences in perception and constructed feelings that lend themselves to the formation of a broader group and to group membership. Followers are taught to perform "hinokishin" (literally: daily contribution107 ), which are (ideally) daily acts of service done for others as an expression of gratitude to God the Parent for lending us a physical body and facilitating its functioning through the Ten Providences.

Hinokishin is also explained to help sweep away harmful "dusts" from the practitioner's heart.

The Sazuke faith healing ritual administered by Yoboku principally to address physical ailments is also one of the main components of Tenrikyo, further emphasizing the place of the physical body in this religion.

Another key Tenrikyo teaching is that the foundress' serving as the Shrine of God was divinely predestined since the time humans were first conceived through the workings of God the Parent at the sacred point of the Jiba, now housed inside the center of Tenrikyo's Main Sanctuary situated in what became, through this religious movement, the pilgrimage town of Tenri City (Tenri Shi), which as noted previously, chapters nine and ten discuss in relation to my research population. At this point, I would like to simply explain that the sacred point of the Jiba is simultaneously conceptualized as the precise place from which humans were brought into existence by God the Parent, the point at which God the Parent continues to dwell, and the point at which "heavenly dew" (kanro) will fall from the sky once the harmful "dusts" have been swept away from the hearts of humanity, resulting in humans living joyously and harmoniously with one another.

What is essential to understand regarding the ontology of the Jiba is that it very much renders Tenrikyo a pilgrimage religion. Because all humans are understood to originate from the point of the Jiba, they are greeted with "welcome home" (okaeri nasai), rather than simply "welcome," even if it is the person's first time going to Tenri City.

The main Tenrikyo ritual, briefly evoked previously, is most often referred to in English Tenrikyo discourse as the "Service" (Japanese: Otsutome108 ). I would like to first note for the reader that throughout this thesis, when "Service" is capitalized, I am specifically referring to this ritual, but when the word "service" is written in lowercase, I am referring to this word in its more general sense, such as performing acts of "service" for others as hinokishin. The Service can refer both to a shorter version of the ritual to be performed, ideally, every morning and evening or at other times of the day as a means of prayer, and to a longer and more complex version held at Tenrikyo sites of worship once a month that is aptly called the "Monthly Service" (tsukinamisai). It can also refer to the slightly different version of the Monthly Service performed at the Jiba by specific ritual actors occupying prominent positions in the religious organization. The latter version of this ritual is attributed with an additional mystical quality that I will elaborate on later. Each of these versions of the Service is executed through the performance of the Mikagura-uta songs and dances.

Generally, a shorter compilation of several of these songs are performed for the Morning and Evening Services, primarily the first three songs which are called the "Seated Service" (suwari zutome), and their entire rendition is performed for the Monthly Service. In addition to the doctrinally positioned principal reason for which the Service is performed, that of "sweeping dusts" from one's heart, I also heard followers cite additional reasons for its performance, such as to express gratitude to God the Parent and Oyasama. Coming back to my theoretical emphasis on the role of the physical body, as the Service is the main form of ritualized worship, prayer, and ceremony in the faith, the body's prominent role is thus further solidified in this religious tradition.

b. Early history of Tenrikyo in Europe and of TEC

Now that I have outlined how Tenrikyo was formed and developed into what it is today and given a basic summary of the religion, I would like to discuss the more specific history of Tenrikyo's initial, albeit short lived, presence in Europe at the beginning of the 20 th century and its official re-entry into the continent over a half century later. This re-entry resulted in the existence of TEC and the expansion of Tenrikyo in Europe. When I decided to focus my thesis research on the social world of TEC in the summer/fall of 2015, TEC was about to celebrate its 45th anniversary.

Thus, my two-year period of structured fieldwork109 took place at a time when the center already had a degree of established practices and history but was still in the midst of developing and figuring out how best to function in France and more broadly, the European continent it was charged with serving. At this time, TEC had already undergone several decades of evolution but

was not yet completely settled into a fixed mode of operation and remained open to further developments and adaptations. Consequently, my research is not a timeless description of TEC, but alternatively, a description of the center and numerous spheres connected to it at a specific moment in time.

Tenrikyo's initial efforts to spread the faith to Europe I will begin my account of TEC's history, which is intricately connected to the history of Although often less detailed, I also heard a good deal of this historical information via key social actors of TEC, sometimes in response to my questions and sometimes in group settings without my prompting. The initial efforts to spread the faith of Tenrikyo in Europe were short lived and did not materialize as had been hoped for. Nonetheless, they are an integral part of Tenrikyo's history on the European continent and a part of TEC's communal history even though it occurred many years before its founding. As such, on numerous occasions, I heard the account of this initial presence remembered, retold, and reflected upon, thereby rendering it part of the collective history that bound together the "TEC community."

This initial presence in Europe was in 1910, when a Tenrikyo church in Osaka dispatched three male followers to propagate their religion in London. As explained by Kato (2017a: 99-100), this decision was largely prompted by an encounter between this church and a fervent believer of Christian Science from England who was working in Osaka as an electrical engineer. He initially came into contact with this Tenrikyo church when he sent his translator there out of concern for his mother who was suffering from an eye ailment111 .

Upon this Englishman's suggestion to send Tenrikyo missionaries to London, the church sent the three men mentioned above charged with introducing the religion to this new place. The three missionaries began their efforts in London by conducting healing prayers for members of the Englishman's family and other people he introduced to them. The positive relationships that the missionaries developed with practitioners of Christian Science led to their attendance of Christian Science meetings through which they were accorded the opportunity to publicize Tenrikyo teachings in a cross-religious setting. Their attempt to spread their faith yielded some results in the first few years, but eventually was hampered due to both unmet expectations between these three men and their church in Osaka, and the deteriorating financial situation of the Osaka church.

At the request of this church, one of these missionaries returned to Japan approximately a year after his arrival in London, after which the church decided to send a different Englishman than the one previously referenced. This new Tenrikyo delegate, a Londoner himself, was the head teacher of an English language school in Osaka where the other two Japanese missionaries had studied before leaving for London. He had "converted" to Tenrikyo and announced upon his arrival in London that he was going to adopt the method of Tenrikyo proselytization commonly employed in Japan in lieu of the interpretively more culturally adapted one that the other missionaries had been using. This led to a cease of the activities that these Japanese missionaries had been conducting, such as public lectures, discussion meetings, and study sessions on Tenrikyo, and relatedly, a conflict was created between this Englishman and the two Japanese missionaries that resulted in a disbanding of the missionary group in 1913. This shift was also prompted by the Osaka church ceasing to send remittances due to its worsening financial situation.

Slightly later, first the London-born missionary returned to Japan, followed somewhat later by one of the Japanese missionaries at the request of the Osaka church through the Japanese Consulate in England, as by this point, the missionaries had themselves lost contact with their church in Japan. The other Japanese missionary refused this request and continued to remain in England on his own. He only returned to Japan approximately six years later due to his deteriorating physical condition brought on by rheumatism, thereby concluding this Osaka church's mission to London.

How Tenrikyo's presence in Europe came to be based in a Parisian suburb

Subsequently, organized Tenrikyo efforts in Europe were quite "low profile" (Kato 2017a: 101) until the end of the Second World War. A notable initiative after this monumental historic event that marked the end of the Japanese empire were overseas trips made by the second Shinbashira, Shozen Nakayama, and other prominent Tenrikyo religious actors between 1951 and 1966. Each trip comprised visits to multiple continents, countries, and regions, including Asia, North and South America, Hawaii, and Africa (Morii 2008: 522-523 [cited in Kato 2017a: 101-102]). Seven of the trips included time in Europe for various purposes, namely general observation of European societies and religious cultures, presenting papers at academic conferences, and participating in judo related events. The Shinbashira's interest in and visits to foreign lands culminated in an official statement on April 26, 1961 which elaborated on the place of overseas missionary efforts at that time as being destined by God the Parent, calling for their revitalization, which had thus far been hindered in relation to Japan's defeat in 1945 (Kato 2017a, Kato 2016: 2-3).

This period corresponds to a time when numerous Japanese new religions embarked on overseas proselytization efforts beyond Japanese immigrant communities and former Japanese colonial territories. Kato (2017a: 103-104) asserts that although the possibility of establishing a religious center in Paris, or elsewhere in Europe, was not included in the second Shinbashira's writings at this time, it is clear that his multiple visits to Europe were antecedents for later developments of the religion in the region. More precisely, Kato identifies an event that was a precursor to the 1962: 7 [cited in Kato 2017a: 104]). Kato (2017a) further explains that Mr. Moroi's wife also reported elsewhere that Mr. Kamata, Nov. 11, 2014, Tenrikyō Yōroppa Shucchōsho 1992: 10 [cited in Kato 2017a: 105]). This ambitious endeavor that was developing under the jurisdiction of their grand church would later combine with broader Tenrikyo institutions. As explained by Kamata (Kato 2017a: 105) Kamata, Nov. 11, 2014 [cited in Kato 2017a: 106]).

It was in about 1968 that plans to a establish a Tenrikyo center in Paris began taking form more concretely. There were two particular reasons that Paris was favored over other locations for this European center. One was that Paris was an important transit point to Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo where missionary efforts were underway and the number of followers there steadily increasing. The other was that, congruent with the reasons for this choice of location expressed by Mr. Moroi, Paris was recognized as an important transportation hub within Europe, as well as being a major cultural capital (Kato 2017a).

This year coincided with a more general heightened awareness of overseas missionary efforts and also the 50 th anniversary of the Tenrikyo Young Men's Association. In commemoration of this anniversary, the Young Men's Association initialized a project known as the "Araki Toryogosha Eurasian Missionary Tour 114 ." For this project, Tenrikyo Young Men's Association delegates drove through twenty-nine countries in Asia and Europe in two Japanese cars, with the three goals of spreading the name of Tenrikyo, encouraging followers living abroad, and observing religions and ways of life in these countries (Yamada 1982 [cited in Kato 2017a: 106]). At about the same time, the Tenrikyo Overseas Mission Department drafted a budget for the establishment of a center in Paris. In order to help Kamata and Tanaka with their efforts in Paris, money was raised for them to purchase a car. At the end of 1968, the newly appointed head of the Europe Section sent a letter to Kamata detailing a proposal for what was provisionally called the Paris Missionary Base 115 . Included in this letter was information for its preferred location, layout inside the property, the function of the property as a base for missionaries from Japan, and the proposed (yet to be approved) budget of 25 million yen to purchase land and a property, which did not end up materializing as anticipated. This initial proposed plan for the center was to be for both 114 Japanese: Yurashia Tairiku Junkai 115 Pari fukyō kichi パリ 布教基地 cultural and religious purposes (a personal letter obtained from Kamata, dated Dec. 15, 1968 [cited in Kato 2017a: 107]).

After some complications in securing adequate funds, Kamata made a contract to purchase a property in the suburb of Antony: a different property than where TEC is now located, approximately 2 km from the nearest intercity (RER) train station from which most people from Paris and other surrounding locations would be coming. This missionary base was later named "Tenrikyo Mission Centre in Paris 116 ." When this property was purchased, there was not yet a defined plan regarding the activities to be held at this center, though it was intended to be one part of the two-tiered institutional structure for the presence of Tenrikyo in this region that would also include a "cultural" tier. In 1975, this center made a legal declaration as a religious organization as per the Laws of 1901 and 1905, which stipulate legal regulations for "voluntary associations"

and "associations for worship" respectively and, consistent with previously expressed wishes, was established with the intention to become Tenrikyo's main hub in Europe (Kato 2016: 2-3). In 1976, this religious center was moved to its present location directly across from the La Croix de

Berny RER train station in Antony and was subsequently expanded to its current size (Kato 2017a: 113). On the 20 th anniversary of its founding in 1990, it was renamed "Tenrikyo Europe

Center 117 ," which corresponded more accurately to the intended roles of the center since its founding (ibid).

116 French: Le Centre de la Mission Tenrikyo à Paris, Japanese: After the purchase of this initial property for the mission center, an idea developed to hold activities in central Paris rather than at this location (Kato 2017a: 108). Various options for activities were considered, including a nursery, a Japanese tea or flower arrangement class, or a Japanese language school. The latter option was chosen as its primary activity. This decision was influenced by the guidance Kamata and Tanaka received from Atsuya Suzuki, an official for the Japanese Embassy in France in charge of cultural matters 118 who also had a close connection to Tenrikyo through his acquaintance with the second Shinbashira (Kamata 2013 [cited in Kato 2017a: 108]). Kato (2017a: 110-111) cites six probable reasons why Japanese language instruction was chosen as the primary activity based on Kamata's accounts and historical documents of TEC and ACFJT.

Firstly, Japanese languages classes were thought to appeal to a wide range of people who wanted to have contact with Japan. Secondly, language instruction could encourage long-term relationships with students since it usually takes years to master a foreign language. The third reason was that teachers can earn trust and respect from students without necessarily having a

118 Bunka tantokan 文化担当官 high social status. The fourth was that at the time, there were no large-scale private Japanese language schools for working adults in France. The fifth reason was that Tenri University (located in Tenri City) had a Japanese language course for foreign students, from which teachers could be sent to Paris to teach Japanese. The sixth reason was that at the time there was an increasing interest amongst people in France in the Japanese language and culture, as evidenced through an increasing number of university students studying Japanese as well as the increasing popularity of Zen Buddhism (Tenrikyō Yōroppa Shucchōsho 1992: 111, Kamata 2013, interview conducted by Kato: Nov. 11, 2014 [cited in Kato 2017a: 111]).

A property was obtained for this purpose in the 14 th arrondissement of Paris in January 1971, approximately three kilometers from the cultural center's present location. The Tenrikyo delegates then began to recruit Japanese language instructors through their embassy contact.

Language classes began in May of that year at the newly established center named "Association Culturelle Franco-Japonaise de TENRI" (ACFJT), as it still known today. In 2000, ACFJT moved to its present location: a much larger property in the more central 1 st arrondissement with a large space in the underground level for exhibitions and the performing arts. The cultural association's current status, which was updated in 2008, states that it "aims to develop friendship and mutual understanding between French and Japanese people in the areas of culture, arts, languages, and sports as well as to conduct performing arts and to operate a theatre." (Kato 2017a: 116). In 2011, ACFJT received an award from Japan's Foreign Ministry for its contribution to the promotion of cultural exchange between France and Japan (ibid). Now that I have explained the beginnings of ACFJT, which was my own entry point to TEC and the Tenrikyo religion, I will now turn my focus to the complex, but pertinent, question of how many followers there are both worldwide and in Europe, and relatedly, how one is determined to be a "member" of this religion.

c. The question of Tenrikyo's following by numbers and how "membership" can be defined

To begin a discussion focused on the number of Tenrikyo followers in existence in these multiple levels of grouping, which includes a look at this question in relation to my research context, it should be reiterated that the "TEC community" and the presence of the Tenrikyo religion in Europe via its followers is largely one and the same, but not completely. Some people included in the "TEC community" do not consider themselves, nor often are they considered by others, to be "members" of the religion. Similarly, some people in the Paris area, in France, and in Europe who do consider themselves "members" of this religion and are considered by others as such do not come to TEC and are not involved in its social world. Additionally, because it is sometimes difficult in practice to define who exactly is and is not a member of the faith, it is somewhat difficult to briefly summarize the general presence of the faith within any geographic area.

Nonetheless, an attempt at responding to this question is merited in order to concretely better situate the reader in the socio-religious world I am discussing.

Basic numbers on Tenrikyo's global presence

Amidst the numerous and diverse Japanese new religions in existence, Tenrikyo is considered to be one of the largest, particularly amongst those which came about at the beginning of what is generally regarded as Japan's modernization that is associated with the Meiji Period (1868-1912) (Kato 2017a, 2017b). In addressing the question of how many Tenrikyo members there are, Kato (2017a, 2017b) explains that although the number is difficult to accurately ascertain, particularly because 2008 [cited in Kato 2017a]). Key to Kato's statement is the word claimed as the actual number is rather unclear.

In addition to Tenrikyo's existence in Japan, where the vast majority of its followers are located, Tenrikyo has expanded its presence to more than thirty overseas countries and regions (Kato 2017a, TOD 2009 [cited in Kato 2017a]). Much of Tenrikyo's following outside of the Japanese archipelago is located in two former Japanese colonies. The first location outside of the Japanese archipelago to which it expanded was the Korean Peninsula around 1893 (Kato 2017a, Kaneko 2000 [cited in Kato 2017a]). At this time Korea had been under the Japanese sphere of influence for approximately seventeen years since the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1876, after which it was under Japanese rule from 1910 until 1945. It is estimated that there are roughly 270,000 followers in South Korea currently (Kato 2017a, Lee 2011 [cited in Kato 2017a]). In Taiwan, which was under Japanese rule from 1895 until 1945119 , there are presently estimated to be 20,000-30,000

Tenrikyo followers (Kato 2017a, Fujii 2006, Huang 2016 [cited in Kato 2017a]).

Much of Tenrikyo's following outside of Japan is also located in countries and regions that have received a sizable number of Japanese immigrants, with approximately 20,000 Tenrikyo followers in Brazil (Kato 2017a; Yamada 2010 [cited in Kato 2017a]), 2,000-2,500 in Hawaii (Kato 2017a; Takahashi 2014 [cited in Kato 2017a]), and 2,000 on the US mainland (Kato 2011).

As noted by Kato (2017a), it is estimated that people of Japanese origin comprise the majority of followers in immigrant-based regions as well as elsewhere, including Europe. Non-Japanese people make up the majority, or entirety, of followers in some of the former Japanese colonies as well as several other regions, such as the Republic of the Congo (Kato 2017a, Fujii 2006, Lee 2011, Mori 2013 [cited in Kato 2017a]).

Numerous ways of determining who is a follower

Before offering an estimated number of followers in Europe, and in France, which are the "member" numbers most pertinent to my research context, I would first like to discuss the complexity of determining who is and is not a "member" and which, albeit flawed, method I used to ascertain the numbers that I cite. The question of if people are Tenrikyo followers and how many followers are present in a particular location was complicated not only to myself as a researcher who started as a complete outsider, but also for people born and raised in the faith. To elaborate on the complex question of how to determine if a person is a "member" of Tenrikyo, I will refer to an explanation of multiple ways this question can be approached that was given by an instructor of the three-week European Tenrikyo Seminar training program at TEC during my second year of participation. This instructor, Mr. Takeshita, was a Japanese Tenrikyo follower in his fifties who had been living in the Paris area and was a core member of the "TEC community"

for approximately the past twenty years. Some time after moving to France, he wed a Japanese woman named Machiko who both moved to France and became a Tenrikyo follower through their marriage, after which they had several children. During my fieldwork, this family was frequently at TEC and were prominent members of the "TEC community."

In addition to being active at TEC, the Takeshita family also hosted a mission station120 in their home. Once, near the beginning of my research, Mr. Takeshita's wife told me in passing that they had a small mission station at their home, but that it did not have any followers. Somewhat later, during the seminar, her husband also mentioned their mission station in discussing the question of how it is decided who is and is not "Tenrikyo" when the subject arose in our class. Mr. Takeshita explained that this is a complicated question without a truly definitive or absolute response. He then expounded on this statement first by telling us about a moment that was revelatory for him.

He told us that there was a Japanese family friend who would occasionally come to the Takeshita's mission station for Monthly Services. One day, this friend asked Mr. Takeshita how one becomes a member of Tenrikyo. Mr. Takeshita told us that he was quite surprised by his friend's question because he had assumed that since his friend was already coming to Monthly Services, he already viewed himself as a follower of the religion. This friend, though, clearly did not think the same thing since he was asking how one becomes a member and thus did not regard Monthly Service attendance as something that in and of itself defined one as a member of the As partially explained through the explanation given by Mr. Takeshita, how Tenrikyo "members," including those in Europe, are counted and the level of "accuracy" that may be produced through each of these methods is a complicated matter. There are multiple ways to count the total number of followers, each of which presents a problem regarding its ability to produce an accurate count. Despite this difficulty, it is important to include in my thesis an approximate count of Tenrikyo followers both in Europe and in France. These numbers are to offer the reader a general idea of the size of this religious group rather than to assert an absolute count as my several years of fieldwork showed that it is highly complicated to ascertain an exact number in almost any given context. This lack of an easily ascertainable clarity on the matter is largely because it is somewhat common for people to fall into a grey area between being a "member" of the Tenrikyo faith and not being a "member," despite having had or continuing to have interactions with the religion.

Official counts of Tenrikyo followers reflect not how many people view themselves as "members" of the religion but how many people are viewed by others as being "members"121 .

Such a count could be done in numerous ways and would produce different results, each with its own shortcomings. For example, the number of people who make monetary donations to Tenrikyo sites of worship under their name could be counted because giving money is generally a component of being a "member" of the religion. One problem with this mode of counting is that while in many families, all family members are Tenrikyo followers and collectively give donations on behalf of their entire family under their family name in which all immediate family members could also be inferentially counted as followers, this is not always the case. In some families, for example, only one spouse is involved with the Tenrikyo religion while the other is largely uninvolved. A slight variation to this are families in which both spouses and any children they may have come to Tenrikyo events, but only one spouse considers her/himself to be a member of the faith, often with their children being exposed to the religious backgrounds of both parents while growing up.

Another problem with this mode of counting is that not all people who view themselves as Tenrikyo followers necessarily make named donations to their sites of worship, and similarly, not all people who make monetary donations to the site of worship with which they are associated view themselves as "members" of the religion. An example of this latter situation that was included in my research population was a French woman I both got to know informally and interviewed who was regularly present at a lineage-based site of worship with which she had been involved for a number of years. She was an active member of the "community" affiliated with this site and to a lesser degree, was sometimes present at TEC events despite living several hundred kilometers from the center. She made monetary donations to the lineage-based site with which she was affiliated and even became a Yoboku registered under it and its connected lineage, later incorporating the healing gift of the Sazuke she received through attaining this title into her work as a Reiki practitioner when she deemed it appropriate in relation to the person's issue that she was trying to help alleviate.

Given her high level of involvement in the faith, I was surprised during our interview to learn that she considered herself to be exclusively Catholic. She explained to me that this was because she was baptized as Catholic when she was young and raised in this religion, thereby rendering it her religion. This woman's self-understanding of her religious identity in combination with her involvement with Tenrikyo exemplifies the complexity of the question of precisely who is and is not a "member" in the context of my European-based research population. This complexity was also present, in my limited observations, in Japan in which neither making monetary donations nor two other factors I discuss immediately hereafter as potential determinants accurately denote her religion as Tenrikyo from her own perspective.

In relation to this French woman's explanation that she is Catholic (and therefore not Tenrikyo), it is interesting to mention, as highlighted by Josephson (2012: 17), that an imported concept from Christianity often attached to "religions" is that they are mutually incompatible and it is not possible for a person to be a "member" of multiple religions at the same time. In Japan, this is not the case. It is highly common for Japanese people to regard themselves as simultaneously Shinto, Buddhist, and non-religious. Similarly, being a Tenrikyo follower does not necessarily negate, from a Tenrikyo perspective, the possibility of being a "member," or practitioner, of other religious traditions, though in my observations, Tenrikyo followers most commonly held Tenrikyo as their sole religion. Furthermore, generally "belief" is not positioned as a prerequisite for religious membership in Japan. This helps contextualize that in my observations, "belief" was not regarded as necessary to be regarded as a Tenrikyo follower. Rather, "being Tenrikyo" was associated primarily with what one does rather than what one believes.

Coming back to the issue of obtaining a count of Tenrikyo followers, another potential, though also not fully depictive, method to calculate the number of "members" would be to count the number of people who are commonly present for Monthly Services held at each Tenrikyo site of worship in a specific location, such as France or more broadly, Europe, for a localized count or throughout the world for a global count. The obvious problem with such a method is that, as demonstrated through the friend of Mr. Takeshita mentioned slightly previously and also the French woman who identified solely as Catholic, not everyone who attended Monthly Services or otherwise came to Tenrikyo sites of worship viewed themselves as "members" of the religion.

Conversely, for various reasons, not all Tenrikyo followers regularly go to Tenrikyo sites of worship. Yet another potential way to count followers would be to count those who have become Yoboku, as this designation is a definite and registered category. The most obvious problems with such a method are that not all Tenrikyo followers have undergone the rites through which to become Yoboku, not all people who have undergone these rites continue to follow the Tenrikyo faith, and some people who become Yoboku never viewed themselves as "members" of the religion in the first place.

The presence of Tenrikyo followers in Europe

Complexities regarding where a person falls on the spectrum between being a "member" of the religion and not being a "member" of it, despite having a connection to the faith and/or its followers were quite common and comprehensible on a small scale when familiar with the specific people involved. Through spending time at a particular location, such as TEC, over a significant period of time and getting to know the majority of people who were part of its multilayered "community," one can approximately understand the quantity of people involved and where they fall in the gradation between being not at all involved in the markedly religious aspects of Tenrikyo despite involvement in the broader "TEC community" and being devout and highly dedicated members of the faith. For my thesis, though, in addition to discussing my observations from an up-close perspective, it is nearly obligatory to give at least some concrete information concerning the number of Tenrikyo followers in Europe and in France, even if any method of obtaining such numbers is only partially depictive of reality.

To do this, I refer to a 2019 list of Yoboku documented to be living in Europe, published by 122 Dai hachijyuu hachi kai Tenrikyou toukei nenkan第88回 天理教統計年鑑

SECTION II: THE LOCAL SIDE OF THE MULTI-LAYERED TEC COMMUNITY

Section introduction

Now that I have laid the groundwork of providing a foundational background of my research context, in this second section, I am going to take the reader into the local side of the "TEC community" that I learned about through my own observations. In this section, in chapter three, I will discuss the laique cultural center and language school in central Paris aimed at creating a bridge between the locally living Paris population and the Tenrikyo faith, largely via TEC. In chapter four, I shift my focus to the residential side of TEC where young adult missionaries sent from the Tenrikyo organization in Japan to Paris for several year assignments of working at the aforementioned laique cultural center live, along with other center residents I discuss in this chapter. Then, in chapter five, my exploration expands from the more private side of everyday residential life at TEC to its more public, regularly occurring ritual gathering of the Monthly Service.

Although these chapters are each distinct in their focus, all three involved primarily people living in the Paris region and thus show three different sides of the multi-layered social world of the "TEC community" based in the same geographic region as TEC. By according my focus to these three "spheres" via these three chapters grouped together in this overarching section, I wish to show how they came together to create a greater place-specific layer of the "TEC community" based in the Paris area which then contributed to a broader social whole that also included other locations. Through grouping these chapters together in an overarching section, I wish to show that this "community" was partially place-specific to the Paris region, but at the same time, spanned far beyond any overarching summary or singular place-based descriptors. Similar to numerous others who I discuss later in this text, my initial exposure to Tenrikyo and TEC was through studying Japanese at its affiliated, categorically "laique" cultural association:

Chapter three: Association

Association Culturelle Franco-Japonaise de TENRI 124 (ACFJT), located in central Paris. I began studying there a little over a year and a half before my thesis topic shifted to its present focus in linguistic preparation for my initial intended project focused on Japanese restaurants in Paris 125 .

Later, before my research eventually evolved into its present subject, I directed my fieldwork investigations towards the topic of Japanese migrants who came to Paris independently or semiindependently 126 , which then led to my research becoming focused on its present topic 127 . This chapter is largely a discussion of the contextual journey through which my research came to be focused on the "TEC community."

ACFJT is one of the multiple sites connected to TEC from which members of what I refer to as the wider "TEC community" came to be a part of the interconnected social group. Thus, by including my own story of how I got to know TEC and Tenrikyo, I am depicting one of multiple avenues through which people came to be part of this social collectivity. It should be noted, though, that the vast majority of people who became part of this social world firstly through ACFJT and later participated in TEC activities did not become followers of the religion despite their association with it. Often such people were involved with varying degrees of regularity in TEC activities (most commonly activities not markedly religious in nature) and maintained longterm relationships with core members of the TEC community who were active followers of the religion. Thus, they were rendered members of the greater "TEC community" focused at and connected to TEC, regardless of their lack of religious affiliation with this faith. This is but one of multiple examples of the haziness of boundaries between who can/should be included in this "community" and who can /should not be that is present throughout my thesis. In my 124 Tenri Nichi-Futsu Bunka Kyōkai (天理日仏文化協会) or Tenri Franco-Japanese Cultural Association 125 More specifically, Japanese restaurants in Paris where the majority of workers were Japanese, as the majority of "Japanese" restaurants in Paris, similar to many other locations outside of Japan, are operated by non-Japanese people.

126 By referring to the group of migrants I intended to study as having come to Paris "independently or semiindependently," I wish to differentiate my then-intended group of study from Japanese expatriates sent to Paris by their employers (most often companies) in Japan for which there is a much higher level of support than for people who come on their own. 127 I was a language student at ACFJT for almost two years prior to changing my thesis topic to a Tenrikyo-related topic and almost one year thereafter.

observations, there was no marked frontier between "insiders" and "outsiders," but rather gradations and multiple layers of who was included in this multifarious social world.

As I will expand upon later in this chapter, my own experience of being introduced to Tenrikyo was in accordance with the general model of forming relationships between non-followers and

Tenrikyo staff working at the center through which the religion can be introduced outside the walls of the "laique" cultural center. I first became aware of ACFJT's religious affiliation through a language exchange, that I further discuss slightly later in this text, with a young Japanese woman in her late twenties named Kanae who was a visiting missionary teacher at the school.

She was about six months into a two-year assignment in France from Japan when I met her, during which time, similar to other such young adult visiting missionary teachers, she lived at TEC and was highly involved in its social world.

Though the length of stay of such visiting staff members varied, Kanae's two-year stay at TEC was approximately standard for such individuals, thereby most often positioning these staff members as somewhat short-term core members of the TEC community during their time there who subsequently remained connected to its social world. Most such visiting young adult missionaries, though not all, returned to Japan after their period of residential service at TEC ended, after which they commonly remained linked to the social world they were previously immersed in. This occurred both via distance and, for many, also when they saw members of this community again in person. Such reunions most often took place in the pilgrimage town of Tenri City, as was true in my own case when I went there about three and a half years after first meeting Kanae at which time I saw her again, as I further discuss in chapter ten.

While the particularity of learning of the religion firstly through a language exchange was not specifically a common point of introduction to the faith, the broader frame of being introduced to it through a personal relationship with a Tenrikyo staff member of ACFJT in a setting outside of the laique center where discussion of the religion was generally avoided was a common way people were introduced to the faith. Furthermore, as explained by Kato (2016, 2017a), it was one of the main reasons for the existence of ACFJT. I did not know of this foundational motivation when I chose to study there.

When I began taking classes at ACFJT in October 2013, I was in the somewhat frustrating situation of being much less competent in the Japanese language than I was previously some time before. I had studied the language during high school, one year of which I lived in Japan as an exchange student128 , and had also studied the language as the minor subject of my undergraduate degree, which I completed approximately nine years prior to beginning my doctoral studies.

Initially, after completion of my undergraduate degree, I sometimes spent time with Japanese people, often during travels, and thus on occasion continued to actively use the language. As time went on, though, I generally ceased to be in contexts which called for use of this language and thus lost my previously acquired ease with it. When I began my doctoral studies, due to a lack of use, I found myself unable to communicate proficiently in Japanese and largely decided to take language classes in preparation for my intended fieldwork to remedy this hindrance. later often saw working there and who I learned much later to not be a follower of the Tenrikyo religion herself: a religion which at that point I did not even know existed. I spoke with her first about the Buto performances advertised on the signboard, then about the center itself, including the language classes they provided. ACFJT struck me as an interesting place and furthermore, I appreciated the kind demeanor the woman there had when she took time to speak with me.

Though I did not decide immediately to study there nor to otherwise spend more time at the center, this initial impression was memorable.

Several months later, when I decided to study the Japanese language to refresh and improve my competency in it, it was the positive feeling I had during my initial visit to ACFJT in combination with their relatively affordable prices that led me to choose them as where I would enroll. Such reasoning was not unique to my own case. Amongst other reasons I heard from fellow students at ACFJT for why they chose to study there, as well as on internet forums which discussed Japanese language schools in Paris, the positive atmosphere of ACFJT which encourages people to enjoy coming there, along with the high quality of instruction offered and relatively affordable prices, were similarly often cited as key reasons to study there.

Fostering relationships via a "laique" cultural center to encourage religious exposure

Before progressing further in the story of how my research came to be focused on the multi-sited "TEC community" that I came to know via ACFJT, I would like to first discuss this cultural center concretely. As explained by Kato (2016, 2017a) and Mr. Sugimoto, who was my Japanese teacher at ACFJT and later became my key research contact (personal communication, July 2016), amongst others who indicated the same, ACFJT was meant to serve as a means through which to introduce and connect local individuals with the Tenrikyo religion. The principal means of meeting this goal was positioned as being through creating relationships between Tenrikyo followers working there and non-followers attending it. Through fostering such relationships, the former could expose the latter to the faith during interactions that took place outside of this secular center, where the religion was generally not discussed due to its categorical status as a "laique" cultural center. More specifically, it was categorized as a "Free establishment of higher education" according to the French Ministry of Education (rectorate of the l'Academie de Paris) 130 . ACFJT was also "recognized by the French ministry of work, employment, and professional training"131 (Association Culturelle Franco-Japonaise de TENRI: 2009) under the category of being a "laique" (non-religious) association: a term which in France usually means a strict secularism and lack of religiosity.

The underlying missionary aim of this cultural center, though, was included in it since its beginning. ACFJT was founded principally as a means through which to introduce the local population132 to the Tenrikyo faith in 1971, one year after the religious center in Antony133 was founded. To further describe the underlying structure and purpose of this cultural center, I cite a description given by Kato (2016) in which he references both internal TEC publications and also interviews he conducted with key TEC informants.

The key characteristic as it operates in France is its two-tier yet legally separate institutional structure that involves a religious association (association cultuelle), on the one hand, and a 'cultural association' (association culturelle), on the other… Tenrikyō has been promoting cultural activities at and through the cultural association as a way to increase its visibility and legitimacy in the public. (p.

2)

The establishment of the cultural association in addition to the religious centre has been considered as part of the institutional efforts to increase the visibility and legitimacy of the religious tradition in French society. The Japanese language school, for example, is expected to allow Tenrikyō followers working there to establish 'a long-term human relationship' with the students (Tenrikyō Yōroppa Shucchōsho 1992: 111). In their view, this enables them to promote the teachings of Tenrikyō on an individual basis outside the classroom or the school, thus avoiding the violation of the legal regulation prohibiting a formal activity of proselytization in a non-religious association (Kamata 2013; Interview with Kamata, 11 November 2014; Tenrikyō Yōroppa Shucchōsho 1992: 111-112, cf. Koizumi 2005). (p.4) This model was also explicitly explained to me by my Japanese teacher and spiritual parent, Mr.

Sugimoto, when I asked why the cultural center was founded and exists if despite being affiliated with the Tenrikyo religion, which is highly evangelical in nature, its religious connection was absent from the center. His openness to me about this, when he was aware that I was conducting research, suggested that this underlying aim was viewed as an acceptable operational model rather than something potentially questionable due to its less than upfront nature.

Kato (2016: 4) further explains through citing a publication from the Tenrikyo Overseas Department (Tenrikyō Kaigai Fukyō Dendobu 1995:13) that there is an understanding in the Tenrikyo organization that "the cultural association in France serves as a 'billboard' for the religious tradition by disseminating positive images of Tenrikyō or the associated name 'Tenri'."

To further illustrate this point, he additionally cites two interviews he conducted in 2015 with Japanese followers who had engaged in religious propagation in France. They also explained that the cultural association's activities play a role in increasing the religion's legitimacy in France. I agree that ACFJT does to a certain extent function as a means through which the name "Tenri" is disseminated into a segment of the local population and also, albeit to a lesser extent, facilitates awareness of the Tenrikyo religion for some of these people. The extent to which this technique will bring in new followers of the faith, though, at least in any sizable numbers, remained unclear.

At the time of my research, approximately forty-five years after ACFJT was founded, the number of Tenrikyo followers who came to be as such through exposure to the religion via ACFJT was minimal, if not non-existent. Similarly, individuals who were extensively involved in the religious side of TEC and the Tenrikyo faith despite not being "members" of the faith who initially came to know of TEC and Tenrikyo via ACFJT also remained quite low.

The internal interpretations of ACFJT's position in relation to the broader goals of the religion, though, were varied. The low number of people from ACFJT who had become Tenrikyo followers was expressed by some to be a sign that the cultural center was not meeting its goal.

Alternatively, another perspective I was exposed to during my research was that obtaining the immediate result of drawing in high numbers of people who quickly and decidedly became members of the religion was not the goal of the cultural center and thus, they were not falling short of this goal by it not happening. Often when discussing ACFJT with core members of the TEC community, there was a non-polarized discussion of these two perspectives in which an uncertainty was displayed regarding if ACFJT was meeting its goal of spreading Tenrikyo, exactly how so, to what extent, and over what span of time.

ACFJT's use of "cultural activities" as a missionary conduit reflective of an internationally present strategy of spreading the faith ACFJT is not unique in its approach of including "cultural activities" in its overseas missionary efforts. Activities including martial arts (mainly judo), libraries, language lessons, and fine arts are used to promote the Tenrikyo overseas mission in various ways. (Tenrikyō Kaigai Fukyō Dendōbu 1995: 13 [cited in Kato 2017a: 68]). The reasons for organizing such cultural activities vary, depending on the region. Some are held to provide followers from Japan and their children with Japanese language lessons to assist in their apprenticeship of Tenrikyo teachings and to provide opportunities to experience Japanese culture. Cultural activities are also conducted as overseas missionary efforts to make connections with local people and communities, to assist in the possibility of gaining official recognition as a religious organization, to disseminate positive images of Tenrikyo or the name "Tenri" in the host society, and to meet the legal requirement to open a Tenrikyo site of worship (Kato 2017a). The reasons included in ACFJT's existence and ongoing efforts include all of these reasons, except the latter.

The most popular of these cultural activities is language instruction, thus ACFJT's emphasis on language instruction is aligned with this broader trend. It is conducted as a formal activity of the Tenrikyo cultural centers in New York, Singapore, and France, which are linked to varying degrees to each other, as they are to other Tenrikyo cultural centers, such as a smaller one in Germany. Japanese is also taught in Tenrikyo's Japanese language school in Hong Kong (Tenrikyō Kaigai Fukyō Dendōbu 1995: 13, cf. Yamaoka 1997 [cited in Kato 2017a: 68]) and informal language lessons are provided in many other countries such as Brazil, the Philippines, and Thailand (Kato 2017a: 69).

Similar to other Tenrikyo cultural centers, ACFJT also hosted a variety of "cultural activities" in addition to their language classes. At ACFJT, a prominent component of these "cultural activities" were the theatrical and dance performances held in the evening that I frequently attended during the first two of the almost three years I studied Japanese there. These shows were generally sold out and were quite well-reputed within a certain subset of the local population, as was their downstairs art gallery that showcased different exhibitions every several weeks. These artforms displayed no blatant signs of being hosted by a religious group. Rather, they were connected more generally to Japanese art and culture, or sometimes in the gallery, non-Japanesespecific components of the human experience. Similarly, the majority of showcased artists were not Tenrikyo followers. Though in a broader sense, because some of the central Tenrikyo teachings concern the importance of bringing joy to others and appreciating beauty in the world, it could be said that the art at ACFJT was connected to the Tenrikyo religion.

Based on the numerous comments I heard, ACFJT was closely linked to the cultural center in New York City, located in Greenwich Village (Tenri Cultural Institute). When young adult followers in Japan applied to the program which sent visiting missionary teachers to TEC, they were, in fact, applying to teach at the cultural centers in either Paris or New York, after which the organization decides to which of these two locations the selected candidates would be sent.

Several visiting missionary teachers at ACFJT told me that they had actually hoped to go to New York when they applied to the program, largely because they had studied English. One individual had majored in English recently at university and another had previously studied abroad in another part of the US. Similarly, while in Tenri City, I met a woman while having lunch in the followers' dormitory where we were both housed who told me that her daughter had worked at the cultural center in New York as a visiting missionary teacher, though when she applied to the program, she hoped to go to ACFJT because she had studied French.

In the projective minds of the young adults when they applied to this program, these two transatlantic centers were linked, often with one preferred over the other. The connection between the two locations remains once they are assigned to a location and, after one year of training in Tenri City in preparation for their assignment, they are placed in one of these sites. Furthermore, and more importantly, there was collaboration and conversation between these two centers concerning various components of center organization, activities, ambiance, etc. Throughout my research, it was normal at TEC to hear reference to the cultural center in New York in which the "sister-site" nature between these two cultural centers was demonstrated.

As previously evoked, there was also a smaller Tenrikyo-affiliated cultural center in Germany, though due to the nature of this center which is discussed more in chapter six, its connection to ACFJT was less pronounced, at least from the Parisian side from which my research was based.

Reflective of a common trend in the broader Tenrikyo social matrix in which social actors and various spheres of the faith were associated through webs of connection, there was also a link between TEC and the cultural center in Singapore during my fieldwork. This connection was via a visiting young adult staff member of TEC who was in a long-distance relationship with a young Japanese woman134 serving a several year term as a visiting missionary teacher at the Singapore cultural center who he married upon his return to Japan from TEC. Overall though, beyond this interpersonal connection, the collaboration and connection between these Parisian and Singaporean-based sites appeared to be minimal.

The purposeful absence of the Tenrikyo religion at the laique center of ACFJT

As previously indicated, when I enrolled in classes at ACFJT, like most other non-Japanese people who came to this laique cultural center, I did not realize it was affiliated with a religious group. This lack of awareness was due to multiple factors. There were no obvious religious markers displayed at the center135 nor mentions of its religious connection in the multiple conversations I had with staff members when initially learning about ACFJT and signing up for their classes. I was completely unfamiliar with the name "Tenri," as are even some Japanese people, and thus was not clued in by the center's name of "Association Culturelle Franco-Japonaise de TENRI." Relatedly, the framed certificate by the reception desk which showed ACFJT's official connection to Tenri University led me to view the center's language courses as pedagogically reliable due to their being affiliated with a larger educational institution in Japan, but did not alert me to its religious affiliation.

I was not the sole student to not realize ACFJT's religious affiliation. In fact, many of its students never realize this despite its underlying purpose being to spread the faith. In my own case, my teachers during the first few semesters I studied there were not followers of the faith. This was true for the majority of ACFJT teachers, with only about a third of the approximately thirty staff members being Tenrikyo followers. It would have made little difference if they had been, though, as the religion was purposefully not discussed at this laique center.

This lack of awareness is not unanimously held by all non-Tenrikyo people who come to the center. As I observed and as was explained to me by Mr. Sugimoto in an interview that led to my research becoming focused on its present topic (further discussed toward the end of this chapter), many of the Japanese people who come to ACFJT are aware of its religious affiliation due to its name, which clearly and purposefully contains the word "TENRI" in capital letters. Although not all Japanese people have heard of Tenrikyo, it is quite likely that the majority have, even if they are unfamiliar with much more than the religion's name and perhaps some general information, such as it being a "new religion" based in Tenri City of Nara Prefecture, or, as I heard from Japanese people from time to time, that the baseball team of Tenri High School was quite good.

Distinct from Japanese people, in response to my question of if he thought most French students who study at ACFJT are aware of its religious affiliation, Mr. Sugimoto casually told me that most probably do not. My own somewhat limited observations on the matter are in agreement with his assessment.

As previously noted, my own discovery of the cultural center's religious affiliation came about approximately in accordance with the missionary model of developing relationships between students and Tenrikyo staff members whereby they can share their faith when outside the laique cultural center. As I explained at the beginning of this chapter, several months after starting my classes there, I thought it could be helpful to seek out someone with whom to do an English-Japanese language exchange in order to have an opportunity to regain competency and familiarity with communicating in the language. I was optimistic that I would be able to find someone interested in such an exchange since Japanese people of my generation learned English as a mandatory school subject starting at age twelve 136 . I thus hung a hand-written message on the center's bulletin board indicating my interest in finding someone with whom to do such an exchange. A little over a month later, I received a response via email from a woman named Kanae (who I mentioned previously) indicating her potential interest in my posted proposal. In her initial email, she only said that she was a teacher at ACFJT but did not include further details regarding her being at the school and in France on a several-year assignment as a missionary teacher. This absence of mentioning the religious and missionary aspects of her life was similar to how other such individuals routinely presented themselves and discussed their lives and the cultural center despite the religion's, and connectedly their missionary status', centrality in both.

This omission was prompted by multiple factors. One was ACFJT's "laique" status within the context of France that associates the category with an absence of religion. Another contributing factor was not based on legal restraints or the potential existence thereof but due to a "culturally" based cautiousness to not operate in a way at ACFJT that could be negatively perceived by the local population as they were mindful that in France, religion was largely regarded as something best omitted from the public sphere. This French concept of "laicité," that was a contributing factor to how the Tenrikyo religion functioned and was propagated in the country in which my research was based, is something I discuss further later in this chapter and in chapter six.

In the one-year training that prepared the young Japanese adults who came to France as ACFJT missionary teachers for their time abroad, they were instructed on the particular laique nature of France, on the laique nature of ACFJT, and that they should use caution in discussing their religion in France, particularly while at the cultural center. Thus, while at ACFJT, during which time they were in a hierarchically subservient role due to both their young age and their newness to the center, they were not positioned as being at liberty to make interpretive decisions that may be inappropriately outside of the norm, including their potential mention of the religion. Adding to this was that they were also relatively new to France and to navigating its culture and thus further erred on the side of caution in discussing their religion in contexts for which they were unsure how it would be received. Contrastingly, there was much less emphasis placed on the importance of discretion about the religion at the similar Tenrikyo cultural center in New York, which Mr. Sugimoto explained to me to be reflective of the two host countries' different approaches to religious expression.

Despite the more open inclusion of its religious affiliation at the New York cultural center in comparison to the approach employed at ACFJT, discretion in discussing the religion was also present outside the markedly laique French landscape. In various other countries which hosted the religion, including Japan, the religion was not always discussed openly and freely by its followers, largely out of concern for how it would be perceived on the receiving end. This reticence in discussing the religion, though, sometimes raised suspicions about the group, rendering how forthcoming versus how reserved they should be in speaking about the faith and its role in various activities, groups, etc. a difficult question to navigate.

That some in Japan held a questionable view of Tenrikyo was first brought to my attention near the beginning of my research by a non-Tenrikyo Japanese friend who told me that Tenrikyo, similar to other Japanese new religions, was sometimes viewed dubiously by some Japanese people, including herself. When I inquired about why this was, she told me that, in combination with the commonly present suspicion directed toward Japanese new religions in general, one reason was that Tenrikyo groups sometimes did things in the broader society without openly declaring their religious affiliation, thereby causing people to wonder what they were up to and why they were not open about their affiliation. Thus, while there was already a sometimespresent tendency to not openly disclose their religion in the Japanese context from which these young missionaries were coming, in France, due to attempted adaptation to its laique context, this caution was intensified.

After my thesis research became directed toward its current point of focus, though as indicated previously, initially in a generalized and yet to be defined way, I was unsure how to approach potential mention of the Tenrikyo religion and ACFJT's connection to it while at the cultural center. During the initial year of my "focused fieldwork," I continued to attend language classes twice weekly and was present at the center for a variety of other reasons, such as use of its library and attendance of its art exhibitions and occasionally their monthly "pot amical" (friendly meet and greet event) at which I would speak informally with others, most of whom were not Tenrikyo followers and many were likely unaware of the cultural association's affiliation with the religion.

During this time, my life was focused on my anthropological fieldwork, thereby rendering mention of TEC and the Somewhat later in the library, an older French classmate asked me what it was that I did professionally. After I explained that I was a doctoral student, and subsequently described the general topic of my thesis research in response to his follow-up questions, he then took the opportunity to pose questions about the Tenrikyo religion. I responded to his questions freely since it had been indicated to me that in such situations, it would not be a problem to do so.

During our conversation, this French man told me that he had already asked questions about the religion to another long-term high ranking staff member of the cultural center (who was also a core member of the TEC community), but had been told that ACFJT was a cultural center and thus, they discuss "cultural" things there. TEC was the religious center; if he wanted to learn more about the religion, he would have to go to TEC, located approximately 20 minutes outside of Paris by train, to do so. Whereas for Mr. Sugimoto, there was room for situationally based negotiation regarding the maintenance of ACFJT as a laique cultural center at which the religion was generally not discussed, for the latter, there was more adherence to an absolute maintenance of this strict divide. Furthermore, regarding the status of ACFJT as a laique center, I was later told by Mr. Sugimoto that there was deliberation regarding if the center should remain categorized as a laique center or if it should change its status to function as a religiously based language and cultural center, thereby rendering the open presence of the religion possible.

Regarding the absence of talk or displays of the Tenrikyo religion at ACFJT, there was discussion, differing opinions, and as indicated though the aforementioned example, subtly different approaches amongst key ACFJT staff members, as well as amongst some long-term core members of the TEC community who did not work there, regarding how much the religion of Tenrikyo should be openly discussed and manifested at the cultural center. These differing views were reflective of a combination of their individual perspectives, personalities, the Tenrikyo traditions and contexts of which they had been a part and the information and situations to which they had been exposed. The general caution present at the cultural center was also reflective of there having been a less solid divide between "cultural" and "religious" activities previously that produced undesired results.

In some earlier efforts to spread the religion via this cultural center, practices and activities closely related to the religion, or even directly religious, were organized, though in these instances, the teachings and practices related to Tenrikyo were represented as "Japanese culture" rather than being those of this religious tradition (Kato 2017a: 119). For example, from 1980 until 1987, TEC organized a pilgrimage tour to Tenri City. The primary purpose of this tour was for Tenrikyo-related activities such as attending the Besseki lectures, the Monthly Service in the religion's Main Sanctuary, and public lectures on the religion. Their tour also included nonreligious Japanese cultural activities (including tea ceremony, flower arrangement, calligraphy, judo, a Japanese language workshop, as well as visits to other places such as Kyoto 139 for 139 Kyoto is approximately 60 km from Tenri City by car.

sightseeing). In TEC newsletters, as well as in the quarterly magazine, Le Japon140 , this tour was advertised and framed more as a tour to Japan than as a religious pilgrimage to the Jiba. Kato (2017a: 120) highlights in particular the advertisement's use of a photo of the religion's Main Sanctuary in Tenri City as a representation of Japan. Kato (2017a: 148) explains that a former president of the cultural association related that while some of its students attended the pilgrimage tour (Kato interview with Chikayosho Kamata, Nov. 11, 2014 [cited in Kato 2017a: 148]), a Tenrikyo Church Headquarters staff member who hosted the tour group noted that some of the participants became cautious when they discovered that the building they visited as part of the cultural tour was, in fact, a religious place (interview with Norihito Takahashi, April 23, 2015 [cited in Kato 2017a: 148]). Kato further explains that this pilgrimage tour was discontinued after 1987 because of the conflicting expectations between the former and latter parties in which many of the tour participants were not interested in attending the religious activities that Church Headquarters staff expected them to attend, thereby becoming members141 . ACFJT resumed the pilgrimage tours in 1992 with four different groups: three of which were conducted by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters, with the other organized by the cultural center as a trip to Tenri City for intensive Japanese language classes (Tenrikyō Yōroppa Shucchōsho 1992 [cited in Kato 2017a: 148]).

In the 1990s, a time at which there was a general concern directed toward groups suspected or deemed to be cults or cult-like, ACFJT was portrayed as a "cult" group in a local newspaper. In January 1996, the month in which Gest and Guyard's now well-known report to the French National Assembly on "cults" in France was made public, an association of residents in the arrondissement in which ACFJT was located at the time, known as the "l'Equip Page" published an article in its local newspaper titled, "God exists, he practices judo in Denfort 142 ." In the article, they label the Tenrikyo cultural association as "Cult Tenri" and assert that people fell victim to the "cult" through activities conducted at the cultural association. In reference to their Japanese language classes, the article states, "Proselytization is almost non-existent. So, you will think this philanthropic association in our 14 th arrondissement is fabulous!... It is through a very subtle, indirect manner with no repressive belief-just like sliding bare feet on a tatami mat rather than [walking with] big boots-that the missionaries of Oyagami143 spread the doctrine." (Bézenet 1996: 4 [cited in Kato 2017a]). Kato (2017a) states in reference to this that it is suggestive to see how Tenrikyo's non-religious strategy of attracting people interested in Japan ironically served as a double-edged sword in light of the general suspicion toward cult phenomenon. In response to this article, the heads of TEC and ACFJT posted a response in the June issue of the newsletter (Miyamoto and Iwakiri 1996: 6, shown hereafter) in which they used various kinds of counter-discourse against the delegitimizing discourses of the original article to, in turn, legitimate Tenrikyo as a genuine religion. In their response, they first expressed disappointment about the article's portrayal of the cultural association, then emphasized that Tenrikyo was not included in the list of cults in the National Assembly's report on the subject "for the simple reason that it is not one." They then stated how Tenrikyo has combatted so-called cult groups in Japan and has sought to contribute to the surrounding community through social engagement activities such as the charity rummage sale that TEC hosts. They also cite the religion's collaboration with the Catholic Church as proof of it being a legitimate religious group, specifically through their annual participation in the International Meeting of Prayer for Peace, which began in 1985 as a Vatican initiative (Kato 2017a: 150-151). Kato (2017a: 153) furthermore notes that there used to be pamphlets on the religion in the lobby of ACFJT, but that they were removed after students complained about their presence.

In accordance with Kato's discussion of the undesirable suspicion regarding ACFJT's affiliation with the Tenrikyo religion which has taken different forms over time, before my research even became focused on its present topic, I was occasionally exposed to suspicions amongst members of the local population of Paris concerning ACFJT's religious connection. The first time I observed this was from a French gentleman in his sixties or seventies who regularly hosted Japanese-French language exchanges that I attended during the early part of my "fieldwork144 ," before my research became focused on TEC and Tenrikyo. In talking with this man, who had spent a good amount of his childhood in New York City and often spoke with me in fluent English notably marked by a New York accent, I told him that I was studying Japanese at ACFJT. He looked at me, paused, and said, "You know, it's a cult."

I was aware of its religious connection after having learned about it from Kanae when we were not at ACFJT, which I discuss in more detail in the next subsection, and was not at all worried about the potential dangers of such a possibility. I brushed off this warning statement with a lighthearted comment that expressed my lack of concern on the matter. He accepted my response, adding that it made sense I would be interested in such things as an anthropologist. Later, when I perused the internet to see what had been written about Tenrikyo and ACFJT in French, I found occasional warnings written on comment boards and other similar forums about ACFJT being run by a "cult" (French: secte) 145 . Such sentiments that I observed on both the internet and through inperson interactions, though, represented only a small percentage of the comments that I was exposed to about ACFJT in total. In general, as indicated previously, online discourse that I observed about ACFJT was usually focused on the quality of the center and their language classes, etc.

Even if one is aware of but not interested in the religion with which it is affiliated, one can be as involved as one wishes in the various activities organized at ACFJT without ever hearing religious proselytization. It is when people come to activities held elsewhere, chiefly TEC, that there is a chance they will receive encouragement in various forms to become followers of the path or at least subtle invitations to learn more about it should they so desire. Generally, such efforts are somewhat indirect and often in a model of creating invitations and opportunities through which people can learn more about and embrace the religion rather than through overtly direct proselytization. While their visible missionary efforts may appear to be casual and discreet, bringing new followers into the faith is a main goal of both TEC and ACFJT and also of the Tenrikyo religion itself. To demonstrate this, I will continue with the story of how I learned of the Tenrikyo religion and over time became increasingly familiar with the religious center of TEC and its connected social world.

Initial exposure to the Tenrikyo faith through a personal relationship begun at ACFJT

In accordance with the general policy of not discussing the religion at ACFJT, thereby maintaining its laicity, when I first met Kanae at ACFJT as previously explained, there was no mention of the religion that was centrally important both to the center at which she worked and also to her broader life at that time. Instead, we discussed various other things and got to know each other. I learned that she had lived in the US for a year after high school to develop her English abilities and was interested in doing an exchange so as to not lose her English while in France: a common concern for people from non-francophone countries who had studied the English language before coming to France.

The next time Kanae and I met, we went for falafels at a nearby eatery about twenty minutes away after first meeting at ACFJT when she finished her workday at 8:00 pm. While walking through central Paris on our way there, I told her that I was quite happy with the school and that despite its relatively inexpensive class prices, I found the quality of instruction and the center in general to be quite good. She seemed pleased to hear this, expressing her positive sentiment through the socially prescribed manner of receiving praise reflective of the importance placed on modesty in both Japanese and trying to sort out the situation as best we could, then again slightly later to the paramedics who arrived, as this seemed like the most I could do to try to help.

Amidst the chaotic scene after the paramedics arrived, I noticed Kanae had backed up slightly from the crowd, enough so that she was somewhat removed from it. I saw her discreetly clap four times, which I learned over a year and a half later to be how prayer is commenced and concluded in the Tenrikyo faith, put her hands in prayer ("namaste") position for an amount of time that I cannot specify, then again clap four times. As stated previously, I did not know anything about Tenrikyo at the time and my point of focus was not on her, but it was obvious that she was praying with intensity. Once it became evident that the paramedics had taken over the situation and our role in it was done, we left the scene and said our goodbyes, then parted toward our respective homes. I was quite shaken up by the incident and thought it was rather strange that When I asked Kanae about where she and other teachers like her who come on assignment from Japan to teach at ACFJT live, she explained to me that they live at a religious center in Antony (TEC) where they do different sorts of activities-both pointedly religious ones and also activities for the broader population that are not overtly religious. I did not understand exactly what she meant by this but tried to imagine the place she was describing that served as her home during her time in France. In response to my question of who, more precisely, these visiting teachers were and what their lives were like during their time in France, she told me that there were both single people similar in age to herself and also (a) married couple(s150 ) from Japan who live there.

Regarding her schedule, she cheerily explained that she worked at the school Monday through

Friday and that on Saturdays, she helped clean the building where they have events. Her response was reflective of the high number of hours 151 that these visiting missionary teachers work, something that throughout my research was most often presented by such individuals with a happy-go-lucky nonchalance through a brushing aside of difficulties paired with the maintenance of an upbeat countenance and, particularly in the case of the young women, a smiley mode of expression. This demeanor was encouraged in the faith, reflective of the fact that "living joyously152 " and performing hinokishin are central Tenrikyo tenants, as I will further discuss in more detail slightly later. When Kanae and I were in the beginning stages of getting to know each other, I had difficulty envisioning the center of TEC that she was describing and was interested to learn more but didn't overly press for details. Little did I know that later, after she had already left France, I would become a regular presence at the religious center she had lived for two years.

b. Encouraging presence to promote exposure

Welcoming people to TEC for non-religious events: a strategically indirect approach to religious propagation Although Kanae did not speak directly about her religion to me very much nor invite me to a religious service at TEC, she did invite me several times to non-religious activities held there. This is the main way people studying at or otherwise connected to ACFJT initially come to the religious center. By going to TEC for activities which are not overtly religious in nature, they are somewhat indirectly but purposefully exposed to the religious center and the religion of Tenrikyo.

From an official Tenrikyo perspective that is held by many of its followers, including those in Europe and more so, those actively operating in "missionary roles," through this introduction "seeds are sown" which may later sprout into something more153 . This is a Tenrikyo phrase and concept that I will elaborate on slightly later in this text.

My first visit to TEC was for its annual charity rummage sale held at the center each May. This is the TEC event which draws the most non-Tenrikyo people to the center each year. In recent years, about 70 volunteers have helped with the event each year-about half of whom are not Tenrikyo followers but are in various ways connected to the larger TEC community, often through past or present involvement with ACFJT. It also draws about 500-600 shoppers each year. These shoppers include people who learn of the rummage sale through ACFJT, people from the surrounding area, and people interested in acquiring Japanese books and other Japanese goods or otherwise come due to the reputation it has for having many high-quality goods and tasty homemade Japanese foods offered at low prices.

At one point while I was there, I asked Kanae if it would be possible to use the restroom. She hesitated while thinking about which one of the center's three restroom locations would be best to bring me to since certain areas of the building were inaccessible or filled with people, then asked me to follow her upstairs. I went with her to the second floor of TEC, which I had not yet visited, and she showed me to the restrooms positioned next to the closed double-doors that I learned led into the sanctuary. After my visit to the restroom, she explained to me that the room behind the double-doors was where they pray and asked if I would like to see it. I said yes. We took off our shoes, placed them on the floor in front of the door, then went inside. I was immediately struck by the "Japaneseness" of this space located in a Parisian suburb. Kanae told me in the generally cheerful manner typical of Japanese Tenrikyo followers that included a smiley countenance and energetic demeanor, which is also typical of many Japanese young women and particularly encouraged for female Tenrikyo followers, that they (meaning the people living at TEC154 ) come to this room every day.

Kanae's demeanor that was also present amongst many female Tenrikyo followers is partially summarized in an "anecdote of Oyasama155 " that I heard a young woman in a similar visiting missionary teacher position cite as her favorite anecdote during a Saturday "Europe Women's

Association" meeting approximately two years later. At this meeting, I was, as usual, the only non-Japanese person in attendance.

Amiability first of all

One day, Oyasama told Yoshie Iburi: "Dear Yoshie, amiability is required of women first of all. Cheerfully to answer, 'Yes', to whatever one is told, is of prime importance156 ." (Anecdotes of Oyasama, the Foundress of Tenrikyo, anecdote 112, 1976: 94) At this time, though, I was generally unfamiliar with the Tenrikyo religion and was unaware of this gendered countenance that is prescribed in it. The details of what precisely they do in the highly "Japanese" room dedicated to religious practice in which we were standing were a little difficult for Kanae to describe but she explained that they sing and dance "there," gesturing to the floor where we were standing. After this brief close-up introduction to the Tenrikyo religion, we went back downstairs to the rummage sale and I left shortly after as the event neared its end.

The open sanctuary with clean wooden floors and three distinctly Japanese-looking altars at the front struck me as an interesting window into another aspect of Kanae's life other than what I saw in the city center of Paris in what I mentally noted with curiosity to be a markedly Japanese setting located in a Parisian suburb. The three altars at the front of the room were highly similar in style to Shinto altars, and as I later learned, were also quite similar to altars used in certain other Japanese new religions. Further adding to the distinctly Japanese character of the room were the framed works of Japanese calligraphy, with their French translations and the musical instruments at the front and side of the room were musical instruments that are also used in other traditional Japanese musical contexts. Also contributing to this room's strong Japanese flavor was the heavy presence of red, black, and gold that was reminiscent of colors prominently present in Shinto contexts, further elucidating the nostalgic association I immediately felt between this room and Japanese contexts, such as Shinto shrines, that I had been exposed to in the past. This notable "Japaneseness" was so striking to me upon entering TEC's sanctuary for the first time that it immediately piqued my interest in relation to my developing research which was still in its beginning stages. At this time, my intended research focus had shifted from its initial topic of Japanese restaurants in Paris to the broader subject of Japanese migrants in Paris and the transferal and transformation of cultural practices from their country of origin to France.

Although I did not understand all the details of what I was seeing, the TEC sanctuary struck me as a potential wealth of exploration in relation to my developing research interests, which it later proved to be.

Kanae and I met up from time to time until she went back to Japan one year later. During our time together, I sometimes talked to her about my school life and attempts to advance in my research-based studies, which included the need to learn about and focus on a more precise point of inquiry than my field of exploration was at the time. When Kanae left France after her predetermined two year stay at TEC had ended, I still had not yet considered the possibility of focusing my research specifically on the center that she had called home and on the community that she was so much a part of during her time in France and continued to be part of to a lesser degree thereafter.

Over this period of Kanae's time at TEC, I also went to another non-religious event held there upon her invitation: the annual traditional Japanese mochi pounding in preparation of the new year that is held in December and attracts many non-followers to the center. In this, I was becoming familiar with the religious center in a way that matched an established and purposeful pattern of non-Tenrikyo people first becoming connected with ACFJT and the Tenrikyo missionaries there, then later coming to non-religious events held at TEC through which they become exposed to the religion of Tenrikyo. At the time, though, I did not realize that my own journey of discovery corresponded to the religion's missionary efforts and also part of the construction of this center's wider community.

"Sprinkling the fragrance" of the faith: the purposeful dispersal of a "Tenrikyo scent" I do not recall consciously noting any particular fragrance on my first visit to the sanctuary, though the subtle smell I later noticed there and in certain other parts of the center's premises was undoubtedly present on this first visit. It was a scent somehow reminiscent to me of "Japan" which I could not precisely identify. This subtle olfactory component was no doubt influential in my perception of this room's "Japaneseness" that was shaped not only through visual factors and my conscious intellectualization about what I was seeing with my eyes but also through more subtlety present somatic perception, notably that of smell.

I would like to pause on the concept of smell in relation to this center, the Tenrikyo religion, and furthermore, the broader realm of Japanese culture, the three of which are intricately tied as this olfactory component is particularly relevant for two connected reasons. Firstly, the Tenrikyospecific term to refer to making efforts to spread the faith in various ways, sometimes referred to in English as "missionary work," is "(doing) nioi gake 157 " (nioi gake o suru), commonly also expressed in English through the phrase: "spreading the fragrance of the faith"158 . A literal translation of the three components which comprise this Japanese Tenrikyo phrase is "smell/odor/fragrance" (nioi), "sprinkle/spread/put on" (gake), "to do" (o suru). Thus, in Tenrikyo, efforts to spread the faith are linguistically framed most commonly through the sensory realm of olfaction. This brings us to the second point that I would like to discuss here: in Japanese culture and in the Japanese language, particular attention and referential position is accorded to smell. As explicitly pointed out by Bénéï (2008: 258), "a sensorium is varyingly defined according to time, space, and culture. What sense (or senses) become predominant and privileged over others is a matter of cultural, social, historical, and of course, political circumstances." Thus, as "nioi" holds a prominent place, both in a literal and, at least seemingly, figurative sense, in both Japanese, and connectedly, Tenrikyo culture, it is a term that merits exploration. The Japanese word "nioi" (smell/odor/fragrance) is commonly used to reference not only literal olfactory stimuli but also the essence or character of something. To discuss the largely symbolic use of this sensoriallybased descriptive, I refer to Moeran (2005) who provides an excellent exploration of the topic. In his inclusion of the history of olfactory culture in Japan, he positions the introduction of Buddhism in 662 AD to have been a major force in its development, as it made frequent use of incense in its rituals. The prominent role of scent, as Moeran outlines, was thereafter centrally showcased in the important 10 th century literary work, "Genji Monogatari" (The Tale of 157 にをいがけをする:This atypical spelling is how it is written in Tenrikyo, explained most commonly by that the foundress wrote mainly in hiragana (phoenetic) characters rather than kanji (Chinese characters which connotate a meaning, usually with several possible pronunciations, rather than a sound) and that "を"(o) was commonly used in places now written with "お" (o).

Genji)159 , in which its author(s)160 constructed the entire work around the concept of smell. In addition to its "olfactory structure," it also contains numerous scenes in which scent is a critical component of social interactions and plot development, thereby suggesting the importance it held in the culture and in the construction of perception at that time.

But a fictional description of olfactory usage in 10th century Japanese court society, while revealing many of the classic social distinctions enabled by odour found in other societies (for instance, that the elite smell 'better' than the lower classes), does not necessarily represent faithfully the place of smell in everyday life among contemporary Japanese. However, evidence suggests that one of the primary 'webs of significance' (Geertz 1973:5) spun to form modern Japanese culture is olfactory (Katz 1996:11), and that 'group intimacy and alignments are at least partially established by olfactory stimuli' (Largey and Watson 1972:1027). From the elaborated tradition of kodo incense ceremony or 'way of fragrance', […] by way of programmed air conditioning systems that send different scents through buildings in various sequences at different times of the day (Hasegawa 1993:158), many people in Japan make conscious use of smell in their everyday lives as they manipulate odour settings and olfactory identity.

For example, Japanese often remark on the various fragrances marking different seasons (like the set-phrase umegaka [spring plum blossom] or kunpu [fragrant summer breeze]), and use the generic term 'smell' (nioi) to describe the atmosphere they experience as particular to a foreign country (tourist brochures regularly comment on this). They distinguish themselves from non-Japanese both by odour (Westerners have often in the past been said to 'smack of butter ' [butter-kusai]) and by the shape of their noses (Caucasians have 'high noses' [hana ga takai]). Their own noses also act as markers of identity. Like some other peoples in east and south east Asia, they point to their noses when referring to themselves. They also have a broad range of smell related descriptives used in everyday conversation: dorokusai, meaning unrefined (lit. 'stinking of mud'); kane no nioi ga suru (lit. 'smacks of money'); and kanryoshu ga tsuyoi (lit. 'smelling strongly of the bureaucrat'). They still practice and appreciate the art of the 'lingering fragrance' (nokori-ga) -either from an incense stick burned before the arrival of guests at a tea ceremony, or from the understated sillage of a woman's fragrance in the street. Generally, modern Japanese are very sensitive to scents, fragrances, and odours of one sort or another. (Moeran 2005: 101) I include this lengthy quote from Moeran because it describes the prominent position scent has in everyday Japanese culture and language, thereby situating this important Tenrikyo term and concept in the broader cultural-linguistic milieu from which the religion came and continues to be principally based. Moeran's text is also helpful in bringing to the reader's attention the important place this sensorial component holds in the culture of the majority of people included in my study in which scent is strongly linked to largely intangible experiential and conceptual domains, of which the realm of emotion is included, thereby rendering it part of their habitus. Through this, we can contextualize and better understand that one form of missionary work is to bring people to TEC (and other Tenrikyo sites), thereby exposing them to the "fragrance" of the faith. This form of indirect missionary work includes the purposeful emission of joy at the center, and on the part of its religious actors, and the presence of material and immaterial factors understood to encourage the development of this emotion, which is positioned as a centrally important component of the religion.

Tenrikyo followers, including those in Europe and at TEC, are commonly beseeched to exude the "perfume" or "fragrance" of Tenrikyo. This request is an important part of its religious discourse, including at TEC Monthly Services and other religiously focused events held at the center.

Furthermore, this aim is accorded a high level of importance in specific structured formative moments of cultivating "spiritually mature" followers, such as at Tenrikyo spiritual trainings like the annual seminar held at TEC and the experience of becoming a Yoboku in Tenri City, which I discuss in chapter ten, that entails the requirement of first listening to the nine identical Besseki lectures that contain this point.

Dispersing the fragrance of the faith was believed to be able to occur through multiple forms.

Even when discussion of the intellectually based components of the religion's dogma and other "fact-based" information was not included 161 in the experience of people coming to and being part of the social realm of TEC and other Tenrikyo-based contexts such as ACFJT, their exposure to this emotional state partially grounded in the realm of the sensory was positioned as a means through which the goals of the religion were met. Although the religion was generally not discussed at ACFJT, the purposeful dispersal of its underlying "fragrance" was a set component of the prescribed role of missionary teachers at this laique center, as I heard indicated by several missionary teachers and the wives of a couple of these individuals. In this manner, even though the religion was not talked about openly at ACFJT due to their navigation of the cultural model of laicity in which they were operating, it was considered important for these missionary teachers to function under a particular behavioral and dispositional model that embodied the teachings, thereby spreading this aspect of the religion to others, despite the absence of overt proselytization there.

Spreading joy and community, spreading the faith via the "energy of light": multifaceted motivations for encouraging the presence of non-Tenrikyo people at TEC When I went to TEC for the first time for the charity rummage sale, what was most striking to me was the joyous atmosphere of community between diverse people. The memory that sticks out in my mind of this day is sitting in the warm sun, eating takoyaki (fried octopus dumplings) while Kanae was working behind the nearby food stand in unfashionable track pants and imitation plastic Croc shoes (as opposed to the more sophisticated version of Kanae that I was accustomed to seeing when I met up with her after work in Paris.) Also included in this scene was my Japanese teacher at the time, who I later learned to be not a follower of the faith herself, enthusiastically performing in a Taiko drum group with her French husband 162 on the lawn to the side of the building while others milled about, enjoying themselves in the festive atmosphere. In this scene, my non-Tenrikyo teacher, along with many others helping with the event, were at least for that moment members of the TEC community.

A common reason I heard from non-Tenrikyo people for why they continued to come to TEC to participate in such events for multiple years is that they enjoy the atmosphere. Numerous such non-Tenrikyo people have been coming to events at TEC and often have also been connected to ACFJT for a number of years. Though they are not followers of the religion, they are positioned at the periphery of the wider local TEC community both through their physical and social involvement and also via their developed familiarity and often cultivated embodiment of the emotionality of the group that is associated in the religion, as well as in the broader Japanese 162 The Taiko drum group had no affiliation with ACFJT or Tenrikyo.

cultural sphere from which the religion and the majority of its followers originated and continue to be based, with the realm of the sensory. At this event, energetically upright body language and smiles were common amongst staff and contagiously circulated amongst those in attendance, upbeat chatter and music, the smell and for some, the taste, of numerous popular Japanese treats cooking and being sold for a small price were all notable features of the event.

The joyous atmosphere of this charity rummage sale was a purposefully cultivated mode of sociality linked with this idealized emotional state that was also an important part of other events held at TEC and many other Tenrikyo contexts which serves as a motivating factor for people to come. In this, the broader "community" that repeatedly comes together at TEC is largely constructed through sensorial experiences that are highly influential to the realm of emotions which served as both a motivational factor to take part in such gatherings and also the communal ambiance that was constructed therein.

"Joy" or more precisely, the "Joyous Life," which in Japanese Tenrikyo discourse is most often referred to with the words, "yōki gurashi" 163 , is positioned as a central teaching of the faith that explains this to largely be the purpose of human life, the foundress' revelations, and the ultimate soterial aim of the religion: the three of which are intrinsically interrelated. As I heard discussed at TEC during religious trainings and events164 and from people in the role of "officially" speaking about the religion (such as when giving a sermon), the etymology of this Japanese Tenrikyo term is illuminative to understanding its deeper meaning. In Tenrikyo, this highly present phrase, which could in fact be described as the religion's slogan, consists of three 163 陽気ぐらしI learned at the Tenrikyo European Seminar held at TEC that the term "Joyous Life" ("la Vie de Joie") refers to several related terms that appear in Tenrikyo scriptures and historical documents written in Japanese. The most commonly used term currently is "yōki gurashi (陽気ぐらし)." In the sacred "Ofudesaki" text that the foundress wrote, the term is written as yōki yusan (よふきゆさん. In the Osashizu (a written collection of oral instructions conveyed by her predecessor, Izo Iburi) it is written as yōki asobi (陽気遊び) and yōki gurashi (陽気ぐ らし). Early outlines of the Tenrikyo teachings use the terms yōki naru yusan asobi (よふきなるゆさんあすび) and yōki yusan (陽気遊参). As this thesis is not a theological inquiry into the early etymological details of the faith, I will not elaborate on the subtle differences between these terms as it is the first mentioned term ( yōki gurashi) that is generally part of modern Tenrikyo vocabulary and is understood to convey this important aspect of the faith's teachings.

components. Yo (陽) translates approximately to "positive" or "light" and uses the same kanji character as Yang in the Chinese Yin and Yang. Ki (気) translates approximately to "spirit" or "energy." It is the same character as "qi" in Chinese and is used in the frequently employed Japanese word "元気" (genki 165 ) to discuss a person's well-being or energy. The third component of this term, "gurashi" (ぐらし), is written in Tenrikyo with these syllabic hiragana characters but in the Japanese language in other contexts is often written with the kanji character "暮" (gurashi) that means "livelihood" and implies life in a more day-to-day sense. The largely intangible characteristic of the etymology of the first two Chinese characters used in the words commonly employed in Tenrikyo to reference the idealized emotional state of joy, or more literally, the "energy of light," and connectedly, the potential salvific state of the world in which humans live in this positive emotional state, free from social and physical ailments, is an important feature of the religion that is closely connected with the senses as it was often through tangible, lived experiences that this joyous state was purposefully cultivated in the self and attempted to be evoked in others.

Often at TEC events, the importance of being joyous and sharing joy with others was encouraged through official discourse, such as statements made during opening and closing speeches that emphasized the cultivation of it in oneself and encouragement to promote it in others. An example of this that I observed on two separate occasions was in the morning talk given at the start of the day at the charity rummage sale 166 delivered by the head of TEC, Mr. Kawakubo, to volunteers helping with the event. On both these occasions, the day of the scheduled event aligned with rainy weather. Regarding the inopportune weather, Mr. Kawakubo included in his opening discourse that he delivered to approximately 50 of the 70 people in total who helped with the event167 who were assembled together in the sanctuary (the majority of whom were not 165 "Genki" is a commonly used Japanese word composed of the kanji characters 元 (gen: origin) and 気(ki: energy) that is used daily in phrases such as "Are you genki (well)?"and "Lately I haven't had much genki (energy)."

166 In addition to my previously mentioned visit to the TEC charity rummage sale as a shopper which served as my first time coming to the center, I volunteered at the event for four consecutive years. The first two times were during my designated period of fieldwork and the latter two times were after I decided to end my period of fieldwork, while I was in the process of writing my thesis.

Tenrikyo followers but individuals somehow connected with TEC and\or ACFJT) that although it was grey outside, he asked that we shine from within ourselves to make the event sunny.

He then added that although we were raising money for humanitarian causes for people in less comfortable situations than ourselves, simply making sales was not the principal goal of the event. Rather, it was important that we enjoy ourselves in working together and to create an enjoyable atmosphere to share with those who came. Numerous Tenrikyo teachings were contained in his words, though they were conveyed without specific reference to the religion. This included the importance of cultivating the emotional state of joy in ourselves and others, and connectedly, the importance of "mutual help" (tasuke ai). Furthermore, the dispersal of this idealized emotionality to others was not only positioned as something transmitted through concrete material factors and discourse but also through what is "sensed," as it was explained that it was important to cultivate joy in oneself, partially so that this inner feeling would be transmitted to others.

Although one aspiration of such "missionary" efforts was to lead new people to the faith, another was to encourage joy and human camaraderie as it was explained in the faith's teachings that these two potential components of the human experience were mainly why God the Parent created humans and also largely the goal of the faith. Thus, while spreading the religion to others in a manner that results in their becoming followers of the religion was one goal of the faith, in their orchestration of such non-markedly religious events and activities, another motivation was to create an atmosphere of community and to make others happy. These multi-focal goals did not always present themselves as evidently complementary, but the presence of one did not negate the other.

Regarding this, I would like to come back to my previously discussed Japanese friend's wariness of Tenrikyo due to not being sure of exactly what they are up to when groups affiliated with the religion engaged in various cultural and community-oriented pursuits but did not overtly communicate their religious affiliation when doing so. In presenting one of their motivations (working toward the societal and personal well-being of others) more than the other (obtaining new followers), it does not negate that both aims were usually present. According to my for the day.

observations and analysis, this omission is not so much a dishonest presentation as it is reflective of choosing to put certain factors of what is going on more in the forefront than other components of its entirety. In reality, both the seemingly more secular objectives and the more blatantly religious goals are considered important. Moreover, on a profound level, these superficially different aims are, in fact, largely intertwined because, as stated slightly previously, the path of Tenrikyo is regarded as the means through which human joy, health, and social harmony, taught in the faith as the ultimate reason for our creation by God the Parent and God the Parent's ultimate desire for humanity, will be achieved.

According to all the discourse that I have encountered regarding these two motivating factors that do not always present themselves as entirely congruent, it is working to facilitate the happiness and well-being of others that is positioned as what should be prioritized over gaining new followers of the faith. How it is deemed best to engage in these two aims of the faith was often personally and contextually dependent. There was not a universally followed format to approach the matter and thus, amongst Tenrikyo followers, including those found at TEC, there were a variety of approaches and perspectives on the matter. Often, learning how to navigate working toward these two religious goals (amidst other factors of their lives and the context in which they are operating) was an ongoing experientially based learning process in which followers were in a constant state of adjustment.

Working to increase awareness of Tenrikyo and its teachings in the broader population: "sowing seeds" that may grow into something more

As explained previously, one reason events that were not overtly religious in nature were hosted at TEC was to draw people to the religious center. Amongst the motivations for doing this was so that some of these people may later become followers of the faith, though in my observations, this was quite rare 168 . Making such efforts toward the possibility of this goal could be described through Tenrikyo-specific language as "sowing seeds" that may eventually grow into something more. This is one of the numerous agricultural metaphors contained in the religion, reflective of the agrarian context in which the foundress and the first followers lived. The concept conveyed through this somewhat frequently used English gloss term to describe making efforts that may later produce results is contained in numerous primary Tenrikyo sources through multiple Japanese phrases. One phrase that specifically references the propagation of the religion in this way is found in "Anecdotes of Oyasama" (1979): a prominent Tenrikyo book which includes 200 stories about the foundress' words and actions explained to be compiled from written and oral accounts of early followers who met and received instruction from her. …You are the Taneichi (literally, 'seed market'), so you will sow seeds." What do you mean by sowing seeds? asked Tatsu. Then Oyasama taught: "It means to go here and there and talk of Tenri-Ō…169 (Anecdotes of Oyasama 1979: 8-9, anecdote 13).

Although "missionary" efforts may not immediately result in new "members" of the religion, followers were nonetheless supposed to be sowing seeds toward this aim with the perspective that their efforts may later turn into something more. Beyond the goal of acquiring new members at the present time, simply spreading awareness of Tenrikyo's existence was considered progress for the path, as expressed by both official Tenrikyo discourse that originated from Tenrikyo Church Headquarters and numerous followers at TEC. Regarding this, I commonly heard from core followers, who were mainly though not exclusively Japanese, that one of the main challenges Tenrikyo faces in Europe is that it remains little known on this continent. As a result of TEC hosting such events, non-Tenrikyo attendants become more familiar with the faith by coming to the religious center and enjoying the warm atmosphere it provides, even if such visits do not quickly lead to their becoming adherents of the religion.

At the annual charity rummage sale, as partially indicated in the previous section, volunteers came to the sanctuary before and after the event at which time a small talk that included some details about the religion and its teachings was given. Commonly included were basic components deemed important to communicate, such as that the three altars at the front of the room were dedicated to the ancestors (mitamasama) on the left, God the Parent (Oyagamisama) in the center, and the foundress (Oyasama) on the right. Also frequently explained was that all humans are brothers and sisters, regardless of differences such as skin color, etc. and of the faith's centrally important tenet of the warm "parental love" (oyagokoro 親心170 ) that God the Parent and the foundress, who is regarded as our ever-loving original mother, have for all humans as their children. This parent-child structural relationship held a central place in the religion in multiple ways including its cosmology and structural organization, which I discuss more in the next chapter.

In addition to being exposed to the religious space of TEC's sanctuary and learning some basic information about the faith's tenets when those volunteering at this charity event assembled there before and after the day's event, they were also exposed to the centrally important ritual of the faith. This chiefly important rite was that of the Service, more specifically in this case, that of the Morning and Evening Service comprised of the Seated Service (sacred songs performed with hand dance gestures) and at TEC, one of the other thirteen Mikagura-uta songs that were danced in standing position in unison by followers in attendance171 . Non-followers were free to join, and to follow along if they did not yet know the involved gestures but were under no obligation to do so. Simply through being present, they were experientially exposed to the chiefly important ritual of the religion that is positioned as the path through which a joyous world will be attained.

At the annual mochi-tsuki (traditional rice cake pounding event) hosted by the center, like other such non-markedly religious events which draw many non-Tenrikyo people to participate, such as the annual hanami (cherry blossom viewing picnic) hosted in the nearby Parc de Sceaux 172 , no such visit to the sanctuary was incorporated into the main event. Despite the lack of a scheduled visit to the sanctuary and the orchestration of this chiefly important ritual, it remained a present feature in which non-followers may participate. This was through individual invitations to some people in attendance, most commonly on the part of residential staff members with whom they already had an amical relationship, to stay at the center after the official event had ended and come see this component of the center and of the religion, if they were interested and wished to do so. In my observations, several non-followers usually stayed after the events and chose to accept the invitation, usually staying for dinner as well, which additionally provided more time to discuss the religion in a casual context. In such an approach, the main missionary technique employed was to simply create an opening through which to expose potentially interested people to the religion. In doing so, it was hoped that some such non-followers would become interested in the religion and eventually become followers of it. This approach of creating potential openings through which people could come to know and embrace the faith was a major theme of how attempts to spread the faith were made at TEC, through ACFJT, and in multiple other contexts connected to this European scene.

The orchestration of "traditional" cultural activities at TEC and in Tenrikyo:

encouraging experiential involvement in modernity and while abroadg During this slow introductory period to TEC, well before my research became focused on my present thesis topic, I also went to attend their annual December mochi pounding event, primarily intended for children but which included people of all ages. The main activity of this event, as its English gloss name implies, was pounding rice into mochi. To do this, participants took turns using large wooden mallets in generally teams of three to pound in alteration the glutinous rice placed in a large mortar for this purpose. (See image hereafter).

wall as a tongue-in-cheek making the best out of a less than optimal situation. Image 3: Annual December mochi pounding event at TEC, lower level multi-purpose room at TEC, photo: Tenrikyo Europe Centre 2016c.

At TEC, among those in attendance for this mochi pounding event were many families with at least one Japanese parent, many of whom had children who attended the Japanese classes at ACFJT for children who speak the language as their "langue maternelle" (mother tongue) 173 . A motivating factor for many of these Japanese parents to come to this event was a desire for their children to have a connection to Japanese culture while living in France. Moreover, there was a specific interest in the mochi pounding event due to its traditional importance in Japanese culture and its increasing rarity in modernity, thus making the opportunity somewhat exceptional, even in Japan 174 . This lively and physically engaging endeavor is a traditional Japanese activity that was done, amongst other reasons, in preparation for the new year. It has largely faded out of modern Japanese life, but in Tenrikyo contexts in and outside of Japan, it remains an ever-present activity at many of its sites (mission centers, churches, etc.). The pounding of mochi and the subsequent partaking of it to celebrate the new year is also a major event of the overarching religious organization. Every year, Tenrikyo churches throughout Japan give offerings of large mochi cakes that they have made for the New Year's Day Service held around the sacred point of the Jiba in Tenri City. Thereafter, on January 4, these offerings are taken down from the stands on which they were placed for this ritual gifting to God the Parent and cut into smaller pieces. For the following three days, from January 5 to 7, these roasted pieces of mochi are served with greens in a clear broth (zoni) to anyone coming to partake. It is a tradition that is regarded to date back to the time of the foundress' life and is now known as the "Sechi Festival 175 ."

Even during Oyasama's physical lifetime, people who gathered before Her during the New Year's holiday created the tradition of merrily partaking of offerings of rice cakes together. The amount of rice cake offerings gradually increased and records indicate that, in 1874, this amount was almost 136 kilograms (300 pounds). (Fukaya a, date unknown) In recent years, about 40,000 kg of mochi has been offered annually for the new year celebrated at the Jiba. Approximately 70,000 people have partaken each year in the soup made from these offerings, with about 5,000 people helping with the event as hinokishin 176 each year. This event is one of the major annual events of the religion that takes place in the central religiously-dedicated area of this pilgrimage town, known as the "Oyasato" (in English Tenrikyo discourse: "home of the parent") and was something I heard about from numerous Japanese Tenrikyo followers charged with teaching others about the faith. Many core members of the TEC community had personally taken part in this event through either partaking of the soup as a guest or helping with 175 "Sechi" is a general Japanese term used to refer to traditional new year's foods. 176 In 2014, approximately 40,000 kg of mochi was offered, 78,715 people participated in the Sechi Festival and approximately 5,000 people volunteered for the event as hinokishin. In 2015, approximately 40,000 kg of mochi was offered, 62,000 people participated in the Sechi Festival and 4,700 people helped with the event as hinokishin. In 2016, approximately 66,000 people participated in the festival and 4,700 people helped with the event as hinokishin; the quantity of mochi offered was not listed. In 2017, approximately 71,111 people participated in the festival and 4,700 helped with the event as hinokishin; the quantity of mochi offered was again not listed. (Tenrikyo Online 2014, 2015, 2016a, 2017).

the event as hinokishin, and often through both. Though approximately half-way around the world from TEC, this event serves as a collectively shared experiential reference for many members of the TEC community and also for the broader global collectivity of Tenrikyo followers.

Further emphasizing the prominence of this event in the conceptual landscape of Tenrikyo in Europe and at TEC was an enlarged photo of the central area of Tenri City where the Main Sanctuary is located filled with followers for this event. On numerous occasions, core members of TEC showed me and others who were largely unfamiliar with the religion this photo and described the event as "sugoi" (amazing/great). In their explanation of the photo, attention was usually drawn to the collective effort and togetherness, as well as the element of enjoyment, involved in this annual event.

The continuation of the practice of pounding mochi for the new year is but one example of the traditional aspects of Japanese culture that have largely ceased in modernity, but which continue to exist in Tenrikyo contexts. The notable presence of various aspects of "traditional" Japanese culture in the religion is reflective of the fact that its early period of development transpired at a time generally regarded as the beginning of Japanese modernity, thereby interweaving features of the "traditional" culture in which it came about into the religion's practice and culture. After these transferred components largely faded out of the greater sphere of Japanese culture through changes that came about in modernity, their position, prominence, and notability in Tenrikyo was thereby increased through the developed contrast with the broader cultural context of Japan in which it was based.

Highly relevant to this is Hobshawm's 1983 discussion of "invented traditions" in which he predicates that the invention of tradition usually occurs more frequently when a society is rapidly transformed, through which the social patterns for "old" traditions are weakened or destroyed. In the case of Tenrikyo against the broader backdrop of Japanese modernity, the fading out of various "traditional" components of Japanese culture from the broader societal context thereby increased the notable character of their inclusion within this religious context. This served to both solidify them as components of this religious world and to increase the level of interest that the wider non-Tenrikyo public has in these parts of the broader Tenrikyo scene, meaning not its dogma and prescribed ritual activities but its more expansive comprehensive whole.

Although such components are not part of the strict practice of this religion, they are part of its broader "Tenrikyo culture": a concept which I elaborate on at various points throughout this thesis, most notably in chapter seven. Through the involvement of social actors in such elements of Tenrikyo culture, they are experientially immersed in the lived experience of being part of this religious world for moments in time. In this, they become part of such scenes and conversely, such scenes experientially become part of them despite in many cases a lack of declared or overtly manifested belief or membership in the religion. This is one means through which the "fragrance" of the faith is spread. Despite such numerous routes through which its fragrance was dispersed, it is important to reiterate that gaining new followers remains a chief focal point of structured missionary efforts.

c. Becoming part of the "TEC community" through purposeful inclusion

Constructing belonging through presence: local non-Tenrikyo, non-Japanese members of the multi-layered TEC community

The first time I attended the mochi pounding event, about seven months before I decided to shift the focus of my research to its present topic, I noticed a small group of young French adults without children, several of whom I recognized from ACFJT. I would later learn that these young adults were representative of a small group of young adults from the cultural center who were regularly or semi-regularly involved in "non-religious" activities held at and connected to TEC through which they formed a group of friends. For the most part, they were present or past Japanese language students of ACFJT. Their social togetherness was largely centered on moments they shared at ACFJT, TEC, or in activities connected to these centers, such as the distribution of hot soup and drinks to homeless people in central Paris each Sunday evening throughout the winter season177 .

One young woman amongst this small group of French young adults who I recognized in particular was a non-Japanese person I noted to be helping with the rummage sale when I came to TEC for the first time a little over half-a-year previously, at which time I was attentive to the wealth of new information to which I was being exposed. In this initial visit, she was stationed near the entrance of TEC's main building and was clearly an "insider." I mistakenly took her position as an insider during this initial visit to TEC to suggest that she was most likely a member of the religion. This was noteworthy to me at the time because I took it to imply it reasonable to surmise that not everyone involved with this Japanese religion was Japanese.

I later got to know this young woman initially through being in the same Japanese class which preceded my shift in research focus and later through the time we shared at TEC during such events. I learned her name was Chloé. She was in her early twenties and was working towards an undergraduate degree (license) in Japanese and English at a local university. She had begun taking Japanese classes at ACFJT as an adolescent almost ten years prior, largely as an extracurricular activity. She regularly came to events at TEC that were not markedly religious in nature as well as to social events at ACFJT, such as the monthly "pot amicals" (friendly gatherings). Furthermore, during the span of my focused fieldwork, she conducted an internship at ACFJT as part of her university program for which she worked alongside its staff.

Her long-term involvement with the TEC community rendered her a member of the group, evidenced for example through the familiarity she displayed in being at TEC and with its social actors. Her situatedness in this group was also demonstrated through the nostalgia I heard from several middle-aged long-term, local core members (one of whom had been her Japanese teacher at ACFJT when she was younger) about how much she has grown up and matured in the time they had known her. Despite her long-term, regular involvement with the group, she maintained distance from the religiosity of Tenrikyo and knew little about the tenets of the faith, flatly expressing to me during a train ride back into Paris that we shared after one such cultural event at TEC that she had little interest in learning about the Tenrikyo religion as she was atheist. She expanded on her position, describing that sometimes people charged with leadership circulated along established routes looking for people to propose our food and drink to, there was a friendly atmosphere filled with conversation and comradery that, in addition to making efforts to do something for others, inevitably proved to be an enjoyable social moment for those taking part in it.

responsibilities at TEC tried to get her to do things she was not interested in doing (through invitations, mentions, or suggestions), such as slightly earlier that day, to purchase a music CD made by a Tenrikyo follower and stay for dinner, but that such appeals had no effect on what she did as she is not Japanese and thus did not feel obliged to comply with hierarchical authority figures.

It is noteworthy that Chloé displayed a maintenance of the personal boundaries she felt were right for her on numerous other occasions. For example, she explained that she was not interested in going to French-Japanese language exchanges held by other cultural associations at local cafes as she "did not feel comfortable in social settings where she does not know the people." Similarly reflective of her maintenance of her personal sphere of comfort was that despite being French, she did not faire la bise (cheek kissing on both sides), something which in French interactions is often included in saying hello and goodbye, with it being rare to encounter a French person who decidedly does not engage in this social practice. Chloé is just one example of such social actors from the local Parisian landscape who were not followers of the religion but were included in the broader social scene of TEC and its connected "community." Although Chloé, and numerous other individuals, were not interested in becoming followers of the faith (at least at the present time,) they were nonetheless exposed to Tenrikyo through their social involvement with the group. Consequently, despite their not being included in the category of new followers who have come to follow the path in Europe, the goal of spreading the faith was interpretively none the less met through their experiential involvement. In my observations, there was significant variation regarding to what level this perspective was or was not shared by core members of the TEC community.

For those who erred on the former side of this perspective, the transmission of the Tenrikyo faith was regarded as something that will take time and thus simply facilitating exposure of the religion to the local population was viewed as progress. Accordingly, that at the time very few followers in Europe had been introduced to the path via ACFJT and in parallel, few students from ACFJT, such as the above discussed young adults, had become followers of the faith was not viewed as a problem. For others, this lack of progress was regarded as an indication that such efforts to spread the religion to the European continent were not producing an appropriate level of results, thereby calling into question the efficacy of such methods and their legitimacy.

For example, one core member of the TEC community referred to the lack of European ritual performers in a particular Service ritual orchestrated for an important commemorative celebration at TEC which brought together many members of the broader TEC community dispersed throughout numerous European locations and also several high ranking Tenrikyo officials coming from Japan to show that the efforts to transmit the religion to this continent had been a "failure."

Included in this statement was an implication that the missionary efforts on this continent since the religion first established an official presence over forty years previously178 had been lacking or misguided. Despite such a perspective that was held by some members of the TEC community, ACFJT was a key means through which members of the local Parisian population came to TEC, even if it did not lead to the religion acquiring new members in most instances, at least in a manner timely enough to be notably observable in the past forty-some years the cultural center had been in operation.

ACFJT and TEC as bridges to locally living non-Tenrikyo Japanese people

The exposure to the Tenrikyo religion facilitated by ACFJT was not limited to people from the local Parisian context. It also promoted exposure to the religion and aspects of its social world to non-Tenrikyo Japanese people living in the Parisian area. This occurred largely through activities that were aimed mainly or entirely at such Paris-based Japanese people who were frequently relatively unfamiliar with Tenrikyo. They commonly knew simply the name and sometimes some basic information such as that it is a "new religion" based in Nara Prefecture. Beyond this, they usually did not have much familiarity with its teachings and practices or other first-hand experience in Tenrikyo settings. Thus, in addition to ACFJT serving as a bridge to the local Parisian population, it also functions as a bridge to non-Tenrikyo Japanese people in the region of Paris, who most commonly transport their increased familiarity with the religion back to Japan upon their return to their home country. This was chiefly brought about through activities and events that drew non-Tenrikyo Japanese people to ACFJT and TEC. In addition to ACFJT's main activity of Japanese language instruction for adults and the showcasing of artforms that brought in spectators, it also hosted classes that attracted Japanese students. Cultural classes such as ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement), sado (Japanese tea ceremony), and nihonga (Japanese water coloring) that were held at the center were attended largely, though not exclusively, by Japanese people living in the area. Frequently for such Japanese people, their interest in these classical Japanese artforms that they studied at ACFJT developed during their time abroad rather than during their time in Japan. This is reflective of a common tendency for migrants to become more interested in aspects of their culture while outside of their native country than they previously had been while residing in it.

Another draw to ACFJT for Japanese people in the Paris area were French language classes specifically designed for Japanese students. It was common to see Japanese people who were involved in either the cultural or language classes, or sometimes both, spend additional time at ACFJT outside of class times, often in the lobby and library areas, through which relationships with fellow students, and to a lesser degree, ACFJT staff, were often formed. Thus, through encouraging Japanese people to spend time at ACFJT, they were also encouraging relationships that often intersected with the TEC community and encouraging people to spend time in a Tenrikyo context, something which many would not have likely done in Japan. It was the "Japaneseness" of ACFJT and TEC that often drew non-Tenrikyo Japanese people to these centers while abroad. In this, we can see that the presence of the Japanese culture and language at ACFJT and TEC, and in the "TEC community," served as a bridge through which to connect with (and spread the fragrance of Tenrikyo to) Japanese people who otherwise might not have been interested in participating in a Tenrikyo-based activity or learning about the faith if in their home country, despite, or because of, it being where the religion is from.

The component of ACFJT that attracted the most Japanese people living in the area were the Japanese language classes for children of at least one Japanese parent. The majority but not all of whom were bi-cultural children of Japanese mothers and French fathers. Moreover, in addition to ACFJT functioning as a language school for these children, it also served as a place of community for many of their Japanese mothers who sat in the lobby and socialized with each other while their children were in class. I observed this most regularly during my first year studying at ACFJT at which time my classes were held on Saturday mornings when many children also had their classes. Usually, I could hear the lively chatter of these mothers in the lobby as I studied before and after my class in the center's adjacent library (and could also often hear the children's classes which sometimes included songs and laughter coming from an adjacent room while in class.)

These classes not only provided a place of language acquisition and social contact with other children of Japanese parents for the young pupils, but additionally also provided a legitimate space of socialization for many of their Japanese mothers. I use the descriptive word "legitimate" because in Japanese culture, though somewhat less than before, there remains an expectation for mothers to invest themselves significantly in the role of mother (and wife), it is often implied with this, in lieu of prioritizing their own individually motivated interests. Thus, in the framework of doing something for their child's upbringing, the time they pass at ACFJT was legitimated to others and to themselves in a way that simply going to a weekly outing for their own enjoyment would, in many cases, not have been.

That these children's Japanese classes also served as a social occasion for Japanese mothers to come together, through which they often benefitted from being with other Japanese women in similar situations, was further evidenced by the mother-toddler playgroup, niko-niko kurabu ("smile club") held monthly at TEC. This playgroup was for Japanese mothers and their children aged 0-3 years old. During my participation in this group as a helper for approximately one year of my fieldwork, almost all participants were non-Tenrikyo families. It was explained to me by multiple highly-involved Japanese female members of TEC who helped orchestrate this group as hinokishin (or previously helped, in the case of its founder who had since returned to Japan) that in addition to these Japanese mothers coming to this playgroup for their children to be exposed to the Japanese language in a social context with other children, they also came to socialize with other Japanese mothers in similar situations as themselves. Through coming, they received social support and a place to spend time with other Japanese mothers living in the area. The playgroup's founder had served in the important "wife" role of the acting TEC head and also as the president of the European Tenrikyo Women's Association during her time in France. I had the opportunity to meet her initially in Tenri City where she was living with her husband and children during my fieldwork there. I then saw her again several months later at TEC when she was there for a few days during an extended layover on a return trip back to Japan from the Republic of the Congo where she had traveled to assist with preparations for the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of the religion's presence in the country.

At her home in Tenri City, we chatted about the niko-niko club, amongst other topics, over a sumptuous dinner she had prepared for about ten guests, all of whom were Japanese except myself and almost all of whom were visiting from the Paris area or had previously lived there and knew each other through TEC, and for some, also through ACFJT. She explained to me that she became inspired to start the playgroup group out of a need she saw for such a group to provide a place where Japanese mothers living in France (and most often married to French men) often experienced difficulties and felt quite alone in their daily lives. The playgroup was mainly to provide a point of sociality and mutual support to such women. This perspective was also expressed by the several other women (Japanese local core members of the TEC community) who helped with the group.

For the orchestrators of this playgroup, the main Tenrikyo goals of making efforts to help others, encourage their happiness, and develop positive social relationships were put into practice through helping with this group. These motivations for hosting the group in which they spread "the fragrance of the faith" via non-markedly religious efforts made for the benefit of others existed alongside the more direct missionary aim of bringing non-Tenrikyo followers to this religious center through which they were exposed to the faith. Similar to non-Japanese, non-Tenrikyo people coming to TEC from the local population discussed in the previous subsection, their work to facilitate the presence of such people was accompanied with the hope, though not the expectation, that some would eventually become followers of the faith. This dual motivational presence of efforts made by Tenrikyo followers to put the faith into practice through working to help others and facilitate their happiness but also potentially bring them into the faith, as mentioned previously, was a common theme that I observed.

An interview that led to an invitation to a TEC Monthly Service and an unexpected opportunity

During my fourth semester of studying Japanese at ACFJT which coincided with my second year of doctoral studies, I began conducting semi-structured interviews with a variety of Japanese migrants living in the Paris area about their experiences there. By this time, I had been friends with Kanae for over a year and had already been to TEC for non-markedly religious events on the two occasions discussed previously. Despite the intriguing setting that I encountered there, I was not yet considering to focus my research on the collection of social actors linked to the religious center nor any other religiously related topic. For this fourth semester, I had Mr. Sugimoto as my Japanese teacher for the first time. In retrospect, I can see that this is the first time that my teacher was a Tenrikyo follower, though at the time, this was not something I thought much about. After conducting semi-structured interviews with about ten other Japanese migrants I knew through various contexts, I decided to request an interview with Mr. Sugimoto. To do so, I spoke to him after class about my research and asked if he would be interested in participating in an interview to help with it, which he accepted. This interview was the pivotal event that led shortly thereafter to my research becoming focused on its present topic.

In class, Mr. Sugimoto was outwardly rather conservative and inexpressive regarding his own life and feelings, which is somewhat typical of Japanese people, especially men of his age (fifties) and older. During our semester together leading up to this interview, he often mentioned that Japanese people have "poker faces." He said this partially as a joke as the Japanized English expression (pooka feesu) is rather funny in and of itself, but also to emphasize that Japanese people (from his perspective) do not outwardly express their thoughts and feelings nearly as much as Westerners do. This was said in order to increase our cultural competency when interacting with Japanese people by stressing the difference between Western and Japanese communication styles so as to avoid misunderstandings179 .

He spoke little about his personal life when teaching our classes and usually responded that he spent his weekends watching television if the question he regularly asked his students concerning what we did over the weekend was posed back to him. I suspected, though, that his life was not actually as uneventful as he indicated. I later came to know that his weekends were often spent doing Tenrikyo religious activities, such as the Monthly Services held once a month at TEC and also once a month at his home-based mission station that I would shortly thereafter attend with regularity for almost two years. His lack of mention of this prominent aspect of his life was reflective of the previously discussed caution Tenrikyo staff working at ACFJT have towards talking about their religion and the religious side of their lives when at the cultural center to maintain the distinction between ACFJT being a center for cultural activities and TEC being one for religious activities.

During this interview, I asked Mr. Sugimoto a variety of questions about his background and current situation using an open-ended questionnaire that served as the standard base of questions for the interviews I was conducting at that time. In addition to these generalized questions, I also posed some unscripted questions about ACFJT, TEC, and the religion of Tenrikyo to him. During the majority of our interview, he remained rather inexpressive and reserved when responding to my standard research questions but became much more animated and engaged once I started asking questions about ACFJT and TEC, and even more so once I started asking questions about the Tenrikyo religion itself. This is reflective of the fact that such moments of expressed interest in the religion are one of the reasons the cultural center exists and relatedly, largely why Tenrikyo missionaries work there.

In addition to the numerous questions I posed to Mr. Sugimoto, he in turn asked me about my own experience of living in France, where I had been residing at that time for the past three and a half years. I shared that I was having a hard time with certain aspects of life there and connectedly, changes that I could sense in myself that I did not view positively. Toward the end of the interview, he invited me to come to TEC's Monthly Service that would take place nine days later on the second Sunday of the month, if I was interested.

It is impossible to know exactly why he extended this invitation to me, but multiple factors likely contributed to his decision. ACFJT was, in principle, largely in existence to create openings, such as personal relationships formed via this cultural center, through which to spread the faith. Furthermore, Mr. Sugimoto was the head of a mission station in France and thus was tasked with spreading the faith of Tenrikyo and ideally drawing new followers into being rooted to his mission station and extendedly its lineage, though how these goals were interpreted and pursued was largely dependent on a combination of the individuals in question and their family and church backgrounds. In my asking him directly about TEC and the Tenrikyo religion, an opening to share the religion both through teaching me about it there on the spot and by inviting me to attend the ritual of the Monthly Service was facilitated.

Additionally, it is reasonable to posit that his invitation to come to the TEC Monthly Service was also partially due to my brief mention of the difficulties I was experiencing during that point of my life. This conjecture is principally because helping (or "saving180 ") people experiencing both physical and non-physical problems was a principal component of the religion and was the chief means through which people became followers of the path. Followers were encouraged to seek out people experiencing physical problems which Yoboku could attempt to address through administration of the Sazuke faith healing ritual. For people experiencing emotional or psychological difficulties, followers were encouraged to make efforts to alleviate their hardship through "listening with their innermost heart" and sharing the teachings of Tenrikyo, amongst other possible efforts. In both cases, the sought-after outcome was twofold. Firstly, such efforts were aimed at helping the person in question in a direct sense to alleviate their observable problem. Secondly, such benevolently framed engagements were often accompanied by a hope that they may potentially lead to the people being helped in this way becoming members of the faith.

His invitation to come to the upcoming TEC Monthly Service seemed like an interesting opportunity for my developing research that I was glad to accept and thus I indicated as such.

Several days before the Monthly Service, Mr. Sugimoto sent me an email181 with information regarding the upcoming Service.

Hello Margaret san 182 ,

Here is information about the Monthly Service. This month it will be this Sunday, the 12th from 10:30. I'll be there this Sunday.

The Monthly Service (Every 2nd Sunday of the month at 10:30 am) This rite is fundamental to the Tenrikyo religion. Oyasama, the foundress, conveyed this Service in her deepest love, so that together we may work for the salvation of all humanity, for peace and happiness in the world.

Points of this teaching are explained in a sermon after the Service. This celebration is open to all. http://www.tenrikyo.fr/fr/events/annual.php Best regards, SUGIMOTO Although I had already been to TEC twice, this would be my first time attending a Monthly Service or participating in any markedly religious Tenrikyo activity. When I arrived at TEC for the Monthly Service about ten minutes before the indicated start time of 10:30 am, I was greeted at the building's entrance by Mr. Sugimoto dressed in his ceremonial Tenrikyo hakama pant suit.

He greeted me warmly and took me upstairs to the sanctuary that Kanae had shown me a little over a year previously. He said that I had come on a very good day because there was a woman visiting from Hawaii who would be giving a talk in English183 . He also explained that there was a religious seminar coming up for which a visiting group from Bordeaux was sitting together in one area and a small group from England was sitting in another and invited me to sit with either group. I chose to sit in the "England" area where there was an open space between a young British woman, who I would learn the next day to be named Stephanie, and a young Japanese man with bright orange hair, who I would learn the next day to be named Kenta and that he had spent the past six months in London to improve his English.

As this was my first time to attend a Tenrikyo ritual, I attempted to take in as much information as I could. There were about thirty to forty people in attendance. Almost everyone was dressed in black "Japanese" ceremonial clothing. My first impression of the clothing protocol was that Japanese people wore the more elaborate and difficult-to-wear ceremonial garb of a kimono or hakama and non-Japanese people mainly wore the much less complicated happi coat over their normal clothes. Although this hypothesized initial assessment was largely accurate of the scene I was observing, I did not yet understand the reason for the presence of these two types of Tenrikyo clothing. I later learned that the formal kimono or hakama was actually indicative of who was performing in the Service ritual rather than purposefully associated with national origin. In practice, though, the two categorical distinctions were often one and the same because Monthly Service performers at TEC were predominately Japanese despite efforts to include more non-Japanese people in these ritual roles 184 .

In many ways, this July TEC Monthly Service resembled other Monthly Services held there throughout the year that I attended afterward. There were also some particularities of that month, though at the time, I didn't have anything to compare it with to recognize these differences. Most notably, as Mr. Sugimoto indicated to me when I arrived, the annual Tenrikyo European Seminar was beginning the following day. Thus, a significant number of people attending the ritual did not live locally and were not usually present at TEC Monthly Services. Additionally, this particular Monthly Service coincided with being only several days before the "Children's Pilgrimage to Jiba" festival in Tenri City. Consequently, many children and their accompanying parents (mainly mothers) were in Japan for this festival and to visit relatives and friends over summer vacation. Largely due to their being away for this important annual event in Tenri City that is a prominent part of the global Tenrikyo scene that encourages children to develop a rootedness in the religion at an early age, my first impression was that TEC Monthly Services were mainly attended by adults. In fact, they were entire family affairs that included a lively presence of children, most of whom spent the majority of the ritual time in a separate children's group, then later joined the main group for the communal lunch shared downstairs.

The Service began, as it did every month, with the strangely powerful sounds of gagaku music; chapter five is dedicated to a more in-depth exploration of the TEC Monthly Service and discusses this in more detail. As it played, the procession of men wearing black hakama pant suits and rectangular paper masks largely reminiscent of medical masks passed the offerings from one ritual actor to another before placing them in front of the central altar dedicated to God the Parent. I wanted to understand as much as I could of the powerful ritual scene that I was seeing for the first time and thus asked the orange-haired young man to my left in a whisper why they were wearing masks. He hesitated, trying to find the words in English to respond to my question, then whispered back, "So they don't breathe on God." His simple explanation contained within it a connection to the wider Japanese cultural repertoire present in many aspects of Tenrikyo, in this case being one in which one's breath can be seen as contaminating 185 and thus something which should not be directed toward the highly respected realm of the divine.

At the end of the Service, it was announced that there was still room in the English group of the seminar if anyone wished to join. At that time, I did not know what the seminar was, nor did I know much about TEC or the Tenrikyo religion. Thus, I did not even consider the possibility of participating in the seminar that was starting the next day when I heard this announcement since I assumed that it was meant for "members" of the religion, and not for someone such as myself as I understood the motivation of my presence being anthropological curiosity rather than a personal religious quest.

After the Service ended, everyone went downstairs to the basement-level multipurpose room for lunch, which that month was Japanese curry. I sat with Mr. Sugimoto and his wife, Yuko 186 , who I had met for the first time slightly earlier when she came over to me and introduced herself at the beginning of the Service. In the Tenrikyo model of organization, should I become more involved in the Tenrikyo faith, it would be the Sugimotos who would serve as my "spiritual parents," or from a stricter perspective, Mr. Sugimoto who would serve as my "spiritual parent" as he was the head of their home-based mission station which would shortly thereafter become my "home site of worship" for the next two years. At the time, though, I did not even know that such mission stations existed.

After discussing the Tenrikyo faith for a while with Mr. Sugimoto and Yuko and asking a variety of questions about different aspects of it, to which they were actively engaged and able to respond, Mr. Sugimoto mentioned that there was still space in the English-speaking seminar group and that I would be welcome to join if I was interested. Though I didn't realize it at the time, similar to most other missionary families, spreading the faith to others was positioned as one of their main goals and attracting new followers through their mission station, which as stated above, I was positioned as potentially becoming a member of should I enter into this religious world, was accorded high value.

He explained that the seminar was a three-week program, but that I would only have to commit to one week of attendance at a time and could decide later if I wished to attend only one week or all three. He added that I could stay at the center if I wished. Short-term residency at TEC during the seminar was actually a standard component of it despite his phrasing it simply as a possible option. I asked if it would be alright for me to attend the seminar even though I was not a follower of the religion as I was unsure if it would be appropriate for me to do so out of what I regarded as an academic rather than "spiritual" interest. Mr. Sugimoto reassured me that this would be fine.

186 Throughout my research, I referred to Mr. Sugimoto as "Sugimoto Sensei" ("sensei" an honorific suffix similar to "san" which literally means "teacher") and to his wife through the less-formal nominal reference of her first name with the standard honorific suffix attached ("Yuko san") which she used in first introducing herself to me and was the name she was most commonly referred to with at TEC. This is largely reflective of the fact that Japanese men are often referred to by their more formal surnames while Japanese women are more commonly referred to by their less formal first names.

His offer was unexpected but seemed like a potentially good opportunity for my research that I could take advantage of as I had recently quit my part-time job and had no other upcoming commitments other than the general goal of somehow progressing my thesis research. Though I was unsure what the seminar would be like, what I would learn from it, or what it may lead to, it seemed to hold potential to somehow be a fruitful participatory experience. Thus, I accepted Mr.

Sugimoto's invitation to attend at least the first week of it.

Upon this impromptu decision, I filled out a short registration form and Mr. Sugimoto showed me around TEC a little more, introducing me to a blur of people who would shortly become familiar faces included in the multiple layers and spheres of the "TEC community." I then returned home via a several hour commute on public transportation that would become a familiar journey traversed many times over the span of my fieldwork and packed a bag for the upcoming week.

The following morning, I returned to TEC to begin what would prove to be a much more intense but also much more important week than I had expected which would steer the next several years of my life and my thesis research in an unanticipated direction. I will later return to my experience of participating in the Tenrikyo European Seminar in chapters seven and eight. First, though, I will focus on the everyday side of TEC in the next chapter by discussing the site as a place where people live.

Chapter four: Residential life at TEC: the re-creation of a Tenrikyo residential model in a

French location a. The ebb and flow of TEC residents: an ongoing production of a Tenrikyo social model

The continuous sociality and ever-changing composition of people in the residential sphere of TEC As previously indicated, to understand the "TEC community," one must consider multiple spheres of this social collectivity. Closely connected to the sphere of ACFJT discussed in the previous chapter was the residential world of TEC. Included amongst the people who resided at TEC was the head of the center and his family, the young adult residential missionaries (most of whom worked as Japanese teachers at ACFJT), and sometimes other young adult Japanese followers who were socially, and often economically, sponsored by a Tenrikyo organizational body in Japan. These residents lived onsite together in a social model largely based in a broader Tenrikyo culture that was present at many other Tenrikyo sites. The residents of TEC were a central component of the "TEC community," among other reasons, because it was these residents who were most often at the center and they who usually functioned as hosts to people who were not core members of this social world. It was the general presence of such residents, though, rather than the individuals themselves, that was a constant component of the center's social composition.

The precise composition of this residential world was regularly in flux through the semi-regular introduction of newly arriving young adult "missionaries" from Japan who most often stayed at the center between one and four years. Although some of the individuals sent from Japan to TEC as residential missionaries did end up staying in France after the expected duration of their assignment had passed, the intended trajectory of their coming to France (and to TEC) was a temporary one. Generally, their time of living at TEC and being in France was positioned as part of their young adult personal formation before they married and settled into a more established "adult" life.

Similarly, the leadership of this center, that was categorically non-lineage-based, was also less permanently fixed than at lineage-based Tenrikyo sites of worship, a category which includes "mission stations," "branch churches," and "grand churches" that I discuss in further detail in chapter six. Although the position of TEC head is not permanent, it was generally significantly longer than that of the young adult missionaries. For the local social world of residential TEC life, it was fundamentally the center's overall social structure and traditions rather than the individual social actors involved that constituted its mode of sociality. The acting head of the center, along with his wife, also played an important role in shaping the day-to-day life of this site as it was they who were charged with most of the details involved in running the center and with providing supervision and guidance to the young adults who lived there.

Through both the directive role of the center's head, which was supported and strengthened through his family, and the ongoing presence of young adult residents who were inculcated with Tenrikyo and TEC cultures187 , the latter of which was transmitted to new residents by those who had already lived there for some time, a social and cultural constant was maintained throughout the ebb and flow of individual residents. Furthermore, the continuation of a broader Tenrikyo (and Japanese) cultural ambiance was brought about not only through the residents who were themselves the conveyers of its presence, but also through the materiality of the center. Though halfway across the world from where both the religion of Tenrikyo and the residential members of the TEC community were from, a close connection to their country and culture of origin was maintained, thereby rendering this site a place of familial grounding amidst the broader French landscape in which it was located.

As noted by Dubucs (2009: 21), using the example of a businessman going from a Sheraton hotel on one end of the world to a Sheraton on the other, travelling far does not guarantee "depaysement." Similarly, residential life at TEC was much like residential life at Tenrikyo sites of worship in Japan, albeit with certain differences, particularly in comparison to lineage-based sites. At TEC, in the more private and familial realm of residential life, the language of usage was Japanese, as was the mode of social interaction. Furthermore, even the materiality of the site was largely Japanese. For example, the hand soap dispensers were from Japan even though those available in France for purchase were essentially the same. While the residents of TEC were away from Japan, their homelife remained largely congruent to such a site in Japan, particularly if living at a Tenrikyo site there. In this, similar to as is the case of many other migrants, they continued to be largely "at home" in their private home-life and "abroad" when in more public contexts. Their place of residence being a place at which they remained "at home" while abroad was somewhat complexified, though, through the site of TEC also serving as a public site which regularly welcomed people from the broader Parisian, French, and European contexts in which it was geographically based.

Looking at a social world through the presence and spatial organization of its participants

Though generally not the focus of the majority of events that took place at TEC, the composition and spatial organization of the TEC residents was highly illuminative of its social world. While most TEC activities took place in its main building which housed its sanctuary and primary communal spaces, there were also several other buildings on TEC grounds which housed, in a very literal sense, important components of the "TEC community." These buildings included a structure directly adjacent to the main building where the acting head of TEC, his wife, and any children they had living at home resided. (The acting head couple during my fieldwork had no children. Previous heads of the center all did.) Slightly further away on the gated premises were two other residential buildings which principally housed the young adult missionaries from Japan. Male missionary residents stayed in one, female residential missionaries stayed in the other.

An illustration of the spatial layout of TEC grounds is shown hereafter. The building which housed the males was the more public of the two buildings. It was a three storied structure in which these young men lived communally in dorm-room type fashion on the top floor. During my fieldwork, this top floor was inhabited by a young man who served as the secretary of TEC and two young men who worked as Japanese teachers at ACFJT, each of whom held these positions and lived in this space for several years. The first and seconds floor of this building functioned as housing for short term guests (including myself) who stayed at TEC for various events, either as a standard component of the overall event, such as during the European Seminar, or an optional component, such as for the charity rummage sale.

Slightly out of sight from the general area of the TEC grounds and separated by a low wooden fence with a gate was the other building. The second floor of this building was occupied by the female counterparts of the young male residential missionaries. During the majority of my fieldwork, these female residents included a young woman who worked as a Japanese teacher at ACFJT for several years, the secretary of ACFJT 188 , and two young women sent to France by their church in Japan where they were both living in order to provide assistance to it (hinokishin) 189 . The reason for their stay in France for what was initially anticipated to be one year, then extended approximately one additional year, was that their church in Japan had recently extended their missionary efforts to the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo190 through mission stations under its supervision. In order to be able to welcome and communicate with these Congolese followers when they came to this church in Japan191 , its leadership wished to have French speakers there. These young women were assigned to fill this need192 . Thus, it was arranged for them to come to France and study the language at a private language school in Paris193 , during which time they stayed at TEC and participated in center life as staff members.

The ground floor of this building housed the young adult children of a previous TEC head couple 194 : the Miyamoto sisters. The living space of these two, and for a time three, sisters was comprised of their individual bedrooms, a bathroom, and an open space that held a kitchen and modest "living room" area. Though they were not categorized as visiting missionaries themselves, their connection to TEC and their residential position there was connected to the general pattern of long-term residents of the center being composed of people sent by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters (or a close organizational entity) from Japan to TEC for official "missionary" purposes.

These sisters were born and raised at TEC as the children of a previous head couple of the center.

When the two elder of these three sisters were in high school, their parents, along with their brother and younger sister, returned to Japan after their father's term as head of TEC ended, after which he assumed other Tenrikyo-related responsibilities in Tenri City. Because they were in high school at the time, it was deemed better for them to stay in France than to change countries at that point in their lives. Thus, they continued to live at the center under the guidance and supervision of the two TEC head couples who occupied this centrally important position for a number of years after their parents returned to Japan.

During my research, their younger sister, who had been in middle school when she left to Japan with her parents, came back to France (her country of birth, though not nationality), initially on a one-year "working holiday" visa after graduating from Tenri University, then again slightly later, initially to pursue graduate studies in Paris. While the Miyamoto sisters maintained more independent individualized lives than those of the young adult missionaries who lived at TEC, they also constituted an important contribution to this center's residential world. Furthermore, as they had lived at the center throughout the better part of their twenty-something year lives, they functioned as a living account of the center's history.

During the latter part of my two-year period of fieldwork, the three Miyamoto sisters moved out from TEC to a private two-bedroom apartment located directly behind the center. At TEC, these three young women were generally models of ideal Tenrikyo conduct through their contributions to the functioning of the center and how they got along harmoniously with others. When I saw one of them almost a year after my concentrated period of fieldwork had ended at a small goodbye dinner for one of the young adult residential missionaries, I learned that she had just moved out of the apartment she shared with her sisters and into a studio apartment. Her recent move, she explained, was because the three of them living together in what she described as a less than adequate amount of space was proving to be difficult and thus, it was decided that it would high number of people coming to TEC for an overnight event at which time the sisters opened their rooms to younger short-term female guests they knew. During my fieldwork, I stayed with them on one occasion.

be better for her to move elsewhere. She told me this in a matter-of-fact way which framed her move as a positive one 195 .

In my naivety, her move and her accompanying explanation was unexpected and revelatory in showing that even amongst these sisters, the Tenrikyo dispositional model of social harmony and grateful acceptance with what one has and one's present situation that was espoused in religious discourse and a notable part of Tenrikyo trainings and other gatherings did not translate automatically to their shared living arrangement being without difficulties that were deemed best to address pragmatically. My surprise was largely based on a combination of these sisters' displayed closeness and the communal style of living that was commonly part of and encouraged in Tenrikyo settings in which one shares one's living space and life closely with others. As they had been heavily involved in Tenrikyo contexts throughout their lives via both their personal histories, and extendedly also through their family that was prominently positioned in the religious organization, I had assumed that such a communal lifestyle would be a normalized part of their habitus. Such a presumed "Tenrikyo habitus," I thought, would discourage such difficulties from arising and encourage them to work to overcome whichever ones that did. The difficulties they encountered in living together in close quarters without much space and their method of addressing this problem demonstrated that the lives of the religious actors included in my study were complex and spanned beyond a simple enactment of the teachings without consideration to social and material realities.

In looking at these residential changes as expressions of the fluidity in the physical and social positions of members of the TEC community, it is interesting to note that this Miyamoto sister's move into a studio apartment in Paris was followed sometime later by a subsequent move to Tokyo, where she had found work196 . This second move was facilitated by the fact that her parents had chosen for all four of their children to have Japanese, rather than French, citizenship.

(Japan does not allow dual citizenship. In my observations, most young adult children of Japanese Tenrikyo missionary families in Europe have Japanese rather than European citizenship due to their parent's choice, which I will further discuss in chapter six.) Also included at TEC amongst its residents, though less apparent, was a collection of honeybees197 housed in a wooden hive installed discretely behind a small gated area with an old shed in the front yard. These bees belonged to and were cared for by a fifty-some year-old French man named Jacques: a long-time member of the TEC community who lived in the Paris area and came to know the faith through his Tenrikyo born and raised Japanese wife. Jacques had somewhat recently become involved in beekeeping and in addition to working on a honey farm, also had his own collection of honeybees. As Jacques and his wife lived in an urban apartment with no outdoor space of their own and TEC, at which he quite evidently felt at home, had space available for him to use, his honeybees came to be included in the center's long-term residents. I include mention of these bees because they serve as an example of the strong sense of familial belonging that numerous members of the TEC community had to this center in which although they did not live there, it functioned as a secondary home of sorts, which often entailed both responsibilities via contributions to the center and also a comfortable sense of belonging.

Fluidity and consistency as coexisting features of TEC

The fluidity and non-fixedness of the composition of residents who together constituted this constructed familial context and influenced its operation was an established feature of TEC. In contrast to positions held in lineage-based sites of worship, such as church head minister, which were often hereditarily based and permanent, TEC staff positions were neither hereditary nor permanent. The visiting young adult Japanese teachers applied to serve in this position, which was generally for a fixed period198 . The head of TEC was a role nominated by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters for durations of time that were generally not predetermined199 but understood not to be lifelong engagements.

In the non-fixed nature of the role of TEC head, a variety of perspectives and modes of operation were correspondingly brought to the center with each change in its leadership. Each TEC head couple had their own slightly different way of running the center and understanding the religion.

Thus, with each of the four head couples who served in this position, a variety of accompanying subtle differences in how the center was operated accompanied their presence. Additionally, as humans generally do not remain cognitively static as they progress through life, changes in how they orchestrated the center also came about during each subsequent head's leadership period.

Although my two-year period of concentrated observation did not permit me to personally see changes that came about over longer periods of time, I did see evidence that how I was observing TEC to exist at present was not indicative of how the center had always operated nor necessarily how it will always be operated in the future.

One notable example was who precisely could serve as a ritual performer in the center's chiefly important ritual of the Monthly Service, to which the next chapter is dedicated. In general, to serve in this ritual role, one needed to have attained the status of being a Yoboku. The acting head during my fieldwork, though, was somewhat open to case-based allowances for people who had not acquired this status, that was only attainable in Japan, to also be able to serve in this important ritual role at TEC. This was brought to my attention through an instance of being encouraged myself to perform in the TEC Monthly Service despite not having attained this status.

At this point, I had twice attended the three-week Tenrikyo European Seminar held at TEC and had also attended seven of the nine Besseki lectures in Tenri City required to become a Yoboku. I had also performed in the smaller Monthly Services held at the Sugimotos' home-based mission station each month, for which the status of Yoboku was not a requirement. Despite my familiarity with and involvement in this religious context, I continuously chose to abstain from certain religious engagements in accordance with what I viewed as being correct for me to do as an interested researcher and person connected to the religion who did not self-identify as a follower of it. When it was suggested to me that I perform in the TEC Monthly Service, I cited that I was not a Yoboku with the hope that this reason would suffice for why I could not do so.

I was told by Mr. and Mrs. (Yuko) Sugimoto, though, that Mr. Kawakubo could allow me to perform in it anyway because I had completed the European Seminar. They explained that a young Congolese follower I knew from her frequent presence at TEC had been allowed this exemption because she had expressed a desire to do so and had participated in both the European Seminar and a similar training in her country of origin but had not (yet) acquired the status of Yoboku in Tenri City. Thus, Mr. Kawakubo deemed it acceptable that completion of the seminar could substitute for having the status of Yoboku in this instance. The Sugimotos told me that a similar allowance could be made for myself. (I declined because I did not feel it would be appropriate for me to perform in this ritual because I did not view myself to be a follower of the religion.) The allowance for non-Yoboku being able to perform in the TEC Monthly Service was a new adaptation deemed appropriate by its acting head, Mr. Kawakubo. As this was the center's chiefly important ritual around which other parts of TEC operated, this subtle change in who precisely could be eligible to serve as a ritual performer in it impacted who was positioned as an "insider" in this regard and why. This is just one instance of how not all dynamics at TEC were fixed. Some changed over time in relation to its involved actors, including the center's acting head couple and others living on site at TEC. Beyond the acting head and his family, the other residents were also, and to a greater degree, a transitory component of the center's residential "family," thereby influencing how the center existed at any given moment. The fluidity of their composition was influential to the center's sociality and was encouraged through the two-way flow of individuals coming to and leaving the center. Though all residents were Japanese and from Tenrikyo backgrounds, they sometimes differed significantly regarding the particular Tenrikyo backgrounds from which they came, along with various other factors related to their personal backgrounds and personalities.

During the two years of my focused fieldwork at TEC, a similar ambiance and mode of operation was maintained despite the changing composition of its specific residents. Other than the head couple, the center's secretary, and one male missionary teacher, the entirety of individuals living at the center when I began my two-year period of concentrated fieldwork was different than those at the end of this duration. Despite the ongoing change in its residents, the overall practices and micro-culture of residential life there remained similar throughout my fieldwork. In this, the social continuity at the center that expanded beyond the precise composition of its residents was demonstrated. This consistency in the structure of the center, which was influenced by all residential missionaries sharing in a general Tenrikyo and Japanese habitus despite their numerous differences, promoted an ongoing mode of sociality at the center. Its steadily present Tenrikyo culture encouraged, amongst other things, a familial sense of community for these residents which then emanated out to others who interacted with them, largely though not exclusively at TEC. For some of these residents, their influence to the broader group after their time of living at TEC came to an end was primarily through their memory and impact during their period of residency, while for others who remained elsewhere in France thereafter, they remained active members of the TEC community, though in a different way than during their residential time at TEC.

Young adult missionaries who end up staying in France: a transferal from the residential TEC family to the long-term TEC community

The distinction between the young adult missionaries who resided at TEC and the "long-term core TEC community" was in certain instances less separate than is suggested through my referring to them with two separate categorical titles. Not only did these young adult residential missionaries significantly contribute to the character of both TEC and ACFJT during their several year assignments in this capacity, but the more long term, core community of TEC was also importantly influenced by individuals who first came to France and to TEC in this capacity and then continued to live in France thereafter. During my fieldwork, there were four such men 200 who were key long-term core members of the TEC community. Their influence in the composition of this group was further extended by the women they subsequently married, all of whom moved from Japan to France upon marriage, and the children that three of these four couples had. These families were regularly present at TEC events and were closely implicated in its inner sphere that included both its social world and the orchestration of a variety of tasks at the center, such as helping with events and gatherings that took place there. This demonstrates that while the visiting missionaries discussed in this chapter initially came to France for a determined period of time, and their local participation in TEC life was regarded as most likely temporary, sometimes their presence transitioned to one that was more permanent. With their increased duration in the social world of TEC, their role changed from one situated in the shorter-term and hierarchically 200 My language exchange partner, Kanae, was the first female to come as a missionary teacher to TEC.

lower social position of a young adult residential missionary to that of a higher status, long-term member of the TEC community. In addition to their hierarchical status changing in accordance with their increased longevity in the group, it was also due to their increased age and heightened level of responsibilities.

The familiarity and belonging that these young missionaries who ended up staying in France developed with TEC during their initial years in this country while living at the center was not only maintained, but also later transferred to their new family members. This was reflective of the collective lineage system of both Tenrikyo and Japanese society more broadly in which by being a member of a household (or lineage-based site of worship), one was also linked to the connections of that household (or lineage-based site of worship). Throughout my research beyond this specific categorical instance of belonging via social connection, being linked to others through intermediary connections was an important contributing factor to the existence of the "TEC community." This included multiple layers and degrees of connection beyond personally linked individuals to be extended to the broader interconnectedness of the wider group.

Three of the young adult missionaries who ended up staying in France later founded home-based mission stations in this country as part of their respective church lineages that were categorized as "child sites" of the churches in which they were raised that were charged with the supervision of these offspring sites. Although these supervising sites and church lineages were not directly included in the social world of TEC, their important connection with those who were shows the multiple Tenrikyo spheres that were intermeshed to varying degrees. Included among these three young adult missionaries who later founded lineage-based sites was Mr. Sugimoto.

The fourth such person who had previously served as a young adult residential missionary, then transitioned to becoming a more-long term part of the TEC community was Mr. Kawakubo. After initially living at TEC as a temporary Japanese teacher, he later returned from Japan to again live at the center after he was nominated by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters to serve as its head. His return to TEC in the capacity of this leadership position included, amongst other changes, a move in housing from the communal dorm-type living arrangement of the young adult missionaries to the more autonomous and spacious living quarters positioned closer to the main building that was reserved for the acting TEC head and his family. I mention this change in housing because it is materially illustrative of the non-fixed positionality of key social actors of this site and its connected community in which the structure remained largely fixed, while there was movement and change regarding the people involved.

Another example of a residential role change that occurred at TEC from that of a young adult missionary to the longer-term role of TEC head that is accompanied with an increased age, a higher hierarchical status, and a longer envisioned presence at the center that was echoed during my fieldwork there was that of Mr. Miyamoto. I use the word "echoed" because although Mr.

Miyamoto and his wife had already moved back to Japan approximately a decade prior to my spending time at TEC, their daughters, as stated previously, continued to live at TEC during the majority of my fieldwork. Furthermore, Mr. Miyamoto201 also remained at TEC through his lasting memories and influence that endured among many members of its community well after he returned to Japan. His continued "presence" often transcended individual memories to exist in the wider TEC community's collective understanding of and approach to the religion and also its communal long-term history. It is interesting to note that in both Mr. Kawakubo and Mr.

Miyamoto's changing roles at TEC, they later came to occupy the quasi-parental role of TEC head to the young residential staff after they had first come to stay at the center in the hierarchically subordinate young adult role of several year missionaries. In this, one can see this change as being akin to a "son" later becoming a "father," thereby manifesting the familial lifepath that is largely considered ideal in Tenrikyo, though in this case through non-permanent, non-kin roles.

A more recent and somewhat different development in the growing number of TEC missionaries who ended up staying in France, becoming long-term, core members of the TEC community, was a female missionary teacher named Ayuka who lived at TEC during the majority of my fieldwork. Several months after ending her scheduled term of service at TEC, she married Genji, a Martinican born and raised Franco-Japanese son of a Japanese Tenrikyo woman and a French man who came to know the faith through his wife. Ayuka first met Genji at TEC when he came to the center, combining trips to France for work with visits to TEC, a site with which he had a familial connection as Genji's parents initially lived as a couple in the Paris area, at which time they were active members of the TEC community. Later, they moved to the French island of Martinique where they founded a mission station and later, a small cultural center and Japanese language school at which Ayuka would later work as a Japanese teacher after already having gained experience of doing this at ACFJT.

Although the island of Martinique is located almost halfway around the world from TEC, as part of France, the mission station of Genji's family was connected with TEC. The connection between TEC and this Caribbean site was evidenced, for example, by occasional mentions of it appearing on news posted on the TEC bulletin board in the main hallway of this building and also by the occasional treat of Martinican chocolate brought as a gift from someone of this family visiting from the island202 that was included in refreshments offered at the center. The enduring relationship between this Martinican-based family and the TEC community, particularly its core long-term members, was also evidenced in other ways. For example, through the publicly viewable exchanges between Genji and core members of the TEC community living in Europe on social media that evidenced the interconnectedness between the microcosm of Tenrikyo on the island of Martinique, principally through Genji's family, and that of the social world of TEC. Through Ayuka's marriage to Genji, which relocated her to this French island, Ayuka's precise position of inclusion in the TEC community shifted but it did not end. Instead, she became a more permanent, though less-local, member of it. In this example of the fluidity of this social collectivity, the ever-changing composition of its involved social actors and the precise role that the implicated individuals played at a particular time in the construction of the broader group was manifested. Ayuka becoming a more permanent part of the small Tenrikyo presence in Martinique after she had previously been a core residential member of TEC and a teacher at ACFJT transported her close connection to, experiences at, and knowledge of TEC and ACFJT to this Caribbean-based Tenrikyo site, further strengthening the connection between these contexts and adding to the complexity of their relationship.

While the construction of the broader, multi-layered TEC community occurred through multiple forms, it was often such links between individuals (and extendedly, their families) that functioned as social glue through which the broader social world of the "TEC community" was formed and solidified. Its fluidity was a key factor in its construction and maintenance which included these young adult residential missionaries who sometimes became longer term members of this social collectivity. Because this social group was not fixed to a set composition of people nor to the occupation of particular roles by particular people who together comprised the group, it was sustained continuously over time despite various changes in its composition. Despite this fluidity, two notable features of the residential sphere of TEC were its familial nature and the inhabitance of roles that were reflective of a broader Tenrikyo sociality. The next part of this chapter is dedicated to this component of life at the center.

b. The "residential TEC family": inhabiting familiar roles in a Parisian context

The structurally hierarchical model of the residential "family" of TEC According to Tenrikyo teachings, on a very profound level, all humans are equal. In practice, whether at TEC or in other Tenrikyo contexts, hierarchical differentiation was an influential factor in the roles that were assumed and in the social interactions that occurred. This factor's prominent presence in Tenrikyo contexts was largely in accordance with the hierarchically structured social model present throughout Japanese culture in which such differentiations are an influential feature of the overall social organization of the group and of the social interactions that occur between the implicated social actors. The center's head couple lived in a completely private residence which in my observations was at no time open to the greater TEC community. This was somewhat in contrast to the other buildings on TEC grounds which housed the long-term young adult TEC residents that on occasion also welcomed short-term guests coming to the center. This included the private rooms of the Miyamoto sisters when the number of people staying at the center for a particular event exceeded the guest space available in the rooms generally used for this purpose. Another notable difference between the TEC head couple and the young adult residential missionaries that is likely to have been influential in the types of housing these two categories of residents lived in was that the head couple usually resided at TEC for longer than a decade whereas the young adult missionaries usually only lived there for several years. As a result, TEC served as more of a "home" for the head couple whereas for the young adult missionaries, their living situation was more suited for a "dormitory" type of housing.

Both the physical positions of the housing of these young adult residents and the partially public nature in which they were not accorded the same level of spatial autonomy as the generally middle-aged head couple (and any children living with them at home) was illustrative of the hierarchical difference between the two categorical types of TEC residents. While the age203 and expected duration of stay of these young adults was a factor in their residentially manifested hierarchical status, it was also connected to their social positions within the group. The head couple occupied a higher-ranking role which carried with it higher expectations and demands than those of these younger visiting missionaries, and correspondingly, the head couple was accorded a more autonomous and private space than that of the younger and shorter-term missionaries who were housed communally.

Such a housing differentiation based on hierarchical position was not unique to TEC or to similar non-lineage-based mission centers throughout the world. Rather, it was also a commonly present factor at many lineage-based Tenrikyo sites of worship, including numerous Tenrikyo churches in Japan that I visited or was told about. Often in these sites, there was a more autonomous place of residence for the site's head and his 204 family positioned adjacent to its sanctuary and a more modest and communal residence for the support staff who also lived on its grounds. To offer a concrete example of this structural tendency, I will use the lineage-based church in Japan that was positioned as the "parent church" of the mission station headed by Mr. Sugimoto. This branch church, where I spent a week of the total month and a half of my fieldwork in Japan, which I further discuss in chapter nine, clearly illustrated the hierarchical model commonly present in Tenrikyo that was materially manifested through the housing arrangement of those living on site. Mr. Sugimoto's family and another family have both lived on the grounds of this church for several generations, since an ancestor of each of these families was "saved205 " through physical healing via the Sazuke for a grave ailment, as has historically been the most common way people came to become followers of the path. Out of gratitude, they thereafter chose to reside at the church to provide assistance to the church, its lineage, and the path of Tenrikyo, as did their patrilineal descendants206 .

It should be noted that, as indicated previously, most Tenrikyo followers are members of the religion through similar means to Mr. Sugimoto's family in which an ancestor became a follower through healing (most often physical and via the Sazuke) in combination with belief in the faith due to the manifested "truth" and benefits they understood to have received through it. Subsequent generations base their own "belief" in (or adherence to) the path on their ancestor's result-based belief as being a legitimate source of authority, thereby, at least ideally, negating the need for first-hand evidence of the faith's legitimacy and truthfulness. As noted by Sperber (1996), in a number of contexts, people often believe in the efficacy of a certain practice because throughout multiple generations the social members of a group have been born into a world in which the practice is believed to be effective: such beliefs largely rest on confidence in the elders purporting the beliefs. This is commonly the case in multi-generational Tenrikyo families. The benefits of the path are not only attributed to one's personal experience, but also to the confidence and importance accorded to the faith by one's elders. As a result of having confidence in their ancestors as a legitimate source of information, they also have confidence in what their ancestors believed to have been evidenced through their personal experiences. In this, those who have been connected to this "truth," either through themselves or via their ancestors, for longer periods of time, thereby deepening their understanding of this "truth," are accorded an increase in seniority and thus in hierarchical position. This factor was not something that I heard commonly discussed in a direct manner but was demonstrated when the manifested hierarchical model that was often present throughout the religion was thought about from a particular analytical perspective.

For people who newly embraced the faith, a common motivating factor to do so remained the benefits that the path provided (or was understood to provide) for the alleviation of a problem. In the modern European context in which my research was primarily based, it was most often in response to a psychological rather than physical problem. This tendency was something I noted in my own observations, heard from numerous Japanese and non-Japanese followers living in Europe who I met through TEC, and received agreement on from other followers to whom I mentioned this working hypothesis.

Coming back to the multi-familial grounds of the branch church at which Mr. Sugimoto was raised, while the two families who provided assistance to this branch church and its extended lineage shared in much of the church's communal residential life with the head minister's family, there was a marked and notable hierarchical difference between these families. One of these differences was that the head minister's family lived in a more lavish building located directly next to the main church building in which the sanctuary was located, while the other two families lived in a more modest, though still comfortable, building slightly farther away from the main building. It was common for such a model to be present at other churches and grand churches in Japan.

As many of the young adult missionaries and others I include in the "core TEC community" were born into, raised at, and\or lived at a Tenrikyo church in Japan prior to their coming to TEC, such a residential structure reflective of the group's built-in hierarchy was often a previous part of their social habitus that was then continued at TEC. Also transported from the greater Tenrikyo social structure, and connectedly to a lesser degree Japanese social structure, to TEC via its residents and most of its "core members" was how gender and positional roles were enacted and embodied in this European context. The head of TEC and his wife were exemplary models of this relational role-based model through their joint collaboration in performing complementary roles, which the next subsection is dedicated to discussing.

The head couple of TEC: an example of husband and wife working together through a "two-in-one" relationship

Since its inception, in accordance with the most commonly followed model of leadership at Tenrikyo sites of worship, TEC has been directed by a series of male heads and their wives207 . All of whom have been from Japan and thus brought with them their Japanese habitus, including their conceptions and enactment of social relations. The tendency of Tenrikyo sites to be operated by a married couple in which the husband serves as the official head and his wife occupies the role of foundational support is reflective of the important Tenrikyo teaching of "two-in-one" (futatsuhitotsu) relationships manifested most frequently, though not exclusively, through husbands and wives performing complementary roles together toward a common goal. It is also reflective of traditional Japanese gender roles which feature a similar collaborative model. While not mandatory in the religion, as taught by the foundress and as was the general societal opinion during the time she lived, the social unit of husband and wife (fūfu) is positioned as the ideal model of adult existence208 .

At TEC, the male head of the center officiated religious ceremonies and served as the center's leader and public representative 209 . This was in accordance with males being associated with the element of sky, which is positioned above, and thus viewed to indicate an adeptness at overseeing things. His wife also occupied a crucial role at the center, though a less visible one, in congruence with women being associated with the element of earth, and thus adept at serving in a "foundational" role comprised principally of attending to a variety of important, largely behind the scene, tasks. While the role of TEC head wife may appear less significant than that of her husband's role due to his being publicly positioned at the forefront of the center, from an internal perspective, the role of husband and wife are equal, though different, parts of a greater whole 210 which collaboratively contributed to the site's functioning and advancement of the religion. I heard from numerous followers that an explanation of the naturalness of these gender roles can be found in the Tenrikyo creation story in which one of the five female divine providences, depicted through animal symbology, is that of a nine-headed serpent, thereby showing the adeptness of women to attend to many tasks at once. In comparison, its male counterpart, represented by a single-headed dragon, was cited as evidence that men are more suited to focusing their minds and efforts in a singular direction.

A succinct description of the concept of complementary "two-in-one" relationships is contained in the following excerpt from an official Tenrikyo website operated by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters:

The foundation of human existence is seen as coming from the providence of "oneness in two," referring to pairs of opposite characteristics and functions--symbolized by such things as earth and heaven, fire and water, and warmth and moisture--coming together as one. (Fukaya b, date unknown.) During their time at TEC, these couples remained closely connected to Tenri City both in a spiritual sense, as all Tenrikyo followers ideally do, and also in an administrative sense because TEC is directly linked to Tenrikyo Church Headquarters. This direct connection to the faith's administrative and spiritual center was notably different than the lineage-based sites of worship in Europe and elsewhere, excluding grand churches, which were directly connected to Tenrikyo Church Headquarters.

Along with all TEC heads and their wives having been raised in Tenrikyo church or grand church families, they were all religiously shaped during their formative years by having spent a significant amount of time in Tenri City through which they brought an experientially-derived imbuement of the religion from this pilgrimage town to TEC. Similar to many other core members of the TEC community, formative experiences such as having attended one of the two Tenrikyo boarding high schools, Tenri University, and/or various religious trainings held there, as Women sometimes serve in the leadership role of a Tenrikyo site of worship. Similarly, outside of the question of who holds these religious leadership positions, how the roles of husband and wife are more broadly understood and enacted differed and was reflective of numerous factors beyond this religiously-based perspective, such as their individual personalities, family and cultural backgrounds, and their present social milieu.

well as countless pilgrimages throughout their lives were also included in their broader life experiences.

Although all men who had served as TEC heads were raised in Tenrikyo sites of worship and had spent significant portions of time in Tenri City, the precise hierarchical position within the greater religious organization that these four men were born into varied significantly. For example, the head of TEC during my fieldwork was the younger son of a small Tenrikyo branch church whose birth position would not usually have accorded him a hierarchically important position within the

The head couple of TEC as "TEC parents": the parent-child relational model's centrality to the spiritual, organizational, and social sides of the religion

Even more prominent in Tenrikyo than the relational model of husband and wife was that of parent and child. In accordance with the religious conceptualization of God the Parent and the foundress as loving parents who care for and guide humans as their children, this parent-child relationship was extended beyond that of being between humans and these two parental religious' figures to also exist as an omnipresent relational form in the faith in two other major ways.

Firstly, though not directly applicable to TEC, the organizational structure of the religion mirrors this parent-child relationship in that followers are rooted to a particular site of worship (the head of which is referred to as their "spiritual parent,") that is in turn generally overseen by a "parent church," which is overseen by its parent church if there are more links in its church lineage, before arriving at Tenrikyo Church Headquarters (and the sacred point of the Jiba). As I further discuss in chapter six, this lineage-based organizational structure exists similarly within the wider sphere of Japanese society but did not include TEC because it was not a lineage-based site.

Secondly, in Tenrikyo, a significant amount of emphasis is placed on the relationship between parents and children and, as in many other religious traditions, on the benefits of marrying and having children, though generally neither were framed as imperative, and a variety of life situations existed and were most often accepted in the faith214 .

In Tenrikyo discourse, occupying the role of "parent" was regarded as a primary way through which one may increase one's "spiritual maturity." Parenthood was commonly positioned as an exemplary way through which one could come to better understand how God the Parent feels toward humans as its children and thus, this role was encouraged as an important life experience.

Key to an understanding of the parent's role in this parent-child relationship is the concept of "parental love," which is a highly prominent part of the religion that was included in much of its written and spoken discourse. The short text included hereafter is exemplary of Tenrikyo discourse in which the benevolent parental guidance of God the Parent and the foundress as we progress spiritually was emphasized. It is an excerpt from "The Doctrine of Tenrikyo" 215 (1993: 24), which is a key text in the religion 216 , including as a standard instructional material in Tenrikyo trainings, that many followers at TEC, and extendedly elsewhere, were familiar.

God the Parent not only created human beings and the world but has watched over our growth with unending parental love, providing us with training in the seasonable times appropriate to our growth. The development of humankind and our cultures is entirely due to the gracious providence of God the Parent. In one's enactment of the role of parent, one ideally would be seeking to model one's assumption of this role after the parental models of God the Parent and Oyasama, though it was understood that as humans, it would not be the same as what was put forth by these divine figures. This parent-child relational model and its corresponding roles were extended beyond the lineage-based organizational structure of the religion and the personal sphere of the family to also exist in other contexts. At TEC, it was the head and his wife who functioned largely as the "parents" of the site, thereby taking on this parental role, but in a slightly different way. For example, it was Mr. and Mrs. Kawakubo, most commonly Mr. Kawakubo, who extended invitations to people at TEC, including myself, to spend time at the center outside of standard event times, such as occasional invitations to stay for dinner, etc. In this, they functioned as hosts of the center similar to as though it was their private home. This head couple made a point to greet anyone who came to the center for the first time or was otherwise not yet a fixed presence there, such as when people came to Monthly Services or TEC events who were not commonly present in these settings. At such times, Mr. Kawakubo was most often more in the forefront operating as the representative host of the center than his wife, who was often busy elsewhere taking care of other tasks important to the event's overall functioning, often remaining in the background while providing essential support to the overall scene, as is typical of the female role in Tenrikyo through their "foundational" position.

Additionally, demonstrative of this couple functioning as the "parents" of this center was that they were responsible for looking after and overseeing the young adult missionaries who came from Japan and lived at TEC. This responsibility was expressed, for example, during my second year of participation in the seminar at which time Mr. Kawakubo served as one of the French cohort instructors while his wife worked one floor below in the kitchen. During the particular week that this account took place, he was teaching the theoretical class on the Mikagura-uta songs for the Service ritual and their accompanying sacred dances for which we sat in the classroom and studied the dances through an "academic" model. This was largely via a manual of the dances which included step-by-step illustrations of the dance moves with their accompanying Japanese lyrics and their word-by-word French translations written below each gesture.

In accordance with Mr. Kawakubo's personality and holistic approach to exploring the religion, our conversations during his seminar classes often spanned beyond the precise topic of the session. While Mr. Kawakubo was talking about the importance of the Service, he told us that the one thing that he was very strict about with the young adults staying at the center he was charged with supervising was: they must perform the Service every morning and evening without fail. He expanded on this point by saying that he can be flexible about a lot of other things, but if they were not performing the Service, then there was basically no point of them being there; there are lots of ways a person can be in France and teach Japanese but this was not the principal reason the young adults staying at TEC were there. Rather, their main reason for being in France and living at the center was to serve as Tenrikyo missionaries and an essential element of this was to keep the faith central in their lives. Mr. Kawakubo explained to us that the regular performance of the Service was an important component to maintaining the faith in themselves and connectedly, transmitting it to others. This being the actual goal of the Tenrikyo program that sent them to France.

The fatherly role Mr. Kawakubo took on toward the young adult missionaries under his care was clearly visible through his choosing which issues to be strict about with versus which issues to be more lenient on, just as parents often do for children under their care. To a large extent, the guidance and regulations put forth by those who serve in the role of heading Tenrikyo sites was largely reflective of their particular background, personality, and perspectives in combination with widely shared understandings of the broader group, similar to how the role of parent is assumed in kinship-based families.

Similarly, the role of head wife assumed by Eriko Kawakubo and the previous women who served in this position was for each woman a combination of commonly shared and individual components. Largely, the role of "head wife" was reflective not only of norms followed in a variety of Tenrikyo contexts but also that of the "traditional" female role of wife and mother in Japanese culture. In accordance with this Japanese female role, similar to how it was assumed in Japanese Tenrikyo contexts, it was generally women who were responsible for meal preparations and a variety of other behind the scenes tasks. Eriko's conformity to this role was manifested in a variety of ways, including sartorially through the Japanese-style apron that she often wore at the center, not only when in the kitchen preparing food but also more generally, just as Japanese wives\ mothers often don this attire that functionally serves as the uniform of their role. That both the male head and his wife were in conformity with these traditional, gender-based parental roles was largely naturalized by both the head couple themselves and also the majority of people with whom they regularly interacted (i.e. Japanese Tenrikyo followers). Through their performance of these parental roles, a traditional Japanese family structure was partially created in the residential sphere of life at the center, thereby encouraging a social cohesion between those involved which extended beyond these residents to the broader social world of the center.

The ever-changing composition of the "residential TEC family," the changing orchestration of center life

Important to the construction of this familial feel was the inclusion of the center's young adult residents who together with this head couple constituted the residential core of the broader group. These young adults were an ever-present component of the continually changing, residential "family" who lived together and shared their lives during their time of living at TEC. Though their length of stay at TEC was more temporary than that of the center's head and his family, they, too, were an important component of its social world. Their perpetual presence was an important contributor to the existence of the "TEC community" that was centered upon this site as it was largely from these residential young adults that the center's behind the scenes, day-today life existed and was communicated to others. It was also largely through them that the social "fragrance" of the center was communicated and expanded to its broader social sphere. Although these young adult missionaries were not the sole contributors to the construction of a community feel at TEC, they were key contributors to it.

The individual young adult residents themselves were in a constant state of arriving, staying for a while, and leaving TEC. This was a prominent feature of the site's residential world and thus, of the feeling of TEC's somewhat fluid yet "close-knit217 " community. It was not the individual residents as much as their generalized presence which provided the continuation of a Japanese Tenrikyo mode of sociality at this center located halfway across the world from its place of origin. Despite their general presence being the most prominent contributing component, the precise composition of residents was also influential to life at the center. A simple example of the changing composition of residents that was accompanied with a change in how the center internally functioned was told to me by one of the Miyamoto sisters in a casual chat that took place between us while sitting in the library\ lounge area of TEC where people spent amical, often casual, moments together. This particular account took place on a late summer Sunday afternoon, after most people who had been there earlier in the day for a large multi-day event had gone home. While sitting together on couches in the far end of the room, sharing a moment of relaxation after the highly energized event had dissipated, this long-time resident of the center reflected on its current residential composition in comparison to previous times.

Currently, there were more women than men staying at the center: a change from how it had been when she was growing up there during which time its residents were mostly male. This difference was largely due to the fact that the young adult missionaries sent from Japan to work as Japanese language teachers at ACFJT were all male until 2013, when the first young woman was sent to TEC in this capacity 218 . In talking about this change, she mentioned how much work it had often been for her mother when she was the head wife of TEC because there had not been many female staff to help her with the female tasks she was charged with at the center, such as preparing meals 219 . When I was conducting fieldwork at the center there were more women than men, thereby rendering meal preparations and other "female" tasks less labor-intensive for those involved as the work was divided between more people. This is just one of the many examples I heard from people who have been closely connected to TEC over long durations of time regarding how the center has changed. For those who are at TEC for only a short period, it is easy to think that the center's mode of operation and social composition have remained generally fixed over time, just as I mistakenly did when I was initially becoming acquainted with the center. In fact, the longer one is involved in this community and spends time at this center, the more one can see that it has been a site of evolution, change, and social fluidity which nevertheless has maintained continuity and stability despite these changes. This was largely brought about through the continuation of a Tenrikyo model of daily life as it existed in Japan, which the next segment of this chapter discusses.

c. The maintenance of a Tenrikyo structure of daily life

Bridging residential life at TEC and other Tenrikyo sites

The continuity of the social ambiance of the residential side of TEC was largely sustained through the structure of life at the center. Connectedly, the broader TEC community, which was highly influential to, and in turn was influenced by, this group also maintained a continuity that was evidenced through numerous comments made by long-term members. This continuity in both the sphere of residential life and also the broader "TEC community" was due to numerous contributing factors. One of which being the structural factors that influenced the social interactions and experiences that occurred in these micro and macro social contexts.

While some aspects of day-to-day life at TEC were somewhat unique to this Parisian center, other aspects were similarly present in many other Tenrikyo contexts. Such inter-site similarities facilitated newly arriving members of this residential community to become part of its sociality with relative ease, while its unique aspects encouraged their time at TEC to contribute to their membership in the "club" of people who have lived there. The cultivation of this relationship to the center was most grounded in individuals who spent significant amounts of time there. To a lesser extent, shorter periods of time of staying at the center, such as during the three-week Europe Tenrikyo Seminar throughout which participants stayed onsite, also increased familiarly to the center, thereby also fostering in these participants an increased level of connectedness to and belonging in the general "TEC community." Thus, the structure and mode of sociality that took place in the day-to-day residential side of life at TEC was an important component of the broader "TEC community."

During my fieldwork, I occasionally heard TEC (and other Tenrikyo sites) referred to as "places of training" to become educated in and practice this particular mode of life and sociality that are ideally carried on afterwards by the individuals who spend time there. The mode of life at TEC was not one that was haphazardly organized and orchestrated, whether as it existed during events and trainings that drew people to stay there for shorter periods of time or during the day-to-day center life that longer term residents took part in. Rather, the structure of daily life that one took part in while staying there was a social construction that functioned as a unifier which linked people to both the specific site of TEC and to the wider realm of Tenrikyo due to its many similarities with other residential Tenrikyo contexts, thereby promoting a dual-level sense of belonging.

Beginning the day in unison through morning hinokishin and the Morning Service: communal engagements based in the body and linked to the spirit

Mornings at TEC began with a communal engagement of center chores and ritual tasks that were emically framed as "hinokishin." Literally, as explained previously, the Tenrikyo-specific Japanese term of hinokishin means "daily contribution" and refers to acts of service performed on a daily basis for the benefit of others out of gratitude to God the Parent for lending humans a physical body to use. In theory, as followers told me from time to time, hinokishin is not so much defined through the precise action one does but by the sentiment with which one does the action.

In practice, this religiously motivated act of service under which these early morning efforts were nominally designated took the form of chores that were basically obligatory for those staying at TEC. Early in the morning, the head of TEC, his wife, the young adult missionaries, and generally anyone else staying onsite (though with exceptions) would together take part in various aspects of center upkeep, such as cleaning numerous parts of the center, including the three altars at the front of the sanctuary and their surrounding area used for the important ritual of the Service through scripted ceremonious protocol that I describe in chapter seven. These tasks were performed in rotation by TEC staff; orchestration of a particular task220 did not imply a particular role at the center but participatory inclusion of the group efforts being made, and thus, at that moment, the group.

After this communal engagement in hinokishin tasks, at the set time of 7:30 am, the Morning Service was then performed by, generally, everyone staying at the center. This collective ritual performance functioned to both further solidify the communal ambiance between those staying at TEC and to regularly direct their focus toward the faith as from a social and cosmological perspective, this ritual is central to it. The identical Morning and Evening Services were prescribed in the faith to be performed every morning and evening to sweep away "dusts221 " from one's heart and to give thanks to God the Parent, amongst other reasons which vary according to the individual. Its chief component, the "Seated Service," was also the first portion of the Monthly Service, discussed in chapter five. It entails three songs with accompanying hand gestures which for its twice daily performance everyone present takes part in through active performance. The first of the three songs is performed twenty-one times, the second song once, and the third in three rounds of three. The reason for the specified number of repetitions of each of these three songs was not known to have been given by the foundress, but similar to other aspects of Tenrikyo, occasionally inspired discussion regarding possible interpretations of why it was taught in this way.

In this ritual, five ritual actors were positioned on the elevated stage at the front of the sanctuary used for this purpose in front of the altars dedicated to the ancestors, God the Parent, and the foundress. Four ritual actors played the musical instruments used for the Seated Service 222 , while the fifth used a traditional Japanese counting instrument composed of red cords to keep track of how many refrains of each of the three songs had been performed. Those not seated in the audience section would sing and perform the hand dances in unison, either on the chairs or if preferred, kneeling on the floor near the back of the room in accordance with how their bodies would be positioned if they were at a Tenrikyo site in Japan223 . Then, everyone sitting in the audience section would stand and position themselves in the more open spaces of the room on the sides and in the back to perform one of the rotating thirteen Mikagura-uta dances executed in standing position, after which a segment of a Tenrikyo text would be read aloud. Each morning, in addition to directing the hearts/minds and bodies of those who took part in it toward the faith and its teachings, by singing, dancing, and enacting the overall ritual in unison with one another and being actively exposed to its teachings, it also functioned as a uniting force between those present which helped to create and strengthen their collective relationship to each other, to the faith, and to its connected social world.

Through this, as propounded by Bénéï (2008: 75-76) in her discussion of the role of morning calisthenic exercises that elementary school students in western India took part in at the start of their school day in shaping their individual and collective selves well beyond the specified moments of these exercises, an "emotional, embodied discourse" was produced through their engagement in this morning ritual. In the case of these TEC residents, their production of "imaginings and senses of belonging" were produced through their singing these centrally important Tenrikyo ritual songs and performing their accompanying hand dances, and for the other thirteen Mikagura-uta portion, dances that involved their entire bodies. Their engagement in the combination of sound and gestural production was "…concrete, physical, embodied. For this reason, it is as much a collective discourse as an individual one (or whatever finer continuum of experientiality between the two arbitrary extremes is available as a cultural resource), without any necessary implication of primacy or authenticity of one over the other." (Bénéï 2008: 76). Thus, through their daily engagement in this sensorially infused ritual, they were both re-affirming their individual identities as Tenrikyo individuals and also re-creating their collective identity as a Tenrikyo group, and extendedly, revisiting their belonging in the wider Tenrikyo sphere of followers worldwide.

Productive days that start at TEC: the proactive continuation of the arduous work ethic of Japanese and Tenrikyo cultures through its structured daily embodiment

After the Morning Service was completed by those staying at the center, everyone would then descend one level to the small ground-level kitchen 224 to have a breakfast that often consisted of toast made from sliced white bread purchased at a local supermarket with coffee or tea and juice which residents ate together225 . After breakfast, the young adults working at ACFJT would then leave TEC together to take the train into Paris to start their workday at the laique cultural center and those staying at TEC would begin their workday there. Regardless of where they spent their day and what precise occupational role they held, their days were most often spent industriously working in accordance with the expected and established assiduous work ethic of TEC. Whether TEC staff worked outside of this religious center or inside it, a strong work ethic of diligence and long hours was demonstrated. This industriousness was also a prominent feature of the wider Tenrikyo sphere and connectedly, Japanese culture. This assiduousness is also contained in numerous aspects of the faith's teachings. One example can be found in a gesture of one of the Mikagura-uta songs, which followers ideally perform and/or witness regularly, in which the word "hinokishin" is paired with the dance gesture of rhythmically walking in a small circle while pumping one's arms in a highly exaggerated manner back and forth which suggests a hardy engagement in physical labor. By regularly enacting this ritual gesture, the values and behaviors purported therein were encouraged. This is just one of the many Tenrikyo values present in and kinesthetically enacted through the ritual dances that served as a regularly embodied text of the faith which then became part of its practitioners to varying levels and in varying ways through repeated gestural performance.

That Tenrikyo is largely an embodied faith rather than exclusively or primarily an intellectually based one was evidenced through the fact that these sacred dances, along with their accompanying songs, are considered one of the religion's "three scriptures," along with the Ofudesaki226 and Osashizu227 . Through their orchestration, the faith was conveyed through sensorial and embodied means. In this, an insight is provided into a comment on the religion that I heard from time to time throughout my research228 , that Tenrikyo is not something one can understand simply through thought, but rather that it is something one comes to understand little bit by little bit through experience. Through regular sensorial exposure, and connectedly embodiment, of these sacred songs and dances, it is arguable that an absorption of the faith took place into a space of the self that exists largely in the subtle, and at times unsubtle, experientially based realm of knowing and understanding.

In this, the connection between the performance of this ritual Service and the maintenance of its teachings in the self is evidenced, thereby supporting Mr. Kawakubo's insistence that the residential missionaries perform it twice daily, as prescribed in the religion, to maintain the faith's centrality in themselves and in their focus. Through the regular enactment of this ritual, along with practice of a Tenrikyo mode of sociality through lived behaviors and interactions, the expansive whole of the religion was encouraged in a manner based not only in the realm of the intellect but also in their embodied and non-enunciated selves. This subtler side of what it is to experience and "be" Tenrikyo and how it was transmitted to or shared with others is a centrally important component of my thesis as it was, connectedly, a key component of my lived experience "in the field."

Pragmatic flexibility and consistent dedication to the Morning and Evening Service

In my observations, there was sometimes a contrast at TEC between the appearance of a more orthodox approach to the religion displayed during the European Seminar and other official contexts and what existed in day-to-day life amongst its residents. During organized gatherings for which followers came to TEC and stayed in its guest housing, the Morning and Evening Service was performed "religiously" as a group at their scheduled times. When only longer-term residents were at the center, more flexibility was accorded. Whereas mornings at the center were highly communal and involved everyone who was staying at the center, the residential members of TEC were much more dispersed in the evenings. Although the latter part of the day was also communal, evenings during the week were significantly less so than the mornings. This was mainly due to the late work schedule of some ACFJT teachers who usually got back to TEC after the scheduled Evening Service time of 6 pm and the group dinner that followed shortly thereafter that was usually prepared by the head wife and any female staff229 present during its preparation, which, like many other tasks performed at TEC, was a communally shared moment for those involved. For ACFJT staff who had not returned to the center by dinner time, a portion of the meal was set aside for when they came home, usually after finishing work at the cultural center's closing time of 8 pm and the approximately thirty-minute commute home thereafter.

The general lack of TEC residents present for the center's official Evening Service, even amongst residents not working late at ACFJT, resulted because they were often occupied by a variety of other things and thus did not engage in this evening ritual at its officially scheduled time of 6 pm.

They instead often performed it on their own at some point of the evening that corresponded well with their individual schedules. While it was important that the residential members of TEC performed this centrally important ritual twice daily, there was flexibility regarding precisely when and with whom it was enacted. That it did not have to be, and often was not, performed with others in a group setting or at its officially scheduled time was initially surprising to me because this somewhat laidback approach was quite different than what I observed during the three-week annual Europe Tenrikyo Seminar that was my in-depth introduction to the faith.

In this structured training program, participation in the highly communal Morning and Evening

Services at their scheduled times by everyone present was positioned as highly important. Thus, I had assumed that this was always the case at this religious center. Instead, the precise time at which it was performed when primarily only residential "insiders" were there was approached less strictly than it was in the more public context of the seminar. One key reason I attribute to this discrepancy is that during the seminar, TEC staff were serving as an exemplary model of religious practice whereas when in private, they were functioning as more autonomous religious actors already highly familiar with and inculcated in the faith, including its ritual engagement, thereby allowing more room for situationally dependent adaptations and a less collectively orthodox practice. Some evenings at TEC outside of times when the center welcomed many non-residents, the Service was performed communally by a small group of people at the center. Often though, when I stayed until the Evening Service time when already at TEC for another purpose, such as looking at Tenrikyo books in their library after an activity was held there earlier in the day, I found myself in the sanctuary with only a single staff member there for the ritual at its officially scheduled time. In such cases, the staff member present was quite possibly only there due to my having indicated a desire to participate in the ritual when asked fifteen or thirty minutes before the scheduled time if I wanted to do so.

The first few times I encountered this dramatic shift from the Service performed together by a much larger group which included all five musical instruments and numerous others in attendance that I had come to know through my three weeks of participation in the European Seminar, I was quite surprised by the difference. Overtime, I learned that everyone residing at TEC performed the Evening Service each day, but because of busy schedules and practicalities, they often went up to the sanctuary on their own to quickly perform it at a time of their convenience at some point in the evening. Without fail, though, they performed the Evening Service. This difference in how it was performed in more official contexts versus in the everyday world of TEC was demonstrative of a somewhat frequent discord between the idealized way the religion was engaged in more public settings versus the more laidback or less fervent approach that I observed in more private settings.

Regardless of this lack of absolute fixedness regarding the precise time at which this evening ritual was executed, it was consistently performed, thereby encouraging the maintenance of the focus of these residents on their religion, and connectedly, why they were in France. In discussing with me the absolute regularity with which this ritual practice was maintained by the residential missionaries, one young woman resident light-heartedly told me that no matter what, even when they have come back from an evening of drinking, they are sure to perform the Evening Service. She expanded on this by telling me partially with words, partially through acting it out, that sometimes on such occasions they may almost drift off to sleep during part of it or are a little wobbly in facing the altars, but none the less, they are sure to perform the Service. Her somewhat comical account of their dedication to the execution of the Service twice daily was one of many examples that I observed throughout my research of a non-rigid adaptiveness to maintaining religious practice and one's connection to the faith in concert with other aspects of one's life.

Remaining partially in Japan while abroad through language

As can be expected in a context in which everyone spoke Japanese as their native language, the main language of communication amongst TEC residents was Japanese. Thus, amongst other residents, the two previously mentioned young women sent by their church in Japan to learn French spoke in Japanese with their compatriots in their daily life at TEC. Furthermore, they did not spend much time away from the center except when at their language school with a mix of students of different nationalities similarly at the beginning stages of learning French who were not a source of fluent language immersion. As a result, although staying in the communal housing of TEC was both economical and kept them highly connected to the faith and involved in the lifestyle of living at a Tenrikyo site, their advancement toward their declared reason for being in the country was hindered due to a lack of natural immersion in the language. This impediment to learning the French language was not unique to these two young women but extended to the other residential staff members as well, who also spoke mainly in Japanese throughout the day. The continuation of the language of the country from which they came in a country with a different national language calls into question the level to which these residents were really in a foreign context during their time abroad and to what level they remained largely in Japan, though at a distance, during their time of living at TEC. In the case of the ACFJT Japanese language teachers, though they were in interaction with French people during their workday in the classes they taught, because the school's pedagogical approach was that of language immersion 230 , there were limited opportunities in their daily life to gain exposure to and practice the French language.

I also sometimes heard from such individuals, more often female than male, that although they would sometimes like to speak in French more in various contexts outside the classroom, because the French people with whom they interacted often spoke some Japanese 231 and there was a perceived (and real) desire on the part of such French people to practice this language, these residents often spoke in their native language with them "to make them happy." In this, we can see a displayed prioritization of the key Tenrikyo teaching of making efforts to facilitate the happiness of others that functioned as a barrier to their linguistic integration into the country in which they were living. The continuation of Japanese as the main language of usage amongst TEC residents was an important component, though not the only one, of this language serving as the main language of its "core community" that encouraged the presence of a two-tiered community of people connected to TEC that was largely, though not entirely, divided between Japanese and non-Japanese people.

The displayed social world of residential TEC life: the culturally prescribed separation between what is shown and not shown

Regarding the description of the residential sphere of TEC offered in this chapter, it is important to bear in mind that the mode of sociality I most often saw practiced by TEC residents was a partial representation of the entirety of living at this center. To varying degrees, certain ways of being positioned as being in accordance with the Tenrikyo values they were charged with conveying to the local European population, of which I was included, were purposefully put forth in "public settings232 ." At the same time, there were subtle indications that the individual and interpersonal situations of these residents were, in fact, more complex. This dichotomy that was often present and presumed to exist as a social fact in Japanese culture by many Japanese people and in academic literature is commonly referred to with the words honne (本音: "true sound") 230 Even in beginner-level classes at ACFJT, the model of immersion-based classes was followed. 231 This was mainly due to the social contacts of these residents being largely through ACFJT and TEC. and tatemae (建前: "built in front," "facade"). Honne refers to a person's true feelings and desires that may be kept hidden, apart from with those one is closest. Tatemae refers to the behavior and opinions one displays in public based on what is expected and required according to one's position and circumstances.

These words and the connected social model became a commonly used dyadic concept during Japan's post-war era, though its referenced distinction between these prescribed inner and outer spheres was not something new to this period (Doi 1986:35). Now, this linguistically expressed duality is a highly familiar concept in the Japanese repertoire. This was demonstrated in my own experience by the familiarity with them and the underlying dichotomous concept they represent expressed by the numerous Japanese people to whom I broached these terms233 . Most often, the Japanese people to whom I mentioned these terms indicated a view that this opposition is an important component of Japanese sociality and furthermore, one that differentiates it from Western modes of sociality. Kondo's (1987: 245-246) discussion of tatemae and honne, largely in relation to the Japanese language in which different forms of speech imply various layers of politeness, formality, and informality, illuminates the underlying social and psychological structure they represent. She explains that boundaries between the self and other are non-fixed and constantly changing in accordance with the surrounding context and through the roles a person occupies in a particular situation. She asserts this to imply that tatemae and honne are both equally important aspects of human life that ideally exist in dialectical interplay and a relationship of complementarity in which either extreme is unacceptable. People should not be unfeeling robots, nor should they openly express everything they think and feel. Furthermore, as Hadley (1989) indicates in her discussion of tatemae and honne, the distinction is much more multifarious than a clear dichotomy between the inner and outer self. There are different faces for different occasions and furthermore, she asserts, there may be different layers of tatemae, "…the number of layers being in itself significant, and there are also different ways in which one can peel off and penetrate the layers of tatemae in any particular context," (p. 626). In her exploration of these inner and outer sides of the self, she includes reference to the prominent Japanese psychiatrist, Takeo Doi (1986), who authored an in-depth examination of these inner and outer spheres in his book aptly titled in Japanese "Omote to ura"234 , cited previously. (The pair of Japanese words "omote" and "ura," which translate approximately to "front/surface" and "rear," are closely related to and often used synonymously with tatemae and honne). In this work, Doi asserts that the omote both reveals and conceals the ura; the outer realm expresses the inner realm that it also conceals so that when people look at omote, they are also seeing ura through omote. In this discussion, Doi posits tatemae to be the product of socialization and honne to be the expression of self-consciousness.

It is a distinction not infrequently discussed by Japanese, who describe as tatemae language or behaviour which is deemed appropriate for a particular social situation when the expression of one's personal feelings would be out of place. Doi points out that tatemae always implies the existence of a group of people who assent to it, but who nevertheless hold their own personal honne views in the background. (Hendry 1989: 624). Principally needing an identity is different than principally needing an image. Although those who are identity-focused may feel that those who are image-focused have no soul, being focused on an image is actually linked to the importance of social relationships in order to understand how to behave meaningfully. Central to one's ability to adapt to situations and relationships is the effective management of one's image. From this perspective, it is logical that group oriented cultures would be more image-focused and individualistically oriented cultures would be more identity-focused.

Shih employs an epistemological explanation of this difference. While Christianity235 produces the need for an identity because it is with this identity that one will face the Lord, Confucianism produces the need for an image because in order to complete the circle of life, one must eventually reproduce a collective relationship that renders the meaning of life to newcomers. In this model, people learn to self-sacrifice in order to reproduce the greater self, defined through the collective relationship. Although having multiple identities can be psychologically troublesome for an individual, utilizing different images of the self in different situations can be socially beneficial. In Tenrikyo, social relationships are positioned as one of the main reasons for human existence and one of the most important components of human life. The broader human experience is relegated to occurring physically on earth, through multiple lives, rather than on a belief in an afterlife that occurs in a different realm. Thus, Shih's discussion of the largely Western value of "self-identity" versus the "Oriental" emphasis on "self-image" is highly pertinent to this religion and furthermore, to the construction of a community at and via TEC.

Throughout my research, I was most often exposed to the purposefully put forth tatemae side of individual and social realities with glimpses into the more profound honne sides of individual and social complexities through small indicators, such as facial expressions and small but noteworthy comments. This discord was a socially prescribed modality reflective largely of the normalized way of being in Japanese culture, and also in the Tenrikyo faith, that is conveyed in this linguistically defined duality. In this, the benevolently cheerful and optimistic ways of being often presented in "public" settings236 that were in accordance with prescribed behaviors and dispositional models of what they "should" be like were often not completely expressive of the more complex realities at work.

Commonly included in my observations were seemingly paradoxical juxtapositions between what

was presented on the surface and the more global reality at play. The multiple layers of what was occurring, which commonly included both purposefully displayed and concealed components, was not reflective of one layer being more "real" than the other, but rather of the complexity involved in its entirety. Often in my research context, through prioritizing certain selfrepresentational and behavioral modalities that did not overtly display the entirety of what was occurring, social harmony and ease were accorded a higher value than frankness or full disclosure of what one thinks and feels. This modality was illuminative of the importance placed on social harmony and that of "the group," thereby encouraging its existence.

This harmoniously collective social model was at the core of the Tenrikyo faith through both oratory and textual teachings. It was present also prominently by means of its chiefly important ritual of the Monthly Service, which was a manifestation and sensorially rich and embodied conveyer of these teachings that was symbolically, and in practice, the coming together of multiple roles. In the pointed context of this ritual, this was symbolically manifested by numerous instrumental and dance performers collaboratively forming a greater whole. Similar to that of the center's residential world and a variety of other social contexts that I observed over the span of my fieldwork, the people filling these ritual roles were largely interchangeable but the structure they followed was fixed. The next chapter is dedicated to a discussion of this important monthly ritual, as it existed at TEC.

Chapter five: Monthly Services at TEC: uniting with the faith and a local segment of the "TEC community" through a regularly occurring enactment of the sacred a. Returning to a familiar socio-religious context through ritual gatherings

Repeatedly coming together for the Monthly Service

At the center of every Tenrikyo site of worship is its enactment of the Monthly Service. For these monthly ritual gatherings at TEC, there were usually approximately thirty to forty people in attendance. About two-thirds were female. Sixty to sixty five percent were Japanese (or in the case of several young adults, the children of Japanese missionary parents born in Europe). About ten percent were French, with the remaining twenty-five to thirty percent composed of numerous other nationalities. The most represented of these other nationalities was the Republic of the Congo due to religion's presence in this country since 1966237 in combination with the significant presence of Congolese people living in the Paris area. There were also several people from Latin American countries who regularly came to TEC Monthly Services, two from the UK, and a Korean woman who I discuss in more detail later. Given this multicultural social composition, although I am neither Japanese nor French, my American nationality did not render me out of place.

At TEC, this chiefly important ritual was held on the second Sunday of every month in its sanctuary, starting at 10:30 am. Similar to most lineage-based Tenrikyo sites of worship in France, which the next chapter discusses, this ritual was held on a Sunday as an adaptation to the French societal landscape in which it was located because in this country, people generally did not work on Sundays and the day was framed as one for other activities, such as attendance of a religious service. Alternatively, in Japan, Tenrikyo Monthly Services were usually held on a particular date every month instead of on a particular day of the week. This was reflective of the fact that traditionally in Japan, no day of the week was regarded as any more special than any other day; it was rather particular times in the lunar cycle that were accorded significance. In Tenrikyo, excluding the main Monthly Service held in Tenri City around the sacred point of the Jiba on the 26 th of every month, discussed in chapter nine, it did not theologically matter on what particular day of every month that this ritual was performed, but rather that it be performed with monthly regularity, with each site having a specific designated day on which to do so. This ritual was an important means through which a bridge between TEC and other Tenrikyo sites was brought about. Although TEC was located in a Parisian suburb, the Monthly Service belonged to a non-place specific Tenrikyo world that was regularly enacted at disparate Tenrikyo sites. At any given TEC Monthly Service, if one were to look at the scene taking place inside the center's distinctly "Japanese" sanctuary, one would see mainly Japanese people in attendance, but also an eclectic mix of people from various other countries, and the geographic location would be difficult to guess. In a broad sense, the scene that unfolded every month at TEC during these rituals did not belong distinctly to the Parisian suburb where it took place, but instead to the broader Tenrikyo realm in which the same ritual components were enacted at every Tenrikyo site of worship.

In addition to the ritual itself, this sameness was also manifested through multiple other factors including the site, the accompanying mode of sociality, and the ritual being followed by a communal meal. It was also encouraged through the significant presence of Japanese people, many but not all of whom were born and raised as Tenrikyo followers, and largely though not entirely in congruent manner, many were also positioned as core members of the "TEC community," with their presence significantly influencing the social world that came about during these ritual gatherings. The prominent influence of this ritual was also demonstrated through the symbolism contained in it that was manifestly present in the discourse and actions of the group, which I discuss in various parts of this thesis.

To begin this chapter, I include hereafter an explanation of "The Service" from the official website of TEC238 . The Service it describes is the "real" Monthly Service enacted around the sacred point of the Jiba in the Main Sanctuary of Tenrikyo in the pilgrimage town of Tenri City.

All other Monthly Services performed elsewhere are considered "practice renditions" of this "real" Monthly Service, with several scripted differences which demarcate their separation. The image that follows this text is of a TEC Monthly Service included on the same page of this website.

The Service

The Service is Tenrikyo's most important rite as it is the fundamental means for the path of single-hearted salvation. In its primary sense, it refers to the Kagura Service conducted in the Inner Sanctuary of Church Headquarters, but it also includes the Dance with Hand Movements, which is known in Japanese as the "Teodori."

The Kagura Service is a reenactment in principle of God the Parent's providence at the time of creation. Ten Service performers encircle the Jiba-Kanrodai and symbolize by hand-gestures the principles of God the Parent's workings, by which humankind and the world were created. The Kagura Service is the means by which we call forth God the Parent's blessings of universal salvation, whereby the world will be reconstructed as the world of the Joyous Life.

Following the Kagura Service, the Dance with Hand Movements is performed by three men and three women on the dais in the Main Sanctuary. Both the Kagura Service and the Dance with Hand Movements are joyously performed by the dancers moving in unison to the Mikagura-uta and in harmony with the music of the nine instruments.

The Kagura Service is also called the "Joyous Service," the "Salvation Service," and the "Service of the Kanrodai," denoting its different aspects. In discussing the fundamentally important ritual of the Monthly Service that is at the center of the Tenrikyo faith, it is pertinent to highlight that this ritual's celebratory nature is manifestly present in a Japanese word commonly used for this monthly ritual: "tsukinamisai," which denotes a monthly celebration, generally of a ritual nature. Coming together to join in celebration was not only a component of what was included in religious life through this monthly ritual; it was its main component from which secondary parts of religious life and community developed. As noted by Morishita (2001:3), the original linguistic sense of the "Monthly Service," as it is referred to in English239 , loses some of its original import in translation. He postulated that the word "service" perhaps originated from the religious services held by Christian denominations in the West. Worthy of note to Morishita is that the explicit meaning of festivity contained in the word tsukinamisai is not conveyed in its translation. Ideally, this "Monthly Service" is a joyous event in which people come together and embrace the teachings conveyed benevolently by the religion's foundress, largely through the music and dance which comprise the central component of this ritual.

It should be noted that this monthly ritual's celebratory nature is in accordance with the broader Japanese cultural environment in which special occasions and special dates are often ceremonialized. This trait was also present in Tenrikyo beyond these Monthly Services through numerous other occasions that were ritually commemorated at TEC and in many other Tenrikyo contexts. During the span of my research, in diverse Tenrikyo contexts including, but not limited to those at TEC and in Tenri City, I saw a repeated rhythm of preparing for special events, orchestrating them, and then again beginning preparations for another upcoming special event.

The Monthly Service itself is an example of the central place that special events hold in Tenrikyo.

The Service songs, and their accompanying dances, are the vital part of this ritual that are positioned at the geographic and spiritual center of the faith. This dual centrality, which is pivotal to understanding the position of the Service ritual within Tenrikyo, is grounded in the fact that the principal Service ritual is performed around the faith's physical and spiritual center of the Jiba in Tenri City. During the performance of the Service elsewhere, whether it be a daily Morning or Evening Service, an Onegai 240 ("petition") Service, or a Monthly Service, ideally, followers spiritually unite themselves with the main Tenrikyo Service performed on the 26 th of each month around the Jiba by key religious actors, including the Shinbashira 241 and his wife. In doing so, they are not only connecting themselves with this specific point of sacrality and its associated spiritual significance but also with the broader transnational social world of Tenrikyo through the construction of this conceptual connection which functions as an important contributing component to the modes of sociality which exist at, and are shared between, dispersed Tenrikyo sites.

Entering a cognitive realm linked with the Service through sensorial cues

Each month, the Monthly Service at TEC began with the soul-provoking sounds of Japanese gagaku 242 music, thereby serving as an auditory opener to the experience of the Monthly Service.

240 "Onegai" is a Japanese word used to express a request and is commonly used in a manner similar to the English word: "please."

241 The Shinbashira is the acting leader of the Tenrikyo religion. 242 Gagaku music refers to ancient court music of Japan imported from China and Korea as early as the 6th century which was thereafter established as a Japanese court tradition by the 8th century. Gagaku music is not performed at the principal Monthly Service performed around the Kanrodai at the Jiba in Tenri City but is sometimes included At every TEC Monthly Service I attended throughout my two years of fieldwork, all gagaku performers were Japanese members of TEC and all but one were male. In this ritual commencement, a combination of long, almost haunting notes mixed with short staccato sounds signaled to us that we were beginning the sensorially rich monthly ritual. The sounds of the gagaku music that conveyed this transition have largely faded away in Japanese modernity but remain preserved in the religious tradition of Tenrikyo. The ongoing presence of this traditional type of Japanese music is regarded as a notable feature of the religion against the broader cultural backdrop of Japan, in which this musical genre has largely become a lost art relegated to the past.

For example, I observed non-Tenrikyo Japanese people at both TEC and Tenrikyo settings in Japan come specifically for the opportunity to witness its performance as it had become a rare artform in modernity.

Over the course of my fieldwork, its distinct sounds became quite familiar to me and signaled in a different way than concrete intellectualization that the Tenrikyo Monthly Service was beginning.

In my own experience, the conditioned inner state of the Monthly Service that was developed through repeated exposure to it was a facilitator to my reentering this cognitive state when it was included as a component of the Service. Although gagaku music was not a specifically prescribed component of the Service and was not unanimously included at all Tenrikyo Monthly Services, it was a strong sensorial opener present at many of them, thereby serving as a common means through which this ritual was cognitively reentered.

My use in the opening paragraph of this subsection of the somewhat academically atypical term of "soul-provoking" is in reference to the opening that these sounds served, in my own personal experience which my observations suggested to be similar to that of other attendees, for entering into a state that was slightly altered from that of my common day-to-day existence. This slightly "other" state that I encountered in myself, largely through subtle emotional, embodied, and cognitive differences, was an interwoven component of my attending the entirety of the ritual that was first prompted by the introductory sounds of the gagaku music, but then continued as the opening component of Monthly Services conducted elsewhere. It is not a ritual component that was encouraged by the foundress herself but became included as part of Tenrikyo ceremonies because of the faith's early association with Shinto. The first instance gagaku was included as part of a Tenrikyo ceremony was in 1888 during the observation of the first anniversary of the foundress leaving her physical body (physical passing). (Kaitei Tenrikyo jiten 1997: 188).

throughout the duration of the Service. Overtime, the slightly different experiential state that I encountered during this ritual encouraged a partially conditioned response in me that provoked such a state to come about when again exposed to the multi-sensorial stimuli of the Service. The cognitively evocative sounds that promoted this state included not only the introductory gagaku music but also, and perhaps moreover, the music of the Monthly Service itself, which was a hypnotic blend of repetitive percussion and harmonious stringed instruments that sensorially encouraged the inhabitance of an alternative state.

In observing others in attendance, a slightly different state from that with which they arrived was somewhat commonly evidenced. At any given time after the first few minutes of the Service, while most in attendance remained in a visually "normal" state, some closed their eyes and appeared to partially drift off, subtly rocking back and forth in rhythm with the percussion instruments emitting their repetitive cadence of the Service songs: visual cues which suggested a slightly altered state into which some people drifted in and out. The ritual of the Monthly Service was divided into three sections, each of which provided ample time for this state to come about.

The first portion of the Service (the "Seated Service") lasted approximately 10-15 minutes and each half of the thirteen standing "Mikagura-uta" songs lasted approximately 30 minutes. (I discuss these three sections of the Service later in this chapter.) Each of the three sections played in separate continuity were long enough to encourage those in attendance to cognitively and emotionally move through various experiential states with the sounds and vibrations of the music and the sights of the dancers and also the broader setting of the sanctuary in which this ritual occurred.

This constructed inner state influenced not only the individualized religious experiences of the religious actors present but also the social interactions that occurred between them afterwards, specifically during the after-Service meal held two floors below that generally lasted several hours and constituted a key component in the creation, development, and reinforcement of the individual social bonds and feeling of belonging in this group. That the unifying feature of the Service ritual was viewed to be extended into the post-Service meal, which I discuss later in this chapter, was, albeit often indirectly, evidenced through the common mention of the positively unifying feature of the Service ritual in concert with a main aim of gatherings, including that of the Monthly Service, being for people to come together with others, creating or deepening positive relationships with them. Although the role of the inner state of attendees cultivated through the Service was not often directly mentioned in reference to interactions that occurred during these post-Service meals and other contexts outside of the ritual itself, this connection was commonly demonstrated to exist through the mention of both of these features of the overall Monthly Service gatherings independently, but by the same people. This initial switching of psychological states from that of the everyday to that associated with the sacrality of the Service, which then encouraged such interactions outside of this ritual to maintain this state, occurred not only through the sounds and vibrations of the music, but also via a variety of other stimulatory means that were encountered at the beginning of this ritual, several of which I describe in more detail shortly. Through these experiential transformers, the way in which this ritual event was encountered and embodied previously and the associations with it that were created over time promoted a re-encountering of such a state as a developed response to its recurrently present multisensory stimuli. Both the more private sphere of their individual experience (which for many was not understood as a solitary one because it included an encounter or communion with God the Parent and/or the foundress) and the collective social experience of being with others was shaped through the sensorially rich process of going through this opening segment of the ritual. This was an important component of the lived experience of attending Monthly Services, whether as a ritual performer or in the more passive role of sitting in the audience section throughout the entirety of the ritual.

In Japan, the progressive process of entering into a cognitive state associated with sacrality is not unique to Tenrikyo but rather is in accordance with the purification process Japanese people commonly go through when entering a site of worship, such as a Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine. This important transformative process was specifically brought to my attention through a casual exchange with a young adult missionary teacher living at TEC in reference to her enjoyment and the special feeling that she derived from visiting churches in France, which she explained to be because they are "God's places" (kamisama no tokoro). This exchange occurred after we had already gotten to know each other over the span of nearly a year and a half and included an honest exploration of both her and my perspectives. I posed the question of what she meant by their being "God's places." My question was prompted by the fact that in Tenrikyo, it is taught that the entire universe is the body of God, and thus, in my interpretation of this teaching, it would mean that every location in the universe is a place of God, thereby negating only certain "religious" sites of having exclusive claim to this divine quality. She paused briefly and then replied that she supposed her particular feelings associated with being in a religious site are due to that in Japan, when entering a religious site such as a Shinto shrine, one increasingly purifies oneself through simple rituals paired with the purification of one's inner being. Thus, it is not exclusively the sacred site itself but the broader experience she associated with it that she found appealing.

In the context of my research, the psychological and behavioral modes that people entered and reentered when taking part in Tenrikyo rituals held at TEC, or other Tenrikyo sites, was something that came about through multiple means and thus, as discussed by the young adult missionary in regard to the overall experience of entering into a site of worship, was a multi-step process of readying oneself to inhabit a sacred space. For people performing in the Service as ritual dancers and/or instrumental players, this conditioned state of engagement with the faith was additionally entered into prior to the ritual itself through their physically entering into the ceremonial robes243 in the men's and women's changing rooms 244 . The ritual performers in these changing rooms were typically core members of the local TEC community, such as TEC residents and local mission station heads (or their wives), along with the occasional presence of followers coming from elsewhere, most often other locations in Europe and to a lesser degree Japan when they were at the center or in the Paris area for another reason.

Though brief, the time they spent changing into and out of their ceremonial wear in these gendered spaces of transition was an intimate moment with others 245 included in the inner social sphere of TEC Monthly Services. Moreover, through both the physical sensation of donning these ceremonial robes and seeing oneself in the mirror in them and knowing that others will see them in this way, their inhabitation of this sacred context was invoked through their robed bodies. In partially like manner, for those not dressed as ritual performers, it was common when attending the Service to wear a happi coat, as it also was when engaging in a variety of Tenrikyo activities and events that did not call for the formal ritual wear. I further discuss these coats in a later subsection of this chapter, but at this point, it should suffice to explain that a main purpose of such Tenrikyo clothing was to situate the wearer in a pointedly Tenrikyo framework.

Another important point of entry into the sphere of sacrality associated with the sanctuary of TEC, and other such Tenrikyo sanctuaries, was the aesthetic component of these prayer spaces that was largely similar throughout the world, regardless of geographic location246 . This visual component was conducive to creating an embodied and psychological state of concomitance that spanned beyond specific sites to include a more global, largely non-place-based association with the religion for those who had spent time in Tenrikyo contexts, to a great extent, regardless of specific location. Chiefly important to this trans-spatial similitude were the three alters at the front of this room dedicated to the ancestors, God the Parent, and the foundress toward which everyone faced and directed their ritualized actions associated with prayer.

Along with the previously discussed components that encouraged those present to enter into a particular embodied and psychological state associated with this ritual, another important facilitator of this was the ritualized addressal at the start of the Service to the three spiritual entities represented by the altars via the kinesthetic and sonorally-based 247 act of clapping four times and bowing slightly to each of them that was repeated at each transitional point of the Service. It was to these altars that the Service performers faced in their execution of the sacred dances and correspondingly, to these altars (or more specifically, the entities they represent) that much of the focus of those in attendance should be directed. These three altars are aesthetically uniform between Tenrikyo sites of worship throughout the world. Thus, whether one is attending a Monthly Service at TEC, a Paris-area mission station, a Tenrikyo church in Sao Paulo, or a grand church in Japan, one is facing the aesthetically same material objects toward which followers (ideally) direct their devotion, reverence, and prayers. The next step of the transition into the sacrality associated with the Monthly Service was the opening of the doors of the altar to God the Parent to reveal the portal to the "sacred object248 " contained therein249 . This "sacred object," which all Tenrikyo altars dedicated to God the Parent have inside, is from the Jiba, where God the Parent is understood to have enacted the conception of the first humans and continues to reside currently. They are regarded as highly important by Tenrikyo followers. This was evidenced, for example, when I heard multiple followers at TEC talk about that when they moved from one location to another, they put the altar dedicated to God the Parent with their checked bags, but carried the sacred object normally contained within it on their person as it is the sacred object that is principally important rather than the altar in which it is housed, which though rather costly, is much more easily replaceable250 . Similar to other components of the Monthly Service, the opening of the portals to the sacred object associated with God the Parent was orchestrated through specific ritualized actions that were repeated every month, thereby rendering them a familiar component of the Monthly Service to people already familiar with the ritual251 .

To begin this part of the Monthly Service, everyone in attendance clapped four times in unison and bowed slightly, as is the prescribed ritual marker of Tenrikyo to begin and end marked segments of sacrality, including that of prayer. Three males, generally but not always the center's head and two long-time senior males who held hierarchically important duties associated with TEC252 , would then ceremoniously approach the altar to God the Parent. When in front of the altar, they would reverentially make a low-pitched intonation of a long "Oh" sound, while the man in the middle of the three (generally the head of TEC, who was organizationally positioned as the hierarchically top ranking person of the center) opened the altar's creaky portal doors, thereby enhancing the sensorially-linked sentimental effect of what they were doing through these sounds 253 . After the doors of the altar had been opened, thereby creating an entry to the sacred object contained within, the three men then descended from the altar, and everyone in attendance again would clap four times and bow slightly, thereby marking the end of this portion of the Monthly Service.

Thinking of Tenrikyo in relation to Shinto and the anthropological category of animism

The practice of placing "sacred objects" inside shrines and altars, and how they were conceptualized in Tenrikyo, is highly similar to this religious feature as it exists in Shinto, thereby rendering this point of my thesis an appropriate place to include a short discussion of the multifarious category of Shinto, which contains within it multiple subcategories, in relation to Tenrikyo. "Shinto" is a term commonly used to connotate "Japanese traditional religion" which is, in fact, a collection of native beliefs and mythologies that can, and has, taken multiple forms.

"Shrine Shinto" (Jinja-Shintō 神社神道 ) is a broad category regarded as the main tradition of Shinto which has been present in Japan for over a millennium254 and consists of participating in worship practices and events at local shrines.

Before the Meiji Restoration (1868), Shinto shrines were most often attached to Buddhist temples. After the Meiji Restoration, Shinto was transformed into a system of independent systematized institutions commonly known as "Sect Shinto" (Kyōha-Shintō 教派神道). This was a legal category created to separate government-owned shrines from local religious communities and practices255 . Conversely, "Folk Shinto" (Minzoku-Shintō 民俗神道) is a category that can be broadly described as folk beliefs in deities and spirits and often includes divination, spirit possession, and shamanic healing256 . During the structured modernization efforts of the Japanese government that brought about Sect Shinto, it was what is now placed in the category of "Folk Shinto" that the government attempted to eradicate through mandating that all Shinto groups be associated with one of the thirteen officially registered Shinto sects.

The term "Shinto" itself translates approximately into English as "the way of the gods" and is written with two kanji characters: 神道. The first of these two kanji (神: shin) is the symbol which denotes the concept of kami, which as discussed in the introduction is most commonly translated into English as "god" or "spirit," although neither word adequately conveys the entire concept conveyed in this word. The second kanji (道: tō) lends itself much better to a direct translation into English and means "path" or "street," or sometimes when used in a more symbolic sense, "the way of ___." It is used in the names of numerous self-development practices, such as judō (literally: "the way of softness/flexibility,") sadō (literally: "the way of tea," i.e. the codified art of tea ceremony,) and shodō (literally "the way of writing," i.e. the traditional art of calligraphy). At the heart of these practices is not the tangible results they may produce but the process through which they are practiced that encourages the cultivation of the practitioner. In Tenrikyo, it is the same term, though with its stand-alone pronunciation of "michi" rather than its composite pronunciation "tō/dō" that is commonly used in the religion to refer to its practice and teachings, thus my use of the word "path" intermittently throughout this text to speak of it. Similar to Tenrikyo, as evoked previously, purity is a central concept in Shinto, as is the "sincerity" (makoto) with which religious acts should be performed in order to render them effective, which in Tenrikyo is notably that of the Service, hinokishin, and the Sazuke healing ritual. In both Tenrikyo and Shinto, certain deeds are thought to create a kind of impurity that should be cleansed away because they can impede the well-being and good fortune of the person who engaged in them. Thus, purification rituals are performed on a daily, weekly, seasonally, lunar, or annual basis and are a primary practice of their respective religious traditions. The purifying ritual of the Tenrikyo Seated Service and the purifying rituals of Shinto are discussed through the same verb; for both, practitioners "sweep away" impurities257 . In Shinto, purification rites are referred to as "harae" or "harai," which translates into English as "sweep." This verb is likewise used in the first and third refrains of the Seated Service, albeit conjugated in a slightly different manner in the third258 , and is performed principally as a purification ritual of the self and of the world.

Despite the decline of religiosity in Japanese modernity that contributes to the difficulty of further expanding the religion of Tenrikyo in Japan or in maintaining its current numbers there, the majority of Japanese people continue to engage in Shinto practices and rituals. Most, though, do not identify as "Shinto" in surveys. An explanation of this can be found in the multiple existing categories of Shinto which exist. Often, only practitioners of Sect Shinto declare Shinto as their religion. Contrastingly, there are no formal rites one must first go through to practice "Folk Shinto" and most Japanese people occasionally visit Shinto shrines and beseech kami without being a member of an institutional Shinto sect and also often without a declared belief in the existence of a god or gods. In this, the ongoing presence of Japanese animistic259 practices and traditions associated with the broad category of "Shinto" is continued as an integrated part of Japanese modernity.

Tenrikyo does not contemporarily position itself as "animistic," a category predominantly used in anthropological discourse rather than by "animists" themselves, but rather as a monotheistic universal religion that is striving to hold a solid position in the category of "world religions."

Nonetheless, there are similarities between Tenrikyo and the very broad category of "animism" which render a contextualization of some aspects of Tenrikyo through this lens outside a specifically Japanese context appropriate. VanPool and Newsome's (2012) discussion of the "life essence" that they purport to exist in Pueblo pottery, thereby making this pottery active agents, offers another perspective with which to think about the Tenrikyo altars, and connectedly, the sacred point of the Jiba to which followers throughout the world direct their prayers. In their discussion, they state that the fundamental approach they utilize is that of "new animism," which they explain to have as its fundamental approach that "the world is full of persons, only some of whom are human, and that life is always lived in relationship to others." (VanPool and Newsome 2012: 244, Harvey 2006: xi [cited in VanPool and Newsome 2012]). VanPool and Newsome later expand on this with the following:

Our heuristic goal in differentiating between the Cartesian principle… and New Animism… is to highlight that the study of animism is not typical of, or even central to, most theoretical frameworks as currently applied. We believe that this is a mistake when studying religion, cosmology, and symbolisms of cultures based on fundamentally different ontological structures. Any perspective that (actively or passively) denies an object's spiritual character will in application impede a complete understanding of the epistemology based on animism. (VanPool and Newsome 2012: 259) In comparing these two fundamentally different ways of understanding the world, the authors explain that although from a Cartesian perspective, a kachina mask is a passive tool that people use to impersonate a kachina, from a Puebloan perspective, the kachina mask is a living being that is cared for and fed (VanPool and Newsome 2012: 243-244, Ladd 2000 [cited in VanPool and Newsome 2012]). Similarly, in Shinto, the shrine is positioned as a building in which the kami is enshrined in a literal, rather than figurative, sense and is considered a sacred space separate from the rest of the world. Household shrines 260 can be used on a daily basis as a substitute for large shrines and, similar to large shrines, are regarded as sacred spaces inside which the kami literally dwells which should accordingly be treated with the utmost respect. This comparative switching of perspectives from a Cartesian model to an animistic one, or the inclusion of both, is highly valuable to formulating an adequate understanding of Tenrikyo altars, particularly the altars dedicated to God the Parent inside which "sacred objects" were housed in both larger Tenrikyo sites such as TEC and also smaller sites, such as the home-based mission stations scattered throughout multiple European countries which I discuss in the next chapter. This switching of perspectives is equally, if not more, pertinent to fostering an adequate conceptualization of the Jiba. More than the sacred objects and the Jiba being understood as representative of something, they were regarded in my observations as sacred in and of themselves as the Jiba was positioned as the point at which God the Parent dwells, the point from which humans originated, and the point at which our salvific destiny will be realized, with the sacred objects being an extension of sorts of this sacred point.

Enacting unity through sound and bodily movement

Throughout the Service, we would repeatedly clap four times and bow slightly to mark different parts of this monthly ritual, thereby enacting unison via bodily movement and sound through this simple embodied manner of expressing reverence. The ritual act of clapping four times was prescribed by the foundress to her followers to be their way of doing sanpai (paying respects/ offering prayers). This method was somewhat different than the established Shinto manner of doing sanpai, for which one claps twice, and is an idiosyncrasy of the Tenrikyo religion in relation to the broader Japanese "religious" context in which it came about.

The actual reason Oyasama taught her followers to do this is officially unknown, but the subject was something I heard discussed at TEC during various reflective moments on the faith, such as Tenrikyo trainings261 at which numerous aspects of the faith were postulated about and discussed.

In such conversations, often led by someone serving in the role of instructor for that moment, the particularity of the foundress teaching her followers this marker of sacrality was commonly discussed as having been somewhat peculiar in Japan at that time due to how the number four was culturally framed. In such exchanges, the broader cultural context of Japan at the time the foundress conveyed her teachings was often described as having been highly superstitious. Amongst numerous other "superstitious" beliefs mentioned was that the number four was regarded as particularly unlucky262 , which it is still is today though generally to a lesser degree, thereby rendering the foundress teaching her followers to clap four times as their ritual marker somewhat curious.

The possible reasons I heard for why the foundress taught her followers this ritual marker were numerous and were generally reflective of the religion's teachings on the purpose and ideal state of human existence. One hypothesis I heard was because the number four corresponded with the number of syllables contained in a Japanese word for "happiness" (shi-a-wa-se): the emotional state framed as the central focus of Tenrikyo and the ultimate reason for human existence and the goal of the path. Another possible reason I heard hypothesized about in such discussions was that followers were instructed to clap four times so as to achieve unison through clapping together at precisely the same time, which was usually achieved by the fourth clap. This hypothesis was linked to unity being a central Tenrikyo tenet that followers were encouraged to work toward in numerous contexts and through numerous means, the Service being the exemplary model.

Though the latter is only one theory amongst others that I heard, it is highly pertinent to the construction of a sense of social cohesion that encouraged a feeling of community amongst the participants. When it was mentioned, I often heard it accompanied by a somewhat comical but accurate description of what happened when this ritual marker was enacted in a group context in which the first few claps of the group were often slightly offbeat from one another, but by the fourth clap, everyone finally came into sync to clap at exactly the same time. Such postulations focused on the achievement of acting together in unison were often accompanied by a comment about how nice it sounded or how good it felt to come into precise concert with everyone else present.

As previously explained, according to the cosmological perspective of Tenrikyo, God the Parent created humans to live "the Joyous Life," which will be achieved largely through humans acting harmoniously together in unity and helping one another. The concept of operating in unity with others is expressly conveyed through a Tenrikyo term that I learned during the first part of my participation in the Tenrikyo European Seminar. This term is "iteihitotsu," which was explained to translate into English as "unity of mind" and refers to working together toward a common goal. On Tenrikyo's official website263 , the following excerpt is put forth to explain its meaning:

This term refers to the way Tenrikyo followers unite in working together toward a common goal, with their minds in genuine unison, rather than acting separately with different objectives. To allow for such unity, it is fundamental for those involved to bring their minds into accord with the truth of the path as well as to respect and help one another." (TENRIKYO 2005).

The Service, as I sometimes heard it discussed at TEC and in other Tenrikyo contexts, is not a performance focused on the musical or dance skills of the performers but an exercise in and a display of people occupying different roles which come together to create a greater whole. In such discourse, I sometimes heard the collective unity enacted through instrumental and dance ritual actors likened to both different people of a group and also the "Ten Providences of God the Parent" coming together in unison to create a greater collective ensemble, as the latter did at the beginning of human creation and continues to do currently, thereby facilitating the functioning of the natural world and our physical bodies. By taking part in the Service ritual, participants were engaging in a ritual through which people united (both in action and, from a Tenrikyo perspective, also spiritually) to form a greater whole by sacred means taught to humans through the benevolent and divine parental guidance of God the Parent, and extendedly, the foundress, which followers were encouraged to do in other contexts, outside of this exemplary ritual demonstration, as well through practicing this means of collaboration via the Service ritual.

In the performance of the Service ritual in the Main Sanctuary of the religion in Tenri City, constructed around the sacred point of the Jiba, those in attendance would clap together in unison from the north, south, east, and west wings of the sanctuary by which they were simultaneously facing the central sacred point of the Jiba toward which the faith is focused and also others in attendance. Through this, unity was encouraged with both the spiritual and physical center of the faith and with the other attendees co-creating the production of these unifying reverberations. As noted, this unity was encouraged through the unifier of the Service performance itself, which I discuss in further detail in relation to how it was enacted at TEC Monthly Services later in this chapter and as it existed in the Main Sanctuary surrounding the Jiba in chapter nine. Further supporting the idea of the ritual side of Tenrikyo encouraging a sense of agreeable unity is that I sometimes heard both people who regarded themselves as Tenrikyo followers and people who did not classify themselves as such but had spent time in Tenri City and attended Services in the religion's Main Sanctuary there describe the awe-inspiring feeling of unity that was achieved through everyone present clapping in unison.

For example, this sentiment was directly explained to me in a semi-structured interview with a Dutch man in his mid-sixties, Anthony, who made sure to specify to me in the interview, as he did sometimes when he was at TEC, that he was not a "member," or as he sometimes said, with a pause beforehand and a slight change in tone for an added touch of tongue-in-cheek drama, "not a believer." He was married to a Japanese Tenrikyo woman in her mid-thirties named Haruka who had been raised in the faith. Tenrikyo played a significant role in Haruka's upbringing and in her current life, as she explained to me that it similarly did for other members of her natal family as well. She came to TEC, on average, several times a year for various events and I position her as a "core" member of the TEC community despite her not being based in France. Her husband often came with her to TEC but would choose to do other things, such as help with the upkeep of the center's grounds (which from a Tenrikyo perspective is positioned as "hinokishin," though it is not a term that he employed himself) when others there engaged in the Service ritual, thereby maintaining his position as a "non-member," according to his own perspective.

This was Anthony's second marriage. His first marriage, which had lasted for several decades, had been to another Japanese Tenrikyo woman who had passed away. Despite not performing the Service at TEC, he told me in our semi-structured interview that except when his adult children were visiting, he performed the Morning and Evening Service at home with his current wife "because it makes her happy." In our interview, I explained that I had encountered a variety of perspectives regarding who is and is not a follower and asked why he told me that he is not a follower despite his engagement with the faith. He explained to me that he is non-religious himself and did not believe in Tenrikyo. He did not want to present himself as a Tenrikyo follower "because it would feel dishonest." He explained to me that his present wife had tried for a while to get him to "become Tenrikyo" but that finally, she had accepted his position.

Included in her efforts were having him listen to the Besseki lectures in Tenri City. In contrast to my own experience of listening to them, which I discuss further in chapter ten, when Mr. Sugimoto arranged for me to attend the Besseki lectures delivered live in English264 , he listened to a pre-recorded version of it in English several times265 with headphones that lasted about an hour and a half while in a room reserved for the attendance of these lectures with others simultaneously listening to its live delivery in Japanese. He told me he listened to them because his (present) wife and others had really wanted him to, but did not do so nine times, which is the requirement for authorization to undergo the sacred rite through which one becomes a "Yoboku."

He explained to me that this was because he found listening to the lectures tedious and repetitive266 and thus did not want to undergo the experience of listening to them nine times.

In our conversation, despite or perhaps because of his maintaining that he was not a Tenrikyo follower himself, he noted numerous things about the religion that he viewed positively. One was the experience of being in the Main Sanctuary of the religion in Tenri City with many others and clapping four times in unison for the Morning and Evening Services. Anthony also spoke about the experience of performing the Seated Service in unison with others present, facing one another and the Jiba from these four wings as a particular experience that one would have to personally experience to understand. (This interview was several months before my own trip to Tenri City, which, when he learned about, he expressed to regard positively because he viewed the pilgrimage town as a place one needs to visit personally to understand, and relatedly, to understand the religion.) His focus was firstly directed toward the brief act of reverently clapping four times with many others in this religious context that he described to be a profound and aweinspiring experience of unity that reverberates through the sanctuary, thereby creating an extraordinary feeling, even if one is not a "believer," and said that he can understand why this is an important and highly influential experience for followers. In his description, it was the unity exacted through the many bodies present and the sound that they collectively produced through these four claps that he focused on as the most notable and emotionally evocative component, based on his own experience.

While I do not know if one of the possible reasons mentioned in this subsection for clapping specifically four times was the actual reason the foundress taught her followers to do so, the latter reason focused on its facilitation of unity via sound and bodily movement is interesting in relation to my thesis because this commonly enacted ritual component of the Service performed in numerous Tenrikyo contexts, including TEC, did serve as a regularly enacted unifier between those present. At TEC, as at other Tenrikyo sites, this embodied act of expressing sacred reverence in unison with others present encouraged a collective feeling amongst the group and was one factor, amongst others, that bolstered a sense of community. It also fostered a connection to the wider sphere of Tenrikyo and to the central point of the Jiba toward which, ideally, Tenrikyo followers direct their prayers. Thus, though simple, this ritual marker of clapping four times was an important contributor to the social and spiritual experience of the religion practiced regularly at TEC, and at other Tenrikyo sites throughout the world.

b. The social world of TEC and the social model of Tenrikyo as manifested through the TEC Monthly Service

Sartorial clues of one's relationship to the religion and one's social position at TEC

To continue this focus on the physical bodies of Service attendees, I would like to now discuss the various types of clothing present. Although the Monthly Service functioned as a unifier between those present, it also displayed the two-tiered nature of the TEC community in which some present were positioned more closely to the group's core and to the Tenrikyo religion, while others present were positioned at more of its periphery. One of the markers of this dual-layered quality was the various types of garb worn by those in attendance. On any given occasion of this monthly ritual, some people would be wearing the ceremonial Tenrikyo kimono or hakama suit, which in almost all Tenrikyo sites throughout the world is the ritual attire worn by Service performers 267 . Others in attendance would be wearing the short black Japanese happi coat, while still others would be wearing their everyday (non-Tenrikyo) clothing268 . Thus, the ritual performers were immediately visually evident through both their attire and, most commonly, through their physical position in the sanctuary being seated on the chairs at the front of the seating area on the side of the room that corresponded, according to their gender, to the side of the stage on which they would perform, with men on the left and women on the right.

Often, a small segment of these women would also be dispersed elsewhere throughout the sanctuary: a subtle spatial display of women often having more flexibility regarding what position they occupy in the religion than men. Though in each segment of the Service, more males than females took part in the ritual performance, as its scripted execution called for three female instrumental roles and six male instrumental roles, overall on any given month, there were more female than male performers robed in this ceremonial attire who performed in the ritual. This was possible because the three segments of the Monthly Service were performed by a different composition of performers, with it being possible to be perform in one or more of the three segments.

These ceremonially robed individuals usually comprised between a half and a third of the people in attendance. Each month, different ritual actors were designated by the head of TEC to perform as dancers and/or instrumental performers in each of the three segments of this ritual. In the head of TEC's monthly allocation of who would perform which ritual roles of the Monthly Service, a certain level of variation regarding who would serve as a Service performer and which role(s) they would fill was common. For example, one month an individual may be assigned to play a certain musical instrument for one segment and to serve as a dancer for another segment. For the next month, the same individual may be solely assigned to play a different musical instrument for 267 There is some variation regarding the donning of these ceremonial Tenrikyo robes for Monthly Services in the global scene of Tenrikyo, mainly due to place-based specificities which sometimes encourage special provisions to be made, such as in Korea, one of the main countries outside of Japan to have a Tenrikyo presence. There, due to the historical relationship between Japan and Korea, the "daily robes" (kyofuku) ceremonial wear composed of an easy to wear slip-on black robe and black used in daily Morning and Evening Services, which are much less distinctly Japanese in style than the Japanese men's hakama pant suit or women's kimono usually worn for Monthly Services to avoid blatant displays of displays of "Japaneseness".

a single segment and to otherwise not be included in the ritual as a performer. In practice, though, despite this monthly reassignment of performative roles which could allow for a variety of people to actively take part in this ritual, it was predominantly the same religious actors who performed each month, the majority of whom were Japanese followers closely connected to TEC and the Tenrikyo religion. This distinct lack of diversity in national backgrounds amongst the performers was not due to a preference for Japanese ritual actors, but to a lack of available people of other nationalities who were qualified 269 and wanted to perform in TEC Monthly Services. In this pattern that corresponded with national origin, we see an example of the multi-layered "TEC community" in which its "core" was predominantly composed of Japanese people born in the faith with people of other nationalities positioned most commonly at more of its periphery. Relatedly, we also can see that despite efforts on the part of TEC and the collection of European-based missionaries to bring in new followers from the local European context to the faith, the Tenrikyo scene in Europe remained chiefly, though not entirely, a Japanese one.

The non-Japanese religious actors most frequently included amongst the TEC Monthly Service performers did not come to know the faith through the efforts of local Tenrikyo missionaries and furthermore, their home sites of worship were located outside of Europe. Amongst the male performers, the most regularly present non-Japanese individual was a French man in his late thirties, Mathieu, who came to know Tenrikyo through his Japanese wife who he met in France.

He was affiliated with her church in Japan as his "home site" in accordance with the general Tenrikyo practice of new followers usually becoming rooted to the "home site" and its affiliated lineage of the person who introduced them to the path.

The two non-Japanese women most regularly included amongst these ritual performers at TEC were a Congolese woman in her mid-twenties named Frédérique and the Korean woman mentioned previously: a mid-thirty-year-old named Ji-young. Both women were raised in 269 Although generally in Tenrikyo, one must have attained the status of Yoboku to serve as a performer at sizable Tenrikyo sites, which TEC is, during my fieldwork, I saw two examples of people permitted to perform in the TEC Monthly Service after having completed the three-week religious seminar at TEC who were not Yoboku per the head of TEC's authorization. Regardless of this flexibility, though, one must obviously be able to perform the instrumental music or dances of a segment of the service to perform.

Tenrikyo sites of worship at which Frédérique's father and Ji-young's mother served as the sites' head ministers. Like many Japanese Tenrikyo followers at TEC born into this religion, Frédérique and Ji-young came to France as adults without their immediate families. For these two Tenrikyo followers, similar to many others, not only did Tenrikyo serve as a source of religious identity and faith that they continued to practice with others through coming to TEC, but their connection to their religion via TEC also served as a connection to their familial roots, the traditions in which they were raised, and the greater Tenrikyo world to which their families were also connected.

Although they were not exactly included in the "core" group of followers who constructed the base of the "TEC community," their close relationship to the Tenrikyo faith supported their close link to TEC and its associated social world.

Because the ceremonial wear of the Tenrikyo kimono or hakama suit was indicative of those performing in the Service, it was a clear signifier of their "membership" in the religion, and almost always implied a close relationship to the faith. Between the other two forms of dress present in the sanctuary of the Tenrikyo happi and one's everyday clothing, such a clear designation was largely absent. The Tenrikyo happi was, in theory, the attire worn by Tenrikyo followers for the Service and other religiously focused events which sartorially enrobed the person in the Tenrikyo faith and also the church lineage and "home site" to which they were rooted. On the back of the happi, "Tenrikyo" was written in large white kanji characters or the Roman alphabet270 . On the front of the happi, on the border of one of the over-lapping sides of the coat's folding front was the name of the church or mission station that served as the person's "home site." On the other side of its folding front was the name of the grand church with which the mission station or church was connected, i.e. their church lineage. In contrast to lineage-based sites of worship at which most often everyone in attendance would be wearing happis of the same lineage, at the non-lineage based site of TEC, a variety of church lineages and home sites of worship were displayed via these happis. The presence of followers of multiple church lineages displayed through these happis was a somewhat unique feature of TEC and other non-lineage based mission centers throughout the Tenrikyo diaspora that was in like manner mirrored on a larger scale in a variety of Tenrikyo trainings and gatherings held in Tenri City that also drew together followers of multiple lineages. Generally, in the religious life of Tenrikyo followers in Japan, excluding the time they spent in Tenri City, they most often only spent time at their own church and its connected lineage-based sites, each of which with a slightly different way of doing things and interpretations of the faith. At TEC, this multi-lineage presence was one contributing factor to its diversity.

Another contributing factor to the diversity at TEC Monthly Services was the presence and lack thereof of these religious coverings. At most Tenrikyo sites of worship in Japan, followers regularly wore their happis for daily and Monthly Services, thereby rendering this clothing a normalized and important component of the overall experience of these rituals. At TEC, only a minority of those in attendance as solely spectators 271 wore a happi. The general theme of distinction between those who wore one and those who did not was that Japanese followers272 , most of whom grew up in the religion and furthermore whose upbringing included uniforms in other contexts such as school, wore the happi and most non-Japanese people, most but not all of whom were not raised in this religion, wore their everyday clothing. This distinction was simply the general theme displayed. If such scenes that came about in the TEC sanctuary were looked at more closely, a variety of individual situations would be observable. Some non-Japanese followers regularly wore the happi for the Service and in other contexts for which its donning was practiced, notably other ritual occasions. Conversely, some Japanese people raised in the faith often forewent this sartorial element when at TEC. There were multiple reasons for which this religious outerwear was or was not worn at TEC. To partially show the variety of reasons at play for the donning of or abstention from wearing this religious outwear, I discuss two male followers who made the choice to abstain from wearing the happi at TEC for different, somewhat antithetical aims.

The first was Mr. Katagiri, a European-based mission station head of approximately forty years of age who was raised in Japan and came to live in France as a young adult, initially to TEC as a residential Japanese missionary teacher. During a semi-structured interview, he explained to me that when performing the Service at home, for which he sang and danced the Seated Service and all thirteen standing Mikagura-uta songs by himself daily 273 , he always wore the happi because it situated him in this ritual modality. Contrastingly, at TEC, he did not wear the happi, which he explained to me to be out of concern that the visual distinction between members of the faith being clothed in this religious marker and newcomers not wearing it might promote a felt division between these two categories by certain newcomers coming from this European context, thereby risking that they may not feel completely welcome and included. Thus, in order to diminish this distinction and encourage a welcoming environment to all, he did not usually wear the happi at TEC despite his personal preference to do so when in the private context of his own home. His decision for abstaining from donning the happi at TEC was to diminish the visual distinction between "insiders" and "outsiders" that may discourage the addition of newcomers to this center, and to the religion, which was the primary reason for the existence of TEC.

The second individual whose motivation for not wearing a happi I would like to include was André, a retired French military official in his mid-sixties rooted to Bordeaux Kyokai as his "home site" after he came to know the faith through this lineage-based site approximately ten years prior. In the case of André, a significantly different explanation was employed for why he chose to not wear the happi. André embraced the Tenrikyo teachings and the faith but was often opposed to what he viewed as an inappropriate mixing of Japanese culture with the foundress' teachings, which he was not shy to express at TEC and in other Tenrikyo contexts.

His decided abstention from wearing the happi started through his attendance at a large gathering at TEC at which the twenty-something year old head of the worldwide Tenrikyo Young Men's Association and designated successor to the role of Shinbashira, along with other high ranking Tenrikyo officials, were present. Midway through this event, André left because of the offense he took at what he viewed as an insulting level of hierarchical differentiation in how the event was orchestrated. Thereafter when at TEC or Bordeaux Kyokai, he abstained from wearing the happi as a sartorial protest against the system of Japanese conformity that he was opposed to but had previously acquiesced to, largely out of politeness, through his wearing of this religious outerwear. (André and the event that led to his sartorial protest are both further discussed in chapter eight.) It was only a year after this event, when he was at TEC to participate in the European seminar that he decided to finally put on this religious attire again, which he expressed to be his way of making peace with Tenrikyo's general system by making an effort to get along with it by reincorporating himself into this bodily practice.

These two instances of people who identified as Tenrikyo followers who made the purposeful choice to not wear the happi at TEC were based in quite different reasons. In the case of Mr.

Katagiri, the removal of a potential social divider was the impetus for this abstention, whereas in the case of André, a separation from an aspect of the religious system he viewed as being a culturally inappropriate inclusive conformity was positioned as the reason for not wearing this garment.

For both men, though, their decision to not wear the happi was connected to their perception of this religious outerwear being associated with the Japanese, more inner sphere of TEC and the Tenrikyo religion. Although this was not entirely true and was somewhat dependent on the particular social actor in question, this sartorial tendency was one marker, among others, that contributed to and evidenced the presence of the two-tiered nature of TEC's social world. At TEC Monthly Services, though, this differentiation via the happi was largely subdued due to majority of core members of TEC present being dressed in the ritual wear of Service performers.

The distribution of translated hymn books: the connection between language and social position in the "TEC community"

In practice at TEC, one's competency in the Japanese language, which in general was closely linked with being Japanese, was a significant factor in whether or not one was included in the more core portion of the "TEC community" or situated at more of its periphery. Despite Ji-young and Frédérique having been raised in the Tenrikyo faith and regularly performing in the TEC Monthly Service, both of these non-Japanese Tenrikyo women were positioned between the almost exclusively Japanese core of the "TEC community" and its predominantly non-Japanese periphery. Moreover, they both participated in a variety of activities at TEC beyond this monthly ritual but remained partially separate from the close-knit inner social world connected to this center that was evidenced through a variety of indicators, such as their absence from certain activities like the preparations for the Monthly Service held at TEC the day prior which I discuss later in this chapter. Their lack of complete integration into this inner social core was also displayed through the social interactions between these non-Japanese women and others at TEC gatherings, such as the post-Monthly Service meals that followed these monthly rituals at which they displayed amical relations with everyone present but did not evidence a particular closeness with the almost exclusively Japanese core of this social realm. An important contributing factor was that neither of them spoke Japanese274 and thus, they were excluded from conversations in the language generally spoken in informal interactions between members of the center's inner core.

Contrastingly, the French man in his thirties, Mathieu, discussed previously in this chapter was part of the core of this social world. This was evidenced through his social interactions, his presence at various "inner" activities such as the preparations for the TEC Monthly Service held at the center the day prior, and also through the roles he took on at TEC, notably as the head of the Europe Tenrikyo Young Men's Association. Interestingly, Mathieu had a high level of competency in the Japanese language and was highly enculturated with the Japanese culture for numerous reasons, including through having spent a significant amount of time in Japan, which facilitated his ease in the inner sphere of TEC.

Not only was the Japanese language an important contributing factor to one's position in the group, it was also the de facto ritual language of the religion as the sacred songs for the Service were performed everywhere in the world 275 in their original Japanese versions (excluding Korea276 ). It is important to remain mindful of the fact that these songs are positioned in the faith as one of the three sacred Tenrikyo texts conveyed from God the Parent via the maternal figure of the foundress to humanity. Partially due to the importance placed on these Service songs, to a certain degree, as asserted by Kato (2017a), the Japanese language was conferred in practice with the status of being the sacred language of the religion's liturgical tradition despite no official institutional statement or doctrinal underpinning which declared that the songs must be performed in this language. Although parts of these songs could be difficult for even Japanese people to (fully) understand as they were written in the regional dialect of the foundress at the time she conveyed these songs to her followers between 1866 and 1875 through at times less than direct 275 This excludes a few English-speaking contexts in which a newly developed English version of the songs were beginning to be put forth. The new adoption of performing the sacred songs in a language other than Japanese was controversial and only in the initial stages of being developed as a potential practice during my fieldwork in which efforts were being made by a small group American followers to develop an English version of these songs. During my fieldwork in Tenri City, I witnessed the unveiling of a newly developed performable translation of one of these songs in English during the "Tenri Forum" international symposium for English-speaking followers. The development of performable translated versions of these songs is complex due to the significantly different language systems of Japanese and Western languages such as English or French in which creating performable translated versions of these songs for which the translated words match the songs' melody and dance gestures is a difficult and complicated matter that is further complicated by the fact that some of the meanings contained in these songs are difficult to ascertain due to various types of word play present in them.

language277 , their performance in Japanese rendered them more comprehensively available to people fluent in Japanese. This produced a partial divide in their direct accessibility between people who were highly competent in the Japanese language (i.e. mainly Japanese people) and people who were not (i.e. most non-Japanese people).

To mitigate this linguistic barrier which could render these sacred songs incomprehensible to people without a high level of Japanese competency, hymn books with their original Japanese lyrics alongside their French translations were available on a bookshelf at the back of the sanctuary by its entrance. Also available were hymn books in exclusively Japanese for Japanese people, most commonly newcomers to the religion, who wished to read along with the oral performance of these songs. English versions of these hymn books were also available but were often located elsewhere than the readily accessible place on these bookshelves except during events at TEC aimed at bringing together people from multiple locations in Europe for which the English hymn books were made readily available in preparation.

Near the beginning of the Service each month, these books were distributed by a small collection of Japanese followers (the majority of whom were female) who were socially positioned in either a more temporary or permanent manner near the "core" of TEC. They were given to anyone in attendance who was thought to want or benefit from having one of these hymn books to reference during the Service to render the songs more comprehensible. Whom to offer one of these books to without asking was generally based on if an individual in attendance was thought to be a newcomer to TEC and the Tenrikyo faith or, if they were a non-Japanese person who had been coming to TEC for some time, if it was thought that they had a preference for this textual reference or that they would benefit from it. In my observations, some non-Japanese people who had been attending Monthly Services at TEC for significant periods of time still showed a preference to read along in French during the performance of these Japanese songs while other such attendees simply watched and listened to their performance. This preference to have a book, when not automatically met with someone handing them one, was expressed through a brief raising of their hand accompanied by a look to convey this request to one of the people distributing the hymn books.

Several non-Japanese people who routinely opted to follow along with the hymn books had been coming to Monthly Services at TEC, and for most of these individuals also to Monthly Services held at local lineage-based mission stations, for multiple years (in certain cases, ten or twenty years). While it is true that these individuals did not speak Japanese (or had a limited level of the language) and thus did not understand the Japanese words of these songs, they had already read through the translations contained in these hymn books many times and were thus familiar with the general messages contained therein. Yet, they followed along with these books for all or certain parts of the approximately hour and a half performance of the songs. This suggests that such people not only wanted to be aware of the content contained therein, but also desired a semiregular repetition of the songs' content in a language they could understand so as to deepen their understanding of and relationship to the messages. Contrastingly, I never saw Japanese people born in the faith or who had been followers of it for some time read along with these hymn books during the ritual. Thus, a different relationship and level of access to these sacred Japanese songs that served as a centrally important component of the faith between Service attendees of these two categories was demonstrated.

In the distribution of these hymn books, "core" members of the center who took on the insider role of serving as TEC hosts through making efforts to provide a welcoming, comfortable, and enriching environment for those positioned more at the periphery of the group who have come to TEC was generally filled by Japanese followers born into the religion. More specifically, they were most often either TEC residents, members of local mission station families, or occasionally other individuals who were briefly part of this layer of the group, such as Japanese Tenrikyo young adults who were in France (or occasionally elsewhere in Europe) for self-development purposes. In this, we can see that the majority of non-Japanese social actors who came to TEC, most of whom were not born into the faith, were generally positioned at more of the periphery of the center's two-tiered social collectivity, As previously discussed, this social distinction between those positioned at the core of this social group and those at more of its periphery was largely due to the inner-world of TEC being closely connected to a particular social modality of Japanese-Tenrikyo culture, Japanese culture more broadly, and the Japanese language. Despite efforts to render TEC a multilingual center, because a significant portion of its "inner-world" occurred in Japanese, there was a strong association between competency in this language and access to the inner social sphere connected to this center. While significant efforts were made to expand the path of Tenrikyo to Europe and to bring new people into its wider faith-based community, in practice, newly involved people generally remained at its periphery. This small gesture of offering assistance, largely to non-Japanese people not born in the faith, through the distribution of these hymn books was one of the numerous indicators of the dual-layered nature of this group.

The dual layered nature of TEC that had as an important factor of demarcation whether or not one was Japanese was not unique to this center. This is evidenced, for example, through Kato (2009) noting that at Tenrikyo churches in the San Francisco area where he conducted research, there tended to be a divide between Japanese and American-born followers. Though in the case of his study, the majority of people of both categories were of Japanese origin, with many of the American-born followers being the children of Japanese immigrant parents in which different cultural-linguistic spheres were largely maintained between the two categories (ibid: 55). He furthermore asserted, "Though some of the aspects of the congregations cater to the needs of the American-raised members, the social spaces as well as the structure of the worship service still preserve strong ethnoreligious aspects." (ibid: 56). Kato (2009) explained there to be "selective adaptations" in these California-based Tenrikyo churches. Similar to TEC, there were place-based adaptations such as Monthly Services being held on Sundays rather than on an established date of the month regardless of the day of the week on which it fell, the use of English in Services 278 , and the use of chairs, while there were less structural changes overall. Kato partially attributes this to the immigrant generation of Japanese people being in leadership roles in concert with the transnational ties that Tenrikyo communities in general have with Tenrikyo Church Headquarters and their superior churches in Japan. In saying this, he explains that, "The current religious education system largely relies upon educational programs and an appointment system of the Church Headquarters in Japan, and the 278 At TEC, the prominent non-Japanese language in Monthly Services was French, not English.

organizational structures are rigidly defined by the current church system based on superiorsubordinate relationship." (Kato 2009: 57). As explained throughout this thesis, such features were similarly also at TEC. Before moving on in my discussion, as a concluding component of this subsection, I include hereafter the current official English and French translations of these Seated Service songs as they were written in the hymn books, along with their original Japanese version and a transcript of this original version written in Latin letters that was included alongside their translated versions in the hymn books. It is chiefly the songs below that were, ideally, performed every morning and evening in Japanese regardless of geographic location. For these songs, as previously noted, the first portion was performed twenty-one times, the second portion once, and the third portion in three sets of these.

It was generally understood that these Japanese songs are incredibly difficult to accurately translate due to the nuances contained therein in which even discerning their precise meaning in Japanese is a highly complicated matter. Translation of these songs is even further complicated once certain concepts are translated into languages based on a significantly different conceptual and communicative system, such as the Western languages of English and French. Whether or not their English and French translations most accurately conveyed their meanings depended on both the individual perspective of a person and the school(s) of thought to which they had been exposed. Despite such complications, the translated versions of these sacred songs were nonetheless readily used and generally regarded as the best way to convey the meaning of these songs to people whose language was not Japanese.

songs. Three women seated on the right of the stage would play the women's stringed instruments. Three male dance performers were on the left side of the open central area of the stage accompanied by three women on the right side (See image hereafter). For the Seated Service, the designated dance performers, as the name of this portion of the ritual implies, performed its hand movements in a seated position. For the other thirteen Mikagura-uta Songs, the ritual performers enacted their prescribed bodily gestures in a standing position. Along with the dancers and sometimes the instrumental players, it was common at TEC for those in the audience to take part in singing these sacred songs, which for some was facilitated through the hymn books, while for others, was by memory. For both the Seated Service and the other thirteen Mikagura-uta songs, the ritual dance performers faced the altars with their backs to the audience to perform these sacred hand dances. This was done with the underlying explanation that they were performed for God the Parent and the foundress rather than as a performative act for the audience. Often stressed in Tenrikyo religious discourse is that it is of primary importance to perform the Service with a sincere heart rather than to simply perform skillfully but without putting one's whole heart into the ritual. This focus on intention is an important component to understanding the performance of the Service from an emic perspective. Beyond the linguistically conveyed meaning of these songs sung by a significant portion of those in attendance, they also served as transmitters and productional models of the sounds that were regularly put forth through them. Although most non-Japanese people in attendance could not understand the Mikagura-uta songs word-for-word, all in attendance were exposed to the sounds produced through their being sung in complement with the instrumental music of these songs. Additionally, it was common for some of those present in the audience area to sing along with them, most often rather quietly, as a way of participating in the ritual. For those who did not, they most often were nonetheless experientially familiar with the production of these sounds through their vocalization in other contexts. Through engaging in the creation of their sound, whether at TEC, other contexts, or both, people not only became familiar with the oratory experience of listening to them, but also to the inner bodily experience of their production.

In relation to this element of the holistic embodied experience of interacting with and the internalization of Tenrikyo, Csordas' (1995) analysis of the embodied experience of vocal utterance via his discussion of glossolalia in which he uses Merleau-Ponty's (1945) work to look at these vocal productions as a phenomenon of embodiment is pertinent. Merleau-Ponty positioned a verbal gesture with immanent meaning as the root of speech rather than firstly as a representation of thought. According to this perspective, the pronunciation of words is in terms of their articulatory and acoustic style as one of the possible uses of the body. Because thought is often only partially formed prior to its spoken (or written) representation, speech does not express or represent thought. Rather, speech is an act or phonetic gesture through which one occupies an existential position in the world. Csordas (1990) argues in concordance with Merleau-Ponty that all language has this gestural or existential meaning. As glossolalia is understood as a gift from God, the engagement in it is a ritual statement that the speaker inhabits a sacred world. What is particular about glossolalia is that by eliminating the semantic level of linguistic structure, the existential reality of intelligent bodies inhabiting a meaningful world through embodied speech is highlighted. In partially like manner, engagement with the Mikagura-uta songs was also an engagement with the sacred via vocal means. Depending on the particular perspective of the social actor in question, the singing of these Mikagura-uta songs was for some the verbal production of sacred sounds and words conveyed via the foundress after their bestowal by God the Parent. For others who did not believe in the literal truth of the factual details of this religion, it was an engagement with the production of repetitive, melodically hypnotic sounds positioned in this tradition through the frame of sacrality, thereby imbuing them with a special significance, even if this significance was attributed to a social rather than divine source. For the latter type of social actor, although the literal divinely bestowed significance of these songs was absent, their attributed meaning of being special and a centrally important component of the religion often remained intact.

Beyond the attributed significance of these songs, the sounds of the songs themselves were an important component of Tenrikyo practice. The singing of the Mikagura-uta songs was not only meaningful through the messages conveyed through their words, which as explained, most non-Japanese people of the TEC community did not understand word-for-word. It was also through the sounds and vibrations conveyed via their songs in which they were not experienced exclusively, or even primarily, on the abstract level of thoughts conveyed via language, but in the embodied domain of the sounds themselves. Thus, the embodiment of Tenrikyo included the sound-based component of the vocal production of these sacred songs.

Enacting hierarchy through ritual roles: the performance of the Seated Service by "important" people

The Service dances were another means through which the entire beings of followers interacted with the performative and attributed qualities of Tenrikyo, with the Seated Service being its most prominent component. Demonstrative of its particular place of importance was that the role of the six ritual dancers who performed it was associated with hierarchically "important" people. For every TEC Monthly Service that I attended 281 , seated in the center of the six ritual dancers for this portion of the ritual was the male head of TEC and his wife. To their respective sides were two other hierarchically important senior men and two hierarchically important senior women who amongst other prominent roles, usually headed lineage-based mission stations 282 . Generally, when a visiting (most often male) religious actor who occupied a hierarchically important role within the broader framework of Tenrikyo came to TEC, typically for an officially sponsored reason, and was present for the Monthly Service 283 , they would similarly take part in this performative role.

That the individuals performing this portion of the TEC Monthly Service were generally rather "important people" was pointedly brought to my attention, in addition to my own observations of 281 I attended approximately twenty-five TEC Monthly Services in total.

282 Throughout my thesis, I often refer to all Tenrikyo sites of worship based on the lineage system, which excludes TEC and a small, organizationally similar site in London (Tenrikyo UK Centre), as "mission stations." I include in this referential term the only Tenrikyo site of worship designated as a "church" (Bordeaux Kyokai) to avoid excessive wordiness in describing the collection of lineage-based Tenrikyo sites of worship in Europe. 283 Or performance of the Service for other, specially designated, reasons, such as for the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the European Tenrikyo Young Men's Association for which Daisuke Nakayama-sama, the acting president of the Tenrikyo Young Men's Association and designated person to next assume the role of the Shinbashira (spiritual and administrative head of the religion) was in attendance and performed in this component of the ritual.

this tendency, by one of the key members of the TEC community, Toshie Miyamoto284 . More specifically, it was brought on by my prompting about her engagement in various parts of the Monthly Service and if she had a favorite instrument or dance to perform. This was a question I occasionally posed as a matter of chit-chat and also for the multiple insights people's responses to this question could provide. After telling me several parts of the Service that she particularly enjoyed performing, she laughed and said that of course she had never performed (or been asked to perform) as a dancer in the Seated Service because it is generally "for people more important than herself." Her comment on her hierarchical position within the group (at that time) was not in any way despondent but displayed a matter-of-fact understanding of her position at that point in her life.

Despite the fact that her parents had previously served as the head and head wife of TEC and at that time were serving in high ranking Tenrikyo roles in Tenri City, as a young person who did not occupy any official position at the center or within the religious organization, her hierarchical position at TEC was relatively low. Therefore, the roles she occupied, including during the Monthly Service, were reflective of her current status. Her normalization of the defined hierarchical organization of TEC that was embodied and displayed through these hierarchically important individuals performing in this ritual role was reflective of the strongly hierarchical structure of the broader Tenrikyo system and also Japanese culture. More precisely, in these closely interrelated hierarchical social systems, one's position was usually strongly based on one's age and the role(s) one occupied 285 .

In the Seated Service, the hierarchically important social position of certain people was evidenced, displayed, and reconfirmed through the location of their physical bodies. At this part of the ritual, it was supposed to be only the designated hierarchically important ritual performers who executed the hand dance gestures of the Seated Service that was otherwise the main component of the twice daily Morning and Evening Services which, in group settings, was performed by everyone in attendance. For the Monthly Service, though most people in the audience area of the sanctuary were highly familiar with the Seated Service gestures to the point of their being a kinesthetically imprinted part of their physical bodies through muscle memory developed over time as well as of their spiritual practice and conceptual repertoire, because they were not charged with this designated ritual role, most refrained from their execution in this context. This was because during the Monthly Service, if one was not a designated dancer or instrumentalist for a given portion of the ritual, one's prescribed engagement with it was that of inactive observation. Thus, although the vast majority of those in attendance were highly capable of performing the gestures they were observing, in this instance, ideally, they cultivated in themselves a disposition of respect to one's role that was a common theme of numerous other parts of TEC, the Tenrikyo religion, and also the broader realm of Japanese culture.

The importance placed on the Seated Service component of the Monthly Service that was manifested through the hierarchically important position of the ritual actors who enacted it at TEC was connected with the particular nature of this portion of the Monthly Service performed on the 26 th of every month around the sacred point of the Jiba. It is this Monthly Service that was positioned in the religion as the true enactment of the ritual, and in conjunction, the way it was performed differed in relation to how it was performed at every other Tenrikyo site throughout the world. While the other thirteen sacred dances of the ritual which follow this initial component of the Service were performed in like manner regardless of location, including in its "true" version performed at the Jiba, this chiefly important introductory component of the ritual assumed a different form and connectedly also a different soterially-linked significance.

When performed around the Jiba on the 26 th of each month, its performance is enacted by five men and five women who occupy centrally important positions within the inner spiritual and administrative sphere of the religion. Each of these specially designated ritual performers enact different gestures imparted by the foundress for this ritual as representations of each of the "Ten Providences of God the Parent." Importantly connected to this is that these "ten providences" are taught to have been created and put into interaction by God the Parent at the point of the Jiba to bring about the conception of humanity and which continue to be the means through which our bodies and the physical world are enabled to function by God the Parent.

This highly important component of the Service was further explained to be the means through which the soterial destiny of humanity will be reached at which time there will be no more physical or social ills, though the precise significance of this latter feature of the ritual was largely unclear and, in my observations, subject to numerous interpretations. Regardless of the precise interpretation of this theologically complex element of the religion, it was clear that this part of the Monthly Service performed around the Jiba was of paramount importance. This attributed significance and manifested social structure that was enacted through the bodies of these key religious actors in Tenri City was partially replicated in the performance of the Seated Service portion of the TEC Monthly Service that displayed its important place in the religion though the designated ritual actors of this role.

Through exposure to this ritual performed around the Jiba, the hierarchical structure of the religion that was a component of Tenrikyo contexts elsewhere was reaffirmed. Conversely, through the regular attendance over time of the Monthly Service at TEC, the hierarchical social organization within the religion was manifested and reiterated through its Seated Service. Similar to numerous other instances, a particular social model put forth in Tenri City was also a component of the social model present at TEC in which exposure to, familiarity with, and normalization of either of these Tenrikyo contexts functioned to develop and reaffirm a similar stance toward the other. This hierarchical role-based social model is highly related to the broader realm of Japanese culture with which the religion was closely intertwined and influenced by. One's rootedness in the wider Japanese cultural framework encouraged the normalization of this hierarchical component of the religion's social organization. Thus, parallel to the conceptual connection between Tenri City and TEC, one's situatedness in Japanese culture encouraged one's familiarity with and normalization of Tenrikyo culture, or in like manner, the converse. These paired references of familiarity and normalization, as mentioned numerous times throughout this thesis, were an influential factor to the two-tiered nature of the TEC community. In order to be a fully integrated member of the inner social core of TEC, it was not enough to be knowledgeable about the religion this center was charged with promoting, one also needed to be familiar with and embody numerous aspects of the broader cultural realms with which it was strongly connected.

Included in this was a particular model of social hierarchy similarly present in the broader realm of Tenrikyo as well as in Japanese culture.

Performing unity through the Service songs, executing a harmonious social model

After the Seated Service, the Service performers would then change positions in preparation for the next part of the Monthly Service: the first half of the thirteen Mikagura-uta songs performed in standing position. Some individuals dressed in the ceremonial hakama suit or kimono would come onto the stage as instrumental or dance performers and some individuals who performed in the Seated Service would take a seat in the audience section. This changing of who occupied each of the performative roles would then occur again after the approximately thirty-minute performance of the first half of these songs during the short break before the second half that otherwise passed melodically from one song to another without marked separation.

These highly choreographed dances were performed by the six performers in unhurried unison to the sounds of the accompanying music played in syncretic accordance. These ritualized songs and dances performed by a collection of individuals who joined together to create a larger melodic whole were at the heart of the faith and also at the heart of the community constructed at and through TEC. As evoked slightly previously, the symbolism enacted through these songs and dances was something that I occasionally heard discussed at TEC and in numerous other Tenrikyo contexts in which the significance of this chiefly important ritual was theorized to exist on multiple levels, each of which positioning harmonious unison between differing contributors as a central theme. Important to the expansive role of this ritual and how it was conceptualized beyond the specific context of its scripted enactment was its metaphorical meaning that I sometimes heard discussed to be reflective of the Tenrikyo story of creation in which the Ten Providences of God the Parent came together to form the first humans in which each providence performed a different role to, together, create a greater whole.

Another theme that I frequently heard regarding the performance of this ritual was that while playing to the best of one's ability and making a sincere effort is important, as noted previously, being a highly skilled individual performer should not be one's primary goal. Instead, what should be of principle importance is harmonizing oneself with the others taking part in the performance of this ritual of multiple parts coming together to create something greater. As discussed by Houseman (2004), ritual performances are less about an ordered sequence of behaviors, which in the case of the Service ritual are the scripted dance movements and the instrumental sounds they produce in combination with the reverential act of clapping four times at designated moments of the ritual that everyone in attendance takes part in, than they are about the generation of interactive patterns whose systemic qualities generally override the individual irregularities that inevitably occur. Although there may be some variation in how the Service ritual is performed, such as if the officially scripted number of performers are present286 , if the dance and instrumental performers enact their scripted roles with complete accuracy or if mistakes are made, and the particular style with which each performative role is executed, this does not change its enacted significance. Clearly explained by the head of TEC during an instructional moment of the Tenrikyo European Seminar training program is that more important than whether or not a person skillfully performs a particular ritual role is that the ritual actors are paying attention to each other and aligning their individual performative roles with the performance of others. In this, the interactive patterns were clearly put in the forefront.

In relation to this point, I sometimes heard it specifically mentioned that this collaborative harmonizing aspect of the ritual is excellent training to develop in oneself through the synergetic performance of the Service and take thereafter with oneself into the world. This developmental capacity was largely attributed to the ritual's ability to encourage a close attention to others and a disposition directed towards making efforts to harmonize oneself with others. This highly important monthly event at TEC encouraged this mode of collaborative relational concordance with one another to transcend beyond the ritual to also be present in the dominant mode of sociality of scenes that took place at the center and also in contexts connected to this center that took place elsewhere. While people came together at TEC for the ritual of the Monthly Service, the social model contained therein also emanated out to exist in the participants in a twodirectional model of dispositional construction.

c. Becoming part of a religious world and the religious world becoming part of the individual

The holistic approach of integration into the TEC community and the Tenrikyo faith as exemplified through the children's group

The formative nature of the Monthly Service was not only transmitted to adults, but also to children despite the fact that throughout the majority of the Monthly Service there were very few children in attendance apart from infants and toddlers who added to the familial nature of these gatherings. These infants and toddlers, who were the newest additions to the TEC community, invariably accompanied their parents in the sanctuary and delighted those in attendance with their sounds and as they grew into toddlers, with their often high activity levels that those present communally attended to as they sometimes moved around the room, creating an environment in which many present functioned as the "aunties" and "uncles," etc. of these new members of the group. This communal tending to these young children that occurred in the sanctuary during these monthly rituals was but one of many examples of how for those born into families closely affiliated with and involved in TEC, the collection of people closely connected to TEC was largely akin to an extended family from the time they were born. Through spending time at the center, and with its connected social actors as part of their early formative experiences, a normalized feeling of belonging at the center and in its connected social world was facilitated.

Their being part of this community from a very early age (or for people who later became part of this group, over significant periods of time during which they, too, progressed through different stages of life) was a key foundational contributor to the ambiance of community that was noticeably present at TEC through their creation of a shared history of the group and through their sharing in each other's individualized histories.

After these young members of the TEC community were no longer toddlers but rather young children, it was possible for them to continue to attend the Monthly Services held in the sanctuary, but most forwent sitting through this lengthy ritual to instead take part in the children's group for those aged 3-14 held one floor below. This group, that was primarily orchestrated by younger local core women of the "TEC community," was aimed at exposing the children to important aspects of the faith in a child-friendly manner through various religiously focused activities, such as arts and crafts. It also provided a space of play and socialization for these young participants through the time they spent with other young members of this social group. By creating an enjoyable space through which they came to know and form positive relationships with the faith and with the other children present, their integration into the broader religious lexical of Tenrikyo, and also into the TEC community, was promoted. I often heard Tenrikyo parents express the importance of imparting the religion onto their children in a way that would allow them to learn about it at their own pace rather than pushing them too hard at too young of an age, potentially causing the religion to be associated with difficulty or an over-strictness. Instead, these children's activities are hoped to elicit positive feelings such as comradery and joy, thereby encouraging them to become lifelong Tenrikyo followers. This children's group, which was part of the "European Tenrikyo Children's Association287 ," was one of multiple examples of the Tenrikyo emphasis on guiding children according to their development in congruence with the religion's general emphasis on the parentchild model of God the Parent and the foundress (i.e. the original mother of all humans) guiding humans as their children according to their spiritual development. The holistic approach of transmitting the faith and its practice to the forthcoming generation of followers that involved the gradual cultivation of the sensorial, bodily, and moral domains of the individual was largely congruent to the general model of how the faith was transmitted to adults who came to interact with the religion. In this holistic model of gradual cultivation which involved much more than the intellectual domain of the mind, one can better understand why the presence of people coming to this monthly ritual, along with other Tenrikyo contexts, was prioritized, largely regardless of their intellectually-based "belief" in or understanding of the religion.

In the specific context of this children's group, although they were not present in the sanctuary for the majority of the Service, their participation in this age-based group did not completely eclipse their exposure to this important ritual of the faith. To facilitate familiarity with it without making their attendance excessive for their young ages, the children's group came up to the sanctuary to attend approximately five minutes of it each month. As a result, they were regularly exposed to a small portion of it, thereby rendering it a familiar part of their known experiences.

When this group would come up to the sanctuary to join in attendance of a short portion of the Service, their presence was discretely included in the back of the sanctuary as they quietly, or at least semi-quietly, entered the room and knelt in a condensed group behind the rows of folding wooden chairs with mostly adults installed on them. Their short presence included clapping softly four times and bowing to begin their participation in this ritual, similar to what the adults in attendance had done earlier. Several minutes later, at the prompting of their teachers, they would quietly clap four times again to conclude this moment, then leave the room to go back downstairs and continue their morning and early afternoon child-focused activities.

At this point, I would like to pause on Bénéï's work on the role of sensorium and embodiment in producing visceral senses of belonging and emotion that was very influential to the formation of my thesis by including a passage from the introduction of her 2008 book which explores the role of embodiment and emotion in the construction of nationalism by looking at how this occurs in elementary education in western India in which she references a previous work ( 2001) on this topic that she put forth. This passage is directly evocative to the short, but ongoing and regular, exposure to the Monthly Service ritual that these children had as an ongoing component of their being shaped into Tenrikyo people but moreover extends to my broader research population and my exploration of how it was that they together formed a group, and more specifically, a Tenrikyo group. I pondered whether the children also get transformed in the process of chanting the liturgies and to what extent. What bearing did singing, chanting, and calisthenics have upon both the students' individual bodies and on the collective school body thus produced and incorporated concomitantly with the national one? I argued then that through this public worship of the nation, children were simultaneously creating their physical and emotional selves and acting and embracing "India" into existence. Children, in other words, were phenomenologically taught to "feel" the nation within their bodies. (Bénéï 2008: 24).

Through the children's group's regularly revisited exposure to not only the sensorially-rich ritual of the Monthly Service itself but also to the enacted bodily disposition that they were experientially taught to assume when interacting with it, they were gradually instilling aspects of the religion separate from but often connected to the domain of "belief" within this forthcoming generation of the faith. As we can see, for those born in the faith, this process of socialization typically began at an early age, thereby strongly anchoring it into the developing selves of these young religious actors. In this, they were solidly grounded in and influenced by Tenrikyo culture during this important period of early development in which it became a part of their feeling selves. This process of solidly anchoring such young people into a high level of experientially developed familiarity with TEC and Tenrikyo was an important contributing component to the two-tiered nature of the TEC community by promoting the ongoing inculcation of these up-andcoming core members, thereby transferring this rootedness to the new generation.

For people who came to know TEC and Tenrikyo later, the level to which they internalized its numerous elements was dependent on multiple factors, including but not limited to their familiarity with and internalization of Japanese culture. Similar to this example of the multifaceted instillation of the religion in these young people that was conducted in a manner deemed appropriate to their stage of development, its dispersal to and cultivation in adults288 was also positioned as a gradual and multi-faceted process. This formative process was imparted partially through the Monthly Service, but also through other means of inculcation and reinforcement that also included its wider, collectively shared "culture" in which through involvement in such Tenrikyo contexts, one was not only being linked with the "spiritual" side of the religion, but also with its broader realm.

End-of-Service sermons that plant seeds of thought into the group

Near the end of every Monthly Service at TEC after the performance of the Mikagura-uta dances came to an end, a sermon was delivered by someone who had been requested to do so for the month. A variety of voices through this rotating oratory position contributed to the underlying conceptualization of the faith present at TEC. This official point of reference on the faith was predominately, though not exclusively, represented by males holding official positions within the religion. Most often, these speakers were male heads of mission stations in Europe, most commonly those living in the Paris area due to their regular presence at this monthly ritual. Less commonly, female mission heads or the wives of the male heads289 who were also regarded as holding an important position in relation to this role, also gave the sermon. Even less common but still occasionally featured in this time slot were sermons delivered by visiting officials, who most often were from Japan.

These post-Service talks discussed various topics in relation to the faith and functioned largely as the enunciated voice of the religion during these important monthly gatherings. This spoken component of the Monthly Service put forth by a single individual in which specific topics were discussed through precise language was somewhat in contrast to the Monthly Service ritual itself.

Whereas the sermons were individualized, unique, and based primarily in the realm of the intellect, the performance of the Monthly Service was communal, reproduced every month in like form at Tenrikyo sites throughout the world, and strongly based in the realm of the non-concrete sensorial experience.

The numerous people who delivered these sermons contributed to the overall conceptualization of the faith amongst followers at TEC both through the direct means of influence that these sermons had on the people present to hear them directly and also through the circulation of the ideas conveyed through these sermons that sometimes occurred afterwards. This latter means of influence to the group was evidenced by the fact that on numerous occasions, I heard similar explanations pertaining to certain aspects of the faith from multiple members of the "TEC community" that had first been precisely enunciated in a TEC Monthly Service sermon before becoming the somewhat communal intellectual property of its connected religious world.

Although the majority of time people spent in the sanctuary of TEC during these monthly ritual gatherings was dedicated to a non-site-specific reproduction of ritual based on scripted music and dance, they also expanded to include this more individuated, intellectually based component.

Furthermore, the influence on the group of these monthly ritual gatherings also occurred outside of the precise ritual that took place in this sanctuary, aspects of which the next subsection discusses.

The offerings as a connecting factor to the faith, the center, and to others in attendance

One component of the TEC Monthly Service that extended its presence, in a very tangible way, beyond what occurred in the sanctuary was the bountiful offerings placed in front of these three altars on the morning of the ritual290 . I will begin addressing this component of the TEC Monthly Service by beginning where the last subsection ended, after the conclusion of the post-ritual sermon, because the period of transition between the ritual that occurred in the upstairs sanctuary and the post-Service meal that occurred afterwards in the large basement-level multi-purpose room was the time at which these offerings were taken down from the three altars and readied for later consumption. While a small portion of those in attendance remained in the upstairs sanctuary after the ritual was concluded for the administration of the Sazuke healing ritual, most present would put their shoes back on from where they were placed at the outer entrance of the sanctuary and disperse to other parts of the building. After leaving the sanctuary, either immediately after the Monthly Service or after the Sazuke healing ritual, Service performers would return to the men's or women's changing rooms to transition out of their ceremonial wear and back into their everyday clothing. Others in attendance would either meander down to where the post-Service meal would be held or elsewhere during this transitional period.

While the Service performers were changing back into their everyday clothes, I would go into the small ground-floor dining room to wait, most often with several young women who were also operating as partial TEC "insiders" by positioning themselves in this room, to help with the organizational preparation of various comestibles. These foods, which we were waiting to start getting ready and arranging, included dessert trays of various cookies, candies, etc. 291 and also fruits from the offerings that we would cut up to put out at the end of the post-Service meal one floor below. They also included the organizational readying of take-home bags of fruit and vegetable offerings that had been placed in front of the altars during the Monthly Service in relation to the number of people (or families) in attendance which those present would take with them when leaving TEC 292 .

Commonly during my fieldwork, the several other individuals with whom I waited to begin this collaborative task of readying foods were young women on exchange from Tenri University to the Université d'Orléans 293 , with the latter located approximately 125 km south of Paris and the former located in Tenri City. These Tenrikyo born and raised Japanese women often came to TEC for the weekend of its Monthly Services and became partially internal members of the center while there, thereby reconnecting with their Tenrikyo and Japanese cultural habitus on such occasions. During our time posed in this room without very much to do, we casually chatted while waiting for the local forty-something year old female core member of TEC who was informally charged with heading the orchestration of this communal task to arrive and get us started preparing the dessert trays by bringing out the treats for that month for us to arrange on the trays. Usually at about this time, numerous other women who had also served as Service performers arrived to help us with this gendered task after having changed into their everyday wear. The majority of the women who helped with this approximately fifteen-minute task of shared effort were younger294 and also were Japanese.

Shortly after the treats for dessert were brought out for us to arrange, men, most commonly younger, who had performed in the Service would then arrive with heavy laundry baskets loaded with fruits and vegetables, fresh bread, sometimes along with cookies, candies, etc. that had been included in the offerings placed in front of the altars for the Service for us to prepare for the post-Service meal and the take-home bags of ritualized produce. I will discuss this latter element slightly later in this subsection.

292 Any additional produce was set aside to be used in meals for TEC residents. 293 There is an established exchange program between Tenri University in Tenri City and the Université d'Orléans through which approximately five students from Tenri University (who usually but not always are from Tenrikyo families) go to the Université d'Orléans each year. Though not required, during my fieldwork several of these students would come to TEC semi-regularly for Monthly Services and during school vacation periods.

I would like to pause on the various types of fresh bread purchased from local bakeries included in these offerings which we would slice and place in baskets to serve along with the assortment of other foods included in the buffet style meal held one floor below. The presence of this ritualized bread was particularly interesting in relation to TEC's place-based adaptability that was displayed through this, and often other, offerings and the meals served at this European center. Though in Japan the starch-food most commonly included in the offerings was rice, in the French/European locality in which TEC was situated, fresh local bread was also included. Through this, a simple example of a broader tendency at TEC to integrate components of the local environment which included multiple place-based adaptations while at the same time maintaining a distinctly Tenrikyo, and extendedly Japanese, ambiance at the center was displayed. Although the various types of bread offered and thereafter consumed were not common in Japan, or to the broader realm of Tenrikyo, in both, an interest in and appreciation of local foods and local cultures was present. Thus, the presence of such breads at TEC was in accordance with the primary cultural logic(s) at work, despite the "foreign" character of the bread itself.

Through engaging in the simple preparations of these foods for those in attendance, with lots of smiles, chatter, and laughter exchanged between those taking part in this communal task, we were working to do something for others in a manner typical of Tenrikyo contexts, including the specific locality of TEC. In this, a non-site-specific mode of sociality was reproduced at this center situated in a Parisian suburb. An essential element of this activity, that was similarly present in the orchestration of numerous other tasks at TEC and also in other Tenrikyo contexts, was working together toward the benefit of others with an upbeat and eager-to-help countenance typical of Tenrikyo activities framed as hinokishin.

In complement to our female efforts, the bringing down of these offerings by the comparable male sphere was one of several tasks they were helping with in the sanctuary. While we prepared the food, they engaged in the slightly more physically demanding reorganization of the sanctuary back into its daily layout by putting away the musical instruments for the Monthly Service, rearranging a far fewer number of folding wooden chairs in the audience area than what had been put out for the morning's ritual gathering, and taking down the offerings that had been placed in to people positioned closer the exterior sphere of this social world.

front of the altars that morning. Most but not all of which were brought down for us to finalize preparing for the meal below and the bags of take-home offerings. That it was men charged with rearranging the sanctuary was in accordance with Tenrikyo and TEC's gendered divisions of labor in which men generally engaged in manual work involving anything regarded as heavylifting or otherwise requiring significant ("male") strength while women were generally charged with more intricate, "foundational295 " tasks, such as cleaning, or in the present case, food preparation. Though our gendered tasks were different, both contributed to the overall post-Monthly Service transition, thereby manifesting the Tenrikyo model of gendered two-in-one relationships.

The individually portioned bags of the offered produce that we were preparing was a component of the Monthly Service that spanned beyond one's time at the center for this ritual to exist also in one's home space and the general period of time after the ritual. Regardless of one's level of anchoredness in the group and the religion, when leaving TEC after its Monthly Service, it was standard to part with one of these bags, often upon the urging of whatever core member(s) were seeing them off. In thinking of the multiple layers and degrees of central or peripheral positionality of attendees within this specific context, and extendedly in the "TEC community," offerings had been purchased and prepared to place in front of the altars by core members of the "TEC community," generally TEC residents. Thereafter, they had been placed in front of the altars, also by core individuals, which in the publicly displayed placing of the offerings in front of the altar to God the Parent involved both residential and non-residential core men. (It is interesting to note that several of these non-residential core men had resided at TEC previously as residential missionary teachers, before later becoming more permanently implanted in France.) Somewhat later, these fruits and vegetables had been placed in bags to take home after the Service by women who generally were positioned closer to the center of this multilayered social world but not unanimously at its core. Then, they were taken home by everyone in attendance, including Japanese and non-Japanese people, people who regarded themselves as "members" of the religion along with people who did not, those who regularly came to TEC Monthly Services and were otherwise highly connected to TEC and the broader realm of Tenrikyo in Europe and contrastingly, those who only occasionally came to TEC and were otherwise not very involved in the aforementioned scene, etc. Regardless of one's position in the group or in the religion, though, one was encouraged to take part in this material component of being there.

These bags of ritually offered produce came about largely, though not exclusively, through the efforts of core members of the group which then emanated out to the broader collection of attendees that included both core and more peripherally involved social actors through a multidirectional flow. Although most prominent was the stream of effort from core religious actors out to the broader group which included a significant portion of more peripheral members, this was not the totality of what occurred. Also included in the multistep process that culminated in these bags being brought home by everyone in attendance was the female task of divvying up the offered fruits and vegetables into individual portions, which involved the collective efforts of some more peripheral members along with more core members of the group. Thus, while the most predominant direction of labor was from the core of the group out to more peripheral individuals, also included were the efforts made by some more peripheral members who helped divvy up the fruits and vegetables out to core members who then took them home. Regardless of the specific directional form that these efforts took, their collaborative achievement was in accordance with the general Tenrikyo theme of people working through the orchestration of different roles toward the benefit of the greater group.

These offerings which people took home were generally not regarded as simply fruits and vegetables analogous to what one could commercially purchase from a store but rather as something that was somehow more special, though details concerning what precisely rendered them as such could usually not be exactly explained by people to whom I broached the subject. This lack of definition suggested that the particularities of this attribution had largely not been formulated into precise, conscious thought, and existed rather primarily in the less clearly defined realm of feelings and associations. Despite the lack of clarity regarding what precisely it was that rendered them somehow special, on a very concrete, material level, they were a tangible (and consumable) component of the sacred context of the Monthly Service that attendees took away with them to later ingest, thereby literally becoming part of their bodies. In thinking about these offerings from the perspective of social connectedness, when they were eaten, a connection to both to the community of people with whom they participated in the ritual at which they were offered and also to the entities of the ancestors, God the Parent, and Oyasama to whom they were offered was materially reinstated through their consumption, which I like to emphasize, was highly sensorial in nature.

Similar to others who attended TEC Monthly Services, when leaving, I was routinely told by someone seeing me off at the door to take a take bag of these offerings with me. Often, though not always, I was encouraged to look at the contents of these opaque white plastic bags placed in a plastic laundry basket to choose the one I preferred as their contents varied. During my research, I heard two different perspectives on if one should choose the bag of offerings one preferred or simply take whichever bag one was given or picked up without first looking at their contents. Both perspectives were similarly based on the "special" quality ascribed to them.

One view on the matter was enunciated to me through a second-hand account from a young woman solidly positioned as a core member of the group who grew up highly connected to TEC and its associated community. In a casual exchange between us while sitting together at a large communal dinner in the basement-level multi-purpose room of TEC (a space which provided many illuminative discussions throughout my research), she told me about the stance of another long-time core member of TEC (the wife of a local mission station head who had been raised in a highly involved Tenrikyo family in Japan) who was opposed to first looking through the bags of offerings before taking one. Thus, this young woman implied, she did not do this when this woman was present, but when not under the eye of this likely disapproving woman, she sometimes did. The referenced woman's opposition to first looking at the contents of these bags before taking one was because as all bags contained blessings from God the Parent, one should be grateful for whichever bag one receives rather than picking and choosing what one does and does not want among them. This view was clearly reflective of her view on other parts of life in relation to her understanding of the faith's teachings.

Contrastingly, two non-Japanese young women (the previously mentioned Congolese and Korean women raised in Tenrikyo church families who commonly performed in the TEC Monthly Service) who both worked long hours and did not have families to cook for in their daily lives told me that they liked to look through the bags before taking one. They explained this to be because they wanted to make sure they would actually eat what they took rather than potentially let the food sit in the fridge uneaten until it spoiled. For these young women, the principal expressed reason they wanted to choose which bag to take was not pickiness, but rather a desire to avoid potential waste of this food, particularly due to its "special" nature.

Additionally demonstrative of the significance this young Congolese woman attributed to these offerings was that she specifically requested that the small amount of water offered daily to the three altars in the sanctuary be saved for her. The core social actors of TEC, generally its residents, who attended to these altars did so by pouring the water into a small jar after its removal from the altars each day that she took home with her when she came to TEC, such as for its Monthly Services. In response to my inquiry about what it was about this water that was special, she replied quite simply, "Ça fait du bien." (It's good for me.) She then further explained that she tried to drink a little of this water on a daily basis when she could and that when sick or on the verge of becoming so, she would make sure to drink some of it and found it to be effective. She did not specify how precisely it helped nor express a need to deeply inquire about what exactly it was about the water that contributed to her well-being or why and instead was rather vague in her highly illuminative response. This general approach of regarding the offerings as somehow imbued with a special character was common. Precisely what or how, though, was left largely undefined by people with whom I discussed the topic, thereby displaying an absence of an extensively technical analysis of the matter. Regardless of this lack of a highly detailed attributed reasoning, these offerings were a means through which a material component of the Monthly Service was transferred to the more individualized lives of those in attendance. In this, we can see one of many examples that were present in my research context in which, as put forth by Houseman (2012), although ritual acts are undeniably lived by ritual actors, in this case firstly the ritual actors who placed the offerings and performed ritual acts before them, and through association, the consumers of those offerings thereafter, they become partially unintelligible in terms of intentions, representations, and associated feelings. When undergoing ritual acts, often the people engaging in these acts do not know exactly what they are doing, other than engaging in the broadly defined ritual act in the right form. By going beyond the realm of the ordinary, and being held as significant, they acquire a value in their own right, difficult to define other than by reference to the ritual actions themselves.

For this young Congolese woman, although the water that had been offered to the divine entities was perceived to have been somehow transformed through the act, precisely how, why, or in precisely what capacity was largely undefined. What she did express to hold as evident, though, was that the ritual act of offering the water to these divine entities, which was referentially understood to also have included the performance of the Service before it, somehow bestowed a special, beneficial quality to the water. Thus, while we were preparing the offerings for people to take home, although generally unsaid, we were understood to somehow be extending the ritual significance that the offerings had undergone to the attendees lives beyond this ritual gathering or the center of TEC.

Breaking bread and building connection: constructing community through behind the scenes moments of laying its foundation via meal preparations

After we concluded the female task of readying the dessert trays and offerings that those in attendance would consume and take home, we would then descend one level to join the post-Service meal that was, by then, well underway. The inclusion of a communal meal after the orchestration of this monthly ritual was congruent with how Monthly Services were conducted at most other Tenrikyo sites of worship in Japan and elsewhere throughout the world. This meal, which generally lasted several hours, was, in practice, the second half of the broader TEC Monthly Service event during which those in attendance would come together to share an amical moment of less formal togetherness than the highly scripted ritual.

At these post-Service meals, there was a general festive buzz throughout the large, basementlevel room where people served themselves food from several buffet tables filled each month with a different delectable assortment of food from various culinary traditions such as French, Japanese, and Southeast Asian cuisines. During these meals, the collectively produced friendly chatter between those in attendance invariably produced a lively hum that resonated throughout the room. Further adding to the ambiance was its jovial social environment that was purposefully recreated every month which contained a generally present conviviality expressed through the liberal exchange of smiles, greetings, and chit-chat between attendees who came into contact with each other, such as when crossing paths at the buffet tables, and also when seated at the tables which held about eight to ten people each. Usually not too long into our being in the room on such occasions296 , this ambiance was further amplified by children playing together, such as by gathering around a foosball table (that was later exchanged in the same spot with a pool table), after they had finished their lunch in a much timelier manner than the adults.

The duration of these post-Monthly Service meals usually lasted slightly longer than the religious ritual itself, with this portion of the time spent together often dwindling on as people continued their conversations over coffee. Eventually, a number of remaining individuals (particularly women positioned as core members of the group) would transition to helping with the post-meal cleanup in the kitchen of washing dishes and putting away any remaining food which was usually eaten as leftovers by TEC residents, such as in packed lunches when working during the week at ACFJT. Similar to the Monthly Service ritual and the meal enjoyed thereafter, the post-meal cleanup was also a communal (in this case, largely female) endeavor that contained the same mode of Tenrikyo sociality and which also contributed to the ongoing construction of the relationships between the involved individuals and also of the communal feel of the broader collection of people involved in such moments.

At TEC, similar to many other Tenrikyo sites, such shared amical moments centered around degustation functioned as an important component of community construction between the primarily local people who regularly attended these monthly events. These specific moments rooted in both place and time also contributed to and influenced the wider sphere of this multilayered and multi-sited community through the construction of a shared social base in this sphere of the broader group. Extendedly, at TEC, communal meals and refreshment breaks were an important component of most other organized gatherings and events, through which the feeling of community was constructed and strengthened between the involved social actors. People who took part in such moments shared more than food; they also shared warm moments of connecting interaction that was a notable characteristic of Tenrikyo events which I observed in numerous contexts in France and also Japan. Both of which included not only local people but also followers coming from numerous other locations, thereby displaying this feature as one based in the broader realm of Tenrikyo culture rather than a specific singular context. For many who came to TEC, both for Monthly Services and other events held there, not all of whom were "members" of the religion, based on comments and behaviors indicating as such, it was largely this warm atmosphere that was appealing to them (along with for many such individuals, its distinctly Japanese ambiance) and encouraged their continued participation. Thus, it was not only the construction of this center's religiously implicated community, but also its broader social sphere that included "non-Tenrikyo members," to which such meals were a key contributing factor.

The socially linking nature of these post-Service meals, and other similar degustatory moments, primarily facilitated by women was directly reflective of Tenrikyo doctrine that positioned the character of "joining" as an important feminine characteristic. This was explicitly dictated by one of five feminine providences of the "Ten Providences of God the Parent," that of "Kunisazuchino-Mikoto 297 ." This "joining" characteristic associated with the female was first brought to my awareness during my initial period of learning in-depth about the religion during my first week of participation in the European Seminar when I asked a young woman helping with the training about why the specific instruments played by women in the Monthly Service were positioned as the "women's instruments." She told me that she did not know for certain, and suggested that I may want to ask a more senior member of the training, but that perhaps it is connected to an association between these three instruments being stringed and that joining (i.e. linking or binding together) is associated with women. Although, as she noted, this was simply a supposition, the symbolic association between the faith's cosmology and its enacted practice was illuminative to the prescribed mode of enacting femaleness which contributed to a gendered male and female collaboration toward the construction of something greater. These meals, prepared as hinokishin by the center's affiliated women's association the day prior, were an important foundational contributor to the ambiance of amical communality that came about during these post-Monthly Service meals. The mode of sociality and social connections that were encouraged during these moments extended beyond this specific context to also be a notable feature of the broader social world of TEC that was also a commonly present factor in other contexts which involved the broader multi-layered social world of TEC. Through such moments that transpired in the context of a purposeful construction of a particular form of warm and friendly atmosphere present similarly in dispersed Tenrikyo contexts, social relationships were formed and strengthened through which mutual support and positive social interactions were encouraged. Although the orchestration of the ritual itself was generally orchestrated with more of a male than female presence, this secondary component of its overall event, which was a key component of its global experience, was primarily brought about by women. Thus, though often discrete, the foundational role that women commonly assumed in Tenrikyo was a key contributor to the social character of TEC (and other Tenrikyo contexts) that, in this instance, occurred largely the day before. This pre-Monthly Service gathering the day prior involved the more core component of the religious actors in attendance of the Monthly Service the following day. During the span of approximately one year that I attended these pre-Monthly Service preparatory days, excluding myself, all but one person in attendance was Japanese, with the non-Japanese person being Mathieu, the French core member of the TEC community who spoke fluent Japanese: the language of use during these preparatory gatherings. From a feminine vantage point 298 , these preparatory Saturdays began with the "women's association 299 " activity of preparing food in the morning for the post-Service meal, followed by a lunch of invariably pasta with bolognese sauce and salad 300 shared with their male counterparts who had been busy during the morning with setting up the sanctuary for the following day. Thereafter, an early afternoon women's association meeting to discuss the faith 301 while seated around a large table was held, followed by a partial rehearsal of the Monthly Service to be performed the following day for which men and women joined together to practice. At these rehearsals, not everyone scheduled to perform would be present. The presence of particular ritual actors and the absence of others corresponded generally with their position as core or slightly more peripheral members of the two-tiered local TEC community. Through this, we can see yet another example of a core Japanese component of this group composed of men and women working in complementary role-based collaboration to facilitate the larger social group that came together at and via this center with a wider group of individuals connected to this center positioned at more of the periphery of the group.

Varying levels of "being a member" or not amongst those in attendance: the Service as a key unifying event Beyond the unifying component of the ritual and the comestibly fostered linkages, the presence of the attendees themselves was the principal means through which they were connected to the social world that was regularly reconstructed at these Monthly Service gatherings. For those present, irrespective of their understanding of their relationship to the faith, they were included in these important shared moments of structured communality. During my fieldwork, I observed two individuals take part in the communal post-Monthly Service meals, and connectedly the shared togetherness of these gatherings, without having first been present at the Monthly Service ritual itself, which is theoretically the main reason for these gatherings. In this, the open-ended nature of taking part in its broader event was demonstrated.

One of these individuals was a middle-aged French man, Antoine 302 , who had married a Japanese woman born in the faith several decades prior. He explained to me that he became a Yoboku around the same general period because of how much it meant to his (at the time, future) wife's family who otherwise accepted him, a French man 303 , with open arms. During the span of this conversation, he also explained to me that he is (a member of) three different religions. He told me he is Jewish because his mother is Jewish, which renders him Jewish as well, to which he understand the majority of what was being said. 302 Antoine is the previously referenced person who kept honeybees on TEC grounds.

added that this is the case even if he doesn't agree with it working that way. He then expanded that he is Catholic because when he was in school, his mother wanted him to attend a "good school," which was a private Catholic school, and thus he was baptized Catholic out of pragmatism. Then, as an adult, as explained previously, he became a Yoboku to please his (soonto-be) in-laws, which in his mention of it, inferentially equated becoming a Yoboku with "becoming Tenrikyo."

He and his wife were both long-term regular presences at TEC, with Antoine being an often present, though somewhat non-typical, member of the long-term, local, core TEC community along with his wife, who was a more standard member of the group. On rare occasions Antoine played a musical instrument in the Monthly Service ritual, but more commonly, he remained downstairs with his dog who he frequently brought to TEC while his wife who usually performed in the ritual, and also often his mother304 , were in the above sanctuary for the ritual. When this was the case, he would join those in attendance for the post-Service meal. On one such occasion, I expressed surprise to see him at a post-Service meal, which was compounded by learning that he had not just arrived but had been onsite during the entire Service and had simply chosen to not be in the sanctuary during it. In response to my reaction, Antoine jokingly told me that he is a "Yoboku noir," meaning that he is a somewhat atypical "member" through this tongue-in-cheek statement. Based on my observations, this particularity of his was accepted (or at least not often commented on in my presence) by others in attendance.

The second individual who I observed to choose, in like manner, to remain elsewhere on TEC grounds during the Monthly Service ritual, then join everyone in attendance thereafter for its post-Service meal was a young French woman named Julie who I first met at TEC when she came to the center for the first time to help with the spring charity rummage sale. At that time, she was studying Japanese (elsewhere than ACFJT) and had been invited to come to TEC to help with the event by one of the young adult missionaries who she had met when at ACFJT for one of its activities. She and I spoke a good deal at the end of this event, which she expressed to have enjoyed and furthermore told me that she liked the social ambiance of the center and relatedly, the people there. Shortly thereafter, I saw her again at a post-Monthly Service meal, before which she had chosen to relax outside in the sun on a bench during the ritual, then join us for its communal meal.

The next winter, displaying her increasing inclusion in the multilayered social world connected to TEC, I sometimes saw her at the weekly distribution of hot soup and drinks for homeless people in Paris associated with TEC. My fieldwork ended after the following year's spring rummage sale, after which I remained entirely absent from TEC for one year before returning to again participate in this event the following year. By this time, this young woman was in a relationship with one of the young adult residential missionaries at TEC and had been attending TEC Monthly Services.

During the joyously lively celebratory meal held after the rummage sale event for those who had helped orchestrate it, while seated with the group of French young adults connected to TEC via ACFJT who formed a somewhat distinct social sphere of the TEC community as discussed in chapter three, this young woman talked about maybe attending the upcoming summer's Tenrikyo European Seminar at TEC that was scheduled to be held several months later. She talked about her thinking about participating in it being motivated by a desire to better understand various aspects of Tenrikyo that she did not feel she gained adequate knowledge of simply through watching the ritual. During this conversation, I was additionally surprised to hear a young French man seated by us at the table who I had gotten to know during my fieldwork express similar thoughts about possibly attending the seminar. This was unexpected as he had told me in an interview about a year and a half prior that he did not view his participation in this religious training to be possible for him, a practicing Catholic who, at least at that time, was not open to the prospect of becoming a Tenrikyo follower.

It is interesting that at this point, they were both considering to take part in the seminar 305 . I found the evolution of this young woman's relationship to Tenrikyo highly illuminative in showing, amongst other things, that the approach found at TEC of being welcoming, though not overtly pushy, and allowing for individual flexibility did sometimes bear the desired fruit of spreading the faith to newcomers. Although there was a more defined ideal relationship to the faith and 305 Both of these French young adults did end up attending the seminar.

connectedly, general way of being put forth and commonly held by at least most of the key social actors of TEC, an openness to variation and accordingly, a liberal degree of leniency were also prominent features of this social world. This approach was commonly accompanied with the underlying idea that through encouraging exposure (i.e. one way of "diffusing the faith's fragrance,") a gradual or partial "conversion" may come about.

As discussed previously, the spreading of Tenrikyo through this less direct method of encouraging (often passive) exposure was not limited to TEC. It was also commonly present in other Tenrikyo contexts as well, such as at ACFJT, in which in addition to the missionary goal of gaining additional "members" of the religion in a relatively timely manner, another goal was to spread the "fragrance" of the faith through the more subtle method of encouraging certain modes of sociality and ways of being without necessarily ever even mentioning the name of the religion. This is reflective of the social fact that, as discussed by Michel (2015) amongst numerous others, people are shaped by the activities in which they engage repeatedly, thereby rendering frequent participants of an organization (such as the religious organization of Tenrikyo) likely to embody the organization's assumptions and exhibit tendencies that support and reproduce the assumptions. In this, an important theme present throughout my research is highlighted: the often discretely existent perspective that through encouraging experiential exposure, its imbuement may be promoted in some of the involved social actors. To continue this exploration from its present point, I will next discuss the wider European-based component of the "TEC community" in the next section.

Section III: The wider TEC community: TEC as a site of gathering for

Tenrikyo followers throughout Europe

Section introduction

Now that I have discussed three sides of the "TEC community" that involved primarily people living in the same geographic region of Paris that TEC was located in, I would like to broaden my analytic lens to the broader European continent. Although TEC was situated in the Paris area, its social world, and many of its "core members," spanned beyond this specific location to also include people based in various European locations who came together primarily, though not exclusively, at TEC. Many of them were long-term habitual presences at TEC and significant contributors to the "community" of TEC. This section will help us think about how a place-based social world can, and often does, include people based in locations beyond its specific location through the ebbs and flows of people coming and going from it, coupled with social linkages.

In chapter five, I will discuss lineage-based Tenrikyo sites throughout the European continent which were all connected to TEC as their regional center, with the majority of the families operating them being long-term "core" members of the "TEC community" in which despite many of them not living in the Paris area, they were "local" presences at TEC. Chapters six and seven, then, discuss the annually occurring Tenrikyo European Seminar training program which was held at TEC, but brought together student and staff participants from numerous European locations to form a momentary social world in its own right which also served to form and strengthen social connections with dispersed members of this social world which contributed to the ongoing construction and solidification of the "TEC community." In expanding my focus from the Paris region discussed in the previous section to the broader domain of followers living in numerous locations of Europe, I wish to show that although this "community" was primarily centered in the suburb of Antony where TEC was located, its participants spanned beyond this precise location. A main purpose of TEC was to provide support not only to missionaries306 and followers in the Paris area, but to also serve as a source of support and a gathering place for mission stations and followers throughout the European continent. Though my fieldwork was primarily based in the Paris region, and secondly in Japan, the people I got to know at TEC throughout my research also included people living in other parts of Europe who came to this center. One of the numerous contributions offered by TEC to many of the followers who came there was a sense of religious strength derived from its environment of communal faith, in which making efforts for the path of Tenrikyo and enacting its teachings was encouraged. After spending time there, they could then take back with them this socially fostered anchoring in the religion to their respective mission stations (for those affiliated with one) and more generally, their respective lives.

The most prominent segment of this wider European layer of the TEC community were the families who founded and continued to operate the home-based "mission stations 307 " located in eight different European countries. These families had been connected to TEC and its social world for significant periods of time, most often several decades, and provided the substructure of long-term continuity to this social world. Many of the members of these missionary families were present semi-regularly at TEC, such as for special events that drew people to the center from disparate locations. Amongst other purposes, these gatherings effectively served as "family reunions" for this collection of people who largely constituted the long-term core "TEC community." Before moving on to discuss these mission stations and the families who operated them in more detail, though, I would first like to further explain and culturally contextualize the Tenrikyo lineage system.

The lineage system within the Tenrikyo organizational structure In the Tenrikyo system of organization, every person classified as a follower is rooted to and based at a particular site of worship (classified as a "mission station 308 ," "branch church 309 ," or "grand church 310 ") which serves as the person's "home site." As an extension, each follower is also organizationally situated in the church lineage (keitō 系統 311 ) of their "home site." Such lineage-based rootedness is determined (generally) by new followers becoming members of the "home site" (and its connected lineage) of the person who introduced them to the faith. The descendants312 of this new follower also become, by default, members of the same "home site" and connected church lineage.

This lineage system that is at the core of the lived experiences of being a member of this religion, and of its overall organization, is based on a "parent-child" structure of grand churches, branch churches, and mission stations. Each category must fulfill a number of obligations and receive authorization in order to obtain their classificatory designation as such. For grand churches and branch churches, this authorization must be obtained directly from Tenrikyo Church Headquarters, whereas for mission stations, authorization must only be granted by the "parental" branch or grand church charged with supervising it as a subordinate site of its lineage. Amongst other requirements, branch churches must have a certain number of followers, including specific 308 fukyōsho 布教所 309 bunkyōkai 分教会 310 daikyōkai 大教会 311 Church lineages are derived from the grand church from which the lineage descends. Thus, for followers who are based at a grand church as their "home site", they are exclusively based at this site as there are no supervising churches which are part of its lineage to which they can be connected.

quantities of people bearing the titles of lay minister (kyōtō 教人) and Yoboku. Included in the requirements for a "branch church" to become eligible for the designation of "grand church," the site must have a specified number of churches which have "branched off" from their church.

Branch churches are connected to the grand church from which they originated. In turn, mission stations are attached to the branch church or grand church to which its founder is connected.

During my research, Tenrikyo Church Headquarters directly supervised about 240 churches, the majority of which were grand churches (Kato 2017a: 64). Subordinate and superior churches of the same lineage are considered to be spiritually connected. From a legal perspective, though, each Tenrikyo church is a separate entity. Thus, although their legal status is defined as independent from each other, in practice they are highly connected in numerous ways, including financially, socially, and conceptually (Yamada 2012: 325-28; Morioka 1989: 311-18, cited in Kato 2017a: 64). This organizational structure mirrors the hierarchical relationship common in traditional Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, Japanese new religions, and numerous other Japanese cultural contexts, which I discuss in further detail in the following subsection.

Tenrikyo churches and mission stations, whether in Europe or elsewhere, are generally homebased. They are officially headed by one individual, but in practice are whole family affairs.

Notably for married couples, similar to the operation of TEC, efforts for the mission station, branch church, or grand church are most commonly joint endeavors engaged in by both the male head313 and his wife, thereby manifesting the important Tenrikyo teaching of two-in-one relationships in which spouses (or others) work together toward a common task or goal, most often through the performance of separate, complementary roles. Children growing up in a lineage-based site of worship are de-facto core members of it, amongst other reasons, because the Monthly Service is hosted in their home and also through the emphasis their families place on the path of Tenrikyo and their site's particular lineage. Moreover, it is commonly anticipated that a child of the family (most commonly the eldest son) will take over serving as its head314 .

An important point regarding the categorical difference between "mission stations" (of which there are twenty-two in Europe) and "branch churches 315 " (of which there is one in Europe) is that the establishment of a mission station is authorized by the head minister of the founder's home church rather than by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters, which as previously noted, the founding of a branch church (or a grand church) requires. Additionally, the establishment of a new Tenrikyo branch or grand church is viewed as a much more serious commitment than that of a mission center, as it is positioned as being established by God the Parent via Tenrikyo Church Headquarters, in comparison to the founding of a new mission station, which is positioned as simply a human endeavor. Yet another difference between these two categories is that branch churches generally have larger membership than mission stations. This highly codified system partially explains why there was only one site in Europe classified as a Tenrikyo "branch church" (Bordeaux Kyokai) during my research, while the remaining twentytwo lineage-based sites of worship in Europe were classified as "mission stations." Because this latter category has far fewer codified requirements, the existence of these sites during the introductory period of the religion to the European continent during which the presence of longtime followers to any particular lineage site was generally limited was encouraged. It should be noted that Tenrikyo membership, as based on this structural system of organization, is significantly different than the system(s) of religious "membership" of the most common religious traditions of Europe: Catholicism and Protestantism316 , in which what is of chief importance is the particular religious tradition one belongs to, with the particular site of worship one attends being largely secondary and based primarily in the social rather than spiritual realm.

The difficulty this lineage-based system was met with in the broader conceptualizing systems of Westerners in comparison to that of Japanese people is a pertinent subject in the context of my research, which the following subsection discusses. 315 There are no grand churches in Europe.

Situating the Tenrikyo lineage system within a wider Japanese context

The Tenrikyo lineage system through which the religion is organized is a structure present in numerous other contexts in Japan. It is not an independent invention of Tenrikyo but is reflective, rather, of the broader cultural context in which it came about. The recognition of the similarity between the lineage system of Tenrikyo and that of other organizational systems present in Japan is both something that immediately stuck out to me upon learning of how the religion is organized and also something that I heard evoked by numerous Japanese followers charged with serving as sources of information on the religion in both European and Japanese contexts.

Generally amongst such religious actors operating in this role, I heard it explained that because Tenrikyo is something that came about in Japan, it is normal that it follows the cultural logic that was in place at the time (and cultural context) it was developed. Relatedly, in my observations, this lineage-based system of organization was generally much more easily understood and regarded as "normal" in Japan than it was in Western settings, essentially due to the broader culturally-based references that exist within the wider frame of these societies.

I would like to now explore two prominent Japanese organizational systems that are parallel to the Tenrikyo lineage system in order to show it in relation to the wider cultural context from which it developed and continues to most prominently exist, as the vast majority of Tenrikyo followers and sites of worship are in Japan. These two highly parallel and closely related systems are that of the ie (traditional household) system and that of the Japanese corporate model. Numerous authors, including several of whom I reference hereafter, have discussed the Japanese ie system as an institutional logic for Japanese corporations. Their discussions of these two largely parallel systems can be extended to the Tenrikyo lineage system and thus, inclusion of their insights is highly pertinent to explaining and contextualizing this prominent aspect of Tenrikyo. The similarity between the lineage system of Tenrikyo and the corporate Japanese model is something that I was both struck with immediately when I learned of the Tenrikyo system of organization and that I later heard alluded to by multiple Japanese-American Tenrikyo followers. Relatedly, Tenrikyo's resemblance to the "pyramid" 317 business model is something I heard evoked, often as a feature of the religion that seemed somewhat strange to certain American followers (or potential followers), generally regardless of their having Japanese ancestry 318 or not.

The similarity between these two systems is rooted in the greater Japanese cultural context in which they both came about. Nakane's 1965 discussion of the structural model of Japanese corporations being largely derived from the cultural logic of the traditional ie system is appropriate to begin an exploration of this topic. She begins by arguing that the creation of a person's identity is generally based in one of two systems: either that of common qualification or common membership in a social group. In other words, identity is derived from membership common to all members of a group (which she refers to as "situated position") or persons sharing the same qualification (which she refers to as "qualifying position").

For example, membership of a village refers to situational position as the villagers all happen to live in the same locality whereas membership of a clan, or a caste or as landowner or tenant refers to the qualifying position derived only from having a special quality. Taking an example from the field of industry, being an employee of a company refers to the situational position while that of a turner refers to the qualifying position. In the same way, professors, clerks, students all indicate a qualifying position while being connected with a university indicates the situational position of the members. (Nakane 1965: 198). Nakane (1965) supposes that in any society, an individual belongs through situation and qualification to a social group or social structure and that while it is possible for these two group types to coincide, in almost all cases, "the two are entangled and form two separate groups. " (p. 198). She continues that in Japan, when a Japanese person compares herself to another, she prefers to look at her situational context rather than her specific qualification. In this structure, it is the situation, such as the school or company, that has a strong social function in group formation. Nakane furthermore asserts that this type of group recognition is deeply rooted in Japanese society and can be seen in the ie 319 concept that is found throughout Japan. She views the most fundamental element of the ie to be that it is a "community" composed of family members (generally the kin of the household head and possibly others.) In this system, the relationships within the ie should be and generally are prioritized before any other relationship. She explains that the group one is part of is deeply connected with the individual sphere of a person's ideas and ways of thought. In the Tenrikyo system, this refers on a micro-level to their being members of a specific lineagebased site of worship and its connected lineage, and on a macro-level to their being members of the broader Tenrikyo religion. In the context of my research, we see the situationally based belonging of the majority of the core members of the TEC community as being rooted in their home sites of worship and connected lineages, the broader religious sphere, and also in the "TEC community," as they also spent time at and were closely linked in practice to this situationallybased context separate from their lineage-based one. Thus, they are rooted in multiple situationally based groups that exist in concert with their involvement in and connection to the faith.

This ie structure was largely established during the feudal Edo period of Japan (1603-1868) and was embedded in the broader feudal system (Bhappu 2000, Kitano 1970, Kumagai 1992).

Bhappu, in discussing the context in which this structure came about, asserts that the Japanese feudal system was somewhat different than both the Chinese and European feudal systems. This is because it contained some elements of the dominance-submission pattern found in China but also some components of the European conception of rights and duties. "Rights and duties in the Japanese family were learned and practiced as ko and on, ko referring to duty to parents and on referring to the reciprocal obligations between family members." (Bhappu 2000: 410). In Bhappu's explanation of these terms, she highlights that they have much more concrete meanings than the abstract European concept of rights and duties. Citing Nagai and Bennett (1953: 242-243), Bhappu describes ko and on as defined specifically for given situations and as such become solidly established rules of family relations. Bhappu then expands that the Japanese concepts of ko and on become even more clear when contrasted with the Chinese patriarchal concept of ko that is a defined component of the Chinese Confucian family system. "Ko, as practiced in China, signifies absolute allegiance to serve and honor one's parents, whereas in Japan it is modified to include on, which stresses reciprocity and obligation, rather than obedience. In Japan emphasis is also placed on the equivalence of ko and on," (Bhappu 2000: 410). Bhappu further explains that in this system, there was a clear differentiation regarding the balance of ko and on between the head of the ie and each family member in it, which included not only kin but also tenets and servants. In this, we can see the foundational cultural logic for one's "homesite" of worship at which one is based and rooted to be similarly a family-like sphere to which one is rooted through birth. Generally, according to the largely though not entirely patrilineal and patrilocal system of both the Japanese ie system and the Tenrikyo lineage system, only females are not part of the same group from birth until death, most often becoming part of their husband's group upon marriage. Bhappu (2000) asserts that the ie system of merchants320 was the structural precursor of modern Japanese corporations. It was common for merchant households to establish bunke (branch) ie beside the honke (main) ie to expand their distribution channels geographically. This structural model also provided a manner through which the "corporate" merchant ie could perpetuate itself from one generation to the next. Because only one son could inherit the honke ie, the noninheriting sons would have to leave the honke ie to establish bunke ie, thereby creating a relationship of ko and on between the head of the honke ie and the heads of the bunke ie (Bhappu 2000: 211). The broader Tenrikyo lineage-based system of organization mirrors this merchant ie system that is also present in the structural model of Japanese corporations. A difference, though, between the founding of branch sites in the merchant ie system and the founding of Tenrikyo sites in its lineage-based system is that in the latter, the founding of a new site is not based on each son needing to have his own site of worship to head. Amongst other reasons, this is due to it being common for sons of Tenrikyo church families who do not assume the role of head321 to remain based at their familial church and serve it in other capacities.

The larger structural entity of the Japanese merchant family composed of multiple layers of "parent" and "child" households was centered around the original honke ie in which each bunke ie was ranked in relation to its genealogical distance from the original honke ie. In this system, Bhappu (2000) explains, both the individual merchant ie and the expanded structure of multiple hierarchically linked ie operated as a corporation with social, economic, and moral aspects characterized by a network of hierarchical ties among people within an ie and also within the larger linked system. Both the micro-systems of the individual ie and larger macro-level systems of linked ie were governed by the principle of ko and on.

This relationship of ko and on that was present in the system of hierarchically connected merchant ie is also present in the Japanese corporate system and more importantly to the subject of my thesis, in the relationship between "parent" and "child" sites of worship in the Tenrikyo lineage system, such as branch churches and grand churches. As previously noted, in the European context where my research was principally based, excluding one site, this was between mission stations in Europe and their supervising branch churches in Japan. The most obvious forms through which this ko and on relationship were manifested in this Tenrikyo system of organization was the guidance and assistance offered by the supervising church to its subordinate site of worship, the inclusion and welcoming of members of the "child site" to its "parent church" and their inclusion into the parent church's wider church family, and the "child site's" taking council from and making economic donations to their "parent church."

Further included in the similarities between the Japanese corporate model based on the merchant ie system and that of the Tenrikyo lineage system is that this system functioned as a ceremonial group in which the sharing of both spiritual beliefs and attitudes was common and often not limited to the individual ie but also present in its broader lineage. The moral character of the larger linked system was marked by participation in common rituals, which reinforced the larger network as a structural entity (Bhappu 2000: 412, Kondo 1990). In parallel, Tenrikyo followers generally only spend time at and participate in the rituals of their "home site" and other sites of the same lineage, most often those of the "parent" or "grandparent 322 " sites of their "home site." Thus, they come to know and embody the ritual along with social and moral components of the group contained and transmitted within this specific lineage-based sphere. In Nakane's 1965 discussion of the close, hierarchically defined relationships that occur within "situationally-based groups," such as those of the Japanese ie, Japanese corporations, and Tenrikyo sites of worship, she explains that the "parent-child" relationship of these sites (oyabunkobun) is a common component of their organization. In this structure, the seniority rule develops in which those who have been part of the group for longer generally occupy a hierarchically higher position. Their contact with the group itself serves as social capital which by its very nature cannot be transferred to another group. According to Nakane's assertion of the seniority rule of hierarchy in this system, it is structurally logical in Tenrikyo that the head of a lineagebased site of worship is the person (or descendant of the person) who has been part of the lineage, and the specific site of worship that they head, the longest, which in most cases is the founding person of the site.

Further evocative of the similarities between the traditional ie system, the organizational model of Japanese corporations, and that of Tenrikyo's generally followed model is Bhappu's mention that the role of section head in Japanese corporations is largely analogous to the head of an ie, meaning that of a father figure (2000: 213). Correspondingly, as mentioned in discussion of the head of TEC, the person charged with leadership of this European center assumes his role largely through acting as the "father" of the site and the head couple functions as the "parents" of the center. This parental manner of assuming the leadership role of a Tenrikyo site is mirrored in other Tenrikyo sites, both lineage and non-lineage based. This is reflective of both the abovediscussed leadership model that exists in other Japanese contexts and also the emphasis placed on the parent-child relational model and the collaborative efforts between husband and wife that are prominent relational models in the Tenrikyo faith and practiced methods of organization.

This system of a seniority-based model of hierarchy which involves oyabun-kobun type relationships is also present in Tenrikyo on a more profound level through the conceptualization of the divine entity of "God the Parent." As this divine entity is positioned in the religion as the original (gender neutral or dual-gendered) parent who existed before all else and brought about the original conception of humanity as its children, there is no entity positioned as the forebearer of God the Parent, a "God the Grandparent" so to speak. Thus, in a hierarchical model based on seniority, God the Parent is positioned as the ultimate authority. Similarly, the foundress, who is conceptualized in the faith as having the soul of the original mother of all humanity, is positioned as the original human parent323 , thereby according her through similar logic the status of being the ultimate human authority form324 , albeit one who currently exists on earth exclusively in spiritual form.

The important presence in the religion of this parent-child structure of hierarchical authority was displayed, among other occasions, through speaking with Yuko Sugimoto: the wife of the head of the mission station to which I was rooted, thereby rendering her responsible for teaching me about the religion and guiding me in it. I somewhat commonly asked her about abstract aspects of Tenrikyo. One example was the seemingly confounding assertion I encountered that Oyasama's soul resides in the foundress' sanctuary in a very real and literal way, and yet also is the healing entity who works through the Yoboku in the administration of the Sazuke and is thus capable of being anywhere at any time (and moreover, in multiple places at once.) To this question, she responded to the best of her ability, but then told me that she knows certain things in Tenrikyo are difficult to understand, and that some things in the faith are difficult for her to completely understand as well. We know that such things are the way they are, though, because they are explained as being as such by Oyasama (our original mother).

To this, I would also like to add that this type of knowledgeable parental authority is also attributed to other trusted sources such as church leaders and elder family members, such as parents and grandparents. In such a model, it is not so much the verifiable quality of the information related through such "parental" sources that renders them as believable, but rather the source of hierarchical authority associated with their seniority. In this, we can see an example of what Sperber 21996:149) referred to as "reflective beliefs," stating, "Reflective beliefs can be counter-intuitive-or, more precisely, they can be counter-intuitive with respect to our intuitions about their subject-matter while, at the same time, our metarepresentational reasons for accepting them are intuitively compelling." In instances such as the one evoked above, although the information regarding what one is told in such contexts is largely outside the realm of verifiability or in accordance with a person's greater sphere of knowledge, because the source from which it came is regarded with confidence, often the information conveyed by that source is also regarded with confidence.

Interestingly, Nakane (1965) includes in her discussion of the widespread presence of the oyabun-kobun relationship present in a variety of Japanese groups that Japanese new religions 325 which developed after WWII "depend on the organizational basis of [an] emotional, vertical, and face-to-face relationship under their leader," (p. 211). She later expands that such vertical relationships exist also in "traditional religious groups of long history," such as the Shin sect of Buddhism, though in a slightly different way, and is also contained, she specifically notes, in the organizational system of Tenrikyo. The specific type of relationship she describes that occurs between the leader (of a site) and the followers (of that site) is an important component to understanding the wider context of Tenrikyo. Although TEC is not included in the lineage system discussed as the primary topic of this chapter, the majority of people included in the TEC community were, as Tenrikyo followers, part of this system which has as a key component this type of relationship between a follower and the head of their "home site." Nakane (1965) contends that the type of relationship that exists between vertically connected sites and also between a particular head and those under their guidance and authority cannot simply be called feudalistic nor can it be easily changed by industrialization or influences from Western culture. "It could be strengthened by the feudal system but not made by it. It should be remembered that it is latent and firmly-rooted in the heart of every Japanese." (p. 210). This statement made by Nakane strongly underlines the culturally expansive role of emotion apropos this relational structure that is present in and conducive to the hierarchical and lineage-based structure of Tenrikyo, particularly regarding how it exists amongst Japanese people. Although for many Westerners the Tenrikyo model of organization may be difficult to understand or embrace, it is largely in accordance with a structural model present in a variety of other Japanese contexts and thus, it is a logical and emotionally evocative one to people based in this broader Japanese framework. The lack of this normalized and emotionally invested relationship in this "parentchild" structural model amongst people of cultural backgrounds not as marked by this feature, such as most Westerners, was one of the numerous challenges present in efforts to propagate Tenrikyo in Europe.

Lineage-based and regionally based Tenrikyo sites: two separate categories that together compose the dispersed presence of Tenrikyo

In addition to the longitudinally based lineage system described above that is constructed through and based on interpersonal and inter-site connections, there exists a secondary, laterally based system of organization in Tenrikyo that is location specific. TEC is an example of a site in this secondary organizational category. A main purpose of TEC and other such regionally based centers is to facilitate communication and interaction between different lineage-based sites in a specific geographic region (Kato 2017a: 64-65). In Japan, each prefecture is defined as a diocese 326 and is overseen by a diocese office 327 which functions as an administrative office of Tenrikyo Church Headquarters. Overseas countries are similarly grouped together by geographic region which are overseen by a "mission headquarters 328 ," "mission center 329 ," or "mission post 330 ," depending on the size of the Tenrikyo following in the area with which it is associated (Kato 2017a). The former being associated with that of a larger presence and the latter with that of a smaller presence. TEC is defined as a "mission center." Its smaller counterpart of "Tenrikyo UK Centre" (which I discuss later in this chapter) is defined as a "mission post" (ibid). 333 Alaska would presumably be included in this group, but as of present, there are no Tenrikyo sites of worship in this state. 334 To further offer the reader an insight into Tenrikyo's international presence manifested through these regionally based sites, I would also like to cite smaller Tenrikyo sites charged with overseeing geographic regions outside of Japan 334 to situate TEC (founded in 1970) within the broader global framework in which it exists. The sites listed in this paragraph are affiliated both with regions that previously were subjects of Japanese colonialism and also

The figure below illustrates the dual-layered system of organization composed of lineage and regionally based sites in which they are connected to Tenrikyo Church Headquarters through separate channels of connection. TEC was connected to these lineage-based sites not as a parent church or officially supervising entity, but rather as a latitudinal center of support and comradery. These mission stations dispersed throughout multiple countries (depicted in the map hereafter) were all connected to TEC and thus composed an important part of its community. Because the multiple sites in the London and Paris area are not clearly depicted in this map, I would like to note that there were four lineage-based sites located in the Paris area and also four lineage-based sites in the London area. I will discuss these lineage-based sites in further detail later in this chapter.

regions without this history. Other such sites include: Nepal Renrakusho (1966), Mission Center of Columbia (1972), Mission Center in Singapore (1972), New York Center (1977), Mission Centre in Hong Kong (1978), Mission Center in Thailand (1982), Mission Center in Mexico (1985), Indonesia Shutchosho (1985), Mission Center in the Philippines (1985), Mission Centre in Oceania (1977). (In this listing, the word "Tenrikyo" was removed to avoid unnecessary reduncancy.) Tenrikyo UK Centre is the most recently founded geographically based site, officially coming into existence in 2000. (TENRIKYO 2017-2018). I include hereafter a simplified depiction of these predominately unidirectional social flows in which people of multiple European mission stations would gather together at TEC, but people from the greater "TEC community" did not gather in local mission stations other than the one to which they were rooted to as their "home site." As shown in this model, the underlying commonality of all Tenrikyo affiliations is the connection to Tenrikyo Church Headquarters. It should be noted that this diagram only shows an overarching summary of the linkages between European mission stations, TEC, and the broader Tenrikyo structural system in order to equip the reader with a basic understanding of the social flows between sites and their position within the greater Tenrikyo organizational structure. The actual composition of these inter-site connections was much more complex. Furthermore, while some mission stations perfectly matched the model depicted below in that they were supervised by a branch church, which was in turn supervised by a grand church, this was not always the case. For example, some mission stations were directly supervised by grand churches, and some were supervised by branch churches that were supervised by larger branch churches, which were then in turn supervised by grand churches. The level of loyalty and rootedness Tenrikyo followers had to their own "home site" and its connected church lineage in comparison to the Tenrikyo faith more broadly was an interesting, though often subtle, culturally linked juxtaposition of perspectives present in multiple contexts of my fieldwork. Often, individuals of European, Latin American, and North American backgrounds, the latter of which were mostly, but not exclusively of Japanese ancestry, tended to attribute less importance to their official "home site" than Japanese people did. My observations strongly suggested that such a lineage-based system was, in general, more easily conceptualizable to a Japanese person than to a Western person. This differentiation is culturally contextualizable in relation to the presence of this system in the broader realm of Japanese culture in comparison to it not being common in Western contexts. Most often, when discussing my thesis research with non-Tenrikyo Japanese people with limited or no knowledge of Tenrikyo, its lineage system was quickly understood and casually expressed to be viewed as a rather standard potential feature of a religious tradition. In contrast, often in discussions about my research with non-Tenrikyo Westerners that included the lineage component as a prominent feature of the lived experience of being a follower, a much lengthier explanation of this main element of Tenrikyo was needed in order for it to be understood. This discrepancy in the lineage system being more normalized by Japanese people than non-Japanese people was also discussed by Kato (2009) in his discussion of Tenrikyo churches in the San Francisco Bay area. Kato explained that more than half of the non-Japanese335 "members" of the three San Francisco area Tenrikyo churches included in his study were uncomfortable with the seniority-based, patriarchal church structure for both decision making and the assignment of leadership roles. The structure was generally associated with the eldest son of the current acting church head minister being the next in line to take over his father's role, largely regardless of personal choice or capability. Kato further expanded on this by saying, "For these members, who consider individual choice, freedom, and accomplishment as the primary criteria for religious involvement, the structure of the current Tenrikyo community appears to be faced with cultural baggage," (2009: 64). Several followers Kato interviewed described the lineage system as a block to their religious engagement because it drew boundaries between followers of different lineages, which contrasted with their preference for gathering with followers of the same religion, regardless of lineage. They expressed that this lineage-based mode of operation hindered their creation of bonds and mental support in the broader collection of Tenrikyo followers in the area.

Several followers contrasted the separateness of Tenrikyo followers of different churches in the area with a small number of followers coming to each church, and generally not associating with followers of other churches despite being in the same area, to what they saw with Christian churches in which many families come together in the same place. This difference in perspectives is understandable, in addition to the previously discussed system of the "ie" structure, also through other components of the cultural backgrounds to which these American Tenrikyo followers were rooted. As evoked previously, in Christianity, the dominant religion of Western culture(s) that is significantly influential to the naturalized conceptions of normality of people grounded in this cultural framework, adepts are not resolutely or indefinitely linked to a particular site of worship, but rather to a particular dogma and religious tradition that can be exercised in any place of worship dedicated to it. People operating in this system of religious belonging can thus find a religious home at any church of their denomination, and in many cases, personal liking. By contrast, Shinto tends to be a local religion in which devotees are often concerned with their local shrine and its connected kami (god\spirit).

Variability in having or not having a "home site" in Europe

When thinking of my research context, it is important to bear in mind that Tenrikyo "members" in Europe were not a uniform group in both their personal histories with the faith and also their interactions with TEC and its connected community. Some people in Europe who were categorized as Tenrikyo followers due to being rooted to a specific lineage-based site as their "home site," and in many cases additionally through having become Yoboku 336 , did not come to TEC frequently or at all. Some Tenrikyo followers in Europe had become followers of this path while in Europe and thus were rooted to one of the multiple lineage-based sites on the continent.

Other people in Europe came to be followers of the path themselves or via their ancestors through sites of worship elsewhere (which for most people of this category was in Japan) and thus had their home site of worship outside of the continent 337 . Generally, for such followers, TEC served as a geographically closer Tenrikyo site they could come to for both explicitly religious activities and also, as stated earlier in this chapter, to be socially connected to other followers of the faith. 336 One must be affiliated with a particular "home site" to attend the nine Besseki lectures to become a Yoboku. 337 This excludes families who host mission stations in their homes. This latter motive was something that I heard mentioned as a reason to come to TEC from locations significantly outside of the Paris region.

Although the European lineage-based sites were a highly important component of the "TEC community" and the presence of Tenrikyo in Europe, they did not comprise an all-inclusive layer of all the members of this eclectic group. The presence of individuals at TEC for religious and non-religious events did not in all cases signal their "membership" in the religion as this was to a significant extent defined through one's rootedness to a particular lineage-based site. Multiple people who I regularly saw at TEC Monthly Services and other pointedly religious events held at the center were not technically categorized as "members" of the religion due to their lack of membership to a particular lineage-based site338 (and also due to their personally held view of not being a "member") despite their inclusion in the social world connected to these scenes.

One such member of the TEC community was a Paris-based British woman in her sixties, Christine, who had been connected to TEC, and part of its community, for several decades. She first came to know members of this group, and later the site of TEC, via her participation in Japanese lessons at ACFJT. During the first part of my fieldwork, she related to me upon our first interaction (which took place at a large religious event at TEC that drew followers from throughout the continent) that she sometimes visits multiple mission stations in the Paris area.

Upon saying this, she detected my subtle expression of surprise due to having previously been told that while TEC is open to everyone, lineage-based sites are exclusively attended by followers of that particular site. In response, she told me that while she does occasionally spend time at multiple Paris-area lineage-based sites, in general, "they're sometimes a little funny about going to different mission stations," meaning that usually people associated with one lineage-based site were not free to attend other lineage-based sites 339 . She then expanded that because she was not a follower, which had already been noted to me by a prominent senior male social actor of TEC when he was explaining to me who she was from across the room before introducing us340 , she was somewhat freer to circulate between multiple lineage-based sites in the area whose head families she has been amicably connected with for, often, multiple decades341 .

Although there was a tendency for a positional difference within this social group between "followers" grounded in the religion through a particular "home site" and members of the broader community not rooted to a particular lineage-based site, this positional differentiation in the group was principally based on their presence at TEC and their involvement in its social world. Thus, although Christine was not technically classified as a follower of the religion nor was she rooted to a particular mission station, her semi-regular presence at TEC in combination with the long duration of time she had been coming there rendered her a long-term member of the TEC community.

My own experience was quite different than Christine's regarding our rootedness, or lack thereof, to a particular mission station and lineage. Despite the fact that I attempted to explain to numerous key members of my research context that my involvement with the religion was primarily for my thesis research and that I was not considering an adoption of it as my own faith or religious practice, I was commonly positioned by others as a member of the mission station and connected lineage of Mr. Sugimoto. Given the organizational structure of the religion and my own recently developed involvement in it, this externally asserted positioning of my lineage affiliation was understandable. Because Mr. Sugimoto was the first person to invite me to a TEC Monthly Service and to participate in the European Seminar immediately afterwards which prompted my concentrated involvement with the religion, according to the Tenrikyo system of organization, he was positioned as my "spiritual parent," and in concurrence, I was rooted to his mission station and its connected lineage. It was this mission station that would categorically serve as the designated site at which I would attend Monthly Services and through which I would be connected to the greater religious whole. I was never invited to spend time at any other mission station in France despite the fact that the majority of their heads (and head families) were aware that I was conducting research on a subject concerning Tenrikyo in France and in Europe.

Relatedly, I did not attempt to attend other Tenrikyo mission stations, instead choosing to adhere to the normalized model of only attending "my home site" in accordance with what I assessed to be most appropriate and "normal."

My being linked with a sole lineage, as is standard in Tenrikyo, rather than being a free-roaming researcher, was demonstrated during my fieldwork in Japan. While there, I expressed an interest to Yuko, who accompanied me throughout the majority of my one and a half months of research there, to visit the supervising grand church of Bordeaux Kyokai, located only a short distance from Tenri City where I spent the majority of my fieldwork in Japan. My interest in going to this particular grand church was primarily because visiting this site was part of the broader experience of going to Tenri City for many people affiliated with Bordeaux Kyokai included in my research population. Most commonly for such individuals, a visit to this grand church accompanied their traveling to Tenri City, primarily for the named motivation of attending the nine Besseki lectures and becoming a Yoboku. I had heard about this supervising grand church from multiple people in France rooted to Bordeaux Kyokai who I became acquainted with during their time at TEC and thus was interested in going to the site myself in order to gain first-hand familiarity with it. When I expressed to Yuko my interest in visiting this grand church when we were in Tenri City, though, I received a response flavored with trepidation that one usually only visits the grand church of one's own lineage, which I was scheduled to do shortly later 342 . Although she did not directly say no, which one rarely does in Japanese culture, particularly in the case of Japanese women, her response made it evident that I should not pursue this request any further.

342 Slightly previously, I had spent approximately one week at the familial home and natal branch church of Yuko which, upon marriage, she was longer categorized as a member of its lineage. Although I was not a member of this church or its lineage, I attended Morning and Evening Services held there. During my time staying there, I went with Yuko and members of her family living at this to the supervising branch church of this church to perform the "hinokishin" of ritually cleaning the area of this church on which the altars were located and the Service was performed in a manner largely similar to how this space is ritually cleaned at TEC. Because I was there principally as someone connected to Yuko, who was positioned as a member of this family rather than as a follower of this lineage, my spending time at the church of her natal home and visiting this supervising church was normalized as a happenstantial event. My visiting the grand church of Bordeaux Kyokai, in contrast, would not have made similar sense as I was not with someone closely connected to this site.

In contrast to my own experience, it is probable that there were multiple reasons for Christine's non-fixedness to any singular "home site" and her freedom to circulate between multiple lineagebased sites in the Paris area. It is reasonable to posit that one contributing factor was that she had been part of this social world for a significantly longer of period of time than myself, thereby allowing her expressed position in the religion to be accepted through having demonstrated it to be constant over time. Another contributing factor may have been her significantly greater age than my own 343 within a Japanese cultural system that strongly associates increased age with an increased hierarchical position, thereby according her more personal authority. (In my own case, I often had the sense that it was thought by numerous followers that although I was not yet an adherent of the religion, because I was still relatively young and new to the path, it was likely or at least possible that I would later come around and become a follower.)

As indicated previously, there were also people I include in the TEC community who came to the center several times a year for non-markedly religious events while remaining absent from expressly religious gatherings. I argue that these individuals, too, were members of the broader "TEC community" due to their social implantation in the wider group and the familiarity with which they functioned in this social world. Their developed connection to TEC and to its mode of functioning, particularly during such events, was demonstrated through the knowledgeable ease with which they operated while there. In this, we can see that although European lineage-based sites were an important contributing component to the presence of Tenrikyo in Europe and connectedly, to the "TEC community," not all people included in this social collectivity were rooted to one of these European lineage-based sites, or for that matter to any lineage-based site, which was the primary requirement of "membership" in this religious organization.

343 I was in my early thirties during my fieldwork.

b. The official lineage-based presence of the faith in numerous European locations

Tenrikyo sites of worship in France: local or semi-local Tenrikyo realms that converged to varying degrees with TEC

In France, in addition to TEC, there was also the highest number of lineage-based sites of any country in Europe, thereby dually rendering it the most prominent country of this religion's presence for the continent through both the inter-lineage site of TEC and the intra-lineage sites.

More specifically, seven of the twenty-two European-based mission stations were located in France, along with the continent's sole "branch church'' of Bordeaux Kyokai 344 . Four of these mission stations were in the Paris region, one was in Strasbourg, one was in Lyon, and one was in Collonges-sous-Salève 345 , with all but one headed by Japanese people 346 .

The heads of the four mission stations in the local Paris area, along with their families, were longterm core members of the "TEC community" who were regularly present at TEC. They served, along with TEC residents 347 , as the primary religious actors who prepared and orchestrated events and activities at the center. These families were prominent members of the wider "TEC community" who were regularly at the center for a variety of other reasons 348 as well, such as helping with upkeep of the center as hinokishin. Members of these families were a part of TEC in a manner where although they were not residents of the center, they were at home there, serving as "hosts" to less involved individuals who came.

The involvement of local mission station families as core members of the TEC community is dispersed throughout my thesis, with their socially important presence at TEC and in its 344 "Kyōkai"( 教会) is the Japanese word for "church," which is also used in reference to Christian sites of worship, but not for Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines. "Kyō" (教) is the same kanji as the suffix of religious traditions, meaning "teachings" and "kai" (会) generally translates as "meeting" or "association." Its head minister, Michel Garnier, explained that they used this word rather than its French equivalent of église because of viewing the original Japanese word used in Tenrikyo to better convey what it is. 345 western France near Swiss border 346 I heard it mentioned that that the mission station in France operated by a non-Japanese person was Laotian, though I never met this individual or heard more information about this site or its head. 347 The people included in this role are not exclusively TEC residents and local mission station families. 348 This is apart from the residents who lived at the center.

connected social world clearly evidenced. Regarding the level of involvement that "followers" of these lineage-based sites in France (and people who came to these mission stations but did not include themselves in this category) had with TEC was dependent on both the individual (or familial) situation of the follower and also the mission station to which they were rooted. Even in the Paris area, not all "followers349 " who came to these local mission stations also came to TEC.

Notably, there was one large mission station located less than 30 minutes from TEC who I heard described on multiple occasions by key social actors of TEC, including the head of this mission station, to constitute a "large, close-knit community," but whose members were nearly completely absent from TEC. Conversely, members of another mission station in the Paris area that also had a relatively sizable membership were regularly present at both Monthly Services of this mission station and also TEC Monthly Services and other major events held there. Some members of this mission station did not overly distinguish in their everyday discourse between their relationship to the mission station to which they were officially rooted and to TEC and were members of both communities. In my observations, some members discussed the locations as being roughly equivalent Tenrikyo sites of worship while others displayed more cognizance of their categorical difference.

Bordeaux Kyokai: a prominent "French" lineage-based sphere of Tenrikyo that intersects with TEC As stated previously, the only lineage-based site of worship in Europe to be classified as a "branch church" was Bordeaux Kyokai, located, as its name implies, in the town of Bordeaux in south-western France. As the largest lineage-based Tenrikyo site in Europe, its members represent an important component of the religion's presence in France and on the European continent. This church was often depicted both directly and indirectly to be somewhat different than other lineage-based sites both on the European continent and elsewhere. Most people who attended it were French as was, more notably, its head minister: Michel Garnier.

When this site was founded in 1986, it was initially headed by the brother of the acting head minister during my research (Kato 2017a). Its acting head minister, Michel, was a physiotherapist and a certified reiki instructor. He was also a former judo practitioner who achieved a high level in the martial art. His introduction to the Tenrikyo religion and its sacred pilgrimage site of Tenri City 350 was through this sport, as it purposefully was for numerous other people as well. In the case of Michel, when he was about twenty years old, he went to Tenri City for a judo training, a sport which the town is renowned for. During my participation in the class of the European Seminar he instructed, he explained that when he initially travelled to Tenri City, he was only there for judo and at that time, was completely uninterested in the religious side of the town. It was only at about the age of thirty, after numerous trips to Tenri City, that he became a follower of the faith. This is yet another example that helps us understand the persistent hopefulness present in the context of my research that through encouraging prolonged contact with the religion, one day, some non-Tenrikyo people toward which these efforts are directed may eventually become followers of the faith.

Michel, along with his Japanese wife who similarly became a follower of the faith as an adult, were core members of the TEC community despite their distance from the center. During my research, their adult son who lived in the Paris area and worked at ACFJT as the principal person charged with the cultural activities of the center was also a core member of this group. In reference to Michel, he was one of several non-Japanese religious actors solidly positioned as a core member of the community through his active and ongoing participation in the efforts and activities of TEC. Furthermore, he was generally regarded as a highly esteemed member of it, in large part for the precise reason that he was not Japanese (and moreover, that he was French in this French setting) in combination with his high level of involvement in this social world and his contributions to the progress of the path in France.

He was attributed a somewhat special status due to his dedication to the faith in combination with what I heard to be regarded as a special ability to convey the teachings to Westerners in a culturally adapted manner that rendered them more understandable and accessible. In addition to hearing this perspective discussed by others as a third person bystander, it was also directly 350 Technically, it is the point of the "Jiba" rather than the entire town of Tenri City that is considered sacred.

presented to me in relation to my own rapport with the religion. The most direct example of this took place a little over a year after I began my research on this group. During this time, I had been to the pilgrimage town of Tenri City, participated in a variety of religious events and trainings, studied the religion, and engaged in its practice. Yet, I remained openly unwavering in my perspective that my involvement was as a researcher rather than as a follower or a person potentially interested in becoming so.

When at the mission station to which I was rooted for a Monthly Service, Yuko told me that she knew that various aspects of the religion could be difficult to understand, which as indicated previously, was not the first time she related this emphatically framed perspective of partial understanding. In her saying this, there was an underlying premise that she regarded this to perhaps be the case partially because I was coming from a Western cultural background and that she and her husband were coming from a Japanese cultural background. She suggested that I speak with Michel, because as she told me, his way of explaining Tenrikyo was often easier for Westerners to understand. Through this, an example of what was generally regarded in the core group of the TEC community to be Michel's somewhat unique contribution to the greater group was displayed in which his uncommon position contributed to the collaborative "music" of the group in a similar manner to how I heard the music of the Service discussed by multiple followers, in which different "instruments" come together in harmony to create a greater whole.

Or, as evoked in chapter five, the collaboration between these musical instruments and the ritual dancers that together enacted this sacred metaphorical representation of the sacred teachings on the functioning of the world, our bodies, and our ideal mode of social existence.

Members of Bordeaux Kyokai (a site located over 500 km from TEC) were a semi-regular presence at TEC and were thus also part of the greater "TEC community," though to differing degrees in relation to their current and previous presence at TEC. As the distance between the two locations was significant, the journey to TEC from Bordeaux was generally made only for special events such as the annual European Seminar and the annual followers' reunion. People rooted to this site were a notable component of the greater "TEC community," albeit on the more peripheral level of this two-tiered community, thereby further adding to its eclectic diversity and non-fixed composition. For the annual reunion of followers, a group from Bordeaux usually came to TEC together in a large van. This both saved them money in comparison to individual train tickets and also incorporated the shared social activity of a road trip into their overall experience of coming to the center for this gathering of European-based followers. Some members of Bordeaux Kyokai came to TEC semi-regularly for such occasions, others from this site who I met at TEC came with much less frequency, while still others never came to TEC during my two years of fieldwork. In this, differing levels of enacted connectedness to TEC were displayed.

Based on the comments I heard from members of this church, there was a strong sense of community at this site that rendered it a fully separate site of "community" from TEC while simultaneously remaining part of the "TEC community." While members of Bordeaux Kyokai generally came from Western backgrounds in which one's place of religious belonging via one's regularly attended site of worship need not remain fixed throughout one's life, attendees of Bordeaux Kyokai often expressed a feeling of closeness and community to be a notable feature of this group. Their expressed understandings of the teachings and of the faith were commonly reflective of the site of Bordeaux Kyokai at which they initially learned of Tenrikyo and where they continued to be based. This site-specific concordant particularity was a generally present theme that I also heard evoked by other followers based in both Europe and Japan that was further affirmed through my own observations. In this, a commonly shared similarity between lineage-based sites was their site and lineage specific particularities.

Like other lineage-based sites of worship, in the Tenrikyo system of organization, Bordeaux Kyokai was officially more closely affiliated with its parent grand church in Japan than it was to TEC. In practice, though, although numerous members of Bordeaux Kyokai spoke to me about having visited this parent grand church as part of their experience of going to Japan (primarily for the purpose of their pilgrimage journey to Tenri City), a strong connection to this grand church was usually not expressed. I attribute this chiefly to the geographic distance between Bordeaux Kyokai and its parent grand church in Japan which translated to a limited amount of time spent at it or in other connected locations, such as its followers' dormitory 351 in Tenri City where members of this grand church lineage coming from multiple home sites of worship would stay while there. Furthermore, as discussed previously, the broader cultural system in which these 351 Followers' dormitories are operated by grand churches and house followers of their lineage during their time in Tenri City.

French followers were based did not contain such a lineage-based system as a familiarized and common model of social organization. Thus, their "natural" connection to the parent church of their "home site" in France was not manifestly evident in relation to the broader cultural framework in which they were situated nor was it a culturally-adapted one as Bordeaux Kyokai was.

Not only did the members of this lineage-based site generally lack a strong feeling of membership to its parent church in Japan, but I also heard of the openness of Bordeaux Kyokai to welcoming followers officially rooted to other lineages expressed by numerous people connected to this site. This further illustrated this church's lack of a strong adherence to a lineage-centric mode of operation. Connectedly, the primary local affiliation of several people involved in my study switched over time in association with changes in where they lived. For these people, during the time they lived in the Paris area, TEC served as their main site of worship and they actively participated in activities held at this center. Later, when they relocated to the Bordeaux area, Bordeaux Kyokai served in this role even though it was not their official "home site."

For the several non-Japanese followers352 who did this, they expressed a view of both locations being roughly equivalent Tenrikyo sites of worship and did not overly differentiate between them based on their official designations. I also did not hear any evidence that would suggest that they viewed themselves to not be full members of the Bordeaux Kyokai community while there.

Similarly, I heard from other members of the Bordeaux community that any Tenrikyo follower can come to Bordeaux Kyokai, regardless of one's official church lineage: a sentiment also expressed by its head minister. In contrast, a young French woman who was a member of this church told me about a Japanese Tenrikyo follower raised in a church family in Japan she was close with who was unsure about going to Bordeaux to study or work. This was largely because there was not a Tenrikyo site of his own lineage located there. He had indicated to her that if he came to live in France for a period, it would be better to be in a part of the country where a mission station of the same lineage as his own was located.

To better explain the connection Bordeaux Kyokai had to TEC and also to its own lineage and the central point of the religion of Tenrikyo Church Headquarters, to which all followers are ultimately connected, I include hereafter a diagram of the connections between Bordeaux Kyokai, TEC, its grand church in Japan, and Tenrikyo Church Headquarters. The connections included in this diagram are theoretically applicable to all followers linked to Bordeaux Kyokai as their "home site," though in practice, social affiliations were more complex and varied than what is depicted. Tenrikyo lineages, the relational links of this lineage were often more than merely theoretical or thinly constructed organizational ones. The "parent" branch church in Japan of this Paris area mission station where Mr. Matsukawa had been born and raised included numerous multigenerational familial connections. Through my being connected with this mission station and the Sugimoto family who headed it, I was also connected to a broader social collectivity, not only through official lineage affiliations, but also through interpersonal relationships.

At the time of my fieldwork, Mr. Sugimoto had lived in the Paris area for over twenty years.

Since his arrival in France as a young adult missionary Japanese teacher, he had been closely affiliated with TEC and its connected community. His wife, Yuko, who arrived somewhat later following their semi-arranged marriage 353 , along with their French-born children were also longterm active members of the TEC community and saw this European-based inter-lineage group with much more regularity than they did members of their own lineage in Japan. Mr. Sugimoto's twenty-year relationship with TEC, though, was much less significant than his family's relationship to the branch church in Japan to which he was rooted, where multiple generations of his family had lived and been key members. This connection included close multi-generational relationships not only with his own family members, but also to other families closely connected to this lineage, notably the other two families with whom he was raised on this church's grounds.

One was the head minister's family and the other was a family who, similar to his own, had lived onsite for multiple generations to assist in the efforts made for this church.

It is interesting to mention that sometime before coming to France, Mr. Sugimoto had lived for several years during his early twenties in northern California as a caretaker at a boarding house for Japanese Tenrikyo high school students studying in the US in order to acquire a strong command of the English language for their future Tenrikyo endeavors. Through this experience, Mr. Sugimoto was linked with the broader international, American, and English-speaking social spheres of Tenrikyo. This was demonstrated in numerous ways throughout my research, for example, multiple orators of the Besseki lectures in English that I attended during my time in Tenri City, discussed in further detail in chapter ten, which Mr. Sugimoto scheduled for me were former students that he cared for during their high school years in California. Additionally, Mr.

Sugimoto's older brother founded a mission station in the Los Angeles area 354 , thereby creating a close familiarity and lineage-based connection to the location. Mr. Sugimoto's other brother, the eldest of the three, lived in New York City for several years during which time he conducted "classic" missionary activities such as going door-to-door with Tenrikyo flyers 355 . He financed his stay in New York by working in Japanese restaurants, as is common for Japanese people to do in order to be able to pursue other non-paid pursuits in this city (Sooudi 2014). During his time there, he ended up being eligible for a Green Card by winning the Green Card lottery 356 , but did not pursue obtaining it and instead returned to Japan. This was because his widowed mother living at their familial church suffered a stroke which she was affected by at a time when all three of her sons were living abroad. The three Sugimoto brothers discussed which of the three of them would return to Japan to be with their mother and it was decided that the eldest would go; this is where he lived at the time of my fieldwork.

I depict hereafter the connections that the Sugimotos' mission station had to other Tenrikyo sites of worship, mainly of its own lineage, but also with the broader European and American Tenrikyo communities. The connections shown in this diagram are but a few of the connections held by this mission station. The principal reason for the inclusion of this diagram is to briefly illustrate that although all mission stations in Europe are connected to TEC, this connection is but one of multiple linkages held by each of these lineage-based sites of worship. Furthermore, the connection with TEC is not the oldest nor the most important connection if looked at from a historical or ecclesiastical perspective. Such multi-directional connections are typical amongst lineage-based sites of worship, including the twenty-three in Europe at the time of my research.

Thus, one can see that although the multi-layered and multi-directional community of TEC was the focus of my research, the lineage-based sites which it included also encompassed multidirectional webs of connections beyond the European continent.

346 He did not found a mission station there. In addition to these lineage-based mission stations, there was also a Tenrikyo presence in the UK by means of the Tenrikyo UK Centre, located in northern London. This non-lineage based center opened officially in 2000 and was categorically positioned as being principally analogous to TEC, though smaller, in that it was open to all, but the "home site" to none. As partially indicated above, during events held at TEC, it was common to see followers coming from the UK, including but not limited to people from mission station families, who were also part of the Tenrikyo UK Centre "community." It was also common for TEC officials (and certain other members of its "core community," such as the Miyamoto sisters) to go to the UK Centre for various reasons. Such reasons included to deliver a speech, provide an official presence from TEC for certain occasions, provide translation assistance (which was the principal reason for which the trilingual Miyamoto sisters went), and also for special occasions, such as the wedding reception 357 of two young adults born into European-based Japanese missionary families in two different countries for which numerous core members of the TEC community were in attendance 358 .

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Regarding the relationship between TEC and Tenrikyo UK Centre, although followers in the UK were included under both the TEC and Tenrikyo UK Centre collective umbrellas, followers elsewhere in Europe were only included under the TEC umbrella but not that of Tenrikyo UK Centre. Thus, apart from the core members of the TEC community, Tenrikyo followers (or affiliated individuals) on the mainland of Europe generally did not visit this inter-lineage UK site because, in contrast to TEC, it did not host gatherings intended for the broader collection of European-based followers as this was not a defined purpose of Tenrikyo UK Centre.

The UK-based missionary family most frequently represented at TEC during my two years of fieldwork was the Yagishitas, with one of the three adult sons being the immediately previously referenced groom. Because of both the prominent role they played in my research context and also the exemplary qualities that depicted components of their mission station and this family can illustrate in relation to numerous aspects of the religion and the lived experience of many such core members of the "TEC community," I include a depiction of this mission station family hereafter.

357 This couple had legally married in Japan almost a year previously due to legal issues they had to navigate. 358 I discuss this in slightly more detail in the latter part of this chapter in reference to a complication they encountered in relation to their non-European nationalities.

The head of this mission station and his wife came from Japan as young adults to establish it in the late 1970s, after the head minister of its supervising branch church chose him to do so at the young age of twenty. This choice, one of his sons later explained to me, was due to his being experienced in and adept at missionary work, which he started doing while in high school. As was generally the case, the connection between this mission station and its parental branch church was not only an organizational one, but also a family-like interpersonal one. This was evidenced, for example, by this son telling me in the same conversation via Facebook messenger in the context of the recent passing of the head minister of this parent church that although they were not related, this head minister had been like a grandfather to him 359 .

The first year I participated in the Tenrikyo European Seminar, all four young adult Yagishita siblings, who had each taken part in this training during their early young adult years, along with their mother, came to TEC to help with one week of the seminar each. The youngest sibling, Masae, was in her early twenties and not (yet) formally trained extensively in Tenrikyo teachings.

She assisted with the seminar through a non-instructional supportive role by serving as the organizer and chief "go-to person" for our English cohort during the first week at which time her (non-Tenrikyo) friend from university, who I discuss in further detail later, was in attendance as a student. Her three older brothers, who had each completed a two-year post-graduate seminary program in Tenri City, were there as instructors for one subsequent week each. In addition to bringing to TEC the religious information they acquired through this intensive seminary program for which writing a research-based thesis on the religion was a standard required component, they also brought with them their experience of spending these two religiously focused years in Tenri City, amongst other lived engagements with this religious world. Uncommonly, their father was absent from the seminar that year because he was in Tenri City as an instructor for the Englishbased three-month Shuyoka spiritual development course360 . Although his efforts for the path of Tenrikyo were not at TEC that year, they were nonetheless aimed at the same ultimate objective through a similar task elsewhere.

The following year, he returned to his routine assistance with the European seminar by serving as an instructor for the English cohort, along with his wife who again served in a supportive role.

Through this, the long-term involvement numerous core members of the TEC community had in the ongoing orchestration of important religious events that took place at this European center was demonstrated. Their children, though, did not come to the seminar that year. The three sons could not attend because they were in Japan (principally for Tenrikyo activities), had already used their annual vacation time for this reason, and/or a combination of the two361 .

Masae could not be at the European Seminar that year there because she was in Tenri City for the two-year post-graduate seminary program that her brothers had previously attended. She then continued her time in this pilgrimage town first through working as an English teacher at a The accompaniment of someone new to the faith in their introduction to this religious world was not unique to Masae, but rather a common component of how new followers (or potential followers) were guided into numerous religious contexts. Although I did not take part in the Shuyoka training and thus logically could not be accompanied in doing so, as a newcomer 362 , I was accompanied in various other parts of my delving into this religious world, most often but not always, by my key official and unofficial Tenrikyo contacts of Mr. and Mrs. Sugimoto. Furthermore, the prominent ongoing connection that the Yagishitas had to Tenri City as discussed in this subsection was far from unique to this family. Rather, it is broadly illustrative of many Tenrikyo families highly involved in this religion, such as most core members of the "TEC community." Among such individuals, although there was some variation in the precise reasons for the significant amounts of time they spent in Tenri City, their general presence there and the type of religiously communal experience it entailed was a commonly shared experience that anchored them to the religion and to the pilgrimage town in which it is based.

Two transnational Tenrikyo layers of connection fostered by a singular mission station head

Another type of inter-site connection that was present in the "TEC community" was that of the linkage between the European lineage-based sites of worship and TEC via the somewhat frequent presence of their heads. In Germany, for example, there were two mission stations: one in Munich and one in Cologne363 . Both of these mission station families were present semi-regularly at TEC and were part of TEC's long-term community, though their levels of presence at and involvement with the center differed. The most frequently present representative from these two groups was a lively Japanese man in his late forties named Mr. Tanaka who was the head of the Cologne mission station. Mr. Tanaka was a semi-regular presence at TEC, for example by serving annually as a staff member for one week of the European Seminar364 and participating in the annual European committee meetings which united mission station heads from throughout Europe to discuss the present activities and future developments of the path on this continent.

Mr. Tanaka's wife and adolescent daughter were also familiar presences at TEC, though with somewhat less frequency. This difference was reflective of a Tenrikyo tendency for men in official positions to travel more frequently than women and children and more often for official religious purposes. This occurred, for instance, through their serving as a representative on behalf of their group for ceremonies and meetings and as a point of reference for religious instruction in official or semi-official contexts, such as delivering sermons at the end of the TEC Monthly Services and as instructional staff for the European Seminar. Women and children of mission station families living outside of the Paris area also came to TEC but globally were significantly less present than their male counterparts. This gender-based contrast, though, was not a set rule.

Women coming from mission stations elsewhere in Europe were also a regular presence at TEC, whether as mission station heads or supporting mission station wives, though less numerically represented and also generally less visible 365 than their male counterparts.

From a theoretical perspective of the system in which these religious actors were operating, this difference in representation could be seen as somewhat irrelevant in terms of the links of social connection fostered through these encounters. Since when the head of a family or of a mission station (who was most commonly male) came to TEC or another official or semi-official Tenrikyo context, they were there on behalf of not only themselves but also of their connected group (meaning their family or lineage-based site). Thus, according to this approach, such social intersections fostered connections not only between the implicated individuals themselves but extendedly also between the groups for which they functioned as a representative social bridge. Discussion of Mr. Tanaka lends itself not only to providing an illustrative example of intergroup connections fostered through the interaction between their heads, but also to an inclusion of the transnational connection between numerous Tenrikyo cultural centers that was another layer of the complex Tenrikyo network of which TEC was a part. A particularity of Mr. Tanaka was that in addition to serving as the head of the mission station in Cologne, he also was the director of the "Tenri Japanese-German Cultural Workshop" (Tenri Japanisch-Deutsche Kulturwerkstatt) located in the same city and founded in 2006, largely through his efforts. As explained on the cultural center's website 366 , it put on a diverse range of exhibitions, performances, concerts, lectures and workshops in order to provide opportunities to build bridges between cultures. Also explained on its website was that it was financially supported by the "Tenri Kawaramachi-365 I say "less visible" because women most commonly perform largely behind the scene tasks at TEC, while men more commonly serve in more visible roles of leadership, instruction, and administrative. 366 Tenri Japanisch-Deutsche Kulturwerkstatt 2018.

Daikyokai 367 ." What it did not state, though, was that this was the parent church of the religion's Cologne-based mission station operated by the cultural center's managing director. Instead, it referred to this source of financial support in a locally appealing and easily digestible manner by referring to it as "a religious institution of Tenrikyo in Cologne's sister city of Kyoto" ("… einer religiösen Institution der Tenrikyo in Kölns Partnerstadt Kyoto, getragen.").

In this introductory text of the cultural association's website, it continued by stating: However, no religious activities are carried out in the Tenri Japanese-German Cultural Workshop. It is an open platform for intercultural encounters and open to all people in accordance with its fundamental purpose. The aspiration to promote cultural exchange on equal terms and thus contribute to a peaceful coexistence is in line with Tenrikyo's basic beliefs. In addition to the Tenri KulturWerkstatt in Cologne, Tenrikyo also maintains the Association Culturelle Franco-Japonaise de Tenri in Paris (founded in 1971) and the Tenri Cultural Institute of New York (founded in 1991), which also promote intercultural understanding with their offers. 368 In this, we can see that the Kulturwerkstatt was purposefully associated in a public manner with the older, similar cultural associations of Tenri Cultural Institute in New York City and ACFJT in Paris on its website. This transnational affiliation was used as suggestive evidence of the Kulturwerkstatt's institutional validity in a manner that was sometimes mirrored in how the transnational presence of Tenrikyo was used to demonstrate its importance not only in Japan but also more globally.

The ongoing expansion of the path through official (and unofficial) means

The interconnected transnational realm of Tenrikyo was ever-developing, including European lineage-based sites. During the span of my fieldwork, two additional European mission stations were founded: one in Vienna and one in the Amsterdam area. Their establishment was an 367 As a reminder, "daikyokai" is a Japanese word which is translated into English as "grand church." important contribution to the ongoing construction of this lineage-based layer of the "TEC community." The founding of these two mission stations also added to the "official" Tenrikyo transnational narrative of its presence throughout the world that was a teleological goal of the faith and served to affirm the religion's global significance by adding new countries to the list of where this religion was present. That in some of the countries there was only a very small number of followers was often not included in the overarching narrative of the numerous countries in which the religion has a presence. This could be interpreted in numerous ways. From one perspective, it could be viewed as bordering on a false representation of the religion's actual international following as some of the countries highlighted on this map only had an extremely minor Tenrikyo presence369 . From another perspective that I heard on occasion from core members of TEC in regard to the present limited expansion of Tenrikyo in Europe in demographic terms, this dispersed international presence could be viewed as the budding foundation of the faith that will later blossom into something more.

Throughout my research, I encountered numerous examples of this perspective through both personal observations and also through discourse offered in more official contexts, such as in Tenrikyo publications and in sermons given at the end of TEC Monthly Services. For example, in reference to my own involvement, followers I met in a variety of contexts expressed significant interest in how I came to be involved with Tenrikyo, and connectedly, present at its functions both in France and in Tenri City. This interest was often present even though I did not express myself to be a follower and often included in these explanations that I was conducting anthropological research on the religion in France and in Europe.

Generally, there were several features of my story that followers in such contexts were interested in. One was that I had first come to ACFJT to study Japanese without having heard of the Tenrikyo religion and that it was the ambiance I encountered the first time I went there that was the main reason I chose this center as my site of Japanese instruction. Another feature of this story that drew interest was that my study at ACFJT later led to me coming to TEC for events that were not specifically religious in nature, and then later to a Monthly Service there which then led to my participation in the European Seminar, from which my interest in and prolonged involvement with the religion and its connected social world developed.

When recounting this story to followers, I was often met with comments about how it was "amazing" (sugoi). Such comments were frequently accompanied by direct or indirect expressions that this was evidence that the efforts being made in Europe to spread the faith, which included the operation of ACFJT where the religion was generally not discussed due to its "laique" status were proving to be at least somewhat fruitful. This was important as I observed indications that some core members of the "TEC community" (and also other followers who knew about ACFJT) questioned if its existence was justified in its present form, as its efficacity at bringing in new followers to the faith was sometimes regarded as dubious due to its limited success in doing so thus far.

That the European Seminar played an important role in my story was also often accorded particular attention. The orchestration of this annual three-week program required significant effort and resources, but commonly drew very few student participants, thereby raising the question to some if what was invested in it was justified in relation to the "results" it yielded.

Such "results" could include helping present followers deepen their understanding of the faith, teaching non-followers about the religion, and of course, as was viewed as a possibility in my own case, attracting new followers to the path. The underlying common denominator of these multiple types of "results," though, was the mere attendance of student participants, which my own presence was shown to be a recent example of.

As I was told by an American follower of Japanese descent during our joint participation in an international symposium for English-speaking followers in Tenri City ("Tenri Forum," which I discuss in chapter ten), the efforts included in these various steps which eventually led to my coming to Tenri City and participating in the symposium were done in hopes that they may produce such an effect. I commented to him that in these numerous steps, significant efforts were made by a substantial number of people, for example, all the work and resources invested into the European Seminar for which there were few participants, and that I am only a sole individual. My comment was made as a casual conversational evocation of a "cost-benefit analysis" of the high level of investment made for what could be viewed as a low resulting yield if looking at the number of people who became followers (or otherwise invested themselves significantly in the religion, as I viewed to be my own case). He replied to me that Tenrikyo is spread by individuals. This is how the path has expanded over time and that in the religion, they regularly make efforts to spread and teach others about the faith with the hope that they may draw in even one person to the religion: I was an example of why they do much of what they do.

Often of interest in such exchanges was that I was originally from Alaska. Apart from the usual curiosity that my being from this state commonly elicited due to its accompanying image, my coming from this particular location may have also been of interest because there was not yet a documented Tenrikyo presence there; creating the possibility that I may transmit the religion's presence to a new location in accordance with the model of the religion often being spread through gradual transmission via individuals. It should be underlined that the spread of Tenrikyo occurred in numerous ways, thus encouraging hope for this to occur through both more and less structured means. Sometimes its expansion to new locations in the increasingly international Tenrikyo scene was primarily through unstructured means in which people who became new followers in principally uncharted locations become rooted to lineage-based "home sites" located elsewhere. This often occurred through largely happenstantial sharing of the religion rather than through purposeful and structured expansion by means of lineage-based sites. Often though, the religion was spread to new locations by means of the purposeful founding of Tenrikyo mission stations. Such outgrowths, in fact, were at the heart of how Tenrikyo expanded.

One lineage-based mission station founded in Europe during my fieldwork was in the Amsterdam area. The other mission station founded during my fieldwork was in Vienna, the founding and more so the founder of which I will discuss. It was founded by Chihiro, a non-married Japanese artist in her thirties born and raised in the faith at a rural Tenrikyo church in the mountains of Japan where her father served as its head minister. She had already been living in Vienna for about ten years when I met her at the three-day annual youth retreat 370 , "Palette," shortly after my research interest shifted to TEC and approximately a year and a half before this Vienna mission station was officially founded. Chihiro had originally moved to Vienna, she explained to me, after having visited multiple European cities and finding that she particularly liked the spatial layout of Vienna from an artistic perspective.

In her discussion with me regarding her move to Vienna, her religion, or more precisely its propagation, was not positioned as a motivating factor to move there. Her faith was included, though, in how she approached life in this new location. The importance placed on the faith in which she was raised, and its practice, was maintained after her move to Vienna, which was illustrated shortly after we first met when I asked if her family had been concerned about her moving abroad. She told me that her father told her that she could live anywhere in the world that she wanted as long as she was sure to perform the Service every morning and evening, which she did. This included on the morning before this conversation occurred when she arrived in Paris via bus from Holland where she was visiting another long-term member of the "TEC community."

To do this morning ritual, she found a discreet spot in a park to perform the Morning Service 371 before starting the rest of her day. When we met on this occasion and again about a half year later via a semi-structured interview on Skype, which was before the founding of the Vienna mission station, she told me that in Vienna, in addition to herself, there was one other Tenrikyo follower, a South American who was already a follower of the faith before moving to Europe who she would occasionally get together with to perform the Monthly Service 372 .

Chihiro was passionate about Tenrikyo and had a close emotional relationship to the faith. She actively sought not only to spread it through direct methods which involved overt discussion of the religion, but also through dispersing and putting into practice its underlying teachings and values without making excessive mention of the religion. The second year I participated in the TEC seminar, Chihiro took part in the first ever German portion of the program about five years after she had completed the similar, though more extensive, spiritual development program of Shuyoka in Tenri City. She explained her principal motivation to participate in the program at TEC was to learn how to linguistically discuss and culturally frame the teachings in German to be more able to share them with people in her Vienna-based life.

371 This level of dedication to performing the Service every morning and evening is not unanimously shared by all Tenrikyo followers but rather is reflective of one of multiple approaches that to adherence to and practice of the faith. Many followers express a less absolute adherence to this prescribed ritual component of the faith. 372 It is not required to have all the performative roles filled to perform this ritual.

During our shared time at the seminar which facilitated numerous in-depth talks, she told me that she used to try to persuade people of things she believed (in this instance, not specifically referring to the Tenrikyo religion) by being openly dogmatic in her approach but later came to regard it as more effective to simply give hints of what she wished to convey to people through subtle whispers. Based on our conversations and my limited observations of her efforts to spread the faith, her approach was very much in accordance with this perspective. Thus, like the other mission stations discussed in this chapter, her approach to sharing her religion with others and spreading the faith was integrated into the mission station she headed that was included in the mosaic of Tenrikyo sites in Europe.

c. Pragmatic adjustments made by mission station families in relation to their being in

Europe

The issue of citizenship for children of European mission station families

Despite the increasing presence of Japanese Tenrikyo followers who founded and operated mission stations in Europe, thereby encouraging their prolonged presence on the continent, the founders of these sites and their European-born children commonly remained exclusively Japanese in nationality. Often in the case of their children, this was largely due to the Japanese government's prohibition on dual citizenship. This created a situation where many of the religious actors heading the mission stations in Europe remained positioned as partial foreigners in the lands in which they were living, regardless of how many years they spent there. Through this, most core members of the "TEC community" who came together from numerous European locations, primarily at TEC, were in fact politically categorizable as exclusively Japanese despite their presence often being positioned as representative of the European countries from which they were immediately coming.

Among the numerous social events of the "TEC community" that occurred during my fieldwork, and more specifically in this case one that principally involved its core "members," was the marriage between the daughter of a Holland-based Japanese missionary family, who was born and raised in Holland, and the son of a London-based Japanese missionary family, who was born and raised in London. These two individuals had initially gotten to know each other when they were children through various TEC gatherings and were then reunited when they were older, again through the center. Their renewed friendship then developed into a romantic relationship, which led to marriage.

In accordance with the prominent system of residency after marriage in both Japanese and Tenrikyo cultures, this Holland-born woman moved to London to join her new husband and his family. Her relocation and their establishment of a common home was complicated by their legal statuses in the European countries in which they were born and raised because they were legal residents rather than national citizens due to their parents' having chosen for them to hold the nationality of their family's origin rather than that of the country of their birth and upbringing.

Because neither one of them was a European citizen with the legal right to move to another European country nor to welcome a foreign spouse, it was only a year after their legal union and multiple legal steps which they navigated in both Europe and Japan that this Holland-born bride was able to move to the UK to live with her UK-born groom. The complications encountered by these newlyweds was just one of multiple instances in which I saw such European-born young adults of Tenrikyo missionary families navigate difficulties due to their legal status in Europe of being exclusively Japanese.

Similar to other such European-born children of Japanese Tenrikyo missionary families, the discrepancy of this UK-born man holding exclusively Japanese citizenship was primarily due to the Japanese government's legally asserted notion of what it is to be a citizen of that country in combination with his parents' understanding of which country he should be legally affiliated.

Several such young adults ranging from their mid-twenties to early thirties explained to me that their parents chose for them to have Japanese citizenship rather than that of their European country of birth in large part because of the perceived and lived connection they have with the Jiba (and Tenri City). Central to this choice is that this location is understood in the religion, and by these core members of the "TEC community," as their "original home" and thus, the primary site to which they are rooted. Accordingly, a principal reason for their parents choosing for them to maintain Japanese citizenship was because they wanted their children to be able to go to Tenri City and stay there for extended durations of time without the complication of needing a Japanese visa 373 . Such individuals were also closely connected with their church lineages based primarily in Japan, the churches were often headed by family members or people with whom they had family-like relationships, as was the case of the branch church at which Mr. Sugimoto was raised, further connecting them to religiously associated contexts in Japan.

The less than straight-forward nature of these newlyweds' establishment of a common home showcases the legally transnational lives of the majority of Japanese Tenrikyo followers in Europe, along with their European-born children 374 , who together largely composed the core "TEC community" in which their country of long-term residence was not the same as their country of citizenship. As a result, such individuals were partially grounded to both European and Japanese localities, but at the same time, belonged entirely to neither. In such contexts, it was possible to spend many years as partial residents of where they lived, or even, in the case of European-born Japanese nationals, potentially their entire lives. This adds another layer of complexity to the presence of Tenrikyo in Europe as the majority of its key religious actors were not, in fact, legally rooted to this continent, thus rendering the level to which this religion was based in Europe, rather than transposed largely via non-permanent Japanese Tenrikyo followers, open to numerous interpretations.

The complex interplay of how such Japanese religious actors included in my study are embedded in the "TEC community," Tenrikyo as it exists in Japan, and the wider realm of Tenrikyo is somewhat analogous to Ong's (1999) discussion of "transnationalism," which she prefers over the term "globalism" in her analysis of a transnational Chinese public in the Asian Pacific and the related circulation of capital. Her analysis is centered on the horizontal and relational nature of the contemporary economic, social, and cultural processes that stream across spaces. She explains that she employs the term "transnational" because it denotes moving through space or across lines, as well as the changing nature of something and that her analytical focus on "transnationalism" denotes her concern with looking at the condition of cultural interconnectedness and mobility across space. Similarly, the social actors included in my study permitted to stay up to 6 months in Japan, but those who wish to stay more than 90 days are required to apply for an extension of the period of stay to the Ministry of Justice (Regional Immigration Bureau) before the period of permitted stay is to expire. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan 2019).

who are simultaneously rooted to Europe and Japan in somewhat disjunctive ways that are interconnected rather than fixed to a singular location occupy transnational existences connected to and influenced by these disparate locations. As Ong highlights, transnational processes are situated cultural processes in which the former is intricately influenced and shaped by the latter (1999: 17). Relatedly, how the legal and cultural identities are navigated and assumed by such European-born children of Japanese Tenrikyo missionaries is reflective of a transnational interplay between geographically and intellectually disparate factors. Ong (1999) argues in her discussion of a transnational Chinese public operating in a globalized system of capitalism that although citizenship is conventionally understood as being grounded in political rights and participation within a sovereign state; globalization has made economic calculation a major factor of diasporan subjects' choice of citizenship. She uses the term "flexible citizenship" to refer to the strategies and effects of mobile managers, technocrats, and professionals seeking both to circumvent and benefit from different nation-state regimes by selecting different sites for investments, work, and family relocation. Ong explains that in her discussion of flexible citizenship being based partially in personally linked factors, she is also talking about different modalities of governmentality, as practiced by the nation-state, by the family, and by capital, that intersect with and have effects on each other, variously encoding and constraining flexibility in global (re)positioning.

In the case of such European-born children of Japanese missionaries, although I never heard economic capital evoked as a factor in negotiating the question of which country(ies 375 ) with which to align their legal citizenship, family and governmentality were similarly highly influential factors in their assumed citizenship. As Tenri City was regarded as the original home of humanity and the location in which God the Parent and the foundress (the original mother of all humans) dwelt, the role of "family" in one's country of residence can be understood to extend 375 One such young adult told me that he decided as an adult to obtain citizenship of the European country in which he was born in addition to his Japanese citizenship that his parents had opted for him to have, explaining to me that he would retain his Japanese citizenship but simply not notify the Japanese government of his having taken the citizenship of another country as well. He told me that he had heard of analogous followers in the US who had done this and thus regarded it as a plausibly possible option. Although I did not discuss the question of citizenship with every such person included in my research, it is reasonable to posit that others had or thereafter made a similar choice to become dual citizens but strategically abstained from declaring their dual status to the Japanese government.

beyond that of their immediate kin networks to also reflect "familial" ties conceptualized in Tenrikyo theology to be associated with this pilgrimage site in Japan, thereby extending the "familial" factor in choice of citizenship to extend beyond one's immediate family to also include these spiritual parental figures. In contrast to the primary trend of the transnational Chinese social actors discussed by Ong (1999) whose national citizenship(s) was largely independent of cultural identity, for such young adult social actors included in my study and their Japanese parents, their choice of their having Japanese citizenship rather than their European country of birth was commonly demonstrated to be related to their emically perceived cultural identity as being firstly Japanese, regardless of their present geographic location. Although in both instances, the retention of one's cultural identity of origin (or that of one's parent) was maintained over changes in residential location, in the case of such Japanese social actors included in my research, this was manifested in their choice of citizenship whereas in the case of those discussed in Ong's analysis, these were largely separate features 376 .

Diverse approaches to conducting "missionary work" amongst mission station families

Regardless of their legally defined national affiliation, their implication in the lineage-based sites they headed was a prominent feature of their overall lives and also in the presence of Tenrikyo in Europe. As implied by the term, a main purpose of "mission stations" is to conduct missionary work 377 . It is thus appropriate in this chapter to elaborate on what types of missionary work 378 376 As discussed previously, the maintenance of a primarily Japanese cultural identity by Tenrikyo followers of Japanese ancestry outside of Japan was not similarly present in all disparate contexts to have such individuals. Notably, for example, Tenrikyo followers of Japanese ancestry in the US commonly culturally identified firstly as Americans, which was reflective of multiple factors, prominently such individuals often being descendants of earlier migrations, often though not always of more distant generations, as well as the question of cultural and national affiliation in these locations, with the latter containing a strong ethos of being comprised of multiple immigrant populations coming together to compose a greater whole. 377 Missionary work is also taken on by Tenrikyo churches and grand churches; at least in theory, all Tenrikyo followers are also missionaries of the faith. 378 The English term "missionary work" is the common translation of two Japanese terms often used synonymously in Tenrikyo contexts. One is "fukyō" (布教) composed of the kanji characters which mean (amongst other things) "distribute" and "teaching." This is a non-Tenrikyo specific Japanese word for religious missionary work. The second term used is more Tenrikyo specific: "nioigake"( にをいがけデー). This term is found in the twelfth hymn of the Mikagura-uta ("Songs for the Service": sacred songs performed in the Tenrikyo monthly service) said to have been composed by Oyasama in 1867. This term, which is written in Tenrikyo through syllabic hiragana characters rather these separately operating lineage-based Tenrikyo sites conducted, principally through the families who hosted them. The differences between their approaches were due to a variety of factors, such as the church lineages in which they were rooted. Each of which contained particularities regarding both how they interpreted the teachings and also how they operated, as well as the individual perspectives and personalities of each mission station head and their family. Some of these mission station families had a rather casual approach in which their main methods of sharing the faith were inviting potentially interested friends to the Monthly Services that they hosted at their home-based mission stations and by talking to people about the teachings in a variety of contexts, sometimes, as was described in the case of Chihiro, not even mentioning that they came from a religion. Other mission stations in Europe had in the past or continued during my period of research to engage in more direct and classic Tenrikyo missionary activities, such as seeking out sick people on whom to perform the Sazuke faith healing ritual, which historically served as the main way people became followers of the path. In such instances, according to the Tenrikyo system, such "saved" individuals who came to follow the faith then became members of the "home site379 " of the person who "saved" them 380 .

Another classic Tenrikyo method of spreading the religion that some, but not all, European-based mission station families engaged in was through public displays of the religion, for example by wearing Tenrikyo ritual clothing and singing religious songs or holding signs with messages related to the religion in busy locations. One example of this was the family members of a Parisarea mission station who regularly went to a busy park on the weekends to sing the Mikagura-uta songs, thereby publicly diffusing a central component of the religion on a regular basis. Another example of working to spread the religion through public displays was a London-based mission station family (and sometimes others associated with this site) who on numerous occasions held than kanji, literally means "sprinkling the fragrance," but in practice is generally used in a way undifferentiated from fukyō.

Tenrikyo-related signs with positive messages inspired from Tenrikyo tenets at busy London Underground stations while dressed in Tenrikyo robes.

It is interesting to note that I learned of this latter example through a PowerPoint-assisted talk on spreading the faith given by the head of this mission station during the European Seminar to encourage others to actively engage in making efforts to spread the path of Tenrikyo. In this talk, he explained that for approximately the past eight months, every month on the day before their mission station's Monthly Service, the members of his family and others who wished to join would clean their street and the nearby Underground station (as hinokishin). Then, at the station, they would "spread God's name" and promote the religion's principal teachings through holding signage while wearing Tenrikyo garb, such as one that proclaimed that we all have 7 billion brothers and sisters (in accordance with Tenrikyo's teaching that all humans are brothers and sisters).

Yet another classic Tenrikyo missionary activity in Japan (and elsewhere) that some missionaries381 continued to conduct in Europe was going door-to door, most often with religious brochures to talk to people about the faith. During my fieldwork, I saw different perspectives on this method reflective of an amalgamation of factors such as the individual religious actors in question, their broader Tenrikyo social spheres, and the social environments in which they were living. For example, the head of the mission station to which I was rooted told me that he used to go door-to-door with Tenrikyo brochures in France but found that French people often do not like being disturbed at home. An approach he found to be better received was to casually talk to people about the religion when they were out, appeared to have time, and were open to chatting, such as at a park, to which he added that recently he did not do this as much as before due to being busy with work.

His finding that speaking to people about the religion in this manner was often better received than door-to-door efforts that were common in the wider sphere of the religion was reflected in the fact that the only long-term "follower382 " of his mission station was initially approached in this way. Approximately ten years prior, he met this individual while waiting for a train on a platform at which time he spoke to him about the faith and its teachings, which apparently resonated and provoked interest. This impromptu interaction resulted in his taking interest in learning about Tenrikyo, and later led him to later travel to Tenri City and become a Yoboku, after which he continued to be present semi-regularly at Monthly Services at both this mission station and also at TEC.

More discrete methods of spreading the faith were also engaged in by Tenrikyo followers. An example of this was shown in Chihiro's softer approach of diffusing the path through a "whisper" of suggestion rather than by loud dogmatic declarations. Through this approach, she was purposefully promoting the potential to discretely influence others as a means of nioi kake ("dispersing the fragrance," i.e. missionary work). As noted in chapter one, a similar approach of subtly dispersing the faith's fragrance was a purposefully enacted method of promoting the faith's underlying teachings utilized by missionary teachers at ACFJT and via the numerous events and activities organised by TEC that were not pointedly "religious" in nature. As we can see, there was more than one way that missionary work was conducted on this continent. Regardless of the specific approach(es) used, the importance placed on spreading the religion to others maintained a regularly circulated value.

Legal and cultural adaptations to spreading the faith in the "laique" country of France

Generally, ostentatious missionary efforts, such as going door to door 383 or public displays of religiosity were more common in other countries, such as the UK, than they were in France: a country whose approach to religious freedom differed from that of the UK and many other countries. In France, in accordance with this country's model of "laïcité" (i.e. separation of church and state), although each person is free to privately believe and worship as they wish, religion is largely regarded as a private and personal affair which should mostly be kept to oneself in public spaces rather than freely expressed. The legal regulations in France concerning public religious demonstrations, generally due to this country's brand of "laïcité," promoted a context in which certain missionary activities that involved overt religious displays and efforts to communicate elements of the faith to passersby employed in other countries were more difficult to conduct in France. At the time of writing this thesis, the official webpage of the French government dedicated to the topic of "government and religious sects 384 " under the section "state, religious sects, laïcité 385 " on the broader governmental website dedicated to "public life 386 " outlined the permitted level of engagement that religious sects may have with the public sphere through the following passage: Demonstrations of a religious character that are held in a public thoroughfare are subject to prior declaration like union or political demonstrations. The declaration is made to the city hall and in Paris, to the Prefecture of Police. Exempt from declarations are appearances on public thoroughfare in conformity with local practice. Since a decision of 1938, the Council of State considers that processions having a traditional character are thus exempt of preliminary request. 387 (Vie Publique, République Française 2019).

Exchanges with core members of the TEC community in France showed what type of religious efforts are and are not permissible or advisable to be a less than neatly defined matter, as evidenced through numerous difficulties that such followers accidently encountered when making efforts to spread the faith. Exactly what was and was not legally permitted and what was deemed as reasonably acceptable in a French cultural context was sometimes not entirely evident to the 384 Original text: administration et les sectes 385 Original text: état-cultes-laïcité 386 Original text: vie publique 387 Original text: Les manifestations à caractère religieux qui ont lieu sur la voie publique sont soumises à déclaration préalable au même titre que les manifestations syndicales ou politiques. La déclaration se fait auprès du maire et, à Paris, auprès de la Préfecture de police. Sont dispensées de déclaration les sorties sur la voie publique conformes aux usages locaux. Depuis un arrêt de 1938, le Conseil d'Etat considère que les processions ayant un caractère traditionnel sont donc dispensées de demande préalable.

It is a misuse of freedom of thought, opinion or religion that violates public order, laws or regulations, fundamental rights, security or the integrity of individuals. It is characterized by the implementation, by an organized group or by an isolated individual, whatever its nature or activity, of pressures or techniques intended to create, maintain or exploit in a person a state of psychological or physical subjection, depriving her of a part of her free will, with damaging consequences for that person, her entourage or for society. 391 Although classic Tenrikyo missionary activities were not included in this statement, the presence of this category is relevant to my thesis. Throughout my research, I occasionally encountered possible concern surrounding the issue of Tenrikyo being a "secte" (cult) from both Tenrikyo followers in France mentioning that some members of the wider population may hold or come to hold, if adequate caution is not used, the perspective of Tenrikyo belonging to this category or the impression or questioning from members of the wider French society that Tenrikyo could, in fact, be a "secte." Regarding this, it is pertinent to note that Tenrikyo was not included in the wellknown list, "La commision parlementaire n° 2468" (Gest and Guyard 1995), published by the French Assemblée Nationale which listed 173 "movements jugés sectaires" (movements judged to be "cult-like") of which numerous groups such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, Raëlianism, Scientology, and the Japanese new religions of Sukyo Mahikari and Sokka Gakkai International were included392 .

Despite the lack of official inclusion of Tenrikyo on this governmental list of "sectes," whether or not a loyal adherence to diffusing the fragrance of the faith through the more overt techniques commonly utilized in Japan and other countries was appropriate in a French context was met with differing opinions. Furthermore, there were also multiple perspectives regarding to what level a public or semi-public display of belief in and affiliation with the religion should occur, partially 391 Original text: Il s'agit d'un dévoiement de la liberté de pensée, d'opinion ou de religion qui porte atteinte à l'ordre public, aux lois ou aux règlements, aux droits fondamentaux, à la sécurité ou à l'intégrité des personnes. Elle se caractérise par la mise en oeuvre, par un groupe organisé ou par un individu isolé, quelle que soit sa nature ou son activité, de pressions ou de techniques ayant pour but de créer, de maintenir ou d'exploiter chez une personne un état de sujétion psychologique ou physique, la privant d'une partie de son libre arbitre, avec des conséquences dommageables pour cette personne, son entourage ou pour la société.

in relation to the possibility of this religion being regarded as a "cult." For example, one older French man rooted to Bordeaux Kyokai but living in another part of France told me that neither in his town nor in his rather conservative entourage was he open about being a member of this religion because of his concern that it would likely be understood as a "strange Asian thing" and/or a "cult393 " that he was brainwashed into being part of due to his being "mentally weak." In an earlier conversation, he had indicated that such a perspective was held by his spouse, a French woman with whom he indicated to have a difficult relationship, who was not accepting of his being a follower of the Tenrikyo religion. He recounted to me that he did not perform the Morning and Evening Services at home every day, even though it was something he liked to do and felt better when he did, because of his discomfort with the judgement he felt to receive from his wife. He also told me that she occasionally threatened to publicly shame him through declaring his practice of Tenrikyo in the town where they lived and to his conservative social circle out of vindictiveness because of the perceived ramifications that such a proclamation would have for him.

For this French follower, beyond his own personal situation, he regarded discretion as the best course of action in attempts to propagate Tenrikyo in the laique republic of France. This perspective was shown through his being aghast at numerous organized attempts at TEC to spread the religion or engage in public religious displays in ways that he viewed as an inappropriate transferal of how Tenrikyo existed in Japan to this French context. One instance was the performance of the sacred Service songs on the sidewalk outside of TEC when a visiting delegation of officials from Tenrikyo Church Headquarters came to this European center. To him, not only was this inappropriate but it risked giving a negative image to the center and to the religion. What was key to his opposition to emphatic missionary and religious displays being made in this laique republic was that while he strongly valued the foundress' teachings and his involvement in this religious world, he was opposed to direct transferals of how the religion existed in Japan to France when it was opposed to (what he perceived as) the country's values and culture. He expressed this stance to be reflective of both his view that French culture and values should be respected and also that he did not think such overt displays of religiosity would be beneficial to how the faith would be locally received.

Another, different instance of missionary efforts in France that I was personally involved in took place at the end of my first time participating in the annual Tenrikyo European Seminar, which the following two chapters discuss in more detail. In this particular instance, shortly after I entered the religious world of TEC by choosing to take part in this three-week training, I found myself somewhat socially obligated to participate in public missionary work in a busy municipal park close to TEC in accordance with this being an activity planned by a UK mission station wife who was serving as our English-language cohort's coordinator for the week. This took place despite my personal lack of viewing myself as a member of this religion nor desiring to take part in this activity. I learned of the upcoming plan for our English cohort during our end-of-the-day meeting on the second to the last day of the program from this UK-based woman. In discussing the planned events for the following day, I was taken off guard to learn that our final day would include a missionary activity, as was included as a part of most Tenrikyo trainings.

For this component of the seminar during the morning of our final day, our English cohort would go to a nearby park to pick up trash as a hinokishin activity, which I was happy to do, and also conduct missionary work that would involve both singing the Service songs in the park and talking to people about the religion as missionaries, the latter part of which I did not feel at all comfortable doing. She specified to our group, based on the council of a senior, long-time staff member of TEC, that we could give people religious pamphlets and talk with potentially interested people during this part of the missionary activity, but because we were in France, we would need to be careful in our approach and not chase after people, as this does not go over well in France. The French cohort would be participating in a different activity for this missionary component of the program 394 . 394 The French-cohort's "missionary" activity organized by instructors and staff living in France took more into account the cultural background of both the country in which this activity was conducted and the mostly French participants who would be taking part in it. In contrast to the English cohort's activity more "classic" method of conducting Tenrikyo missionary work, the French cohort's activity involved going to speak individually with non-Tenrikyo people who were personally acquainted with TEC staff and accepted to help with the program through receiving a seminar participant at their home to discuss the faith. This was quite different than the overtly public religious display that our English cohort took part in at the popular nearby large park on a Sunday morning when many people were out and about. Although such manifest displays of religiosity could be potentially problematic in a variety of cultural contexts, attention to and caution regarding this issue was accorded particular emphasis in France in large part due to the strongly laique nature of the country that relegated religion primarily to the private sphere.

My lack of ease about the prospect of taking part in the missionary work we were informed that we would be doing the following morning was linked to the fact that I did not regard Tenrikyo as my religion nor did I "believe" in it. I very strongly did not want to find myself in a situation in which I would be obliged to choose between compromising my own integrity by presenting myself dishonestly as a Tenrikyo follower or being honest with whatever people I ended up speaking with. From my own perspective, although I could explain the basic tenets of the religion that I had learned over the course of the three-week seminar, I could not present them as my own beliefs or religious practice. For this missionary outing to go as desired for the group, I thought it would be better for my atypical presence to not be included alongside "true" believers who wanted to share with others the faith in which they believed and held dear.

After this end-of-the-day session, I asked the woman heading it if we could speak a little once the other two students had exited the room to go to dinner. I told her that I was sorry but that I would not be able to participate in the following day's missionary activity because I did not view myself as a follower and could not present myself as such. She slightly showed her malcontent to what I was saying through subtle cues that she was likely unaware of, such as her face and body becoming subtly more tense and a slight drop in her generally upturned visual expression that conveyed a steady enthusiasm to be guiding others in the faith as my words were coming out of my mouth. Nonetheless, she accepted what I told her and said it was fine.

Somewhat later, Mr. Sugimoto asked to talk to me one-on-one and told me that he could understand my perspective but asked me to reconsider my decision because it would really mean a lot to everyone. Although I was uncomfortable with the idea of taking part in this activity and viewed it as potentially counterproductive, I conceded as much as I viewed possible by saying that I could talk to people about ACFJT and tell them about my experience there, which I regarded very positively and could promote through my being a student of the center. However, I would be unable to talk to people about the religion in a way that presented myself as a follower because it would not be truthful to do so. After I explained that this was all that I would be able to do, he accepted this compromise.

The next day's missionary outing was fortunately less difficult than I had anticipated. We walked fifteen minutes from TEC to a central location inside the nearby park in a small happi-clad 395 group while singing the Mikagura-uta songs, then continued by singing several more songs once we had arrived at a stationary spot. I remember it as a peaceful moment which, to my surprise, felt neither dishonest on my part nor as being an overly conspicuous religious display that could be potentially bothersome to others. Our tone in singing these sacred songs was soft and we blended into the Sunday morning atmosphere of the park. It was unlikely that passersby who saw us understood what group we were from what it precisely was that we were doing, thereby largely rendering us from a bird's eye view simply another component of this park's eclectic weekend scene.

After picking up trash around the park while wearing gloves, we transitioned to the main missionary activity of handing out Tenrikyo brochures and talking to people about the faith. By this time, the park's Sunday morning atmosphere was becoming livelier and was becoming increasingly filled with people going on strolls or runs. Each of us held brochures that had been brought along for this purpose. As planned, I only held ACFJT brochures rather than ones on the Tenrikyo religion which the others were prepared with for potential missionary interactions.

With these brochures in hand, we stationed ourselves alongside a path in a central area of the park. For the most part, we just stood around readily armed with religious materials to share with others, purposefully maintaining an actively engaged and cheerful demeanor, smiling and saying hello to passersby, often accompanied with a slight outreach of a hand holding a religious brochure 396 . People who crossed our path on this Sunday morning in the park generally responded politely, saying hello back to us, but most continued on their way without stopping which granted us little opportunity to engage in the missionary work we had come to the park to do. For the most part, people did not pay positive or negative attention to us and simply went about their Sunday morning as planned, most often walking or running by us. From my own vantage point at that time, the efforts that were being made seemed a little sad or misplaced at the very least. It 395 Happi coats are the more casual, easy-to-wear Tenrikyo garb. 396 All the other people taking part in this activity held brochures on the religion. I was the only one who did not, though this was not an overt difference in our communal engagement in this task.

appeared clear to me that what we were doing was not working very well and it was rather perplexing that the others remained unwavering in their unrelenting readiness to engage with passersby despite the general lack of response to our presence.

Among the numerous things I did not yet understand about Tenrikyo practices and perspectives was that missionary work, along with hinokishin efforts made by followers397 , was not only done for the immediately observable benefits outside of oneself that may be obtained but also for one's own "spiritual growth" and for the possible positive outcomes that may come about at some unknown time in the future398 . In the case of such missionary activities, not only did their efforts potentially lead new followers to the faith but they also functioned as a solidifier of the faith and active religious engagement by the actors engaging in these efforts.

As demonstrated, there was not one sole method through which "missionary work" was conducted in the multifarious Tenrikyo scene in Europe, nor was there one sole way (or site) through which people in Europe were affiliated with the Tenrikyo religion. One omnipresent theme, though, was the complexity and diversity present in this multi-sited and multi-layered context, one of which was the lineage-based sites discussed in this chapter. Accordingly, one of the ways followers rooted to these lineage-based sites became more intimately familiar with TEC was through their participation in the intensive training of the European Seminar. The following two chapters will be dedicated to a discussion of this annual program. Chapter seven will be focused on the program itself. Then, in chapter eight, the participants will be discussed in order to give the reader a more in-depth insight into the eclectic collection of people who together composed this social world.

Chapter seven: The annual Tenrikyo European Seminar: cultivating followers through a structured training, constructing a virtual social world a. Integrating and reinforcing belonging in the social world of TEC and the broader realm of Tenrikyo

The European Seminar as my introduction to the TEC community and to the broader

Tenrikyo social modality

As previously explained, the European Seminar was my in-depth introduction to the Tenrikyo religion and the social world of TEC. This three-week training brought together principally followers 399 coming from numerous European locations 400 and I got to know many members of the "TEC community" through it. It also acquainted me with people included in the "TEC community" who were absent from the seminar by learning about them via members who were present. During these three weeks, it was evident that I had stepped into a fascinating interconnected social world that was principally based on close interpersonal relationships paired, for most, with a close relationship to the faith. Although I did not realize it then, this first concentrated glimpse into this religious and social world was in large part a compressed version of the context I would spend the next two years exploring through my fieldwork.

The Tenrikyo European Seminar was an annual program orchestrated at TEC for participants to learn about, or deepen their understanding of, various components of the Tenrikyo religion. It functioned not only as a time of religious instruction for those who attended the program as students, but also as an important period of gathering between dispersed members of the "TEC community" who came to the center to take part in it as either staff or students. For most, spending time with others in this context was positioned as reunions with people they already 399 I had already gotten to know Kanae who was in France as a visiting missionary teacher through the relationship that developed via our language exchanges and had become acquainted with Mr. Sugimoto through our studentteacher relationship. Through neither of these relationships but had not learned of either of their full involvement in the Tenrikyo religion and in the TEC community. 400 Also included among the people who came to TEC for this seminar were people living in Europe who do not consider themselves to be "followers" or "members" of the religion, but nonetheless came to TEC to participate in this program and people living outside of Europe, namely during my fieldwork in the US and Japan, who participated in the seminar as staff.

knew rather than initial meetings; most present already had close relationships with others there. This was not the case for everyone who came nor were the social connections previously established shared between everyone present. Because of this, it also served as a period of forming relationships with others that would commonly be continued and expanded upon in numerous contexts where this initial period of time together would serve as a base for future interactions. Thus, the seminar served as a key moment of establishing and strengthening a social thread that connected those included in this prominent scene of cultivating relationships, which then expanded to also exist as a binding agent that ran through the broader TEC community. This was due in large part to both the multidirectional interconnectedness of this social sphere and also the experiential and theological base that they would share with others in this group through taking part in this training.

As was common for people who came to be part of this "community," their social interactions would often continue in numerous contexts, such as at TEC as well as often in other locations, the most prominent being the pilgrimage town of Tenri City. The fluid nature of meeting with members of this dispersed yet interconnected social group in a variety of contexts was a central theme of the TEC community, as it also was for the broader social sphere of Tenrikyo. The specific nature of the time spent together in Tenrikyo gatherings was pivotal to the formation and development of these interpersonal social relationships and to their relationship with the broader group. The social environments in which these interactions occurred generally involved a purposefully orchestrated mode of sociality that was inspired by and reflective of the Tenrikyo teachings that all humans are brothers and sisters and that helping one another is one of the primary reasons for our existence as humans. Also present was the theme of collaboratively working with others to orchestrate something greater, which the Service was often interpreted to symbolize.

In thinking about the social connections that came about and were deepened during such Tenrikyo scenes, it is important to appreciate that it was not simply through spending time together that these social connections were formed and developed. It was also through the specific social environment that featured a high level of intellectual and enacted collaboration in combination with a generally promoted demeanor of benevolence toward one another which purposefully fostered a feeling of "community." These particular relational modalities encouraged in such scenes included inclusive collaboration and a social environment aimed at facilitating the enjoyment and well-being of everyone present along with a concentrated form of experiential immersion in the religion that was meant to transfer to and expand in those involved.

In such settings, the relational model employed was heavily influenced by each person present being purposefully accorded a position of importance as an individual and as a child of God the Parent (and our original mother: the foundress) not expected to be perfect but rather, understood to be progressing at their own pace on the path of spiritual development.

Such behavioral modalities were not, in my observations, unique to TEC but rather were part of the wider culture of Tenrikyo. During my fieldwork, I saw this social modality displayed in a variety of contexts during my time in Japan, both in Tenri City and at the four lineage-based sites of worship I visited elsewhere in the country. I was also exposed to evidence of its existence elsewhere through first-person interactions with Tenrikyo followers from numerous countries that took place most notably, though not exclusively, while in Tenri City and at TEC, and also through exposure to overseas Tenrikyo contexts via internet and textual sources. Thus, the general Tenrikyo way of being, which included various enacted practices, expressed attitudes, and interactional tendencies that I was acquainted with during the seminar was reflective of the broader Tenrikyo world of which it belongs. While my discussion in this chapter, and the following, is focused primarily on my observations during my two years of participation in the European Seminar, first in the English-language cohort and then in the French-language cohort, I will also include mention of numerous components of this specific context that I saw evidenced to exist in the broader sphere of Tenrikyo.

Being at home at TEC, becoming increasingly embedded in the TEC community

One prominent component included in the experience of participating in the European seminar was that of staying together in shared housing. During the European Seminar, both staff and students stayed on TEC grounds. This experientially rich element of non-residents staying at the center was not exclusive to the seminar. At other times of the year as well, in both organized group settings and more individual ones, people stayed at TEC. As a result, they were linked to the center and to its social world; the long-term residential world of TEC discussed in chapter one was just one type of community construction that occurred through time spent staying at the center. The presence of these shorter-term guests was a semi-regular feature of the center that influenced both the center's ambiance during their time there and also added to its non-fixed and socially open nature. Some of these short-term guests were long-term members of the broader "TEC community" who had been connected to the center and its social world for significant periods of time, for example almost all seminar staff and approximately half of its students. Others came to know TEC through staying there for multi-day events, such as the seminar. This was largely (though not entirely) the case for myself, as well as for two of the three students with whom I participated in the English cohort of the seminar, and also our guest instructor from Hawaii. Regardless of people's connectedness to TEC, or even to the Tenrikyo religion, their stays there encouraged an experientially developed connection to this center which included both material and social components beyond the more public domain of daytime events and activities.

Apart from the seminar, other prominent annual events for which people stayed at TEC included the European followers' reunion, the youth weekend retreat of "Palette," the spring charity rummage sale, and the children's pajama party. Overnight events that were not markedly religious, such as the latter two, drew not only Tenrikyo followers or people interested in the religion but also people who remained decidedly removed from the center's religiosity while participating in "cultural" events that took place there, such as for example, most of the French young adults from ACFJT discussed in chapter one, along with newcomers and people who did not frequently come to TEC. The time of short-term stays, though frequently quite brief, introduced people who had never before stayed overnight at TEC to life at the center and reintegrated those who had into its residential side. This residential world which they came to know or reenter included the other people at the center, the center's somewhat distinct mode of sociality, and the material world of the guest space. All of which contributed to a developed relationship with the center and those with whom one spent time there.

In addition to the sizable influx of guests before and during official TEC events, followers living in other parts of Europe sometimes stayed at the center when they came to TEC (or Paris) on their own or in small numbers. Reasons for coming to stay at TEC included meeting with other members of the core "TEC community" about various topics regarding the religion in Europe, to deliver a sermon at a TEC Monthly Service, or simply to spend time in the Paris area. Less commonly, followers from outside of Europe, most notably Japan (many of whom came to the center for official reasons associated with Tenrikyo Church Headquarters) and also to a lesser extent the US and the Republic of the Congo, along with occasionally other countries, also stayed at TEC as short-term guests. Additionally, non-Tenrikyo visiting artists (who generally, though not exclusively, were Japanese) also sometimes stayed at TEC when they came to France to put on workshops or showcase their art at ACFJT. Further adding to the collection of people who temporarily became part of the residential sphere of life at TEC were the Japanese Tenrikyo university exchange students studying in Europe who occasionally stayed at TEC during their school breaks, thereby partially returning to a familiar cultural and religious context with which they were raised while remaining geographically in Europe. One of the people I got to know through participating in the seminar was one such young woman who took part in the program partially as a support staff member and partially as a student after finishing her year abroad before returning to Japan. Perhaps the most surprising example among the diverse social actors who stayed at TEC outside of major center events during the span of my fieldwork were some of the non-Tenrikyo young adults from ACFJT referenced previously. They occasionally got together at TEC for reasons outside of official center events, such celebrating one of their birthdays, and had sleepovers in TEC's guest housing simply to enjoy time together at the center as a sort of retreat between friends401 . Regardless of one's reason for staying at the center, the experience served to experientially connect those doing so to the center and its social structure.

During my fieldwork, I noticed a general pattern when the center hosted a sizable number of short-term guests for organized events that was demonstrative of an underlying logic about the guests' social position that was in accordance with the spatial organization of TEC residents in relation to their social position. As explained previously, the building that housed the young adult male missionaries was the principal building that welcomed short-term guests. Its first and second floors served as guest space for visitors, more commonly female than male, because the top floor where the young adult male missionaries lived often hosted young adult male guests who joined their shared space and the atmosphere of young men hanging out together 402 . While I never witnessed any expression from these male residents that occasionally welcoming guests into their living space was troublesome for them, it is pertinent to note that the use of their living space in this way did create a situation where these young men who called this shared room "home" for periods of several year lived in a space that was only partially "their own." This lack of personal space, though, was often not new to these young missionaries. Many of them grew up in families based at Tenrikyo churches where sharing one's living space with others outside of one's own family was common practice 403 .

Older guests, in association with their age-related hierarchical status, along with family units, often stayed on the ground floor of this building which accorded them a more autonomous space.

During my first year of participation in this program, one student was there with her primary school-aged daughter and another was there with her two young adolescent daughters 404 . Both of these families had been coming to TEC since before the children were born and thus, the children were "at home" in this familiar context. Younger women405 generally stayed communally in the rooms on the second floor. This was the space I stayed in during my fieldwork when at the center for organized events. Through such differentiated locations, small social worlds came about in this building, which influenced the experience of the people involved, thereby affecting their relationship to the social world taking place at the center at that time.

402 This was generally expressed to be an enjoyable experience by these male guests. 403 An example of this was relayed to me by a young adult missionary whose family served as support staff at the grand church where she was raised. In a casual exchange at TEC over dinner one evening, she told me about how when she was in high school, she used to dream of being able to take a bath by herself rather than with others (all female) during the grand church's scheduled communal bath times simply to have a moment of personal space and enjoyment to herself. This was said when we were discussing that her communal lifestyle at TEC was not new for her, but rather akin to the Tenrikyo environment in which she was raised and spent her entire life apart from the time she when was a student at Tenri University. 404 Neither of these women had the option of leaving their children with a spouse during their participation in this training.

These moments of sharing the intimate space of rest was an important feature in the development of relationships between people included in the "TEC community." These communal experiences of staying with others in shared housing did not simply occur for the functionally motivated reasons of it being the easiest or most cost-effective way to house people. Rather, sharing rooms in such contexts was motivated by the importance placed on being with others. This socially based reason was demonstrated, for example, during my second year of participation in the seminar. When one of the two female participants staying in the room adjacent to the one I was sharing with another female participant went home after her preplanned two-week period of participation had ended, the remaining woman was moved to our room. This was done so that she would not be alone for the final week, as I heard stated in a comment made by the head of TEC, missing out on this component of the experience. This motivation was also evidenced by the fact that the room she had been staying in was left empty, showing that there was no other need for the space at that time.

Moments of familial closeness that came about through inhabiting shared spaces for various durations of time were not unique to TEC. They also were a prominent feature of other Tenrikyo contexts, such as the grand church followers' dormitories in Tenri City which I discuss in further detail in chapter seven. Shared housing was an important feature of the communal social modality of many Tenrikyo contexts that encouraged the construction of social connections between those present. This component, among others, that was shared between dispersed Tenrikyo contexts contributed to a feeling between dispersed followers of belonging to a larger Tenrikyo "family," to use the term, and extendedly the analogy, that I encountered throughout my fieldwork. At TEC, largely through particular social modalities that were established through the ongoing presence of interchanging participants already solidly a part of "Tenrikyo culture," a dispositional and interactional social base was established into which the center's short-term guests were included while present.

In contexts when the center hosted numerous short-term guests, such as the seminar, conversations late into the evening in pajamas were often followed by seeing each other once again first thing in the morning, often before everyone had fully woken up and sometimes before regular maintenance to their appearance had occurred (such as brushing their hair, putting on makeup 406 , or changing into their clothes for the day). The social closeness facilitated through staying together was something that I often heard expressed as a notable feature of what they enjoyed about coming to and staying at TEC, including by non-Japanese people new to the faith and those who did not consider themselves to be followers. The experiential component of sharing one's room with others encouraged important Tenrikyo values and practices, such as comradery, cooperation, and communal life during concentrated periods of engagement with the religion to be intensified. Although it should be mentioned that tensions which existed through people's prolonged immersive contact with others were also occasionally present.

More prominent, though, during such periods of staying in close proximity to others who were also actively engaged in the religion was a tendency for a sense of benevolence between those present. During public moments at TEC, as it is more difficult to say what occurred in the private realm of long-term staff and residents when no "outsiders" were present, a culture reflective of such a benignantly oriented group focus was encouraged. This behavioral orientation was manifested in numerous ways, including the performance of small gestures, for instance by serving drinks to others during meals and refreshment breaks, speaking with others in an understanding and caring manner, and engaging in various acts aimed at helping or cooperating with others.

The social world of TEC was created and recreated over time through a consistency in the underlying behavioral mode and emotionally linked sociality that was maintained for the most part, despite a fluidity in the precise composition of social actors involved. This was facilitated by the perpetuation of key components of a "Tenrikyo culture" through the presence of followers already solidly enculturated with this social modality, such as TEC residents and seminar staff as well as through specific features which reaffirmed its continuation in those already grounded in it and which newcomers and less involved people were included in while there.

The theme of acting in unison and making communal efforts toward a greater whole was encouraged through established components of staying at the center. While there, regardless of the reason, people would usually take part in the communal residential side of TEC. This included assisting with morning "hinokishin" chores, taking part in Morning and sometimes Evening Services 407 performed as a group in the sanctuary, partaking in communal meals most often prepared chiefly by Eriko Kawakubo (for which other women, including some staying more temporarily at the center, also commonly helped with), and simply spending time with others there. Also included in the experience of staying at this religious center for organized events was the discussion of Tenrikyo teachings in both formal and informal contexts. During the seminar, these components were included as more structured components of the program through the inclusion of twice daily organized hinokishin sessions, the prominent place of the Morning and Evening Services, structured book and practice-based classes, and the significant place that the thrice daily communal meals held in the overall experience.

Many of the people who stayed at TEC found a home away from home there through its welcoming environment. In my own experience, as was common, my relationships with people with whom I shared time and space while staying at the center were often cultivated through the behavioral mode and communal sociality put forth that encouraged amical social interactions. For Tenrikyo followers visiting from overseas, this sense of belonging at TEC was encouraged through its somewhat familiar cultural ambiance, mode of operation, and materiality. For followers who already had significant exposure to Tenrikyo contexts, being at TEC was a reentering of a familiar socio-religious framework. Behavioral components of the group, as well as the intellectually based components of the teachings, were not unique to TEC but existed in like manner in the broader realm of "Tenrikyo culture 408 ." Their continuation at TEC was partially brought about via a revisiting of a previously developed disposition by the religious actors who had been enculturated with it in this and other Tenrikyo contexts and in combination with an inclusive transferal to newcomers. 407 During organized gatherings at TEC, both the Morning and Evening Services were performed together as a group. Based on the comments I heard regarding more quiet periods when the center was not hosting such gatherings, followers often performed the Evening Service when it suited their individual schedule rather than at a set time as a group.

408 I elaborate on the concept of "Tenrikyo culture" more later.

People who took part in the European Seminar as students were generally classifiable into one of several categories. For followers born into the faith in Europe (the majority of whom had Japanese missionary parents), it was most common to attend the program as young adults.

Another commonly represented category were individuals of diverse ages who came to embrace (or have interest in learning about) the faith as adults in Europe. People of this category were generally not Japanese or of Japanese origin. Most commonly, these participants were coming 409 from France and the United Kingdom as a result of these two countries having the most significant representation of the religion in Europe. This was also because the seminar was generally comprised of an English-language instructional cohort and a French-language instructional cohort410 . The other significantly represented category of participant was that of Tenrikyo followers from other countries (such as the Republic of the Congo, Korea, and Japan) who often had already participated in a similar training in their home country411 , but wished to deepen their knowledge of the faith and competency regarding how to discuss it with people from other linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

All of the trainings similar to the European Seminar and to Shuyoka mentioned slightly previously utilized the same principal textual materials as the main component of the theoretical portion of the training, which in each case comprised about half the day, in combination with structured formation in the religion's ritual components and organized hinokishin activities for the other structured part of the day. Another shared feature that added to the comprehensive experience of the trainings were the communal meals and shared living quarters that rendered one's experience of taking part in the training a fully immersive one. At these intensive trainings, not only did participants learn the theoretical and practical course material taught through the structured instructional sessions, but they also learned, or further cultivated, particular ways of being reflective of the broader "Tenrikyo culture" that was a common thread which ran through numerous dispersed Tenrikyo contexts. This was demonstrated through both my direct observations and also through comments indicating as such by followers who were familiar with them.

I discuss all these components as they existed in the European Seminar in this chapter. In doing so, I am simultaneously describing this specific annual training at TEC that numerous members of its community had taken part in as students and/or staff and also to a certain degree, offering a descriptive point of reference for similar programs that took place elsewhere which served as formative experiences in other localities throughout the Tenrikyo diaspora. Through the shared format of such trainings, a common foundation of the doctrinal, historical, and ritual components of the religion and its embodied practice was fostered between disparate Tenrikyo followers. By means of these localized trainings such as the European Seminar that were only partially placespecific, followers did not need to leave their country412 to participate in the experience that was, in part, transnational.

The communal way of life encouraged through staying together in shared housing was an important part of the overall structure of the transnationally shared elements of the training. At TEC, this was through staying with other seminar students and staff in the guest housing adjacent to the main building. This shared residential component of the seminar was a commonly present element of numerous other Tenrikyo trainings that took place both in Tenri City and elsewhere, such as several trainings held in the United States and Korea. I learned of this shared component through followers who had taken part in these trainings talking about this feature as a prominent aspect in their overall experience.

For participants of Shuyoka in Tenri City, shared housing took the guise of staying at one's grand church followers' dormitory413 at which one shared living space not with one's Shuyoka cohort but with others of one's own lineage. In trainings elsewhere, such as those I heard about in the US and Korea, the general format was to stay on-site with others taking part in the program.

Despite this difference in precisely with whom one shared living quarters, the inclusion of communal housing in a religiously focused context and location rendered one's immersion into a concentrated Tenrikyo world during these periods of structured formation a more fully comprehensive experience in which the focus on the religion and its social world was extended into one's off hours. In both the shared housing in Tenri City and also that of TEC during the seminar and other occasions for which its guest housing hosted numerous people for organized events, a similar Tenrikyo model of communal life was practiced, thereby creating an experiential bridge between such contexts. At both TEC and in the dormitories in Tenri City, people shared space with others who, in like manner, were focusing their minds and their actions on the religion and its teachings.

Generally, staying in either of these residential settings included sleeping in a room with others, often with people one did not previously know, and sharing time in a partially home-like environment. Prolonged conversations focused on the faith and on personal parts of one's own life and commonly, a sense of benevolence toward others were notable threads that I observed to run through both settings. These tendencies were encouraged through conceptual and enacted components of the religion such as hinokishin (i.e. making efforts directed toward the benefit of others) and uniting oneself harmoniously with others through the Service along with the religion's encouragement toward reflection and fraternal relations. I do not wish to imply that either residential setting was one of complete harmony or in complete accordance with these evoked similarities but rather to highlight the parallels between these two connected settings that fostered an experiential congruence between them.

The largely similar Tenrikyo trainings that occurred in disparate locations were a contributing factor to the existence of a wider "Tenrikyo culture." Regarding my use of the term "Tenrikyo culture" that I have already employed numerous times thus far, I would like to note that it is not a nomenclature or concept that I formulated myself through my own anthropological interpretations. Rather, it is one that I heard used and discussed at numerous TEC gatherings and also on occasion by followers in other locations, such as during my fieldwork in Japan, most notably while in Tenri City, and also through my internet-based observations of discourse by followers in the US. Most often, the existence of a "Tenrikyo culture" was simply woven into discussions on other topics. When I heard it mentioned in group settings, its existence was something that those present generally expressed agreement with. Though, it should be noted, this sentiment was not unanimously shared by all Tenrikyo followers I met throughout my research, which I will elaborate on later. This broader shared Tenrikyo culture, which I explore in further detail in the following pages, was a key factor of the ease with which Tenrikyo followers coming from elsewhere were integrated into scenes that took place at TEC and into the "TEC community." Tenrikyo culture was one primarily based physically and culturally in Japan, but which also spanned beyond this place-specific context by means of serving as a bridge between disparate Tenrikyo sites and followers to connect those of the broader group. This partially non-place specific "culture" was a contributor to the existence of the two-tiered "TEC community" by rendering one's anchorage to the modality present in this group's core one that was somewhat transferable from one Tenrikyo site to another414 , though as I have discussed, this was not the only contributing factor to who was and was not part of the core of the "TEC community." Conversely, the existence of a Tenrikyo culture at TEC was also an important factor which contributed to the belonging that many members of the "TEC community" had to the wider transnational sphere of Tenrikyo, even if they were not part of this group's core.

As explained by Kato (2017a: 90), "Tenri culture415 " (Tenri bunka 天理文化) is not a formal doctrinal term found in the official religious texts of The Doctrine of Tenrikyo, the Ofudesaki, the Mikagura-uta, or the Osashizu. It is, though, the only terminology that employs the term "culture" (bunka) in published discourse used by the Shinbashira and other prominent figures in the religious organization. Moreover, as asserted by Kato (ibid), "this term can at times discursively connect the religious tradition of Tenrikyo with culture and cultural practices associated with Japan…" He further explains that this terminology has been used to reference other aspects of the Tenrikyo tradition. The original meaning mainly referred to the foundress' teachings as constructed in the post-WWII period that focused on restoration efforts to return to how the path was understood to have existed during the foundress' life before alterations to it were made out of pragmatic adaptations to governmental restrictions. In addition to this meaning, though, Kato (ibid.) argues: "In some instances, however, this terminology is used in a way that connects particular cultural practices associated with Japan with Tenrikyō." Often, there was a blurring together of these two types of "Tenri culture" that came to form a greater whole.

In my observations in combination with comments made by followers at TEC, this broader "Tenri culture" or as I refer to it, "Tenrikyo culture" was one that was present at disparate Tenrikyo sites.

This "Tenrikyo culture" included numerous conceptional constructs and enacted practices reflective of the religion and the broader realm of Japanese culture that came together to form a greater whole. For example, in both the wider sphere of Japanese culture and in the Tenrikyo faith, purity was a prominent conceptual construct. In the Tenrikyo faith, this value was promoted through both general Japanese practices such as removing one's shoes before entering intimate spaces 416 and through Tenrikyo-specific practices. The most prominent of which was the ritual of the Service, performed with the goal of purifying one's heart, and also those of everyone in the world, of the "eight dusts of the mind." Another example of the duality of Tenrikyo culture being reflective of broader Japanese culture while also being Tenrikyo specific was displayed in how meals were opened by placing one's hands in the "namaste" position and clapping twice before eating. This practice was reflective of the Japanese tradition of placing one's hands in the "namaste" position and saying "itadakimasu" ("I am receiving") as a culturally scripted way of expressing gratitude to the people and to the kami (gods/ spirits/ nature) who contributed to the food being there to partake.

At TEC, at the beginning of communal meals that often included both Japanese and non-Japanese people, although the Japanese word of "itadakimasu" was not said, the tradition as it existed in the broader sphere of Tenrikyo was continued by everyone first placing their hands in the "namaste" position, then clapping twice in unison before starting to eat. That this was a transnational Tenrikyo practice grounded in the religious actors present was illustrated by a Congolese follower born and raised in the religion in the Republic of the Congo referencing this ritualized way of opening meals to be a standard part of Tenrikyo gatherings at her Congolese church. Furthermore, the presence of this Japanese ingestatory marker among members of the broader transnational Tenrikyo social collectivity was also demonstrated through Tenrikyo followers I met in Tenri City, such as numerous Brazilian and American followers 417 , also performing this practice.

Contained in this brief pre-meal act was a blurring together of Tenrikyo-specific and Japanese practices. Clapping twice prior to meals, then beginning to eat at precisely the same time was a synchronized engagement of the bodies of those present that encouraged a sense of coordinated unison between members of the group. Although this prescribed ritualized marker only took a few seconds, it is interesting to note that it was also in accord with numerous practices beyond the Service, such as the ritualized care given to the altars and their surrounding area and the other organized collaborative hinokishin tasks included as part of the seminar which I discuss later in this chapter. Such engagements linked those taking part in them to the broader social whole of the Tenrikyo group they were presently with and, for those familiar with these practices in other Tenrikyo contexts, with the broader realm of Tenrikyo culture. By beginning meals in this manner during the European Seminar, just as in numerous other scenes that took place at TEC, those who were new to Tenrikyo were incorporated into the sociality of Tenrikyo culture through their mirrored enactment of this Tenrikyo practice. Moreover, this Tenrikyo practice was incorporated into the embodied beings of those taking part in this brief act through their repeated execution of it three times daily before meals.

Another important feature of Tenrikyo culture was the religion's significant usage of Tenrikyospecific vocabulary. Some of these terms were words that were otherwise part of the Japanese language which carried in them different meanings in Tenrikyo. Other Tenrikyo terms (often compound words) did not otherwise exist in the Japanese language, with most such words having been conveyed by the foundress to her followers. Although these Tenrikyo terms were commonly used by followers in disparate settings, their precise definitions often displayed a lack of exact congruence between followers. This lack of strict definitional conformity, though, was expressed 417 Most people of these two countries are of Japanese origin as normal, even desirable, by people charged with teaching others about the religion. This stance was often accompanied by the explanation that because the people interpreting these terms were different, the existence of numerous interpretations was normal. The use of these terms, though, was a widespread feature of Tenrikyo and one that was important to expressing and shaping the worldview of the faith.

As discussed by Bénéï (2008), language acquisition involves the development of skills to use language in socially appropriate ways and make meaning of culturally relevant contexts and activities. Thus, the acquisition and use of Tenrikyo-specific vocabulary was learning and practicing "being" a Tenrikyo person. Not only was Tenrikyo-specific vocabulary used as a means of communication, it was also an important mechanism of engaging in membership in this religio-social group and of shaping the conceptualized meaning of their actions. Contexts aimed at forming people into a particular framework, which in the case of my research are Tenrikyo centers such as TEC, "draw upon, amplify, and crystalize senses of linguistic belonging while making the latter's ideology explicit and further anchoring it in lived and experienced bodies" (Bénéï 2008: 83).

For those already situated in the transnational Tenrikyo culture which included a generous use of Tenrikyo-specific terms, such as the core members of the "TEC community" and others previously involved in the religion, engaging in simple practices that were a part of Tenrikyo culture often reconnected them to a social, mental, and embodied involvement in the religion. This shared experientially developed connection to the overarching socio-religious sphere was brought about in disparate locations and in different church lineages through the maintenance of established commonalities. These commonalities were promoted, in part, through the hierarchical organization of the religion which joined all Tenrikyo sites to supervising entities linked directly or through further hierarchical connections to the overseeing body of Tenrikyo Church Headquarters in combination with established practices between these sites through shared traditions and officially defined practices. By means of these inter-site commonalities, a connection to and enactment of a particular model of social interaction was encouraged, through which participants in the European Seminar were connected to a broader Tenrikyo social model.

Conversely, this broader model was grounded and further developed in the participants of the seminar (and also other contexts at TEC). As a result, we can see that such trainings served, amongst other functions, as pointed moments of inculcation and practice of this disparately shared Tenrikyo culture.

Interpretational flexibility in combination with fixed structure: the role of the Service in transmitting the faith

In Tenrikyo, the vagueness of its teachings and key terms were generally understood to be deliberately unclear in order to facilitate reflection by followers who will each understand them differently depending on their own character and point of spiritual development, which are understood to change over time in both this life and in their future lives. This longitudinal perspective of spiritual development is reflective of the belief that when a person dies, they are leaving their physical body to be reborn into a new body at some unspecified time in the future.

As I heard explained by core members of the "TEC community" during the seminar and other formal and informal moments of discussion on the faith including other structured religious gatherings, post-Monthly Service sermons, and one-on-one conversations, the importance of deep reflection upon Oyasama's teachings was explicitly conveyed through the last line of the Ofudeski, which states: "I earnestly request each and every one of you to ponder deeply over these teachings." (Ofudesaki XVII: 75). That this was the only line in the original Japanese text not to be written in waka-style poetry was commonly cited as evidence that this statement was meant to be differentiated from the rest of the text or emphasized in relation to all other lines of it.

Comparable to how the discussion of and reflection on group-specific terms facilitates ontological understanding in the field of anthropology (Sperber 1996), discussion of and reflection on Tenrikyo terms, concepts, accounts, and teachings were commonly held to facilitate spiritual growth. In both the former and the latter of these ideologically rich referential contexts of analysis and reflection, it is the shared familiarity with these terms, rather than how they were precisely understood, that functioned as a marker of membership in the group. In Sperber's discussion of the lack of a precise definedness of terms commonly used in anthropology in reference to the discipline's "interpretive vocabulary," he states: "…fuzziness of anthropological terms is no obstacle to their use. Fuzziness is never a hindrance-if anything, it is a help-to the establishment of resemblances," (1996: 21). Similarly, the fuzziness of Tenrikyo vocabulary (and their related concepts) lent itself well to their widespread use, and to a collective belief in the existence of the concepts understood to be conveyed through these often-vague religious terms. Sperber (1996) states that the distribution of reflective beliefs, which are not the result of perception and unconscious reflection, is something that occurs openly. Reflective ideas are not only consciously held, they are also reflectively spread. Because the distribution of different types of reflective beliefs is easily observable, he argues that it should be obvious that different types of reflective beliefs reach a cultural level of distribution in very distinct ways. For the case of my study, his description of how a myth becomes a culturally distributed representation is most pertinent:

A myth is an orally transmitted story which is taken to represent actual events incompatible with intuitive beliefs. Therefore, for a myth to be accepted without inconsistency, it has to be insulated from intuitive beliefs: that is, held as a reflective belief. A myth is a cultural representation; this means that the story is told (given public versions) often enough to cause a large enough proportion of a human group to know it (have mental versions of it). For this, two conditions must be met. First the story must be easily enough and accurately enough remembered on the basis of oral inputs alone. Some themes and some narrative structures seem in this respect to do much better crossculturally than others. The changing cultural background affects memorability, too, so that the content of a myth tends to drift over time so as to maintain maximal memorability.

Second, there must be enough incentives to actually recall and tell the story on enough occasions to cause it to be transmitted. These incentives may be institutional (e.g. ritual occasions where telling the story is mandatory); but the surest incentive comes from the attractiveness of the story for the audience and the success the story-teller can therefore expect. Interestingly, though not too surprisingly, the very same themes and structures which help one remember a story seem to make it particularly attractive. (Spencer 1996: 95).

For a myth to be believed as true from a rational perspective rather than as simply an enjoyable story, credibility must be attributed to the source relating it, typically that of elders who themselves came to believe the myth to be true due to the credibility of the elders who previously related it to them. A perpetuated belief that lends itself to multiple interpretations increases its likelihood of cultural success (Spencer 1996). In discussing how cultural representations are passed from one person to another, with the story of Little Red Riding Hood as an example, Spencer (1996) states that most cultural descendants are transformations, not replicas. This is crucial to understanding Tenrikyo as it existed in its multiple forms both at the time of my research and previously. The organisational structure of Tenrikyo ensured control over the maintenance of a certain degree of unanimity between its sites of worship and followers. This was encouraged by the church lineage system through which all churches had as their highest authoritative "elder," so to speak, Tenrikyo Church Headquarters and connectedly, the Shinbashira 418 .

Despite this partially uniformizing structure, the religion was not positioned as a path that should remain static throughout time and in all contexts. That the way in which followers contemporarily understood the teachings was different than how the original followers understood the teachings when they were first conveyed by the foundress was often discussed and asserted to be a good thing. In such discussions, the general evolution of certain ideological aspects of the faith was frequently attributed to the spiritual growth that had occurred in humanity since the teachings were first revealed. The context-based variations were often explained by a rationale circulated throughout the religion, including by means of official discourse, that because different cultures and the people within them evolved over time with the help of God the Parent to be what they are currently, it is thus completely normal and even a positive thing that the teachings are understood differently in different places.

In my observations at TEC, various Tenrikyo-related topics for which clear-cut, definitive answers were undetermined were sometimes speculated about in both official and unofficial religious discussions. In such analyses, combinations of what people had heard from others, and their own ideas were commonly discussed as possibilities to a variety of partially unknown aspects of the religion. Some followers relished such discussions while others were more interested in the experiential or faith-based components of Tenrikyo and did not seek out or necessarily enjoy theoretical discussions about the religion. This difference in how the faith was approached and experienced by followers at TEC was one contributing factor to the diversity of followers found there. At any religious event at this European center, there were numerous ways the religion was mentally/spiritually interacted with and experienced among people who 418 As a reminder, the Shinbashira is the acting head of the Tenrikyo religion. considered themselves "members" of the religion. Despite this diversity in approaches to the religion, a sense of social cohesion remained a notable feature of such gatherings.

At TEC, especially in my observations during the seminar, there was a significant amount of discussion on how to render the Tenrikyo religion more culturally accessible and adapted to the disparate locations in which it existed, while still maintaining its core on both a deeper spiritual level and on the level of practice. The Service ritual, which continued to be orchestrated as it was originally conveyed by the foundress in the 19 th century, was the key means through which the central spiritual and enacted foundation of the religion was maintained. This ritual was an oral, musical, and danced text of the religion's principal teachings that featured a combination of easily decipherable and vague content. It was this ceremonial act that was conceptualized as the vital component of the religion around which all other aspects were based. Although followers were commonly encouraged to reflect upon the faith, and this component that served as a principle source of its mythology419 , it was the practice of this ritual that was prioritized rather than how this and other aspects of the religion were interpreted and put into practice.

Constructing inclusion in a community through interpersonal and visual means

As discussed extensively by this point in my text, one prominent feature of Tenrikyo culture was its emphasis on communality. During the seminar, participants stayed at the center and spent all day with other participants and staff. Thus, over a short period of time, many hours were shared between those present. Additionally, the structure of the program and its content, which focused on comradery and spiritual development, encouraged people to share more intimate parts of themselves than they otherwise normally would in other contexts. While taking part in this training, participants spent almost every moment with one another and, if only momentarily, became largely like family to each other. This all-encompassing social experience was similar to a variety of other Tenrikyo trainings and was, in fact, an important component of such programs and of the "Tenrikyo experience" that was constructed in such purposefully collective contexts.

During these TEC-based seminars, similar to other Tenrikyo trainings, a small social world was constructed which included individuals connected in various ways to TEC, the greater European Tenrikyo community, and to the religion itself. Throughout the program, the Tenrikyo teaching that all humans are brothers and sisters and should live harmoniously together and mutually help one another (tasuke ai) was a main theme of both the theoretical and practical components of the program. These teachings were prominently manifested in the discourse and practiced ways of being displayed by those taking part in this immersive experience, thereby influencing the social proximity and type of interactions that occurred between them. This ontological framework also encouraged a feeling of connectedness that spanned out beyond the specific individuals present during a given year of the seminar to influence their conceptualized relationship to and interactions with both Tenrikyo followers in other contexts and also people outside of this religious sphere. Not all seminar participants remained actively connected to TEC after completing the program, but at least while there, participating in this residential program, they were part of its community.

Later, even if their presence at TEC did not continue, they nonetheless remained part of the fluid story of the "TEC community." For those who completed the program, one way that their lasting presence was maintained was through the visual representation of the time they spent there. Each year since the inception of the seminar, group photos of those who had completed the program dressed in the Tenrikyo ceremonial wear of the kimono or hakama pant suit have been taken after performing a simile420 of the Monthly Service as the final event of the program. These photos were displayed together in the commonly traversed stairwell leading up to the sanctuary where they served as a visual record of a component of the center's social history.

When I first came to TEC, the faces shown in these photos were mainly unknown strangers. As I became more integrated into its social world, though, I got to know many of the people in these photos, including to a certain degree, several participants who had since passed away who I slowly learned about through people who knew them. Although these late members of the "TEC community" were no longer a physically present or actively contributing part of this social world, their inclusion in this ongoing and interconnected social collectivity was continued through their memory that ran through multiple segments of it. Their enduring inclusion was encouraged by many members of this group by means of their recollection of these late members, as well as by their more generalized contribution to the ongoing development of TEC and of the Tenrikyo religion in Europe. Because the "TEC community" was composed of an interconnected matrix of social relationships that spanned over space, time, and sub-spheres of the group, one did not need to be included in a specific context to be included in its more expansive social world. Shared memories, social connections, and points of reference were binding factors. Thus, connections to or knowledge of the social history of this group was often linked to one's level of anchorage in it.

The longer one was a part of it and the more connected one was to other members of it, the more likely one was to be acquainted with its social history.

In addition to the lasting inclusion of previous participants through these photos whose presence at TEC was not continued during the period of my fieldwork, their lingering presence was sometimes also maintained via their connection with active members of the TEC community421 who relayed their news to other members of the group. Their presence was also influential through their contributing influence on how the program and the center subsequently operated as both were in the ongoing process of development. Furthermore, their momentary presence also contributed to the overall group through the shared memory of their presence that remained at the center and in its connected social realm. This is just one example of the multilayered social world of TEC that spanned beyond specific moments in time and place to include a more expansive and eclectic social whole. Included in the expansive construction of this multifarious "community" was the physical body through which these connections occurred. The next part of this chapter is dedicated to a focus on this component of the group's construction as it existed during the seminar.

b. Establishing a connection with each other and the religious world of Tenrikyo through the body

Morning and evening hinokishin: developing a Tenrikyo disposition through repeated bodily engagement in communally orchestrated chores

Another important way those taking part in the seminar were implicated into the religious realm of Tenrikyo and that of TEC was by means of their physical bodies. This physical involvement began first thing in the morning. During the European Seminar, the majority of our time from early morning until evening was scheduled. Our day started at 6:45 am each day with designated chores referred to as "hinokishin 422 ." To designate which "hinokishin" each of us would perform, there was a printed schedule of who was assigned to each of the allocated tasks displayed both in the back of the sanctuary and in the hallway on the ground-level floor which we all passed through frequently. Our assigned hinokishin duties, which participants and staff performed together once in the morning and then again in the mid-afternoon, changed twice a week, each time with different groups of generally three or four people taking part in each task. These groups were often composed of a mix of people from different linguistic backgrounds and roles at the seminar (students, instructors, support staff, accompanying children 423 ) who commonly did not share space during other parts of the program. Thus, these organized hinokishin sessions were a key component of the program that facilitated shared time and collaboration through a structured activity between the wider spectrum of people present. Such shared moments were conduits of social connection between the individual participants that often expanded to include an inferential connection to the broader "TEC community" through a particular model of cooperation included as a component of activities at this center. Although our engagement in these chores labeled as "hinokishin" might appear to many onlookers to simply be mundane moments of center upkeep amidst the broader training program, they were, in fact, key moments of community construction and social connection, with the latter being positioned in Tenrikyo doctrine as one of the main goals of human existence.

From my vantage point, whether or not these assigned duties were functionally necessary or highly useful, and whether or not there was a need for a team of three or four people to perform each of the assigned tasks was at times debatable. The focus, though, similar to many other parts of the seminar program and the religion in general, was not simply on streamlined efficacy, but rather on developing in oneself through practice important Tenrikyo tenets such as tasuke ai (mutual help) and hinokishin: that is, acts of service performed voluntarily out of gratitude to God the Parent. From an official Tenrikyo perspective, in our participation in these various tasks, it was not of primary importance what we were doing, but rather how we were doing it, with the intention behind our actions being of principal importance. I heard numerous French seminar participants talk about that when "hinokishin" was obliged by others, as it was during the seminar, that it lost its sense of being "hinokishin" because it was then no longer voluntary.

According to this perspective, the essentially obligatory twice daily hinokishin sessions were therefore paradoxical through their definitional voluntary character being categorically removed through their scheduled requirement.

Although the official doctrinal emphasis of hinokishin focused on the intention with which the action was performed, in practice both at TEC and in various Tenrikyo contexts in Japan which I observed, the emphasis in organized "hinokishin" engagements was often placed principally on the action that was executed, thus making our observable actions an important component of engagement with the religion. In this, there was a frequently present duality in which hinokishin was positioned as both a personal voluntary spiritual endeavor grounded in intention and a socially compelled act. It is interesting to note that this duality was also present in other important components of the religion, such as performance and/or attendance of the Service and attendance of the Besseki lectures and the rite through which one becomes a "Yoboku" that followed.

The specific tasks which made up our assigned hinokishin sessions contributed to our lived experiences of taking part in the seminar and were also reflective of similar hinokishin engagements that occurred in a variety of other Tenrikyo contexts in its broader global sphere. Thus, a detailed description of what these "hinokishin" tasks concretely entailed is merited. Both in the morning and afternoon sessions, most of the hinokishin tasks were dedicated to cleaning. This was reflective of the fact that cleaning was the most common activity of structured "hinokishin" sessions in Tenrikyo contexts throughout the world. Although in theory, hinokishin could take many forms as it was the intention with which it was performed that rendered it as such, in practice in official contexts, the form it most commonly took was reflective of the emphasis in Japanese culture on cleanliness and purity. Generally, these organized acts of service focused on cleaning various spaces to make them more enjoyable for others, often with direct reference to how nice the clean space will feel for other people. It was sometimes also put forth in instructional moments on the religion that such cleaning efforts are somewhat analogous to the Service performance in which efforts are being made to clean away "dusts424 " from one's heart.

During the organized hinokishin sessions of the European Seminar, several groups were tasked with cleaning various parts of the main TEC building and the residential building through standard cleaning procedures (scrubbing toilets, mopping floors, etc.) Another group was charged with cleaning the general seating area of the sanctuary by wiping the chairs and sweeping the floor. A separate group was tasked with attending to the altars and the ritual space surrounding them through specific highly scripted methods, which I discuss in more detail in the next subsection. In the morning, a group was charged with preparing a breakfast that would be waiting for everyone once they descended to this space after having performed the Morning Service that followed this morning hinokishin session. In a complementary role, another group composed of several people, often three or four, was tasked with walking to a local bakery to purchase the fresh baguettes that would compose the central component of breakfast. In the afternoon, a group was assigned to attending to the outdoor space in the front of TEC grounds through simple gardening tasks, etc.

My earlier comment that the number of people allocated to certain hinokishin tasks did not always appear to be functionally necessary for their orchestration was made in particular reference to the task of buying baguettes. While doing this did necessitate a certain amount of time as it involved an approximately 10-minute walk in each direction425 , it was not practically necessary to have three or four people assigned to this task as the bread could have easily been put in a bag and transported by a single person. That this trip was allocated to three or four people demonstrated the social nature of participating in these organized hinokishin tasks as a key element, rather than their focus being solely their completion in the most efficient manner possible.

Normally, if a group completed their assigned hinokishin tasks and time remained before the next scheduled activity, participants would go to the other groups' hinokishin task areas426 to see if they could help with the remaining work. Similar to other TEC events, and in accordance with Tenrikyo culture in general, there was an extreme emphasis on helping one another displayed during these scheduled hinokishin periods. People would sometimes roam from one location to another until they found a task they could help with, creating an intensified atmosphere of mutual help at the center which contributed to the community-oriented atmosphere of the seminar.

How the allocated hinokishin sessions of the European Seminar, and those of other organized "hinokishin" engagements that took place at both TEC and in other Tenrikyo contexts, were approached was a purposeful construction reflective of an idealized mode of Tenrikyo sociality that seemed to come about "naturally." The manner in which these hinokishin tasks were assumed was reflective of Tenrikyo values such as living joyously, mutual help, and evidently, the performance of hinokishin that were enacted in specific ways not belonging to a precise location but rather to the broader whole of Tenrikyo. This "Tenrikyo manner" of enacting these values via their hinokishin activities was evidenced to similarly exist in other Tenrikyo contexts 427 through my firsthand observations in Japan, by speaking with followers based elsewhere, and via textual and online exploration of other contexts, with most of the information I was exposed to outside of Japan and Europe being reflective of Tenrikyo as it exists in the US428 . These cultivated ways of being that contributed to a broader Tenrikyo culture were notably transmitted and reinforced in concentrated Tenrikyo contexts, such as the seminar, thereby further developing this behavioral modality in the involved participants, in the greater Tenrikyo group(s) of which they were a part, and in the social ambiance and mode of operation of the sites, such as TEC, themselves. It also encouraged the individuals engaged in such efforts to be included, during those moments, as members of the group with which they were collaboratively working, largely regardless of if they were established members of the group and/or the broader Tenrikyo social world or if they were new or peripheral to them. Such moments of purposefully constructed collective engagement contributed to the social cohesion between the participants, which then contributed to a feeling of community that expanded out to the broader "TEC community," and for some not-yet established members of it, to their connection to this broader social world and to the broader social whole of Tenrikyo due to the commonly shared mode of sociality and commonly engaged activities.

The culturally imbued character of these organized hinokishin sessions was not unique to Tenrikyo, but rather was also included in numerous other "Japanese" contexts, thus rendering a discussion of how such a model exists elsewhere within the broader cultural framework from which this religion originated and was based interesting in relation to its engagement and meaning. One such instance of this can be seen in the parallel between the ritualized cleaning framed as "hinokishin" in the Tenrikyo tradition and that of "samu" (meaning work) in the Zen Buddhist tradition, as discussed by Reader (2005). To examine the deeper meaning and purpose of samu, he used the example of his being charged with sweeping leaves outside a temple one winter morning along with five others despite there being no broom for him to use, in contrast to the other five who had one at their disposition, nor there being many leaves to remove from the ground due to the combination of this task already being orchestrated daily and that no new leaves were falling as the autumn season had already passed.

As a result, I came to reflect on the extent to which samu was not simply a functional procedure. It also made it clear to me that the importance of work, in this respect, was in the performance of an action rather than with its practical ends, and that, for those of us in the garden, or at least the lucky five with brooms, the central issue was of going through the motions, with a ritual performance that stated both to themselves and to all around that they were doing the right thing in the proper way at the correct time. Cleaning and sweeping the garden was a ritual performance, and hence, as with ritual in general, its importance need not primarily, or at all, be with the external actions involved but with the inner meanings they symbolized.

The concept of work is intrinsic to the whole of Zen Buddhist thought and practice. Although Zen, as its very name implies, is centered on the practice of meditation, the life of Zen monasteries has, from the outset, incorporated various other activities as well, all of which may be seen as forms of meditation in their own right. (Reader 2005: 92-93).

Reader goes on to explain that the routines and life patterns of Zen temples incorporate periods of work that are treated as meditations in which all staying at the temple are obliged to participate. This is similar to the inclusion of organized hinokishin sessions into numerous Tenrikyo contexts, including that of its religious trainings such as the European Seminar and the largely analogous trainings that occurred elsewhere throughout the Tenrikyo diaspora. It was also present in a variety of shorter organized Tenrikyo events, particularly those which included an overnight component, as well as in the daily practice of residential life at TEC, as discussed in chapter four.

The communal nature of these hinokishin sessions, which were positioned as a means of promoting spiritual advancement, too, were a feature of Tenrikyo that was shared with similar Zen temple practices.

In performing these tasks, trainees were expected to maintain the concentrated mind of the meditation hall, and to use the periods of work as a form of moving meditation. Like all spiritual exercises in the Zen temple, which stress the importance of the community of monks and hence of the idea of enlightenment itself, as a social as well as an individual event, work was as much social as individual. By contributing to life of the temple, by working with one's fellows, and improving oneself, one is considered to help and contribute to the lives of others-a social contribution that brings further benefit to the individual (Reader 2005: 93).

During the seminar and other organized hinokishin sessions I participated in at TEC and elsewhere, including multiple Tenrikyo sites in Japan, their communal nature was a prominent feature which functioned as a solidifier of group cohesion. They encouraged a feeling of membership in the group and the creation and reinforcement of social bonds both between the individual participants and between these individuals and the broader collective group. Supporting this observation is that in the above discussed work, Reader (2005: 93) goes on to state that it is not only Zen Buddhism which elevates mundane work into a spiritual practice and transforms cleaning into a symbolic and ritual performance, but that similar motifs are also present in many Japanese new religions. He specifically discusses the performance of hinokishin in Tenrikyo regarding the enactment of ritualized cleaning as a spiritual act akin to how it exists in Zen Buddhism.

While hinokishin can refer to all types of actions (for example, missionary work) done for others, one prominent expression of it is in the voluntary work members put in at Tenri centres to keep the place running smoothly and, as with the ritualized polishing activities in Tenri corridors429 , clean.

Again, as with Zen temples, it seems not to matter all that much whether the surface that is swept and polished actually, in purely practical terms, needs cleaning… Behind the action of cleaning and working in conjunction with the notions of active service to others and joyous participation in organized group and social activities, there is, as with Zen, a definitively metaphorical dimension to such ritualized cleaning, and one which relates not just to the idea of 'polishing the soul', but, in Tenrikyō, to the religious interpretation of the causes and healing of illness. (Reader 2005: 97-98) In the concept of hinokishin in Tenrikyō, acting for others is an integral part of the creation of a sense of group cohesion, belonging and identity which provides the individual with a framework in which s/he can feel at home. The humble attitude that one should take in performing such menial tasks as cleaning helps to sublimate the ego and bring all members of the group into a feeling of community and harmony in which all strive for a communal good that is equated with the individual good… (Reader 2005: 93).

As also discussed by Reader (2005: 94-95), the emphasis placed on organized cleaning, even when there is little or no visible need to do so, serves as a demonstration of discipline in the individual and of their dedication to the group. This functions as an important contributor to the development of a feeling of community present not only in religious contexts in Japan but also in numerous other settings that take place in Japan, such as "volunteer" community trash clean-ups that are, in fact, largely socially mandated. Similar to Reader's experience of being charged with the sweeping of leaves at a Zen Buddhist temple despite the lack of a broom for him to use nor any significant presence of leaves, such "voluntary" community clean-up activities commonly involve little actual clean-up as there is often little trash to pick up in the areas they are held. This community building feature of organized collective cleaning sessions was also present in the daily cleaning of school buildings included at the end of each school day which school children throughout Japan collectively take part in as a component of their contribution to the social and physical world of which they are a part. During my year-long study abroad exchange at a Japanese high school, I participated in these end-of-the-day cleaning sessions. Like all the other students at the school, I was assigned to a group of five or six students from my homeroom class that rotated through various tasks to contribute to the upkeep of our school. This pattern was mirrored in how our hinokishin activities of the seminar were organized.

Through such ongoing contributions to the well-being of the group via the bodily engagement of cleaning even when such efforts did little to improve the actual cleanliness of the setting toward which their labor was being directed due to it already being clean, dedication to the group and discipline of the individual through a particular embodied structure was cultivated. The underlying meaning and purpose contained in organized cleaning activities, such as the three discussed above, may not be actively enunciated in the expressed thoughts of Japanese people.

Nonetheless, because such structured efforts, complete with their numerous associated meanings, are contained in diverse contexts of Japan, they are interwoven into the cultural logic and matrix of logical engagements that religious actors coming from this country, or closely rooted to it, have included in their habitus. In this, we can see that one factor among many which contributed to the two-tiered nature of the "TEC community" with mainly Japanese followers positioned at its core and non-Japanese people positioned at its periphery was the manner in which such organized hinokishin sessions fit more neatly into the broader cultural framework of Japanese people.

Conversely, for religious actors not coming from a Japanese cultural context, like the French participants mentioned above who vocally questioned the logic of mandated "hinokishin" sessions, a less than direct approach could be difficult to accept as a naturally logical engagement when the pragmatic reasons for their orchestration appeared to be largely absent. Despite their vocal questioning of these scheduled "hinokishin" sessions, in my observations, everyone present nonetheless actively took part in them, thereby embodying the emphasis placed on communally working together for the collective good of the group, despite their intellectual skepticism of the activity. This was an example of the sometimes-present discordance between intellectually based positions and enacted engagements in components of the religion.

Often in such cases, it was not belief in the religious meaning of an activity that served as motivation for its engagement but the socially encompassing nature of it. Their transformation into or solidification as members of a Tenrikyo-based mode of sociality and identity was not based exclusively, or perhaps even primarily, in the domain of intellectual belief. Rather, its construction and solidification took place largely in the realm of repeated embodied engagement.

The actions performed by the body played in contributing to the relationship that the eclectic mix of social actors had to the religion, and to each other, was, as discussed previously, a prominent component of my research context. In the following subsection, I will discuss the occurrence of this in the highly scripted ritualized attendance of the altars and the surrounding space that was included as one of our structured hinokishin activities.

Uniting with others and with the faith through structured moments of sacrality that took place in the sanctuary through ritualized tasks

As indicated in the previous subsection, the ritualized attendance of the altars and the surrounding area on which the Service ritual was performed that was located on the raised "sacred" area at the front of the sanctuary was a highly scripted and ritualized task that was included among the organized hinokishin activities we took part in during the seminar. This task was of significant importance to TEC, as it was to other Tenrikyo sites, because it was these altars (and what they symbolize) that were at the center of the religion and its practice430 . Although the other hinokishin tasks were largely focused on the visible and concrete orchestration of the material functioning of the seminar and of TEC, this task was primarily focused on the spiritual importance of the ritually based attention it was accorded.

Those charged with this important religious duty would first put on special white clothing 431 reserved for this task consisting of a white happi coat and white pants worn over one's regular attire along with white tabi socks 432 . They would have a white paper mask reminiscent of a medical mask 433 , as mentioned in chapter three when I first saw this material facilitator of purity during my initial attendance of a Monthly Service, that would be worn over their nose and mouth when placing offerings in front of the altars, preparing the offerings beforehand, and/or cleaning the altars. This ensemble which denoted purity was worn by those orchestrating this ritual task for both the more "public" scenes of it, such as during the seminar when it was jointly carried out by generally four or five people as part of the program's training in the religion, and also in more "private" scenes when these tasks were attended to by a lesser number of people when only "insiders434 " were at TEC. The donning of this white ritual wear in "private" contexts when only TEC residents were present demonstrates that it was not worn as a sartorially focused performative act for onlookers but for inter-relational reasons with the entities represented through the altars, with the ritual space, and with oneself while engaging in this ritually-based act of care.

Through a posture of reverential respect enhanced through sartorially enacted purity directed toward the entities represented through these altars and toward those with whom one participated in this ritual that entailed scripted synergetic cooperation with others for its execution (except when executed by a solitary religious actor); this demeanor was further solidified by means of its embodiment in those who participated in it. This enacted and embodied demeanor was then materially and spiritually linked, a concordant importance is accorded to the altars at Tenrikyo sites. I will expand on this point later in my text. 431 The use of white clothing is to symbolize purity and is similar to the Shinto practice of wearing white clothing to symbolize purity, which is of great importance when approaching a kami (god\spirit). From a pragmatic perspective, the white socks which must be worn to walk on the area where the Service is performed easily show dirt, thus their cleanliness can be much more easily guaranteed than darker colored socks. 432 Japanese socks with the big toe separate from the others, which accommodates the wearing of thong sandals. 433 It is the same type of mask that the ritual actors wear during TEC Monthly Services when placing offerings in front of the altar dedicated to God the Parent. As discussed in chapters two and three, these masks are worn as a symbolic expression of respect by avoiding contamination via one's breath toward this highly revered figure that is reflective of the broader importance placed on purity in Japanese culture.

transferred to the wider Tenrikyo spheres, including that of the "TEC community," of which they were a part. This component of the seminar, that was also included as a component of residential or often highly participatory involvement with a Tenrikyo site of worship was similar to numerous other components of religious engagement through which particular relational dispositions toward the religion, others, and oneself were cultivated through structured means.

Such engagements were influential to these three spheres of engagement through both the action of the task itself and the intention with which it was conducted.

Although the precise tasks in the morning and in the evening for this important hinokishin activity differed slightly, the underlying current of its ascribed meaning and what it cultivated in the religious actors was the same. In the morning, this hinokishin task entailed cleaning the raised area on which the Service was performed, the musical instruments of the Service, and the altars themselves. It also included placing the food and drink offerings in front of the altars. In the afternoon, this task involved again cleaning the three altars, taking down the offerings placed there in the morning which would be later consumed by those at the center, and preparing the majority of the food offerings to be placed in front of the altars the following morning. In the morning segment of this hinokishin task, we first used specified white cloths to wipe the floor on which the Service was performed by hand and, with separate cloths, to clean the five musical instruments used in the daily Morning and Evening Services. Then, in the morning just as in the evening, the altars were cleaned with ritualized care by wiping them with other white cloths allocated specifically for this purpose to clear away any dust that had accumulated since they had been last cleaned a half-day before.

In my experience of participating in this task of highly detailed cleaning, no dust (or only an extremely small amount) was visible when we started the task, yet, an attentive cleaning of each of the altars was performed each morning and evening. The metaphor that was enacted through this task, and in other cleaning-based hinokishin activities, in relation to the importance placed on "sweeping away dusts from one's heart" twice daily through performance of the Morning and Evening Services should not be overlooked. I was told by numerous followers throughout my research that Tenrikyo is not something one understands through intellectualization but through practice and interaction with it over time. That this ritualized hinokishin task was reflective of the importance placed on cleaning away metaphorical spiritual "dusts" is an interesting component of how followers increasingly internalized the faith. By engaging in such tasks, they were developing the faith in their physical and spiritual selves in a way different from, but connected to, the intellectually based study of it.

Included in this cultivation by means of this hinokishin task was the physical dust being something separate from the altars that was removable through religiously prescribed actions executed with care in relation to the spiritual "dusts" that were removable, in like manner, through religiously prescribed actions (and their accompanying prescribed thoughts) executed with care. In both, it was the removal of foreign pollutants that was regarded as important to the maintenance of, restoration to, the subject of focus. Relevant to a discussion of this paradigm is its presence in other contexts. For example, the demons discussed in Csordas' 1994 work on Catholic charismatic healing bear a close resemblance to the "dusts" taught to exist on the hearts of people in Tenrikyo. As noted by Csordas, in both Catholic and Protestant demonologies, evil spirits cast out of a person were almost invariably named for how they act on a person, such as those named Anger, Depression, Lust, etc. (1994: 181).

Similarly, the "eight dusts435 " were named tendencies that were viewed to negatively affect a person. In these Catholic and Protestant charismatic healing practices and in Tenrikyo, it was their removal from the "real" person, regarded as separate from these negatively viewed tendencies, that was thought to be restorative in bringing the person back to a physically and emotionally improved state. In these frameworks, religiously prescribed treatments were enacted to decontaminate the person's authentic self. That a physical manifestation of the importance placed on regularly clearing away "dusts" was included as part of the seminar and as part of life in general at TEC through the ritualized cleaning of the altars and their surrounding area is pertinent to how the religion's ontology was instilled in those who took part in it through the body. Not only were the religion's core teachings instilled via theoretical discussion, they were also imparted through enacted engagement with them.

The offerings given daily to the entities represented through these three altars that were also included in this hinokishin task further facilitated the enactment of another key Tenrikyo tenant, that of "mutual help" (tasuke ai). In the morning after the ritual space, the musical instruments, and the altars had been cleaned, our next step was to bring out the day's offerings to the altars.

When bringing out the offerings, and when taking them down each evening, we followed the same prescribed ritual procedures that enacted at the beginning of the TEC Monthly Service by passing each offering from one religious actor to another through officially scripted bodily movements conducted in the same manner at all Tenrikyo sites436 . Through the prescribed motions that were performed by each religious actor in mirrored accord with the people they received and passed these offerings to and from, dispositions of discipline, respect, and working harmoniously with others were embodied in those who took part in this task. For some, this ritual act was something that was only experienced for a short period of time during the seminar. For others, these actions were a familiar part of their lives through which the bodily dispositions enacted through this ritual became part of their habitus of behavior, interpersonal relations, and discipline.

The inclusion of attending to this sacred ritual space, among the other organized hinokishin activities, was not simply for its functional orchestration. This duty could have been attended to by staff members already familiar with the involved ritual procedures in a much more timeefficient manner as it was an activity which necessitated the guidance of multiple staff members 437 . Its inclusion served as an instructional component of the program aimed at having participants take part in a component of the religion that generally occurred "behind the scenes."

Through including participants in this task, the boundary between the "inside" and "outside" realms of the religion was partially transcended. As discussed in chapter four, the differentiation between the "inner" and the "outer" is a commonly present theme in, and an important component of, Japanese culture. Thus, the purposeful creation of a partial bridge between these two levels of interaction with the religion through the inclusion of this hinokishin activity was a noteworthy method of integrating seminar participants into the faith and rendering them more intimately connected with it.

After our morning hinokishin duties and again toward the end of the day's structured seminar program, we would assemble together in the sanctuary for the Morning or Evening Service, composed of the Seated Service and one of the thirteen Mikagura-uta dances, which we rotated through in subsequent order, performing one each Service. Through our engagement in this performative ritual that lasted approximately fifteen minutes, numerous relational interactions were brought about. Firstly, through engaging together in the sonoral, visual, and kinesthetic components of it in unison, participants were observably uniting themselves with each other in a sensorially-rich manner through their bodies. Secondly, they were returning to their inner selves through the practice of this ritual that served as a meditative pause through this familiar form of embodied prayer. Lastly, theoretically and often in practice, those taking part in the Service were uniting their hearts/minds with God the Parent, the foundress, and the sacred point of the Jiba and also with fellow followers both at the point of the Jiba in Tenri City and elsewhere throughout the world who were also directing their intention in performing the Service toward this spiritual aim.

The three-tiered relational engagement that was encouraged through this short, twice-daily ritual contributed in numerous ways to the feeling of community that was a notable part of the seminar.

These three levels of relational connection was a theme that ran throughout the collection of religious actors included in my study which was renewed each morning and was returned to each evening when the day was nearing its end through the enactment of this ritual. The most obvious of the three relational factors mentioned above which encouraged this social ambiance was the unison brought about through their physical bodies' engagement in the ritual through which a synchronicity between participants was brought about in a sensorially tangible manner. Not only was the religion a set of teachings processed through the intellect, it was also one experienced through the body. One's engagement with it, such as during the ritualized twice daily hinokishin sessions for the altars and their surrounding area and also through the Service, was one that took place actively by means of the body.

The inner meditative quality of this ritual and the prescribed unification with God the Parent, the foundress, the Jiba, and other followers throughout the world further contributed to the 437 Generally, a young adult staff member and an older staff member jointly guided us through this activity in which the young adult largely assumed the role of an assistant and the older staff member served as the main instructional authority.

community-centered nature of the seminar in two important ways. One was that its introspective quality encouraged an amiability in their interpersonal interactions. The other was that it served as a shared experience that was a subtle, yet key point of unification between those who engaged in it. Similar to Monthly Services held at TEC, the Morning and Evening Services of the seminar also functioned as key social unifiers which contributed to the overall sociality of participants and of the program. In both the performance of this ritual and in the ritualized attendance of the altars and surrounding area, an important feature which magnified their impact was the sacred meaning that was attached to these engagements. Through this, although the amount of time invested into these endeavors was moderate, the importance attributed to them was substantial, thereby enhancing their influence in the group.

Feeding bodies, feeding community: the important role of women's efforts in the kitchen

After we performed the Morning Service, facilitating a feeling of connection with ourselves, the faith, and each other, we then descended two floors to have a prolonged breakfast that began at 8:00 am. During this morning meal, participants, instructors, and other staff members chatted leisurely, with some retreating earlier than others to get ready for the day or relax before classes began at 9:00 am. This meal that was prepared through the collaborative efforts of those assigned to this morning hinokishin task was simple and consisted of freshly purchased baguettes438 , butter, various jams and other such spreads, as well as yogurts placed on each of the tables that participants and staff sat at together. Also placed out for participants were with cold cereal, milk, and fruit on one table situated on the side of the room, and coffee, tea, juice, and water on another.

At the beginning of breakfast, beverages from this table were served by young adult staff members. It was common for this manner of serving others to continue throughout the meal.

When one person sitting a table would get up for a drink, they would generally ask the others at their table if they would like something, thus enacting the Tenrikyo value of "mutual help" in a very basic manner. It was also common for young adult staff members to pass by the tables with pitchers of coffee and tea, asking those seated if anyone would like some. In both instances, this serving of drinks was reflective of a Tenrikyo behavioral model commonly present during TEC gatherings in which a specific type of helping others reflective of a Tenrikyo mode of sociality was enacted and encouraged.

Similar to the meal served after TEC Monthly Services, which as discussed in chapter five played a pivotal role in cultivating the feeling of community for those coming together for this ritual gathering, the three meals served daily during the seminar were an important part of the program that helped strengthen the connections between those present. While getting breakfast ready was included in the morning hinokishin tasks, it was the TEC head wife, Eriko Kawakubo, who was largely responsible for the orchestration of these morning meals by leading their preparations.

Moreover, in accordance with Eriko's head wife role, during the seminar, she worked from morning until evening, attending to multiple "foundational" tasks of the program along with other women who also took part in this foundational role of the seminar as hinokishin. This included, but was not limited to making sure that the three daily meals and numerous other small details necessary for the seminar to run smoothly were attended to with care. Although the breakfasts did not involve extravagant preparations and were largely arranged by the rotating collection of people at the seminar through these hinokishin groups, the lunches and dinners prepared exclusively by these women helping with the seminar as support staff were more elaborate and labor intensive, often including a significant number of dishes made with care for others to enjoy. Some of the women who helped with this important component of the seminar were Japanese followers living in the local Paris area who were core members of the "TEC community." Several others were Japanese non-local core members of the "TEC community" who came annually, or most years, from other locations in Europe where they resided to help with this component of the seminar. Despite their geographic distance from TEC, they were included as core members of its "community" through both their semi-regular presence at such events and also through their maintained connectedness with TEC and its social world. During my two years of participation in the program, all women serving as staff members had been born and raised in Tenrikyo families 439 , often at Tenrikyo churches. Thus, the particular social modality of Tenrikyo culture present in dispersed Tenrikyo sites was a central part of their upbringing and connectedly, of their habitus.

Commonly, these "core" women hosted mission stations in their European-based homes and thus organizationally and in practice were positioned at the center of Tenrikyo efforts to spread the faith to this continent through its lineage system, which, as explained in the previous chapter, was the organizational system through which new followers came to officially be a part of the religion. Several other women who regularly served in this foundational role of the seminar did not host mission stations but were nonetheless key members of the broader "TEC community" that spanned across numerous European countries. I will use the Japanese woman in her midthirties named Haruka mentioned previously in relation to her "non-believer" Dutch husband as an example. Haruka was a core member of the TEC community who generally came to TEC to help prepare meals at the seminar for one-week every year along with usually several other annual occasions, most commonly for gatherings that brought together members of the wider TEC community.

Haruka did not have a mission station at her home, and thus was not involved in making efforts for the path through welcoming new followers into her own mission station. She was, though, a core member of Tenrikyo's efforts on the European continent in other ways, such as having started the three-day youth retreat of Palette at TEC for young adult European-based Tenrikyo followers (and other interested persons) at the request of the Tenrikyo Overseas Department 440 . She continued to organize this program, along with the collaboration of several other young adult core members of the TEC community, for a number of years before handing the responsibility to another young adult core member "to let someone else have the opportunity." Thus, although she was not making efforts for the path through the operation of a lineage-based site, she was making efforts otherwise to strengthen its presence in Europe, including through her coming to TEC to assist with the orchestration of these programs on an average of several times a year.

not helping with the seminar because they were in Japan with their children for the Tenrikyo Pilgrimage to Jiba festival and to visit family and friends over summer break. These women are otherwise quite active in helping with the orchestration of other TEC events and thus it would be incorrect to insinuate that there was a solid divide between the level of involvement between followers born into and not born into Tenrikyo families, though to a certain extent making such a generalization would be accurate.

While a motivation to come and assist with the seminar and other Tenrikyo endeavors at TEC was to perform hinokishin by helping orchestrate events where participants may deepen their understanding and practice of the path and those working as staff may also advance spiritually, another motivating factor to serve as seminar staff, and likewise to come to TEC for a variety of other events, was to share in the atmosphere cultivated at these functions. The particular mode of sociality and operation that took place in these contexts contained a recognizable Tenrikyo character that could be found at Tenrikyo sites elsewhere as well. Such events that took place at TEC functioned as a bridge to a broader social (and cosmological) context situated principally, though not exclusively, in Japan.

Almost all seminar staff were Japanese or of Japanese Tenrikyo parents born abroad. Most were raised at Tenrikyo sites of worship or in the case of several who were not, were otherwise strongly connected to Tenrikyo sites of worship, such as having lived at one during a portion of their life. As numerous individuals indicated to me, and as was demonstrated during my own time at multiple Tenrikyo sites of worship in Japan, although sites in Japan, and TEC, contained their own uniqueness in terms of organization, tradition, and theoretical interpretation, they also shared a strong thread of similitude. Thus, although TEC contained its own site-specific features, it also functioned as a partial experiential portal to Tenrikyo sites in Japan with which these seminar staff were closely linked. Included in these sites' congruity with each other was an adherence not only to Tenrikyo culture, but also to traditional Japanese culture more broadly.

Women serving in an idealized foundational role was not unique to the Tenrikyo religion. As indicated in chapter four in reference to Eriko's assumption of the role of "TEC head wife," it was also a central component of the traditional role of Japanese women in which women often made exhaustive efforts for the well-being of their family in accordance with the traditional emphasis on the group, rather than the individual, and the ideal role of Japanese women being positioned as "good wives, wise mothers 441 ." Thus, the core Japanese women of the "TEC 440 Based in Tenri City. 441 I heard this female tendency to overexert oneself in domestic tasks and the risk it holds to adversely affect women's well-being cautioned against at a talk given at the end of a monthly mother-toddler group for Japanese mothers held at TEC. In this talk, the group's organizer, who was a key female member of TEC, told the young mothers that the most important thing for their children is for their mother to be well, or more specifically "genki." She cautioned them to not overexert themselves in their motherly endeavors but instead to be okay with preparing community" who assumed this role during communal moments at TEC were enacting a key component of their socially idealized identity as it existed in both the Tenrikyo and Japanese cultures in which they were born and raised442 . In participating in such contexts, they were returning to a central component of their culturally promoted selves. This mode of being was often one that they had normalized and enacted from an early age that was transmitted and encouraged through both formal and informal discourse and observation. While each person was encouraged to be their own agent of reflection, they were also taught to follow the foundress' teachings that included the divinely established naturalness of gendered differentiation and the importance of working toward the benefit of the whole through complementary collaboration (the principal of two-in-one443 ).

During my time at TEC, as a woman myself, I spent more time in female spaces. Thus, I often found myself in the kitchen where communal meals were prepared while chatting with other women, most but not all of whom were Japanese. This was one of the many examples of the commonly present subtle divide between Japanese followers, many but not all of whom were born in the religion, and people of other nationalities. Though as noted previously, this was not the center's intention. For the women involved in such communal domestic tasks, time spent together in the kitchen provided mutual social support in a casual, familial environment from which they derived strength to take with them into the rest of their lives. In speaking with various women about their time spent at TEC, much of which was dedicated to domestic tasks such as cooking and cleaning, it was often conveyed that they enjoyed and benefitted from their participation in such collective efforts and, though less often directly stated, from the sense of community that it encouraged. In this, we can see that although their efforts were namely directed toward the benefit of others, they were also benefitting from such collective endeavors rooted solidly in their Tenrikyo and Japanese-based habitus.

just simple meals because if they are genki, then their children will also be genki, thus it is important to prioritize their own well-being so that they can then share it with others. (To refresh the reader's memory, genki (元気) is an extremely commonly used Japanese word composed of the kanji characters 元(origin) and 気(energy).)

In accordance with the enunciated goal of their work, the meals that came about via the efforts of these women also provided key enjoyable, informal moments through which social bonds were formed and strengthened. Such shared moments of dining strongly contributed to the feeling of community that came about during the seminar which helped construct, maintain, and strengthen the existence of the longer term and multi-layered "TEC community." Although the women serving in this role were not charged with the instruction of the book-based seminar classes that I discuss in more detail in the next subsection, they were key agents in the creation of the experientially based learning that occurred in this and a variety of other contexts by means of the community atmosphere that they fostered. They laid a foundation for the mode of sociality at the center of the faith and of the "TEC community." Thus, although their role was often largely unseen, their influence was central to the construction of this group.

Despite not being a markedly religious component of the event, these meals were an important component of the seminar (and other TEC events) that contributed significantly to the overall experience of the seminar. The importance of these often-elaborate meals was highlighted, for example, by a male instructor from elsewhere in Europe who came to TEC every year to help with the seminar who told me, somewhat jokingly, that he came for the delicious food. While this comment was said with humor, it showcased the central role these meals had in the program and in the experience of those taking part in it.

Another comment made by a different male staff member also showcased the importance of these meals. In this case, it was a young adult residential missionary helping with certain aspects of the seminar for a part of the day as hinokishin while also teaching Japanese at ACFJT during another part of the day. As the youngest residential staff member (aged twenty-six) in a group where hierarchy was culturally associated with age, I noticed that this young man was often attending to a variety of small tasks quite late into the night and was then awake with us the following morning at an early hour for our structured morning hinokishin tasks. During the day, he spent a significant amount of time at ACFJT and often arrived back at the center during or after our dinner that began at 7:30 pm. One evening, I commented to him over an evening meal he arrived late to after returning from work that I didn't know how he had the energy to do all that he did with so little rest and sleep 444 . He replied that he sometimes was tired but that social moments of conversation, such as the one we were having, gave him energy (made him genki 445 ). Though stated in a slightly indirect manner, he expressed a view that these communal meals which fostered prolonged moments of amical togetherness provided him with vitality and well-being which helped counteract the busyness and fatigue that was also part of his experience as a residential young adult staff member.

The socially important nature of such commensal moments was a common theme of TEC gatherings. During the seminar, congruent to these three daily meals, the fifteen-minute breaks that were scheduled between each of the class sessions also provided moments of informal sociality which played a key role in the construction of interpersonal relationships between those present. During the time of these breaks, which were most often spent in the lounge/library room of TEC where coffee, tea, and other light refreshments were available, we commonly chatted with one another about a variety of topics, often but not exclusively related to the material we were studying during the seminar and other Tenrikyo topics. These relaxed moments contributed to the social connections which came together to form the "TEC community." They also encouraged integration into a broader Tenrikyo mode of sociality through the localized site of TEC. Through this, the construction of both the intergroup "TEC community" and a connection to the broader Tenrikyo realm was facilitated. These and other similar key moments were largely facilitated by women who often operated in the background to ensure the "foundation446 " for the well-being and successful functioning of the group was in place.

In this, we can see that the warm "foundation" of the center and its connected community was largely constructed through the meals (and somewhat through the refreshment breaks) people at the center gathered for and over which relationships were created and strengthened over time.

This served as a key component in the well-being that this center, its community, and the religion provided to its members and was often the key point of attraction to newcomers. Traditionally 444 I would like to note regarding this that he often did seem quite tired. 445 As a reminder, genki (元気) is a frequently employed Japanese word composed of the kanji characters 元(origin) and 気(energy).

both in Japan and elsewhere, people most commonly became Tenrikyo followers after having received healing through the Sazuke for physical ailments, often grave in nature. In Europe, though, where the faith was relatively new and where there was, in modernity, a good standard of healthcare, people were more commonly attracted to Tenrikyo not for the physical healing it could offer but rather for the non-physical benefits in their overall well-being that the faith and its connected community could provide. This feature of TEC, and of the broader religious world of Tenrikyo it was a part, was largely put forth by the warm atmosphere promoted through the efforts of such core women.

Though commonly discreet, these women were key actors in the transmission of the faith and the largely non-physical healing it provided in this modern European context. Furthermore, they were also the main facilitators of the warmly communal social ambiance of the center that was a main draw of individuals not born and raised in the Tenrikyo faith who came to TEC and were involved in its social world, including in the case of some seminar participants. Thus, although the structured classes positioned organizationally as the central component of the seminar were most commonly instructed by men, the overall program was jointly constructed into what it was through the complementary collaboration between these two largely, though not entirely, gendered components of it. In thinking of the interplay between the local context of the European Seminar and the wider transnational Tenrikyo realm it belonged to, discussions on globalization and transnationalism are highly pertinent. Kurotani (2005:9), for example, affirms that a good anthropological study on globalization must ask and attempt to respond to two complementary questions: "How is the local constructed vis-à-vis the global, and in turn, how do locally constructed cultural ideas and practices influence social actors in their engagement with social processes?" Although the principal focus of my study is not on the topic of globalization, these two complementary In thinking of the interplay between the transnationally shared pedagogical materials, general structure, and broader similitude of dispersed Tenrikyo sites as discussed at various points of this thesis, and more precisely for this part of my text, the European Seminar, a highly relevant perspective can be found in Mooij's (1998) assertion that, "think globally, act locally," is flawed because how one "thinks globally" is constructed via one's own cultural context. Mooij uses the concept of "glocalization" developed by Roland Robertson (1995) to discuss the importance of the "local" in the expansion of businesses in faraway locations where global businesses remain sensitive to the specificities of local markets. As explained by Robertson, the concept of "global localization" and the term "glocal" are both Japanese in origin. It is a strategy, he explains, used in business to adapt global marketing strategies to specific locations and originates from the Japanese concept of "dochakuka," which comes from the word, "dochaku," meaning to live on one's own land and refers to farmers adapting their agricultural techniques to local conditions.

c. Transmitting the religion through a transnationally shared pedagogy

Although the pedagogical materials used and the general structure implemented in the European Seminar are both transnationally shared, how they are precisely implemented and interpreted in this specific context is reflective of the locality in which it is occurring. Interestingly, as brought to my attention by Dessi (2013:1), there is a bulletin of the Tenrikyo Oyasato Institute for the Study of Religion titled "Gurokaru Tenri 448 " (Glocal Tenri) with the explicit intent of addressing issues related to globalism and localism, clearly demonstrating that it is an active component of the religion's focal points and outreach efforts.

Relatedly, Iwabuchi (2002) uses Mooij's and Robertson's works in his analysis of how Japan encounters "Asia" in modernity by examining the diffusion of Japanese popular culture in Asia and Southeast Asia, with a specific focus on Japanese television programs and popular culture.

Iwabuchi discusses the presence of popular culture in Japan which commonly features a notable presence of borrowing from and indigenization of American popular culture, such as that of television programs, despite that American programs had themselves achieved limited success.

Whether a program or concept originated from the US or Japan was generally of minimal importance. What was important, rather, was that it contained a "Japanese odor" from localization. Conversely, Iwabuchi contends that most Japanese cultural exports are culturally "odor free" in both name and appearance, such as the Nintendo Mario Brothers. Although the 376 Tenrikyo training materials were Japan-centric due to the religion and materials having been developed there and because the sacred site of the Jiba is located in this country, they were adequately culturally neutral because they could exist in numerous contexts outside of Japan and be filtered through and interpreted by other culturally influenced lenses. Furthermore, Levitt and Schiller (2006) argue that the lives of an increasing number of people can no longer be understood by looking solely at what goes on in national boundaries. This is applicable to the specific context of TEC, the European Seminar, and the broader Tenrikyo sphere(s) to which the people taking part in this specific training context belong. Instead, in agreement with Levitt and Schiller's (2006) argument, our analytical lens should broaden because "migrants," which in my research includes the religion of Tenrikyo itself, many of the social actors included in my study, and the transnational Tenrikyo sphere(s) of which they are a part, are often embedded in multi-layered, multi-sited transnational social fields, encompassing those who move and those who stay behind.

Numerous social theorists, such as Beck (2000), Faist (2000), Urry (2000), and Levitt and Schiller (2006) advocate for moving away from a social container way of thinking about nation states and societies in which each, in large part, exists independently on their own. The concept of social fields, as discussed by Levitt and Schiller (2006), as a tool for conceptualizing those who leave and those who stay behind is highly pertinent to my study. It moves beyond the direct experience of migration into domains of interaction that include people who do not themselves move but maintain social relations across borders through various means of communication. They explain, for example, that there may be one central individual who maintains a high level of homeland contact and is the node through which information, resources, and identities flow. In my research context, many of the core members of the "TEC community," such as those serving as seminar staff, function as the connecting "nodes" between numerous Tenrikyo contexts, namely those in Japan and Europe. Additionally, the main textual materials used in the European Seminar and in numerous Tenrikyo trainings in other locations also serve as connecting "nodes" between disparate Tenrikyo locations.

As stated by Levitt and Schiller (2000: 1010):

The concept of social fields also calls into question neat divisions of connection into local, national, transnational, and global. In one sense, all are local in that near and distant connections penetrate the daily lives of individuals lived within a locale. But within this locale, a person may participate in personal networks or receive ideas and information that connect them to others in a nation-state, across the borders of a nationstate, or globally, without ever having migrated. Levitt and Schiller (2000) then go on to argue that by conceptualizing social fields as transcending the boundaries of nation-states, we can also see that individuals within these fields are influenced by multiple sets of laws and institutions. This is directly applicable to my study because as the collection of social actors positioned as the core members of my research context belong to numerous transnational social fields, they are also influenced by the particular national contexts in which they are also operating. In specific reference to their involvement in Tenrikyo, the transnational spheres they belong to include, for instance, that of their lineage, that of the European collectivity, that of the US-European Tenrikyo sphere, and numerous other spheres associated primarily, though not exclusively, with Japan. While members of the "TEC community," and participants of the European Seminar, such as those from France, the UK, and Japan are included in the transnational social collectivity I refer to as the "TEC community," they are also influenced by the national contexts in which they are operating (and have previously operated).

Although the content, structure, and pedagogical materials are largely the same for the European Seminar and other such Tenrikyo trainings orchestrated in disparate locations, each location features its own particularities, largely in relation to the broader cultural (and national) context in which they are occurring. In my observations via participating in the English-language cohort the first year I took part in the program and the French cohort the second year 449 , differences were displayed that were reflective of the national (and cultural) contexts with which they were connected. For example, in the English-language cohort, we were reminded of and asked to respect "confidentiality" numerous times by our visiting instructor from Hawaii. Contrastingly in the French cohort, I heard no mention of this issue. Moreover, when I mentioned the issue of 449 Both cohorts had instructors and students of multiple nationalities despite being linked to the UK and France respectively.

"confidentiality" that had been promoted as paramount in the English cohort to members of the French cohort, they expressed to regard the codified verbalization of this agreement to be excessive.

Despite differences in how the linguistically divided cohorts orchestrated the training, globally, the seminar encouraged an anchoring of participants to the religion through the solidification of their knowledge and practice of various components of it and also by means of the concentrated manner through which the seminar was conducted, thereby rendering the experience an allencompassing one and heightening its impact. As denoted slightly previously, these transnationally imparted features were influenced in both their execution and reception through the specific context and participants involved. I will describe the program's content through a specific description of the classes from the first year I participated in the program, via its Englishspeaking cohort. Although the specific order of classes varied somewhat from year to year, the general format and content of the program remained the same. Through describing in detail my first year of participation in the training, I am effectively depicting the program's composition that remained constant and was generally shared between dispersed Tenrikyo contexts and followers.

In the first year I participated in this program, we began at 9:00 am with two subsequent fiftyfive-minute sessions dedicated to the study of the "doctrine" of the religion, with a fifteen-minute break between each session. In this class, we studied the official "doctrine" of Tenrikyo, mainly by taking turns reading aloud an 84-page book titled, "The Doctrine of Tenrikyo 450 ," paired with discussion of the text. This approach of taking turns reading aloud an official Tenrikyo text and discussing it was similarly the main pedagogical approach of other theoretical 451 classes of the seminar. The core content of the program remained similar to that of analogous Tenrikyo training programs orchestrated elsewhere by means of the same official Tenrikyo texts, assuring a certain 450 "The Doctrine of Tenrikyo" is an official Tenrikyo document published by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters initially in 1949, written by the second Shinbashira and designated advisors after the end of World War II once Tenrikyo was free of previous governmental restrictions through Japan's new 1947 constitution drawn up by the Allied occupation which guaranteed freedom of religion and the separation of church and state. This new context of freedom from governmental restrictions inspired an attempt to go back to the basics of Oyasama's teachings, before Tenrikyo went through generations of subsequent changes due to external governmental regulations. 451 Theoretical is meant to refer to book-based rather than practice-based classes.

level of cohesion between disparate Tenrikyo sites and social actors. At the same time, it was filtered through the specific local context through our discussion, thereby also rendering it reflective of this precise context.

Following the two class sessions dedicated to the "doctrine," we then had a theoretically based fifty-five-minute class session on the Mikagura-uta songs. In this class, with the assistance of text-based materials, we studied and discussed their words and associated dance gestures to better understand their meanings or possible meanings as these sacred songs are understood to often contain multiple layers of meaning that are not completely clear and upon which one should ponder, thereby amplifying the influence that the specific participants had in their study of them.

After lunch, we then had two fifty-five-minute sessions of a class titled, "The Life of Oyasama" which, as the name implied, focused on the foundress' life and the early developments of the faith. In this class, we covered both her early life until the age of forty-one during which time she is explained to have lived as a "normal person," unaware of her divine destiny, and also her life thereafter when, at the age of forty-one, she became "the Shrine of God." After this transformative event, how she lived is positioned in the religion as "the Divine Model" which followers are encouraged to use as a point of reference for their own thoughts and actions.

Through the foundress' life being positioned in this divinely exemplary manner, it served as a living, breathing sacred text bestowed by God the Parent and Oyasama to humanity as their children to help guide our lives through her example.

Beyond this class serving as an allocated time to impart structured knowledge of a spiritual model via the recounting of the foundress' life, it also functioned as a history lesson on the era of Japan when the faith came into existence which coincided with what is generally regarded as the beginning of Japanese modernity. This historical contextualization was also explained to have been included in the program so that followers would have a better understanding of the numerous changes the religion has gone through over time, developing into what it is in the present day. To cover this topic, similar to our morning classes, we again utilized the main official Tenrikyo text on the subject, in this case a 242-page book aptly titled "The Life of the Foundress," by taking turns reading it aloud and discussing it.

During my first year of participation in the seminar, this was led by the sixty-some year old Hawaiian woman named Mary who was there as a visiting instructor that I first saw at the TEC Monthly Service the day before the program began. I would then see her again a year and a half later when we participated together in a gathering of English-speaking followers in Tenri City titled "Tenri Forum 452 ," which I discuss in chapter ten. In relation to the transnational character of such trainings and the broader interconnected transnational Tenrikyo social collectivity of which TEC was a part, it is interesting to note that at this international gathering, we also saw two other followers we both had gotten to know during the Seminar. One was a seminar instructor based in the UK and the other was Kenta, who had returned to live in Japan shortly after his participation in this program.

In addition to the official text of "The Life of the Foundress," which was the most common means that this category of a Tenrikyo referential base was conveyed in such trainings, this visiting Hawaiian instructor also chose to include an additional text-based material of a mangastyle comic titled "The Tale of Oyasama," which told the same account conveyed through the above-cited official text, but through this different, highly popular style of textual medium. This manga was initially published in Japanese through the official Tenrikyo publishing company, "Tenrikyo Doyusha Publishing Company," based in Tenri City. Somewhat later, it was then published in English through the efforts of North American followers via its appearance eight pages at a time in a monthly newsletter of Tenrikyo Mission Headquarters in America (Tale of Oyasama, Volume One: 2016). The manga we read in this class was in the form of copied pages of these North American newsletters brought for us by this visiting Hawaiian instructor 453 .

Through this, we can see how this Hawaiian woman served as a connection between TEC (and the broader scene of Tenrikyo in Europe), Tenrikyo Mission Headquarters in America (and the broader Tenrikyo scene in North America), and Tenri City (and the broader realm of Tenrikyo in Japan from which this manga (and the religion) originated). Each of these layers was simultaneously transnationally shaped and locally specific. We can also see how this component 452 Tenri Forum is a conference to bring together English-speaking followers to discuss the faith.

of the training was influenced by modernity through both the pedagogical form of manga being used to convey this information and also the transnational character of the multiple steps through which this manga came to be incorporated into our training that year. Regardless of the contemporary changes to the religion and how it was conveyed through intellectual means in modernity, its embodied practice based in the performance of the Service ritual remained constant. The next subsection will discuss the training of participants of this centrally important component of the religion.

Learning the sacred Service, practicing a Tenrikyo mode of interaction

Although Tenrikyo was esteemed as a divine teaching that would remain true throughout time, numerous aspects of how the religion was conveyed were positioned within a framework of having taken the particular form that they did in order to be comprehensible to the Japanese agrarian population who were the original followers of the faith. This was often coupled contemporarily with an explanation that it was taught in this context-specific framework, but with the divine understanding of God the Parent who conveyed these teachings through the foundress that as people evolved over time, so too would our understandings of these teachings. At the time of my research, components of the faith that did not correspond with current conceptualizations, views, and models of life were commonly positioned as having been symbolic rather than literal and/or reflective of the time and place in which the path was first conveyed rather than irrevocable components of the timeless celestial teachings conveyed to us with the parental love of God the Parent and the foundress. Through this, there was much room for adaptation in relation to modern life practices; allowances in their intellectually based interpretations associated with ongoing modernization were often permitted or even encouraged as normal evolutions.

What remained irrevocably constant in the religion 454 , though, was the embodied teaching of the Service ritual. While how numerous theological components of the religion were interpreted and conceptualized were allowed room to change over time, the physical body remained an unchanging ground of embodied instruction by means of this highly corporeal ritual. Thus, 454 There were concessions made to its embodied ritual practice during several periods due to governmental constraints, but these concessions were regarded to have been unfortunate pragmatic modifications. Modern restoration enacted by the second Shinbashira after the end of WWII sought to restore the faith as it was bestowed through the foundress, which was largely focused on the performance of the Service.

although how the religion was understood and interpreted through the mind was somewhat flexible, its corporeal practice through which followers were trained via the ongoing embodied enactment of its teachings remained constant over time. This is highly pertinent to the internal logic of the importance placed on the performance of the Service, often regardless of conscious "belief." The ascribed importance on the external versus internal relationship to the religion helps explain, for example, the emphasis placed on encouraging people to come to Monthly Services, regardless of their religious identity.

In thinking of the evolution and constancy of Tenrikyo over time and in dispersed locations, an important component was its duality. While its central component of the enacted performance of the Service ritual remained constant, there was more room for change and development in how the religion was conveyed and interpreted in modernity and by different individuals and groups in the realm of the intellect. This rendered the faith simultaneously unchanging over time and also in constant evolution.

Although the academically framed classes based in the realm of the intellect comprised most of our instruction during the Seminar, the more constant, embodied teaching of the Service was also given a prominent place in the training. In addition to our twice daily participation in the Morning and Evening Services, we also had structured class sessions dedicated to the practice of the sacred dances and the musical instruments which culminated in an end-of-seminar "practice performance" of the Monthly Service ritual. Following the previously described classes that we studied principally through the pedagogical medium of books while seated at a desk, we then had one fifty-five-minute session dedicated to the practice of the dances and another session dedicated to the practice of the musical instruments.

At the time, I viewed the book-based theoretical classes that comprised the first part of the day as the most important part of the seminar and of learning about the religion. I mistakenly regarded the two sessions dedicated to the practice of the Service dances and instruments as being of much less importance. This initial perspective was mainly because of my lack of an emic understanding of Tenrikyo and also because I was used to operating in an academic environment in which intellectually based modes of learning ("book-learning") were generally privileged over experiential learning. Although I had heard the importance of the Service discussed during the seminar, I did not yet understand that this ritual was truly at the center of the faith. The Service songs were not simply church hymns which existed mainly as a pleasant addition to other chiefly important components of the religion in a manner similar to the place of religious hymns in the (primarily American) Christian traditions with which I was familiar. Rather, they were positioned in Tenrikyo as the means through which universal salvation and the world of the Joyous Life may be achieved that was conveyed by God the Parent to the foundress who taught it to her followers (and extendedly, all of humanity) out of parental love.

For these practice sessions, a wide range of Japanese people raised in the religion and positioned in the inner layer of the "TEC community" who were helping with the seminar in a variety of ways as hinokishin also helped with this portion of the program through serving as instructors.

They did this by working one-on-one or in small groups with participants to help them learn or improve on this centrally important performative component of the religion. Generally, the individuals charged with teaching the theoretical portions of the seminar did not teach these practice-based sessions. Instead, the teachers were composed principally of people serving as support staff, such as the women who were helping with meal preparations, men who were helping with components of the seminar other than instructing the book-based classes, and the young adult residential missionaries who most often worked at ACFJT during the majority of the day, returned to TEC to work with seminar participants for these sessions, then again commuted 20-30 minutes by train back to ACFJT to finish their workday. A significant number of people actively worked to help others as hinokishin through taking part in the program's instruction aimed at assisting the "spiritual development" of the students and spreading the faith's teachings.

In a complementary though less direct manner, the efforts made by staff members to facilitate the spiritual development of program participants were positioned as also facilitative to their own spiritual growth. This mirrored-perspective was reflective of the often-cited Tenrikyo teaching:

Through saving (helping) others, you yourself will be saved (helped) 455 .

The fifty-five-minute practice sessions for the instruments were generally closely shared moments between the person in the teaching role and the person in the student role. Sometimes these individuals knew each other well, but often they did not. Through the bits of conversation 455 hito tasuke tara wagami tasukaru: 人たすけたら わがみたすかる.

that peppered these sessions, and through spending time with one another in this somewhat intimate space of working together, an important component was that in addition to the ritual instruction that these sessions provided students, they also served as time in which the paired individuals got to know each other better, often forging and strengthening their social bonds. As stated slightly previously, this instructional pairing was often composed of someone positioned in the primary tier of the "TEC community" in the role of the instructor and a person (or several people) positioned on more of the periphery of this group in the student role. In this, in addition to students being trained in the religion's sacred music during these intimate and largely informal instructional sessions, they also received indirect instruction regarding how to socially be a Tenrikyo person as it was personified through these core followers positioned in this moment as their instructors.

The sessions to learn the dances for the Service were generally taught in small groups, depending on ability, as some participants were much more familiar with and competent in the dances than others. These sessions, too, were shared interpersonal moments, though generally with less discussion than during the instrumental study sessions. This was due to a combination of each group being composed of more people than were together during the instrumental sessions and the nature of the session itself that involved various parts of the Service songs being played via recording and/or sung, commonly at the same time in the same room, thereby creating what often felt to me to be a cacophony of sound. This, in combination with the bodies of the involved social actors being in ongoing movement during these sessions to learn the dances, discouraged lengthy conversations.

The learning of these dances, or at least acquiring a high degree of familiarity with them, was an essential component to being a "full member" of Tenrikyo in a social sense, if not a strictly theological one, as the latter was a more complex matter with varying definitions. One reason for this was that the command of these dances was necessary to perform as a dancer in the Service 456 , which at TEC was often an indication, though incomplete, of the more central or peripheral position of someone within the "TEC community" and relatedly, within the broader realm of Tenrikyo. Learning the dances was a simpler task for Japanese speakers (particularly native speakers or those with near native ability457 ) as the dance gestures were linked to the words and meaning458 of these Japanese songs. Thus, for a person who did not understand Japanese, it was generally less evident to remember the dance gestures due to the lack of the song's lyrical meanings contained in these Japanese songs serving as a prompter of recollection for them.

On multiple occasions when I spoke with young adult Tenrikyo followers from Japan at TEC (residential missionaries, exchange students, those in France on "working holiday" visas459 , etc.) and asked about their impression of this European center and if they found anything particularly interesting in comparison to the Tenrikyo contexts with which they were familiar in Japan, I received the response that they found it "amazing460 " that non-Japanese people could perform the intricate Service dances. This was because even for Japanese people born and raised in the faith (such as themselves), these gesturally detailed dances were quite difficult to learn. For European people not raised in the faith who were thus not exposed to these sacred dances from an early age and were not fluent in the Japanese language, the task was regarded as much more challenging.

Through this, we can see how the language, as well as the religious tradition (or lack thereof), with which one was raised were important contributing components to the two-tiered nature of the TEC community.

As indicated previously, in these sessions, not only were the dance movements and instrumental songs practiced, but particular ways of being which were mutually transmitted between those in have not mastered the dance or instrumental role they assumed yet.

the student role and those in the instructor role were also imported. A notably similar mode of patient encouragement and praise for the students' efforts and progress was displayed by a multitude of individuals, both male and female, serving in the role of instructor. During these hands-on moments of learning through practice, not only were the instructors working to help the students acquire practical competency of this ritual, they were also cultivating and reinforcing particular ways of being in these students and within themselves. Students also tended to display similar dispositions during these practice sessions, thereby enacting a mirrored feedback loop of this dispositional mode of interaction. It is interesting to note that this was also displayed during the Sunday "manabi461 " sessions held at TEC, for which the same content was taught by core members of the "TEC community," some but not all of whom also served in this role during the seminar.

This modality was also displayed in the instructional session of the Service instruments that I observed in the children's festival in Tenri City, which I discuss later in this thesis. What is important to emphasize is that through cultivating ritual competency in themselves and in others, they were also cultivating a broader Tenrikyo way of being. This overarching disposition was connected both to the ritual of the Service that was regularly enacted at Tenrikyo sites and also in the more expansive way of being that was encouraged in these religious actors by means of both structured and more informal interactions. Through training seminar participants in the ritual of the Service, they were also training them how to be a Tenrikyo follower in a more global way.

Conveying important components of Tenrikyo through repetition, embedding people in a religious realm

At the end of the day, each linguistic cohort reassembled in their designated study room 462 at 7:15 pm for a brief evening session to conclude our day of structured study before dinner, which began at 7:30 pm. The main activity of these sessions was the study of two chiefly important Tenrikyo teachings: the "Eight Dusts" and the "Ten Providences of God the Parent," both of which are cited to have been conveyed orally by the foundress and now constitute a main dogmatic component of the religion. For these "home-room" evening sessions, we installed ourselves casually in the more informal seating area of the room on couches located to one side of the room rather than at the table we studied at earlier in the day. This, along with the fatigue we often felt at the end of our very full days, encouraged a more relaxed ambiance than there was during the earlier classes held in this room.

At the beginning of these short sessions, the staff member charged with heading it, who was either one of our instructors or someone charged with assisting in other parts of the program, would ask if there were any issues we would like to discuss. There rarely were as we had already spoken a great deal with each other throughout the day. Then, to learn or deepen our understanding of these two chiefly important Tenrikyo teachings, we would take turns reading aloud from a written list of the "Eight Dusts" or "Ten Providences of God the Parent," each of which was accompanied by a defining explanation, printed on a dual-sided laminated sheet used for this purpose every year. Each evening, we alternated between the two sides of the sheet, thereby exposing us equally to these two listings that compose important components of the religion, taking in their content through visual and auditory means.

During these short fifteen-minute end-of-the-day sessions, there was generally little discussion of what we were reading, with emphasis rather on their becoming part of our mental repertoire by means of repetitive exposure through auditory and visual means. Through this daily reiteration, even someone such as myself who was previously completely unfamiliar with these two somewhat detailed Tenrikyo listings had them largely committed to memory by the end of the three-week seminar. The "Ten Providences of God the Parent" and the "Eight Dusts" themselves were precisely determined 463 in Tenrikyo and were always listed identically. Their accompanying explanations/definitions, though, particularly those of the Eight Dusts, were not unanimously expounded upon through the same precise words in all Tenrikyo texts but rather were general explanations that sometimes differed in their precise wording. These two list-based teachings were a centrally important part of the religion that was imparted and was otherwise present in a variety of Tenrikyo contexts. They served as an important component of the Tenrikyo cosmological perspective of the world and of humans that was conveyed through both the direct learning of them and also through the indirect means of their reference, thereby influencing how followers (and other implicated people) viewed themselves, others, and the world and how they conducted themselves and related to others. They also provided an underlying referential base shared by followers which provided an additional point of conceptual commonality between followers regardless of location or church lineage.

The method through which these teachings were conveyed by repeated exposure to an identical medium was a prominent Tenrikyo educational model through which people came to know and internalize the teachings. The most pronounced examples of this were the Service ritual and the series of nine identical Besseki lectures one must attend to be eligible to receive the Sazuke, whereby one becomes a Yoboku. In the case of the Service, followers who actively practice the faith as prescribed perform the Morning and Evening Services twice daily and are also exposed to the Monthly Service through either its active performance or in the slightly more passive role as an audience member generally at least once a month, and often more. The reason this "monthly ritual" was commonly attended multiple times in a single month is that Monthly Services are held at mission stations, churches, grand churches, TEC, Tenrikyo UK Centre, and around the Jiba in Tenri City on different designated days of the month. Numerous followers in the Paris area, for example, regularly attended the Monthly Service of the mission station to which they were principally rooted and also the inter-lineage TEC Monthly Service, along with occasional attendances of Monthly Services in Japan when they were there.

In my own case, this occurred through my attendance at the Monthly Service of the Sugimoto's mission station on the first Sunday of the month and the Monthly Service of TEC on the second Sunday of every month. During my time in Japan, I attended the Monthly Services conducted both around the Jiba on the 26 th of the month and at the grand church to which the Sugimoto's mission station was linked via its intermediary supervising branch church organizationally positioned between the two. Were my schedule different during my fieldwork in Japan, I would have also attended the Monthly Service at this linking branch church with Yuko Sugimoto and her son, but was unable to because of my attendance at the international forum for Englishspeaking followers of "Tenri Forum" held at the same time in Tenri City.

The ritual of the Service was always the same, regardless of location. Through regular exposure to its songs and dances (positioned as one of the three sacred Tenrikyo texts), a similar model of imparting important teachings through repetitive inculcation was manifested in disparate Tenrikyo sites. Rather than the Service being regarded principally as an endeavor requiring a high level of intellectual analysis, regular contact with it was positioned as being of chief importance.

Similarly, the repeated attendance of the nine identical Besseki lectures, which I discuss in more detail in chapter ten, required before a person was eligible to become a Yoboku was also a key means through which the religion's teachings were transmitted through repeated exposure to the same orally conveyed words in the same designated hall for this purpose in Tenri City by selected orators dressed in identical Tenrikyo robes which were likewise donned in other Tenrikyo contexts by ritual actors. It was esteemed that through this, the imparted teachings would become included in the conscious and unconscious parts of the attendee through the repetition of this experience positioned as a particularly special moment that occurred in a particularly special place. That Besseki attendees were permitted to sleep during these lectures, and somewhat commonly did, attests to my assertion that the means through which this religion was imparted through structured repetition was not relegated solely to an intellectual mastery of the information conveyed but rather also to their becoming part of the individual through repeated experiential exposure, somewhat regardless of their measurable mastery of the content.

The presence of this model of religious inculcation via repetition was one of the key ways people took part in the religion, through which it became part of their selves, and connectedly, they were embedded in this religious realm. Being part of this "religious realm," a term I use to reference the globality of Tenrikyo, was not constructed through a singular defining moment of declared adherence to the religion nor to a precise set of practices or doctrine. It was constructed, rather, through ongoing exposure to numerous facets of it. Now, in maintaining my focus on the European Seminar, I will discuss in the next chapter its participants from the two years I took part in it so that the reader may have an idea concretely of the various types of people who took part in this training. than as students. Thus, in discussing the seminar as a shared experience between many members of the TEC community, it was not exclusively as students that members of this social collectivity accrued the experience of participating in it. Through taking part in this program, whether as a student, staff member, or both464 , a shared referential point was acquired which served as a binding commonality between those who participated in this program at the same time. This binding commonality was extended, to a lesser degree, to those who had participated in it on separate occasions but nonetheless shared the general experience and more broadly, with people who had participated in a similar Tenrikyo training elsewhere. By describing participants with whom I took part in the European Seminar in this chapter, I am including a detailed exemplary window into a component of the broader social world on which my thesis is focused that occurred at both a precise moment in time and through a particular framework but which can be extended to and reflective of the broader "TEC community."

Seminar cohort of the English-speaking class: a case study of the multifarious "TEC community"

The language-based cohorts of the seminar were partially, but not entirely, representative of the linguistically linked sub-groups of TEC, and more broadly, of Tenrikyo. In taking part in a specific cohort, one was also participating in the wider collection of social actors linked through their linguistic commonality, and for many, also through their connection to a particular country, such as France or the UK. This linguistically associated linking feature was manifested during both years of my participation in the program, first in the English-language cohort, then for my second year, in the French language cohort. During my initial period of getting to know TEC and its connected community that occurred during my first year of participation in the seminar, in addition to myself, there were three other people in the English cohort of the program: Kenta (the orange-haired twenty-six-year-old man from Japan who I sat next to during my first attendance of a Monthly Service the day before the seminar began), Stephanie (the twenty-two year old woman from London seated on my other side during this initial Monthly Service attendance) and Yuta (a British man in his early thirties of mixed British and Japanese heritage raised and currently residing in the UK).

Stephanie only participated in the first week of the seminar, which she explained was due to needing to return to work in London the following week. Kenta and Yuta, along with myself, completed the entire three-week residential program. In this group, there was an equal distribution of Tenrikyo "members" and "non-members." Yuta and Kenta were both followers of and highly involved in the religion and held the designation of Yoboku. Stephanie and I did not view Tenrikyo as our own religion, were not classified as Yoboku, and had never been to Tenri City.

As mentioned previously, this mix of people who were "members" of the religion and people who did not view themselves as such was also a common theme at numerous other events held at TEC. These four participants in the English cohort thus showcased, in a compact version, that not all people who came to TEC, or were involved in its religious activities, were "members" of the religion. In this, we can see that the question I was often asked in relation to my research of how many members of the religion there were in Paris, France, and/or Europe was not a question fully applicable to the population on which my research was focused. Similar to many other social groups, in Tenrikyo and at TEC, the frontier between insiders and outsiders was fluid and not fully defined. In reference to the "TEC community," Yuta, Kenta, and Stephanie were in varying ways all part of the greater "TEC community," or in this specific case, it would be more accurate to say "the TEC story." Yuta was the most centrally situated of these three individuals in the "TEC community," but Stephanie and Kenta were also part of the greater social story of TEC, with each being exemplary of different components of this multi-layered social collectivity.

Stephanie: an example of differing perspectives on a participant's present and potential religious identity

Despite the fact that Stephanie did not present herself as a follower of the faith when we participated together in the seminar nor did she come back to TEC afterwards, at least during the span of my fieldwork, she is included in the overall social story of TEC due to the time she spent at the center and through her continued social contact with members of this community. In her self-introduction to the small English-speaking group on the first day of the program, she told us that she was a member of the Church of England but found it interesting to learn about other religions. She found religious ceremonies to be beautiful and told us about a Buddhist ritual which involved water that she found particularly lovely, thereby demonstrating an appreciation for religious rituals outside her own tradition.

Like many other people who come to know Tenrikyo, Stephanie was introduced to the religion through a friend. In her case, it was through her friend from university, Masae Yagishita: the youngest of four British-born young adult siblings of the London-based mission station discussed in some detail in chapter six. Stephanie explained to us in her introduction that she initially came to know of Tenrikyo when she was at the Yagishitas' home to visit Masae one evening at the time of the Evening Service, which she was invited to join, and told us she found it to be beautiful.

Subsequently, she would come to the Yagishitas' home-based mission station for Services from time to time.

Stephanie seemed quite mature for her young age and in our self-introductions, when she stated her age of twenty-two years, she added that she often felt about five decades older. Among other information that she gave about herself in this self-presentation, she told us that since she was a teenager, she had taken care of her mother and grandmother, both of whom had health problems.

Mary, the soft-spoken Hawaiian woman responded by saying that it must have been hard for her to have taken on so much at such a young age. Stephanie gently replied that when it is for people one truly cares about, one does not mind. I never heard any comments from Stephanie which, at least from my perspective, implied that she was considering the adoption of Tenrikyo as her own religion. In fact, through my own lens, she displayed multiple indications that she was not. Near the end of the week, as the only other "nonmember" at the seminar, I spoke to her about my own discomfort with what I felt to be pressure for us to become followers of the religion when I had been upfront from the beginning that this was not my motivation for coming and had been assured that being there out of anthropological curiosity was absolutely fine. I was particularly concerned about the upcoming Monthly Service "practice" performance465 that we were preparing to do at the end of the week because, at that time, I did not feel comfortable performing in such an important religious ritual if it did not hold the same meaning to me that it was meant to hold for followers of the faith. Stephanie responded by sharing with me that she, too, had expected the seminar to be mainly theoretical rather than implicating participants in its religious practices as a significant portion of the program. Despite this, she told me that she was going to perform in the Service at the end of the week because she knew how much it meant to those putting on the seminar. Based on what I heard from Stephanie earlier during her self-introduction regarding her perspective that helping look after her mother and grandmother had not been a hardship because she cared for them, it was not surprising that she similarly prioritized doing something for others in the context of the seminar.

Although Stephanie did not identify as a follower, this displayed characteristic was one of the most important values of the faith.

In respect to Stephanie's relationship to Tenrikyo, I encountered a discord between her selfpresentation during our shared time at the seminar and what I heard about a month later from one of the adult children of the Yagishita mission station which, as Stephanie's introductory point to the religion, was her "home site" according to the Tenrikyo model of organization. Based on what I saw Stephanie say and do, as previously put forth, I viewed her interest in the religion to be situated within a greater interest in and appreciation of diverse religious traditions rather than as a potential source of her own religious faith and identity. In talking with this family member of the Yagishita mission station who I stayed in touch with after the seminar, her relationship to the faith was expressed optimistically to be less clear, meaning that he communicated an unsure stance regarding if Stephanie would become a follower or not. This incongruity of perspectives regarding Stephanie's present and future relationship to the religion was one example among many that I noted during my fieldwork. Often, there were strikingly divergent ideas held by people present together in communal scenes that took place at TEC and other locations connected to the "TEC community." Personally held viewpoints and Considering that from my perspective Stephanie decidedly viewed herself as a member of the Church of England, with her connection to Tenrikyo being situated within the greater context of her appreciation of and interest in multiple other religious traditions, I thought it was rather strange that this Yagishita sibling who expressed a lack of clarity on how Stephanie viewed her interactions with Tenrikyo did not simply ask her about how she viewed her relationship to the faith. To me, she had been quite straight forward about her position and from my own point of view at the time, left little room for other interpretations. Only later did I come to understand that from the perspective of many Tenrikyo followers and also in various parts of official Tenrikyo discourse, it was considered normal that people do not immediately become followers of the path, but that sometimes through a combination of "sincere efforts" from followers and the Truth of the path, people sometimes did eventually come to embrace it in time. Moreover, making "sincere efforts" to spread the path by "sowing seeds" that may develop into something more was a centrally important and highly encouraged component of one's religious engagement. Whether or not Stephanie ever did become a follower herself was somewhat of a separate issue than this Yagishita sibling making efforts toward this goal through which he was fulfilling this esteemed endeavor based largely in intention rather than measurable outcome.

The next year of the seminar, I met a young woman named Sarah also connected to the Yagishitas' London-based mission station who similarly did not identify as a member of the religion who was the sole participant of the English cohort that year. I learned that although

Stephanie did not come back to TEC, Sarah occasionally saw her at the Yagishitas' mission station. Thus, a year after we met at the seminar, she was still connected to this mission station and thereby also to the Tenrikyo religion, though not necessarily through her own selfidentification as a Tenrikyo follower468 .

Within the multi-layered collection of social actors connected to varying degrees to the broader "TEC community" that was largely two-tiered in nature, Stephanie was positioned at its periphery. This "included" position was established through her temporary presence at TEC during her week of participation in the seminar at which time she was highly implicated in its social world through her continual and often intensified contact with others present via the structure of the program, including a large percentage of the centrally implicated members of the "TEC community." In relation to the web of connections that came together to constitute the "TEC community," it is relevant to note that both Sarah and also the numerous members of the Yagishita family who were long-term core members of the "TEC community" served as bridges between Stephanie and TEC through sharing information about her presence at this London mission station. Although Stephanie's presence at TEC was brief, her presence in its social world and social history was more long-term, thereby rendering her position in the eclectic "community" of TEC that was dispersed through both time and space peripherally included.

Kenta: an example of the fluidity of followers and practices coming from and leaving to Japan

The next participant of the English-language cohort I will discuss is twenty-six-year-old Kenta.

He, too, was a passing presence at TEC. His only time spent there was also for the seminar, though in his case, for all three weeks. His personal situation and relationship to the faith, though, was quite different than Stephanie's and showcases a different side of the more peripheral members of the collection of people connected to TEC. In contrast to Stephanie, Kenta was born and raised in the Tenrikyo faith. Like many of the core members of TEC, the religion held an important position in his life. His presence in Europe, and even more so at TEC, was temporary, thereby largely 469 rendering his physical presence in the social world of TEC momentary while his presence in the broader social world of Tenrikyo was more fixed. Kenta's father was the head minister of a Tenrikyo church in Osaka. Being the eldest son of his family, as was typical in Tenrikyo, he was next-in-line to take over his father's position as church head minister. Kenta's father spoke English and could welcome non-Japanese followers to his church, such as members of US based Tenrikyo churches or mission stations to which this Osaka church was connected as their parent church. Kenta wanted to continue in his father's footsteps and be able to communicate Tenrikyo concepts in English once it was his turn to take over the role of his church's head minister position. It was primarily for this reason that Kenta had spent the six months prior to the seminar living in England with a (non-Tenrikyo) family to improve his English competency. Connectedly, his participation in the English-cohort of the European Seminar before his scheduled return to Japan was motivated by his desire to improve his English, or more specifically, his ability to discuss the faith in English.

Kenta had already participated in numerous Tenrikyo trainings in Japan, including but not limited to Shuyoka. Furthermore, because he had been raised in a Tenrikyo church family, he had been closely involved in the religion since birth. His participation in the English cohort of the European Seminar was not so much to learn more about the path, but rather to increase his familiarity with how to talk about it in English, for which he was a dedicated student throughout the program. This culturally and linguistically based motivation for taking part in the European Seminar as a student was not unique to Kenta. Rather, it was similarly the key motivation of several other participants the following year who, similar to Kenta, had also been raised in Tenrikyo environments470 and had previously participated in similar Tenrikyo trainings elsewhere, but took part in the seminar mainly to acquire the linguistic and cultural competency to discuss these teaching with people of a different cultural and linguistic background.

At the end of the three weeks we shared at TEC, we had a final collective moment of reflection where each participant spoke about what they had learned through taking part in the seminar. Kenta told us that he liked the willingness of staff to make changes to accommodate particular situations. He continued that although it was a structured program in which everyone diligently studied the material, it was much less regimented than what he had experienced in similar contexts in Japan, including at his family's church where his father had been quite strict with the running of the church and its orchestration of Tenrikyo activities. Through his participation in the seminar at TEC, he saw that it was possible to be more flexible, and that this fluidity could be helpful. He then added that his exposure to this less strict approach was something he would take back with him to Japan and use one day when he became charged with serving as head minister of his church.

The somewhat more laidback approach that Kenta felt at TEC in comparison to Tenrikyo contexts in Japan was partially reflective of Kenta's presence at TEC being as a European Seminar student: a role principally intended for Europeans. Although this program was commonly attended by Japanese followers born and raised in the faith, it was aimed at being adapted to European participants, with the perspective that Europeans are from cultures that are less strict and less hierarchical than Japanese culture coupled with the that Tenrikyo has had in attracting and retaining European followers. Accordingly, allowances had been made to encourage more Europeans to be attracted to and stick with the religion as they encountered it, which was just as, if not more, focused on the lived experience of interacting with religiously associated contexts than it was with the doctrine of the faith.

In contrast to Kenta's experience, I heard numerous young adult Japanese followers charged with official positions associated with the religion in France or Europe express that they were (or felt they were) obliged to conform to a rather strict system of Japanese social codes, including the age and rank-based hierarchical system of which they were positioned near the bottom, thereby obliging them to act accordingly in their interactions with TEC personnel. Such individuals who communicated this perspective included some of the young adult residential missionaries at TEC and other young adult Japanese followers charged with official positions in the religious organization who were culturally adapted to western and more casual interactional models through having spent significant periods of time living in places in which this was the general culture. This culturally linked "obligation" was brought to my attention about a half year after my first time participating in the European Seminar when speaking with one of the non-Tenrikyo French young adults included in many of the non-manifestly religious contexts connected to TEC discussed in chapter three. We were at TEC for the annual children's pajama party where we were providing assistance, and she talked about how tired one of the young adult missionaries she was close with was (the twenty-six year old man mentioned earlier in reference to how little rest he seemed to get) and how in general, his experience at TEC was quite difficult for him. I expressed surprise, saying that he always seemed energetic and upbeat whenever I saw him. She, who was herself several years younger than him, replied that while that is true, as the youngest staff member in a Japanese cultural context in which hierarchical rank was closely associated with age, much of what would come up that needed to get done would fall on him to do. She then rhetorically inquired, do I never notice how tired he always is? Although it was true that there were occasionally subtle clues of this, his outward demeaner was not robustly expressive of it.

This was in accordance with the prescribed manner of self-presentation of these young Tenrikyo representatives who were expected to be cheerfully industrious in a disciplined and orderly manner that conformed to their role. I would like to now return to when I commented on his exhaustive efforts over a shared meal, during my second year of participating in the European Seminar, as mentioned in chapter seven, saying that if it were me, I would be quite tired and asked if he was not, to which I received his reply that he was, but that such social moments of conversation gave him energy. Somewhat later, by which point we had spent a significant amount of time around each other and thus knew each other better, thereby lessening his outward prescribed self-presentation (tatemae: "façade") and allowing him to share more of his honne ("true sound,") while chatting during a post-Monthly Service meal, he shared that he was tired and that in general during his time at TEC, he was frequently tired. Despite this, he regarded his experience at TEC and in France positively, as was evidenced through his choosing, in concert with organizing officials, to extend his period of stay at TEC several more years than had been initially planned and also by his heartfelt expression to me in our discussion slightly before he returned to Japan about how positive his experience at TEC (and in France) had been for him.

This regimented manner of making exhaustive efforts was similarly present in numerous structured engagements in Japan, including but certainly not limited to those which Kenta had been exposed to and indicated to regard as simply the manner with which one orchestrates and engages in structured Tenrikyo activities up until his participation in the European Seminar. Because Kenta's participation in the European Seminar as a student was a much more temporary position at TEC and one principally intended for Europeans, he did not feel the same culturally associated expectations that such Japanese young adults of similar Tenrikyo backgrounds 471 expressed to experience at TEC, which was similar to how they would experience comparable Tenrikyo contexts in Japan. Concerning Kenta's comment, in addition to it being reflective of the role he occupied at TEC as one principally intended for Europeans, it was also exemplary of a wider phenomenon that I observed elsewhere during my research in which Japanese Tenrikyo followers sometimes travelled outside of Japan, saw how Tenrikyo operated and was understood in other countries, then took certain aspects of what they observed back to Japan, applying it to various facets of the religion within the country. In this, a multi-directional flow of influence was created in which Tenrikyo was exported abroad from Japan, and correspondingly, developments in how the religion was approached and practiced in locations outside of this country came back from abroad to influence Tenrikyo in the country in which it originated, was based, and had the vast majority of followers.

In thinking of Kenta's connection with the "TEC community," Kenta was firmly rooted in the greater Tenrikyo scene but his experience with the landscape of Tenrikyo in Europe was limited.

The only time he spent on this continent was the six months he spent in the UK and the period of a little over three weeks he was at TEC for the seminar. Although his physical presence in Europe and at TEC was brief, his connection to the "TEC community" spanned beyond this precise moment in time and this geographic context. Even before Kenta had ever left Japan, he was socially connected to numerous members of the greater "TEC community" through various Tenrikyo social networks which he continued to be involved in afterwards. An example of this was that the head of a mission station in France from Osaka knew Kenta and his family though their connectedness in Japan. Furthermore, the head of the Yagishitas' London-based mission station had served as an instructor in the Shuyoka program in Tenri City in which Kenta had participated. It was Mr. Yagishita who arranged for Kenta's homestay in the UK. Even after he was no longer physically in France, Kenta remained associated with the networks of connection linked to TEC and the broader international scene of Tenrikyo, demonstrating the lack of absolute boundaries between geographically associated Tenrikyo spheres.

Yuta: an example of being and becoming part of a multilayered social world

Our other classmate was Yuta: a soft-spoken British-born man in his early thirties 472 . Yuta had been raised mainly by his non-religious British father in England but had also spent six years of his young adult life in Japan where his brother and Japanese mother lived. Yuta's mother and most of her family in Japan were Tenrikyo followers. Yuta began his own journey in the faith as a young adult. Upon his mother's insistence during a time in his early twenties when he was unemployed and looking for direction while living in Japan, he participated in the three-month spiritual development course of Shuyoka through which he learned about and came to embrace the path.

The story of participating in a Tenrikyo training, whether that of Shuyoka or another, such as the European Seminar, during a point of indirection in one's young adult life and finding one's own faith in the path through the experience was a narrative that I commonly heard echoed by Tenrikyo followers from numerous countries who I met at TEC, in Japan, and also read about online. Through this shared account, we can see that Yuta's experience of "becoming Tenrikyo" was part of a broader Tenrikyo story that circulated throughout the greater sphere of Tenrikyo.

The theme of becoming a follower of the path or deepening one's relationship to it during periods of unemployment was one that I repeatedly encountered throughout my research, including by numerous members of the "TEC community." I sometimes heard followers retrospectively discuss such periods of unemployment which encouraged their participation in such a training as having been positive turns in their life, evoking the commonly cited Tenrikyo teaching that "buds 472 Despite his calm appearance, Yuta was in a rock band in the UK and shared his musical talent with us at TEC on several festive occasions, as is somewhat common at TEC and in other Tenrikyo contexts for followers with such talents to do. Such musical performances are largely understood as "hinokishin," performed from one's heart to the best of one's ability with the intention of bringing enjoyment to others.

sprout from knots (on trees) 473 ," meaning that positive outcomes can arise from seemingly unfortunate or difficult circumstances.

Because both becoming involved in the religion and participating in spiritual trainings were commonly correlated with moments of adversity or when seeking guidance, it is contextually reasonable that people would choose to participate in such trainings and also that followers to whom they are connected, such as family members or one's "spiritual parent(s)" via one's "home site," would encourage them to do so in these moments. As noted in chapter three, my own invitation to participate in the training through which I learned about the religion and became extensively involved in it was several weeks after I had quit my part-time job, thereby allowing me to the accept the invitation because of my newly open schedule. Thus, my own experience of coming to know and becoming involved in the religion was in accordance with this theme.

Yuta was scheduled soon after the seminar to become the second-in-charge person of Tenrikyo UK Centre. He had initially been asked to teach a segment of the seminar that year rather than participate in it as a student. He explained to our cohort that because he did not yet understand Tenrikyo teachings and rituals sufficiently enough to feel comfortable in the role of an instructor, he chose instead to attend the seminar as a participant to learn more. Yuta's ability at this time to deepen his knowledge and understanding of the path through structured instruction was again facilitated by the fact that he had recently become unemployed and consequently had time available 474 . Immediately after the TEC seminar, he additionally used this time available to go to Tenri City to attend a two-week "lay-minister's course," the completion of which accorded one the title of "lay minister."

As a side note in discussing multiple members of the interconnected "TEC community," it is interesting to note that Yuta was accompanied in his participation of this lay minister's training by one of our seminar instructors: Thomas, a British man in his early fifties who regularly served 473 fushi kara me ga deru ( ふしから芽が出る). 474 The reason I mention these two instances of Yuta's unemployment at which time he participated in these Tenrikyo trainings is such timing is common amongst Tenrikyo followers or non-followers who come to embrace or explore the faith through such trainings. One rather obvious practical factor which encourages this timing is due to people having more time to do so during such periods when they are not obligated to go to work.

as an instructor in the European Seminar. Thomas was the only seminar instructor of the English cohort 475 to not be Japanese, or of Japanese ancestry, and was also the only instructor of this cohort to not have been born in the faith. Thomas became a Tenrikyo follower approximately thirty years previously after he was introduced to the faith by a young Japanese woman living in England who slightly later became his wife. In telling me the story of how he became a Tenrikyo follower, he told me that when he was introduced to the religion, he was very sad; through Tenrikyo, he was able to find happiness. Like Yuta, Thomas would also be taking over a position of responsibility at the Tenrikyo UK Centre soon after, which in his case, was as the appointed head of the center, thus his participation in the lay minister's course would also be helpful in preparation of his upcoming Tenrikyo role.

Regarding this upcoming transfer of leadership at Tenrikyo UK Centre, Yuta also voiced concern about his ability to assume his role as second-in-charge of Tenrikyo UK Centre. The concern that Yuta voiced was one that was one also commonly expressed by other Tenrikyo followers taking on responsibilities within the religion. This enunciated concern was partially reflective of the Tenrikyo teaching that cited "arrogance" (kōman) as one of the eight harmful dusts of the heart/mind, which translated to both an internal questioning of one's own knowledge and understanding of the faith and also one's readiness to fulfill a particular task or role among those who internalized and remained mindful of this teaching 476 . This encouraged the presence of such an expressed disposition in numerous Tenrikyo contexts which included, in my own observations, followers based in Europe, North America, and Japan and was largely a normative feature of Tenrikyo culture 477 . Thus, regardless of one's internal thoughts and feelings, individuals in such Tenrikyo contexts often adhered to this social norm, thereby encouraging the implicated individuals to consciously and unconsciously take it on themselves. 475 Michel was the only non-Japanese instructor for the French cohort. 476 This is a generalization. There was great variation in how people internalized such teachings. 477 In saying this, I am speaking mainly of my observations at TEC and in multiple Tenrikyo contexts in Japan. In these observations, the majority of the participants were Japanese: a culture in which such modesty is generally a cultural norm. Thus, the line between Japanese culture and Tenrikyo culture on this matter was somewhat blurred. My lack of extensive observation in Tenrikyo contexts in which the majority of followers were not Japanese limits my ability to know if this Tenrikyo cultural norm was equally present in such contexts.

As previously discussed, Tenrikyo culture was often closely connected with and reflective of the broader realm of Japanese culture. This voiced lack of excessive confidence associated with the avoidance of arrogance was reflective of this. The model of self-presentation included in this merging of Japanese culture and Tenrikyo culture was sometimes different than the general cultural codes of countries outside of Japan where there was a Tenrikyo presence, such as the United States and France478 . In these countries, albeit to varying degrees depending on the people and context involved, manners of conducting oneself viewed as arrogant and thus avoided in Japanese culture and in Tenrikyo culture were often regarded positively as displays of "confidence" and thus were socially encouraged and reinforced. (Concerning this cultural contrast, it is interesting to note that when I was in the beginning stages of my thesis research, focused at the time on Japanese migrants in Paris, I was told by numerous recently arrived Japanese people that Japanese people who had been living in Paris for a while were often arrogant and overly prideful, something which was probably due to their adopted enactment of this different manner of socially reinforced self-presentation. 479 )

In addition to Yuta's active participation in Tenrikyo in the UK, he, like many other Europeanbased Tenrikyo followers living outside of the Paris area, was also part of the greater "TEC community" dispersed throughout the European continent who occasionally came to TEC, chiefly for special events, at which times a temporarily present, but reoccurring, community "native" to this center came about. During my two-year period of fieldwork, Yuta came to TEC about half-adozen times. Like many other long-term members of the European "Tenrikyo community" who came semi-regularly to TEC, Yuta was a long-term and familiar presence at the center even though he was only there several times a year.

Yuta was positioned slightly at the periphery of the multi-layered social collectivity that I refer to as "the TEC community" due to multiple factors. The most prominent of which was his non-local residence in combination with his being relatively new to this community and a relative newcomer to the religion, thereby negating a certain level of "Tenrikyo habitus" that was often acquired through being raised in the faith, particularly in Japan or elsewhere by Japanese Tenrikyo parents. Furthermore, as Yuta received his upbringing predominantly outside of Japan by his non-Japanese (British) and non-Tenrikyo father after his Japanese Tenrikyo mother returned to Japan with Yuta's younger brother when Yuta was quite young upon their parents' divorce480 , he was largely negated of having a Japanese (and Tenrikyo) habitus despite having spent several years in Japan as a young adult. Relatedly, although Yuta learned Japanese as a second language, he did not have a native level of mastery in it.

As highlighted previously in this text, these factors were usually influential in how centrally or peripherally people were positioned within the "TEC community." I never heard Yuta reflect on this himself nor did I often hear others enunciate this subtle differentiation that was often present in discreet but notable ways at TEC gatherings. One such commonly observable differentiating factor were conversations that took place in Japanese which only those with native or near native competency were included while others in close proximity without this linguistic ability were not. This differentiation between Japanese and non-Japanese people at TEC was also manifested via cultural references and activities which, though not categorically destined for exclusively Japanese people, were in practice often aimed at and principally inclusive of this category of people. An example of this was the interspersed presence of Japanese pop culture in conversational references and organized activities. One instance of this that I took part in was the practice and performance of a dance number from a popular Japanese children's television program as an organized group activity included as part of a Tenrikyo training at TEC designed for young people. Another example was the employment of purposeful emotional stimuli for states such as reverence as they exist with a Japanese framework, including those discussed previously that were congruent with Shinto and Buddhist traditions, and also humor, that was often extremely slapstick in nature. These stimuli were largely culturally bound and thus often did not produce the same affect in people not of this culture.

Also notably present at TEC were the culturally specific ways people engaged in collective emotional displays, such as cheering at specific moments in specific ways, often through clapping and cheering with smiles in a manner that was reflective of Japanese culture. These practices were a part of the broader Japanese habitus of which most core members of the "TEC community" were included. Thus, people who were not of this cultural group were often subtly left to the sidelines through their lack of a developed familiarity and emotional resonance with them, thereby contributing to the two-tiered nature of this group.

Although not generally discussed, this subtle differentiation was connectedly reflected in numerous comments made by non-Japanese Tenrikyo followers which displayed an underlying perception of such a divide. Included in these subtle indications was the occasional use of the pronoun "they" by non-Japanese followers to refer to the Japanese faction of the TEC community. Implied with this non-self-inclusive pronoun was that the Japanese people at or connected to TEC, including people beyond the scope of TEC residential missionaries and mission station families, comprised the main component of TEC and its social world with non-Japanese people being positioned at its periphery, largely regardless of how long they had been coming to TEC or a follower of the religion. As stated previously, such a distinction which associated one's nationality (or ethnicity) with the level of implication in and connectedness with TEC was not purposeful on the part of TEC administration and was contrary to their efforts aimed at rendering TEC a site culturally and linguistically adapted for the European context in which it was located and inclusive to all who came, regardless of nationality or culture of origin.

In this, we can see the presence of multiple layers of what it was to be or become a "member" of the religion and also a "member" of the "TEC community" that spanned far beyond the question of if a person was a "believer" (shinja: 信者) or if they came to TEC and/ or practiced the centrally important ritual of the Service.

b. The diverse collection of participants coming from inside France

French-language cohort participants: a linguistically based separation reflective of an in-country/ out-of-country residential distinction

The French cohort of the seminar, which I participated in the following year, was an equally eclectic mix of people. Similar to the small English-speaking group, the students in the French cohort both years I participated in the program were connected to numerous other sites in addition to TEC, with this inter-lineage site serving as a gathering point between them. Further adding to the diversity of this small French-language cohort was that not all participants were French (or Japanese), thereby manifesting through this small group the fact that in the context of Tenrikyo in France, the collection of Tenrikyo followers was composed of multiple nationalities that spanned beyond a Japanese-French dichotomy.

For two of the French-cohort participants with whom I took part in the seminar the two years of my participation in it, TEC was their principal Tenrikyo site of worship in France, with their "home site" at which they were born and raised located outside of the European continent. The first year I participated in the program, this referenced follower was from the Republic of the Congo 481 and the second year, from Korea 482 . The other participants of the French cohort both years I participated in the program were French members of Bordeaux Kyokai.

To provide a more detailed portrayal of the individuals who took part in the French cohort, I will describe in further detail three of the individuals with whom I participated in the French-based cohort. In addition to myself, there were three other participants for the first week of the program: André (the retired French military officer in his mid-sixties mentioned in chapter five), Ji-young (the Korean woman in her mid-thirties previously mentioned who was a regular performer in TEC Monthly Service), and Baptiste (a French man in his mid-thirties who I omit from describing in detail). The second week, an additional participant named Nathalie (a young French woman in her early twenties who, as mentioned previously, I first met while assisting together with the TEC charity rummage sale) joined us for the remaining two weeks of the program 483 .

481 This individual was a Congolese woman whose father was the founding member of the religion's presence in the Republic of the Congo, which officially began in 1966. She lived in France for approximately 20 years before returning to her natal country during my fieldwork and through her long-term involvement with both TEC and the primary Tenrikyo church in the Republic of the Congo, located in Brazzavile, and also through having family members who regularly attend both of these sites, this woman was, in practice, a social bridge between these disparate Tenrikyo locations. 482 There was one French cohort participant who attended part of the program the first year who I did not sufficiently get to know during the seminar and only saw thereafter several times whose "home site" I am do not know. 483 Officially, because this young woman could not make it to the first week of the seminar, she was categorized as an "auditor" of the course rather than a "participant." She was included in the end-of-seminar photo that hangs on the TEC wall, but on the paper diploma she received at the end-of-seminar ceremony, rather than indicating that she completed the program, it is stated that she participated as an "auditeur libre" (auditor) in it.

As explained in chapter five, Ji-young grew up in a Tenrikyo site of worship 485 in Korea headed by her mother. Her mother's story of becoming a follower was in line with the historically most common way people not born into the faith became followers of the path by becoming an adherent after receiving healing for a physical ailment through the Sazuke, which in her case, was for an eye ailment. After her adoption of this religion 486 , Ji-young's mother drew others, including many of her relatives, into the faith, who then in accordance with the lineage-based model of Tenrikyo, became members of the "church" she headed. Because Ji-young's "home site" was based in her mother's home, even though she had lived abroad for approximately ten years, it did not take any specifically directed effort for her to remain connected to this site and its community of followers, many of whom were her own relatives, in addition to the familial connection she maintained, most specifically with her mother. This built-in connection to one's "home site" through one's family who headed or otherwise lived at their lineage-based site of worship as assistants was shared with multiple short and long-term members of the "TEC community" born into such contexts.

Most typically in the Tenrikyo tradition, as the only child of her head minister mother, Ji-young would be next-in-line to take over her mother's position. However, because Ji-young did not view herself as an appropriate person to take over this role nor did she have the desire to do so, largely due to a lack of a high level of investment in and dedication to the faith, it was planned for someone else to take over this role instead. This lack of conformity to the most prevalent Tenrikyo model of leadership of a lineage-based site being passed from parent to child was something that would not have been as easily accepted in many Tenrikyo families as it was in Jiyoung's. This was reflective of the diversity in numerous domains of the Tenrikyo religion in relation to family and church lineage traditions in concert with individual perspectives. Ji-young's level of involvement in the religion was principally based on what she judged appropriate for 485 I reference this place as a "site of worship" rather than a "mission station" or "church" because Ji-young explained that although in the official Tenrikyo system of categorization, it had not been officially granted the status of being a "church" by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters and remained officially a "mission station," in practice followers of it considered it to be a "church" and generally did not focus on the official categorical differentiations of Tenrikyo sites of worship.

486 I refer to Tenrikyo as a "religion" in relation to this Korean context because I specifically discussed the topic of whether Tenrikyo is or is not a "religion" with Ji-young and Ji-young expressed the perspective was most certainly a religion.

herself rather than on what was "standard" and this interactional relationship with the religion was similarly manifested in relation to her involvement at TEC.

As a note about female leadership at Ji-young's familial church, and extendedly in the religion more generally, although males usually served in the head minister role, this was not a fixed rule.

Ji-young's mother was the head of this church because she was the person in this group to first become a follower of the path, who then spread it to others who later became rooted to this localized site. If there had been an equivalent male, such as a husband, who had become an enthusiastic follower alongside Ji-young's mother willing and able to assume this leadership role, it would have likely been he who would have assumed this leadership position. As this was not the case, it was Ji-young's mother who assumed this role. Similarly, if Ji-young would have had a brother willing and able to be next-in-line to take on this role, it generally would have been him positioned as the default successor. Because Ji-young was an only child, though, it was she who was organizationally positioned as the default successor. When I asked Ji-young about the presence of female head ministers in Tenrikyo, with particular interest directed toward her familial church and Tenrikyo in Korea, she told me that Korea is basically similar to other Asian countries in that if a male is available for a leadership position, then it will generally be him who is privileged for it, but if there is no male option, then the role can go to a female 487 .

Ji-young regularly served as a performer in TEC Monthly Services and also participated in various other events held at the center. For these TEC Monthly Services, she usually was scheduled to perform in the second half of the Service because she sometimes arrived later than its 10:30 am start time. Akin to her presence at TEC Monthly Services often not being for the 487 The flexibility in gendered leadership where the role of head minister was sometimes assumed by a woman, most often because there was not a structurally equivalent male to assume the position, was something I occasionally observed to exist at Tenrikyo sites in Europe, Japan, and the United States as well. This structurally contextual flexibility was also present in a broader Japanese cultural framework in relation to the household system in which males would generally be privileged as the person through which a lineage would be continued and as the acting "head" of the group when possible, but with room for variation, such as when only a daughter was available as the successor. In my observations at TEC, although males were generally more often in visible leadership roles and sources of authority on the religion, this tendency was not absolute. An example of this can be found in Mary' serving as a seminar instructor alongside numerous males teaching the other seminar classes and TEC Monthly Service sermons being more commonly delivered by men, but also less frequently also by women. In this, we can an example of variation and adaptation that was a common theme that ran throughout my research context. entirety of the ceremony, her semi-regular participation in other TEC activities was also in a way that worked in combination with the rest of her life, rather than in an all-encompassing manner.

For example, although she performed in TEC Monthly Services almost every month, she did not come to TEC the day prior to help with the preparation of the post-Service meal nor to take part in the rehearsal of the ritual. Similarly, she only came to one day of the annual three-day European Tenrikyo youth retreat of "Palette" the year we took part in it together 488 because that was what worked best for her in relation to other aspects in her life.

In the case of her participation in the European seminar, she chose to only participate in the first two weeks of the program so that she could use some of her summer vacation time not only to deepen her relationship to and understanding of her religion, but also to go on holiday in the south of France. In general, Ji-young's approach to religious activities was one of balance in which she accorded importance to both her religion and also to other components of her life outside of Tenrikyo that she also viewed as important. In an interview about six months prior to our joint participation in the seminar, she explained that she came to Monthly Services at TEC because although she knew how to be a good person and how to live, they reminded her of what she already knew. Despite the fact that Ji-young expressed to accord her religion a position of importance in her own life, she did not overly invest herself in its missionary efforts nor did she position the "TEC community" as the primary source of her social life in France. In general, such partial social investment and belonging in the social community of TEC was more common amongst non-Japanese followers, who regardless of nationality, were a cultural and linguistic minority at TEC. Ji-young had already participated in the largely parallel three-month spiritual development program in Korea when she was in her early twenties which covered approximately the same material as the European Seminar. Ten years after she took part in this training in Korea, she chose to participate in the seminar at TEC both to deepen her understanding of the faith and to engage in a study of her religion in a culturally and linguistically different context than that of her home country. She did not specify any further regarding why she chose to take part in the European seminar after she had already completed the longer three-month program in her home 488 I took part in the "Palette" youth retreat twice.

André: an outspoken French follower's appreciation of and opposition to various aspects of the Tenrikyo religious scene

André, the Frenchman in his mid-sixties who was retired from the military, came to know Tenrikyo and became a follower of the path approximately ten years prior to the time of my fieldwork. He was introduced to the religion through a French friend he knew through other spiritual pursuits, such as reiki. When André first became involved in this religion, he was living in Bordeaux and was an active member of the church and its connected community while there.

He later relocated to a town approximately halfway between Bordeaux and Paris for familial reasons. He remained somewhat involved with Bordeaux Kyokai and sometimes came to TEC, but was not able to visit either as much as he would have liked due to the distance between his home and both of these sites. Regarding his infrequent presence at Bordeaux Kyokai during the time of my fieldwork, he told me he missed the church and its community, with particular emphasis placed on the social side of Bordeaux Kyokai being what he missed. Similarly, he placed significant emphasis on the social side of TEC regarding the aspects that he viewed both positively and negatively, demonstrating that it was not only the teachings and religious practices of the faith that were of focus in his involvement in these site-based spheres of Tenrikyo, but also, and perhaps more importantly, their social sides.

When we participated in the French cohort of the seminar together, it was André's fifth time to take part in the program, the most of any seminar participant since the program's inception.

André explained to me that every time he participated in the seminar, he got something different out of it which helped him deepen his understanding of the faith and its teachings. He also indicated that he came to the seminar year after year because he enjoyed the communal atmosphere of the residential program with its emphasis on spiritual development, despite his often being in vocal opposition to various aspects of the religion. Often when speaking of TEC, he made comments regarding the kindness of the core Japanese members of the "TEC community," which he invariably referred to as "they" and "them": othering terms of reference that he used to refer to (Japanese) Tenrikyo followers more generally despite his own religious identity also being that of Tenrikyo. In this, his perception of his perpetual partial exteriority due to his non-Japaneseness was expressed. He was vocal about his appreciation of the communal ambiance that came about at TEC during the religious events held there which functioned, amongst other capacities, as reunions between dispersed followers. Connectedly, he lamented to me at one such event that there used to be more people who came to this annual event and that the ambiance just wasn't the same that year, thereby demonstrating that the community atmosphere of such gatherings was a key factor of importance for him in coming to TEC for such occasions.

In relation to André's appreciation, and lack of appreciation, for various aspects of the Tenrikyo religion and of TEC, I would like to come back to his abstention from wearing a happi coat for a year out of protest to what he expressed to view as a dominating overlay of Japanese culture onto the Tenrikyo religion as it exists in this French context that I briefly evoked in chapter five. His sartorial protest was instigated by what he perceived to be an inappropriate orchestration of an important event held at TEC by locally living staff familiar with French cultural norms. For this event, important visiting officials were there from Japan and to André, this led to the local French cultural context being ignored in favor of conformity with the social structure of Tenrikyo as it exists in Japan.

More precisely, it was what he viewed to be a grossly inappropriate hierarchical differentiation between visiting high-ranking officials and the general collection of followers in attendance. His enunciated opposition was largely directed toward the fact that the high-ranking officials were formally seated for their dinner and the remaining duration of the evening while everyone else milled about standing and serving themselves from buffet-style tables onto disposable plates and cups. For André, this was an afront to both the foundress' teaching that all humans are equal and also an affront to the French value of equality that he stressed multiple times when we discussed this issue of contention by saying, "We already cut off the king's head in France." In saying this, he meant that the hierarchical differentiation between nobles and peasants that he perceived to be present in this scene, and more generally as a common component of Tenrikyo as it exists in Japan, was not appropriate in France.

André's objection to what he viewed as a high level of hierarchy in the religion, which he adamantly asserted to not have come from the foundress' teachings but rather from "feudal" Japanese culture, was not relegated exclusively to this event. Though he was officially connected to the grand church which served as the parent church of Bordeaux Kyokai, he did not appreciate Tenrikyo's lineage system and moreover the hierarchical position of this grand church's head and those closely connected to him489 , whom he asserted to me on numerous occasions to "live like kings 490 ."

When André went to Japan with others from Bordeaux Kyokai to become Yoboku, they visited this grand church and were treated as honored guests, such as for example by being served a lavish and expensive dinner. From André's perspective, because grand churches were economically supported by donations given by followers of its lineage, he skeptically viewed this hospitality not as a free gift, but rather as an investment made in order to later gain significant economic donations from this Bordeaux group. André was the only follower who openly enunciated me such a perspective regarding his lack of appreciation to what to him was an excessive amount of hierarchical differentiation, particularly in the French context in which he was a follower, but I heard from him on numerous occasions that such a view was also held by "others" of Bordeaux Kyokai. Included in this, for example, was André telling me that although numerous French followers attached to Bordeaux Kyokai held a similar perspective regarding the organizational system of Tenrikyo being overly hierarchical in which often those in positions of important rank were accorded an inappropriately high position in relation to general followers. In contrast to André, though, I did not myself hear others openly express this opinion.

Relatedly, one of our seminar instructors, who was a prominent member of the "TEC community" born and raised at a small (and poor) Tenrikyo branch church in Japan where his father had served as head minister, spoke to us about complications that sometimes arose in the religion due to the importance placed on one's lineage which sometimes came into conflict with one's relationship with the faith. He related an instance in which there was a female Japanese Tenrikyo follower experiencing health problems which she spoke about to the head minister of her church. In order to arrive at a solution to these problems, the head minister told her that she should make a monetary offering to the faith, which in Tenrikyo usually meant a monetary offering made to one's "home site." A portion of this offered money was kept by the receiving "home site," and a portion was passed to its supervising church, which in turn then kept a portion and passed the rest on to its supervising church in like manner until, depending on how many supervising layers of its lineage there were, the remaining portion arrived at the central entity of the religion: Tenrikyo Church Headquarters.

In accordance with her head minister's council, this woman made a monetary offering to the faith via her "home site" but was not relieved of her ailment. She again went to see her head minister.

He told her that the monetary offering she made had not been adequate and that she must make another economic offering as an expression of her sincerity. She was upset by this, largely because from her perspective, much of the money previously given had been used by the head minister and those close to him for their own enjoyment rather than for the benefit of the church or the larger religious body. As her head minister remained unwavering in his council, she chose to leave the religion because, though technically possible, excluding in cases of marriage, it was quite rare and potentially difficult to change lineages. Thus, in reaction to her being in strong disagreement with the leadership of her "home site" which made her no longer wish to be a member of it, she chose to leave the religion as a solution to this disaccord.

Our instructor related to us that he thought this was really too bad because it was an instance of human problems getting in the way of this woman following the path of Tenrikyo, which at a base level, our instructor explained, was something bestowed by God the Parent rather than something based primarily in the realm of human thinking, which is often flawed. He further added that in Tenrikyo, when one makes an offering, what is important is the giving from oneself and thus, ideally, one should not be concerned with what happens to the money thereafter; what is important is that one made the offering. (As I heard it explained by numerous others, by making an offering, some of one's greed, which I remind the reader is one of the "eight dusts," was swept away.)

In saying this, though, this instructor spoke about that in his own view, the leadership of some Tenrikyo churches did, in fact, use the money received from monetary offerings in an inappropriate manner, with too much in some cases used for their own lavish enjoyment. He talked about his own personal lack of agreement with this and a connected sense of injustice that he sometimes felt while growing up with how the religious organization was operated in certain contexts. More specifically, this sentiment was directed towards the fact that there could be significant discrepancies between hierarchically different layers of a lineage in which some branch churches (which included the family of its head minister) were quite poor but nonetheless (socially and through tradition) were obliged to give a portion of the money they received through offerings from its followers to its supervising church. This sometimes contributed, depending on the particular lineage and leadership involved, to a situation in which some families operating small branch churches were impoverished but obliged to give a significant portion of their meager funds to their supervising church, whose leadership enjoyed a comparatively luxurious situation largely thanks to the money they received from their subordinate churches. This instructor's key point of reference in relating this was the small and relatively poor branch church at which he was raised in comparison to its supervising grand church he visited throughout his youth that was significantly better off economically. While saying this, he maintained that in the domain of making offerings, because this gesture was done as a symbolic expression of one's gratitude to God the Parent and for one's own spiritual growth (which was positioned in the religion as inseparable from one's physical well-being), one should not be concerned with how this money is used. This is because it is supposed to be made for spiritually based symbolic reasons rather than for functional, infrastructural purposes. While André's skepticism of certain aspects of the religion, including its social hierarchy and its economic functioning in certain contexts, was not often expressed by other members of the "TEC community," there were occasionally small indications, such as through the aforementioned comments made by this instructor, which indicated that some of André's views may be more discretely widespread than what was displayed on the surface. Despite this general lack of open discussion on certain components of Tenrikyo which some followers may not have appreciated, or may have disapproved of, discrete indications that such sentiments may be more present than what was in most cases overtly observable were also occasionally present in my fieldwork, for example, by such perspectives sometimes being mentioned to be held "by someone else." Two principle reasons for this was the emphasis in both Japanese and Tenrikyo culture placed on not committing actions that may cause disharmony in the group and also on not speaking poorly of others. Most followers connected to TEC, largely regardless of whether or not they were Japanese, adhered to this collective norm. Contrastingly, André's robust declarations brought certain sentiments that may also have been held by others but not openly expressed into focus.

Nathalie: making the choice to be rooted to the "Western church" of Bordeaux Kyokai

As mentioned previously, the 22-year-old French woman named Nathalie who joined the seminar for its second and third weeks was also a member of Bordeaux Kyokai. In contrast to André, though, it was not through this church that she was initially introduced to the faith. Rather, her own introduction to the religion was through her Japanese Tenrikyo boyfriend who she met while he was on exchange from Tenri University to the Université d'Orléans 491 , at which time Nathalie was studying Japanese and English there. Though the young man who would become her boyfriend did not initially speak with Nathalie a great deal about Tenrikyo, it was an important part of his life. As the eldest son of a Tenrikyo church in Japan headed by his father, he was nextin-line to occupy its head minister role. In contrast to Ji-young who also the "normal" heir to this leadership position, his lifepath was more predetermined 492 , thereby rendering the religion a prominent part of his present and future life in a very tangible way.

During the seminar, at which time highly personal and in-depth conversations were commonplace, Nathalie explained that according to her boyfriend's family, specifically his mother, it was imperative that he marry a Tenrikyo follower. This was his innen493 . Accordingly, if she wanted to marry him, it would be necessary for her to become a follower of the path.

Though the view his mother expressed was undoubtably for multiple reasons, one was pragmatically because the operation of a Tenrikyo site of worship was regarded as ideally a joint effort between husband and wife through their serving in complementary roles.

Despite the importance of Nathalie becoming a follower of the path expressed by her potential future mother-in-law should she want to marry into this family, Nathalie did not express this to have been the principal reason for which she embraced the faith. Instead, the reasons she presented for having become a follower were a mix of viewing it as her innen, with the circumstances of how she met her boyfriend included in this conceptualized unfolding of her destiny in concert with the positive feelings she had through both the ritual components of the 491 As mentioned in chapter three, there was an exchange program between these schools. 492 This assessment is based on comments made by Nathalie on the matter.

religion and the general Tenrikyo culture of working together and helping others. In sum, the primary reason Nathalie presented for embracing the religion was the positive benefits she regarded it as being capable of bringing to her life.

Nathalie was initially exposed to a Tenrikyo site of worship when she and her boyfriend stayed at a Paris-based mission station494 operated by Japanese family friends of the same church lineage as her boyfriend's at which the Service was performed with regularity each morning and evening.

Through this, Nathalie developed an affinity for the ritual. Slightly later, she came with her boyfriend to TEC to help with its charity rummage sale and thoroughly enjoyed the ambiance of working together joyously to help others. While there for this event, she again encountered the Service and experienced a positive sense of nostalgia, which she described to me in a conversation we were having in French with the Japanese words of, "ii naa, nastukashii": a simple Japanese expression that translates approximately to, "Oh that's nice, it's nostalgically familiar 495 ." Her use of Japanese was reflective of how she experienced that moment and also how she thought to express those feelings when we were talking about it later.

The Japanese expression she employed, for which it is difficult to find a commonplace French equivalent 496 , was reflective of her absorption of elements of "Japaneseness" into her global conception of that experience and of being involved with the religion. It demonstrated a linguistically-linked experiential schema of her emotional experiences in relation to Tenrikyo that were not only linked to those commonly expressible in her native language of French, but also some which, for her, were experienced and most easily expressible in Japanese. This "Japanification" was no doubt influenced by her being in a relationship with a Japanese man and through time spent with other Japanese people in multiple contexts. It was also developed through her studies of the Japanese language which extended into the present and immediate future as she was pursuing a master's degree in linguistics with a focus on the Japanese language, with her upcoming year of studies scheduled to take place in Japan. It was also developed through her practice and study of Tenrikyo. In her academic studies and her religious involvement, she was actively making efforts to be trained in their respective systems, with both closely linked to Japanese culture. Thus, her "Japanification" which extended to the language through which certain experiences were linguistically framed was reasonably a mix of conscious and unconscious factors.

In her actions and in her discourse, other markers of moving towards an adoption of other aspects of the culture were also displayed. For example, sometimes during the Morning and Evening Services, rather than sitting on one of the chairs in the TEC sanctuary that were an adaptation for this European context, she sometimes kneeled in the back, often along with several Japanese followers, for its performance. She also expressed appreciation for the assumption of traditional Japanese gender roles, particularly in the context of marriage, which were commonly present in Japanese Tenrikyo contexts. Most prominent, though, was her enactment of small, everyday behaviors and embodied displays such as facial expressions and bodily movements that were subtly more reflective of a Japanese display of emotion and mode of sociality than a French one. Nathalie's "Japaneseness" was something I heard commented on by multiple members of the TEC community. For example, André remarked to me that she was "more Japanese than the Japanese" (a statement which was less than complimentary on his part, but paired with saying that she was quite young, thereby implying that he viewed her adopted Japaneseness to be linked to her youth that would likely lessen with time). Several Japanese women at TEC echoed this statement later, though in their case with positive connotations, by saying that although she was French, she was very much like a Japanese person.

After Nathalie became increasingly involved with and interested in the Tenrikyo faith, the question of which "home site" she would join presented itself. This need to have a "home site" was because, among other reasons, one must be rooted to one in order to attend the Besseki lectures necessary to become a Yoboku, which she wished to do. Furthermore, when in Tenri City, having a "home site" accorded one a place of belonging in a particular church lineage which was associated, among other benefits, with having a designated church followers' dormitory 497 to stay at while in this pilgrimage town. Since it was through her boyfriend that she was introduced to the faith, she could have become a member of his church and its connected lineage, in accordance with the general rule that new followers join the site of worship of the person who introduced them to the faith. Instead, she chose to become a member of Bordeaux Kyokai.

During a long walk after dinner one evening of the seminar, she explained that she had significantly contemplated which site of worship to join before reaching her decision of Bordeaux Kyokai. Upon reflection, she decided it would be best if she did not join her boyfriend's church.

This conclusion was largely based on the fact that one's church membership is permanent498 .

Nathalie was serious about becoming a follower of Tenrikyo out of her own desire to do so, not merely because it would please her Tenrikyo boyfriend and his family. She felt cautious about joining her boyfriend's church, since even if the relationship with her boyfriend ended, she would remain a member of his familial church where he was foreseen to inherit the role of being its head minister. She saw this as a potentially undesirable situation should they break up. If they did marry in the future, she would join his lineage, but until then, she decided it would be best to be based at a different "home site."

In thinking about which lineage-based site in France to join, Nathalie told me that she decided as a French/Western person, it made sense to have her "home site" be the French/Western one of Bordeaux Kyokai499 where both the head minister and the majority of its followers were Westerners, which she described as being better adapted to her culturally. That she was pursuing her graduate studies in Bordeaux, a location in France of significant distance from where she was born, raised, and had been living previously, facilitated her regular presence at Bordeaux Kyokai.

During the year prior to her participation in the seminar which coincided with her first year of studies in Bordeaux, she participated in its daily and Monthly Services and also in the study sessions held there prior to its Evening Service where the church's head minister taught the sacred dances in association with their underlying meanings. While we were talking about Nathalie's experience of becoming a Tenrikyo follower, she noted that she did not herself grow up in a religious household but was quite fortunate that her parents were open minded; as long as it was not harmful, which they did not view her involvement in the Tenrikyo religion to be, they were not opposed to her becoming a follower of it.

Despite the fact that Nathalie's most overt reason for becoming a Tenrikyo follower was the prominent place it held in her boyfriend's life, similar to many other followers, she too, indicated the view that the most common reason people joined the faith as being in response to a problem.

After I commented to Nathalie that I appreciated that the head minister of Bordeaux Kyokai seemed to accept my position as a researcher rather than as a follower, Nathalie replied that this is normal because most people are drawn to Tenrikyo because it helps them address a problem. If I am approaching Tenrikyo from an academic perspective rather than to solve a personal problem, it is normal that I would not become a follower myself because there would be no compelling reason to do so. Although this seemed like a reasonable statement, I was a little surprised to hear it from Nathalie, herself a new follower.

Nathalie and I stayed somewhat in touch via Facebook after the seminar during her year in Japan.

During the first part of her stay in Japan, though slightly later than planned, she became a Yoboku. Then, she went again to Tenri City numerous times when her schedule allowed, which I was often made aware of through smiling pictures of her there with Japanese friends that I saw on the social networking site referenced previously. Her university in Japan was located in a small town that was also the hometown of one of the core local members of TEC, Mr. Takeshita, who served as one of our seminar instructors. While in Japan, not only did Nathalie have connections previously formed in Europe to the parental grand church of Bordeaux Kyokai and to her boyfriend's church, but she had also received an expression of being welcome to spend time at Mr. Takeshita's home church while on exchange in his hometown. Thus, before ever setting foot on Japanese soil, she had multiple potential networks of connection via relationships formed in Europe with Tenrikyo followers. This is a contextualizing example of the TEC community's unbound and interconnected nature which included the existence of a complex matrix of intertwined relationships that spanned out from the specific context of TEC to the broader realm of Tenrikyo as it existed in other locations.

c. Representing the religion and its connected social world through seminar instructors

Visiting seminar instructors from outside of Europe: links between TEC and the greater transnational context of Tenrikyo

Each of the two years I participated in the seminar, an overseas guest instructor was brought to TEC to help instruct a portion of the English-language program. Both of the visiting instructors for the English-based classes were Japanese-Americans, thereby demonstrating the prominence of the US in the English-language sphere of Tenrikyo and also of the interconnectedness between TEC (and the sphere of Tenrikyo in Europe) and the sphere of Tenrikyo in the US. The first year of my participation in this program, it was Mary500 who came from Hawaii to serve in this role.

The second year, it was a man named Mr. Okuhira who was born and raised in California to Japanese missionary parents and moved to Tenri City501 as an adult where he taught at Tenri University.

Neither of these guest instructors were experienced instructors of such "spiritual development" trainings, but both were experienced in teaching in an academic context, as was noted in written references to their serving as guest instructors in the European Seminar. Their occupation in the role of teaching in this structured Tenrikyo training provided them with the experience of serving in this capacity, thereby according to Tenrikyo discourse, encouraging their own spiritual development through their efforts to help others learn more about the faith and progress spiritually. Additionally, their coming to the European Seminar as guest instructors also connected them with TEC and its social world through the time they spent there in connection with the nature of their involvement in a program structured to encourage deep personal reflection and a social connectedness between those present.

Mary had undergone a Tenrikyo lay ministers' training course in Tenri City and was thus qualified to serve in certain leadership positions within the faith, though she had not previously.

TEC and similar regional centers outside of Japan. Also included in this diagram are the official direct connections between sites, along with the unofficial social connections at work. In like manner, Mr. Okuhira also contributed to the transnational character of TEC through his temporary presence there. Mr. Okuhira was born and raised in southern California. His father, a Japanese Tenrikyo convert, moved to California from Japan as a young man to spread Tenrikyo as a missionary after he became an enthusiastic member of the faith due to it helping him overcome non-physical difficulties in his life through encouraging him to understand his life differently. Mr. Okuhira's father initially founded a mission station in California, which developed into a church, where Mr. Okuhira spent his young years. Growing up, he was part of the Tenrikyo community in California and during the time we spent together at the seminar, I heard numerous stories about his involvement in the Tenrikyo community where he was raised, including but not limited to the US Tenrikyo Mission Headquarters in Los Angeles506 .

After the first part of his life spent in the US and before moving to Japan, Mr. Okuhira lived in Europe to pursue a doctorate in religious studies, producing a thesis on a Tenrikyo-centered topic.

During this time, he was connected to TEC, which I learned of through his speaking about his previous time of being at TEC in the Monthly Service sermon he delivered when there as a seminar instructor. After completing his doctorate, he moved to Tenri City and assumed a teaching position at Tenri University. Though his primary connections to Tenrikyo communities were in the US and Japan, he also had a connection to the European Tenrikyo community and connectedly to TEC through the time he spent in Europe during his studies, a connection which was renewed when he came back to TEC as an instructor for the seminar. During the duration of over three weeks for which he was at TEC in this capacity, he spent time with numerous members of the TEC community, including individuals he initially met thirty years previously when he first came to this European center. Moreover, his membership in the greater international Tenrikyo community in which the US and European spheres were close cousins also linked him to TEC.

The presence of these visiting instructors coming from locations outside of Europe added to the transcontinental ambiance of the social world that existed at TEC during the seminar, leaving the memory and impact of their presence which included the connection they brought with them to the greater transnational Tenrikyo social world to which TEC was linked. Considering that the participation fee of thirty euros per week was not enough to cover the cost of the food participants ate 507 , with the rest of the program financed by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters (which also financed the center of TEC itself), the significant expense of bringing people from overseas locations to help teach a very small group of students is noteworthy. This is both because it provides a pointed example of the significant level of effort and resources invested into Tenrikyo prostelization efforts in Europe and also the importance placed on maintaining connectedness between disparate Tenrikyo locations, particularly between certain linked geographic areas, such as that of Europe with the US, and also to the principal location where this religion was based, Japan. It also illustrates the purposefully fostered connectedness between certain linguistic spheres, such as that of English-speaking followers, which I discuss in relation to the forum organized for this internationally connected sphere of followers in chapter ten.

European-based seminar instructors: core members of the TEC community who serve as connectors to the broader European sphere of the religion

The European-based seminar instructors, too, were an eclectic group of people coming from multiple locations. Most had been part of the "TEC community" for a while and furthermore, most also headed lineage-based sites of worship in their homes. Some were part of this community through living in the Paris area. Other instructors, which included men coming from the UK, two from other regions of France, and one from Germany508 , were non-local long-term core members of the "TEC community," mainly via distance, but also punctuated by time spent at the center as well through time spent together elsewhere, namely in Tenri City.

During the two years I participated in the program, all but two of the European-based seminar instructors were Japanese men. The outliers were the head minister of Bordeaux Kyokai and the British man, Thomas, who assumed the leadership position as head of Tenrikyo UK Centre. This predominant representation of the teachings being conveyed by Japanese followers that was likewise mirrored in the predominance of Japanese performers in TEC Monthly Services was not a purposeful preferencing of Japanese people in prominent roles because of a nationality-based hierarchy in the religion and/or at TEC. Rather, it was representative of the present state of the religion in France and in Europe. On several occasions, in fact, I was exposed to efforts made to include more Europeans amongst the seminar instructors, such as Yuta 509 who chose instead to initially attend the seminar as a participant in order to gain a deeper understanding of the religion before taking on this teaching role. Similarly, the following year, I observed a small push to include André, who as described previously was not a fully conforming member of Tenrikyo, through a comment made by one of our instructors in a joking, yet serious, way that it would be him teaching part of the seminar the following year. To this remark, André laughed slightly and said that he didn't know things well enough (on the religion) to do that, thereby effectively evading this invitation to functionally move into a role generally associated with the inner core group of TEC.

Among the four classroom instructors of the French cohort the year of my participation in it, excluding the French head of Bordeaux Kyokai, all were Japanese men who had come to France initially as missionaries who lived in the Paris area and were core members of the TEC community. More specifically, one was Mr. Kawakubo, the head of TEC. Another was Mr.

Takeshita, who came to France first as a residential missionary teacher to ACFJT, where he continued to work as a full time employee, who I discussed extensively in chapter two in relation to the numerous ways being a "member" of Tenrikyo can be defined: an explanation I heard in a class during this seminar. The third was the most senior of these instructors. He did not initially come to France as a missionary teacher of ACFJT, but rather as one of the 1968 "Araki Toryogosha Eurasian Missionary Tour" Tenrikyo Young Men's Association delegates who drove through twenty-nine countries in Asia and Europe in two Japanese cars to spread the faith, eventually arriving in Paris. From his long-term presence and the multiple key roles that he held over the years, this individual was a notably rich source of insight into the long-term history of TEC and the broader "TEC community." Moreover, regarding the long-term presence of core members of TEC, in the composition of these French-cohort instructors, the connection between the short-term, highly local core members of the "TEC community" composed primarily of young adult residential missionary teachers scheduled to serve several year terms and the long-term core members of this community, who often headed mission stations and served, along with their wives, in key roles at TEC was clearly manifested. Although the statute of such core members often changed over time, for those who stayed in France, their central position in the "TEC community" remained largely the same 510 . Somewhat contrastingly, none of the UK-based instructors of the English cohort the year I participated in this group had lived at TEC or taught at ACFJT, but, similar to the French cohort 510 I would like to note that the previous year, when I participated in the English cohort, there were several more instructors than during my year of participation the French cohort. Similarly, all were Japanese male "core" members of the TEC community living in France.

instructors, they did host mission stations at their homes in the UK, regularly came to TEC, and were otherwise highly involved in the Tenrikyo scene of Europe. In addition to the British instructor discussed previously, the UK-based instructors of the academically structured classes in English were composed of two UK-based families. One of these families, as noted previously in chapter six, was represented through the three sons of the Yagishita missionary family who each taught a class during a separate week of the program, along with their younger sister and mother, who each served in a supportive role for one week.

The other family was a Japanese couple in their eighties who were based in the UK but had previously spent a number of years in California, during which time they developed a connection with the Tenrikyo scene in California and in the United States. The husband served as head of their home-based mission station and also as the acting head of Tenrikyo UK Centre until the previously referenced British follower assumed this role. In their partnered teaching of the textbased classes on the sacred dances of the Service, this couple assumed the task in a typical Tenrikyo manner of joint efforts made by husbands and wives, or more generally, by men and women, which was also reflective of Japanese culture more broadly in which the husband served in the more authoritative and vocal role as the principal instructor (in accordance with his male position as the "sky") while the wife occupied a more reserved role (in accordance with her foundational role as the "earth,") often listening, and sharing information, personal experiences, and demonstrations of the dances when the husband requested this of her511 .

Along with the women discussed in the previous chapter who served in the foundational role of the seminar through preparing meals and other such functions, these instructors were largely representative of the long-term social nucleus of the "TEC community" in which becoming involved in this social group was largely analogous with coming to know at least some of the core members who served as seminar staff. Among other characteristics, most were Japanese, and all had spent significant amounts of time in Tenri City. This experiential connection to this pilgrimage town was a key element in serving in such a representational role of the religion and was also a key factor in being a core member of the "TEC community." The next section of this thesis is dedicated primarily to an exploration of Tenri City, its role in relation to the "TEC community," and its central place in Tenrikyo.

Section IV: "Becoming Tenrikyo" in Tenri City: the centrally important component of the TEC community located on the other side of the world

Section introduction

Although my research was focused on a primarily European-based social world, in order to have a global understanding of this group, it is necessary to shift our analytic lens to also include the pilgrimage town of Tenri City located halfway across the world from TEC. In this final section of my thesis, I will demonstrate the interconnectedness between these two locations and that the "TEC community" was largely a bi-local social world. It was largely associated with lived and affiliational connections to TEC and being based in Europe, but also would not have been what it was without lived and imaginary connections to and collectively shared experiences in this pilgrimage town. Being connected to the Tenrikyo faith in Europe meant being connected to Tenri City. It was this ongoing connection, regardless of one's present location, that largely served as the solidifying component between members of my research population. They were simultaneously linked to Europe and more precisely, to TEC, and also to this religiously focused town in Japan in which their shared referential place-based lexicon which influenced their identity and social commonalities included both locations.

In chapter nine, I will discuss general components of this pilgrimage town that were important contributors of being there and also of how Tenrikyo is conceptualized in other locations. Then, in chapter ten, I will discuss numerous specific reasons, namely trainings and events, for which people spent time there and developed experientially based connections with this location and with specific experiences that take place there which link them to the faith, the location in which it is centered, and with others who share these commonalities. Through this final section, we can see that to adequately describe and understand the "TEC community," we must take into account its transnational nature that was at the core of what it was.

Chapter nine: "Coming home" to Tenri City: lived and imaginary connections to a pilgrimage site

a. The sustained and prominent connection to the Jiba

The bi-local nature of the TEC community

The high level of interconnectedness between TEC and Tenri City was an important contributing factor to how the eclectic and interconnected group on which my study is focused was constructed, sustained, and developed. The conceptually-based connection followers, including those in Europe, were encouraged have with this sacred site was an important uniting commonality, somewhat regardless of if they had spent significant amounts of time together there or rather, if their connection to this pilgrimage site existed largely or entirely in the realm of the imaginary.

The prominent role that the imaginary plays in linking many of the religious actors included in my study with Tenri City and the connected solidification of this European-based collection of religious actors as a "group," which further contributes to their regarding themselves as being part of the broader global Tenrikyo sphere, is evocative of Benedict Anderson's (2006) "imagined communities." More than the actual, personally lived connections members of a group have with other members, it is their perception of being part of a greater communal social whole that fixes their identity as part of one, which is, in turn, also imagined by other people who similarly perceive themselves as part of the group. Numerous components that are often associated with Tenri City that I discuss in this and the following chapter are included as some of the same "interests and characteristics" that Anderson spoke of in his discussion of their role in the construction and sustenance of imagined communities. Although there are discrepancies which exist between different Tenrikyo spheres, the common link of all Tenrikyo followers to this pilgrimage town, and its connected imaginary realm, is a key factor in their conceptualization of belonging to the greater Tenrikyo whole and also a highly prominent connecting factor that links the religious actors included in the "TEC community." Similar to the concept of the "nation" discussed by Anderson, in the wider realm of Tenrikyo, it was common to hear "members" mention regarding themselves as being part of a greater Tenrikyo "familial" whole. Despite the fact that "members," similar to those of "imagined communities," will never know most of their fellow "members," meet them, or even hear of them, in their minds is the image of their communion. The most prominent contributing component to this is the notion of followers throughout the world directing their prayers through the performance of the Service ritual toward the sacred point of the Jiba, thereby joining with other followers and with the divine focal point of the faith (God the Parent) in this highly important location. Furthermore, images of this central religious area, most prominently the Main Sanctuary, are commonly displayed at Tenrikyo sites of worship and included in their publications, thereby strengthening the association between this place and the faith through sightbased representation. These mentally constructed and physical images are also a prominent feature of what links followers together both worldwide and also in the "TEC community." Similar to Anderson's "imagined communities" which entail a sense of communion or "horizontal comradeship" between people who often do not know each other or have not even met, but despite their differences, imagine belonging to the same collectivity to which they attribute a common history, traits, beliefs, and attitudes, in the case of both the wider global collection of Tenrikyo followers and also those included in the "TEC community," the majority of these linking features are based in and associated with this religiously focused location. Also analogous to Anderson's discussion is that the deep emotional bonds Tenrikyo followers generally have to numerous aspects of the faith, namely that of the Service ritual, the Jiba, God the Parent, the foundress, and the central area of Tenri City where the main sanctuaries dedicated to these two entities are located. All of these aspects are closely interlinked and associated strongly with this pilgrimage town and join members of the greater religious whole, even if they never meet. Further linking members of the greater Tenrikyo whole are supposedly shared cultural features that are positioned as features of Tenrikyo culture. Among all features of Tenrikyo, though, it is the sacred point of the Jiba, and extendedly, the pilgrimage town of Tenri City in which it is located, that is the key unifier of followers, regardless of where they are. The conceptualized and lived relation that followers have to the Jiba is largely based on the idea that this sacred point is where all humans are originally from. People who go there are said to be "returning 512 " to this location, even if it is their first time (in this life) to go there. Accordingly, people are greeted with "welcome home 513 " when they go there, regardless of if they have been there before or if they identify as a follower of the religion. To begin a focused discussion on this pilgrimage site positioned literally and symbolically at the center of the faith, it is appropriate to put forth a basic explanation of what and where it is.

Although some of these features have been previously stated in my thesis, I would like to convey a foundational explanation of key information about this town at this point from which to continue my discussion.

Tenri City (or Shoyashiki Village as it was called at the time Tenrikyo came into existence) is where the foundress lived for the majority of her life, moving there in 1810 at the age of twelve from a nearby village two km away upon an arranged marriage (The Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo 1996: 8-10). It was there where the teachings of the path were conveyed.

Geographically, it is located in Nara Prefecture, approximately 12 km from the city of Nara and approximately 50 km from Osaka. Its proximity to Osaka is notable, among other reasons, due to the tendency of Japanese followers living abroad to fly into Osaka Kansai International Airport when returning to Japan and to first visit Tenri City before thereafter continuing on to their hometown or other destination(s). In a very tangible and repeated manner, this sacred site was accorded importance through regularly being the first destination such followers, who composed the vast majority of the core of the "TEC community," visited when re-entering their country of origin. Ideologically, it was not simply to the general municipality of Tenri City that followers were travelling to, but more specifically to the sacred point of the Jiba 514 located therein. In doing this, as multiple followers explained to me, they were returning to visit both their original hometown and also their original parent(s)515 .

512 kaeru 513 okaeri nasai 514 While this was true for most followers, I do not wish in stating this to make a universal claim. During my research, I heard about a variety of personal relationships followers had with aspects of this pilgrimage site, such as the very personal experiences some people had in the foundress' sanctuary, where the ever-living foundress resides, located slightly adjacent to the Main Sanctuary constructed around the point of the Jiba.

To refresh the reader's memory, the precise location of the Jiba was reportedly516 identified by Oyasama on June 29, 1875 as the place where God the Parent enabled the original conception of humans who have been reborn many times until the present time and also as the place where God the Parent resides. After this precise point was identified by Oyasama, it was said to have been subsequently confirmed by her followers who were there with her by each of them wearing a blindfold and stopping at this precise spot from the pull they felt from the ground. It is for this reason that this point, and extendedly Tenri City inside which it is located, is regarded as the original hometown of all humanity and is commonly referred to as "the home of the parent" (Oyasato).

The connection between this sacred point and Tenrikyo sites of worship elsewhere, including TEC and the lineage-based sites in Europe discussed in chapter six, was something I heard referenced throughout my research by core members of the TEC community. This was generally expressed in two ways. The first was based in their imaginative capacities, as evidenced for example through some followers who talked about that on occasion when performing the Service at TEC or at other Tenrikyo sites of worship far from the Jiba, they would close their eyes and imagine the Jiba and performing the Service toward this point. The second way I heard followers discuss the connection between the Jiba and performing the Service elsewhere was through uniting their hearts/minds with the Jiba and relatedly, with all others who in like manner were also connecting their hearts/minds with the Jiba. In relation to thinking about the role of the body in the construction of community, in performing the Service during which time they were ideally directing their intention toward this sacred point, they were performing the same gestures and singing the same songs through their physical bodies. Thus, not only was their intention ideally shared517 , but their bodily movements, gestures, and often also their bodily covering of the present in the textual material of the religion, as the scholar of religious studies, Marras (1983) noted in his discussion of the religion that it is often difficult in Tenrikyo texts to make a clear distinction between whether the subject is Oyasama or Oyagami.

Tenrikyo happi, or more formal variations of Tenrikyo robes, were also the same. Not only was there a shared commonality in the intention between these dispersed followers toward the Jiba, but there was also a commonly shared bodily practice. This physical connection with the Jiba and with other Tenrikyo sites of worship was also maintained at Tenrikyo sites of worship throughout the world via the "sacred objects" housed within the altars dedicated to God the Parent that were linked through a ritual performed around the Jiba. By returning to the Jiba, not only were followers returning to the location of their spiritual focus but they were also returning to the location from which the (unseen) objects toward which they directed their focus when at their local sites of worship originated.

In discussing the role of this pilgrimage site, it should be noted that often, for followers "returning" to Tenri City from outside of Japan, a visit to church(es) of their lineage518 was often included as a part of their overall trip. Most often, these visits were to the supervising "parent" church(es519 ) of their "home site" and for those with their "home site" located in Japan, also to their "home site." Thus, the connection followers in Europe had with the religion in Japan was not only constructed through "returning" to this pilgrimage town, but also often through time spent at lineage-based sites elsewhere in this country, thereby further adding to the connection between these two disparate contexts.

In thinking of the social world of TEC, it is not enough to simply look at what was occurring in Europe to understand this "community" that had transnationality as one of its key features.

Instead, the trend Harbottle (2004) cited to have developed recently in post-modern anthropology of viewing migrants as being in two dynamically intertwined social systems rather than in two static, separate ones is quite applicable to my study. In the case of the collection of social actors on which my research was focused, not only were many migrants themselves, with many coming from and occasionally returning to Japan, particularly in the case of most of the core members of this community, but furthermore, the religion of Tenrikyo itself was a migrant to Europe from Japan. The dynamic interplay between these two locations was at work on two different levels.

Moreover, because all humans were conceptualized in the religion as being originally from the sacred point of the Jiba located in what is now Tenri City, regardless of where they were born in this life, all humans were regarded as being migrants in a more profound sense, even if they do not realize this truth. One of the main aims of Tenrikyo is to teach people of this truth and thus lead them to "return" to this pilgrimage site that is commonly referred to in the religion as "The Home of the Parent," thereby emphasizing the familial connection people have to it.

In relation to the "TEC community," this pilgrimage town functioned as a secondary, but chiefly important, point of coming together for members of this social collectivity, particularly among those socially situated at or near the core of this group. That relationships developed at TEC were continued elsewhere, principally in Tenri City, was highlighted to me, among other occasions, by one of the Miyamoto sisters520 . This description given by this young woman took place on a chilly Sunday evening in the middle of winter while waiting inside the entrance of a McDonalds in close proximity to ACFJT for the arrival of all the participants helping with the weekly distribution of hot soup and drinks to homeless people521 . In our conversation, she told me how the missionary teachers and other people who come live at TEC become like family during their time there. While growing up, she was quite used to new people coming in and becoming part of this residential "family" and then, after a couple years, leaving and going back to Japan or elsewhere 522 . I asked if it was sad for her when she was younger to make such close relationships, only each time to have them move away. She said that it was something she had gotten used to as it had been like that her whole life. She went on to say that although she could understand it might seem somewhat unusual to have grown up in this way, it was simply the way things were for her since birth as she has lived at TEC since that time, and thus it was normal for her. She then added that when their time at TEC was up for these temporary residents, she knew she would see them again, such as when they were in Tenri City at the same time, which occurred somewhat regularly for many included in this group. This was particularly the case for those positioned as core members, who were both more implicated in this group and who also generally returned with more regularity to this pilgrimage site.

My own time in Tenri City demonstrated such meetings to be a common component of being there. While there for a cumulative period of approximately one month out of the one and a half months of fieldwork I conducted in Japan in July and August 2016 523 , I had numerous reunions with people I had previously gotten to know at TEC who lived elsewhere and also spent time with numerous members of the "TEC community" who I again saw shortly thereafter at TEC. In this, the interconnectedness between these two locations was highlighted, thereby supporting the importance of thinking about the interplay between these two contexts in relation to the social world on which I focus my thesis.

Being connected to the spiritual through sacred materiality: the primary three Tenrikyo sanctuaries At the center of Tenri City were the three principal Tenrikyo sanctuaries: the Main Sanctuary 524 dedicated to God the Parent which housed the sacred point of the Jiba, the Foundress' Sanctuary, and the sanctuary dedicated to the ancestors generally referred to in English Tenrikyo discourse as the "Memorial Hall 525 ." The image below is of the Main Sanctuary to which the Memorial Hall is attached. The Foundress' Hall 526 (not shown 527 ) is in an adjacent location and is completely separate structure. This photo is from Tenrikyo's official website and is typical of images of this sacredly regarded location for which there is ample inclusion of the sky, often with 523 The remainder of my fieldwork in Japan included about one week at the church and familial home Yuko was born into and raised at, approximately one week at the church Mr. Sugimoto was born into and raised at, and several days at the grand church of "my" lineage during the time of its Monthly Service. This central religious area, along with its accompanying history in relation to the religion, was commonly discussed in Tenrikyo-focused settings. Through this, the spatial manifestation of the religion was not only included in the experience of followers when in this key area of Tenri City but also when in Tenrikyo contexts physically distant from this site, largely via the realm of the imaginary. Thus, these religious buildings and their surrounding area existed in the overall religious experience of followers (and often others affiliated with the religion) not only when physically in Tenri City but also when elsewhere. This connection was also materially exemplified through their mirrored representation at other Tenrikyo sites of worship through the altars dedicated to the same three entities as these three main sanctuaries. Thus, they merit a pointed discussion due to both their prominence in the lived experience of followers when in this pilgrimage space and also to the prominent place that they held in the realm of the imaginary in relation to how the religion was conceptualized and experienced by followers more generally.

In the story of how this centrally important religious structure came into being, as detailed in the introduction, numerous components of the religion are included. One is the idea of this place, and extendedly the religion, being the realization of a salvific ultimate destiny put in place by God the Parent when humanity was first conceived, thereby bringing together the spiritual and physically spatial sides of the religion. Another is the connection between the physical body and the spiritual self, which could arguably be called the main teaching of the religion. In both the account of the foundress undergoing physical turmoil when God the Parent initially requested to use her as its shrine and through the frequent accounts in this religious context of people experiencing physical ills in relation to spiritual causes and then being relieved of them through spiritual means, the physical and the spiritual are positioned as being closely related. This theme puts forth a foundation for both a strong conceptual emphasis between the spiritual and the physical and also how the point of the Jiba, the sanctuary in which it is situated, and the pilgrimage town of Tenri City are conceptualized in the religion.

The idea that the Jiba is the sacred point from which world salvation, commonly referred to in the religion as "the Joyous Life" as discussed in chapter three, will come about is integrated into the materiality of the Main Sanctuary. During the time of my research, the point of the Jiba was marked by a temporary wooden pillar referred to as the kanrodai ("the stand for heavenly dew,") which, according to Tenrikyo dogma, will be replaced by a permanent stone pillar of specific dimensions per Oyasama's instructions once, as she prophesized, the joyous world of human harmony has been realized and as a result, "heavenly dew" (kanro) falls from the sky to the point of the Jiba on which the kanrodai stands. When followers come into this space for collective Services or for individual prayer (often via the performance of the Service on their own or otherwise marked at the beginning and end of their prayer time through the ritual marker of clapping four times), it is toward this physical manifestation of the religion's main eschatological teaching that followers face. Further manifesting the religion's theological conceptualization in this physical space is that in preparation of this salvific event, directly above the designated point of the Jiba, there is an opening in the extremely high ceiling of the sanctuary so that the kanro528 can fall from the sky to the kanrodai without hindrance at an unknown time in the future, as prophesized by the foundress, thereby bringing about salvation to humanity by means of physical, social, and emotional well-being. Central to the physical space of the Main Sanctuary and the conception of this building is the benevolent parental figure of God the Parent in both a symbolic and literal sense.

The conceptualized residence of a benevolent spiritual parental figure was not exclusively confined to the Main Sanctuary but was also understood to dwell in an adjacent sanctuary, though through a different spiritual entity. The ever-living Oyasama was positioned in the religion to dwell in spiritual form in the nearby "Foundress' Sanctuary 529 " (See image hereafter.) Her residency in this building was conceptualized in the religion in a very literal manner. In this sanctuary, Oyasama was lovingly cared for by female attendees 530 who served her meals, drew her daily bath, put out a red kimono for her to wear during the day and sleeping clothes for her to wear at night, and attended to her other daily needs in her private quarters just as they would if she were living in physical form. Oyasama was regarded to come down to the public space of the "Foundress' Hall 531 " in the morning from her private living quarters located above where she would spend most of her day receiving followers which was, for some, an intimate space of communion with their loving and beloved original mother.

Image 10: Foundress' Sanctuary. Photo: Tenrikyo Resource 2020.

529 Kyosoden 教祖殿 530 These female attendees were specially selected and, to the best of my knowledge, were always prominently positioned in church head families, often of a grand church.

go-Yoba 御用場

As explained several pages previously, also located in this area of the pilgrimage town was the "Memorial Hall 532 ." In numerous explanations that I heard of this building, in contrast to the Main Sanctuary and the Foundress' Sanctuary that were positioned in the religion as places in which the above-mentioned spiritual entities literally reside, the Memorial Hall was described as being a symbolic, rather than literal, space dedicated to the memory of previous Tenrikyo adherents, including its leadership, (i.e. the ancestors) at which to think of them with gratitude.

Their actual spirits were said to return to the physical world through rebirth into a different body. This symbolic rather than literal meaning contributed to the other two principal sanctuaries receiving more focus in the discourse on this pilgrimage area, in the lived experiences of time spent at them, and in the level of spiritual focus directed toward them. Although I heard accounts from followers regarding profoundly spiritual experiences they had partaken in both the Main Sanctuary and the Foundress' Sanctuary, I never once heard of such an experience taking place in the Memorial Hall. This is logical in relation to it being positioned as a site dedicated to the memory of figures (people) rather than a site where they literally dwelt. It was also due to the nature of the figures that were positioned in the religion to reside in the other two sanctuaries being that of the benevolent parents of all humans, thereby encouraging a particular type of relational experience to occur in them that focused on the profound and intimate familial love and guidance coming from these entities.

The prominence of these three buildings was reflective of the religion's overall emphasis on these two parental figures who were understood to dwell there in spiritual form in combination with recognition and gratitude directed toward those who came before ("the ancestors") who helped develop our present reality, including the religion of Tenrikyo as it exists in its current form 533 .

The parallel between these three sanctuaries and the three altars at Tenrikyo sites throughout the world534 dedicated in like manner to these three entities was an important contributing factor to 532 Soreiden 祖霊殿 533 It should be noted that the inclusion of the ancestors was reflective of the broader Japanese sphere in which this religion came about and continued to predominantly exist which places spiritual emphasis on the ancestors, often through a shrine dedicated to them.

the material and conceptual congruence between this central area of Tenri City, Tenrikyo sites of worship elsewhere, and the experience of followers in both contexts. When followers were in front of the altars dedicated to these three entities at sites of worship elsewhere, they were essentially sitting in front of a miniature, replicated version of the three main sanctuaries in the central area of Tenri City and thus, were directing their focus/prayers/thoughts/feelings toward the same three entities. This correspondence was further established through the "sacred objects" that were from and ritually consecrated at the Jiba around which the Main Sanctuary was constructed, then subsequently housed inside each altar dedicated to God the Parent, regardless of place, thereby creating an imagined metaphysical connection between them as well as a physical one. In this, we can see yet another example of how the experiences and relational approaches that occur at sites of worship elsewhere, including TEC, were closely physically and spiritually tied to Tenri City, encouraging their social, experiential, and symbolic interconnectedness.

The close emotional connection with the sanctuaries, particularly the sanctuaries dedicated to God the Parent, the foundress, and the benevolent parental figures understood to dwell therein that followers commonly felt in very personal, familial ways was an important component of the faith and the relationship that followers had to it, including those of my research population. For most followers, it was not mainly the abstract, theological components of the faith that were the primary contributors to their lived experiences with it. Rather, it was largely through more personal experiences, such as with the residential sites of both God the Parent (the Jiba and extendedly, the Main Sanctuary) and the foundress (the Foundress' Sanctuary), that functioned as the primary contributors to the construction of their relationship to this pilgrimage town, the faith, and extendedly, other followers.

As this relationship to the religion was formed through the experiential rather than the theoretical, the physical bodies through which these experiences occurred were important "texts" in their engagement with the faith. The importance of experiences via the body was reflected in the fact that the Mikagura-uta songs and dances for the Service were positioned officially as one of the three "sacred texts" of the religion, in which, as I heard explained from time to time, Tenrikyo is lack of an altar dedicated to the ancestors, though, we did clap four times to pray\ pay respects to them when doing so toward the altars for God the Parent and Oyasama.

not something that can be understood only through intellectual study of it. It is something that must be engaged over time, through lived experiences that occur, by default, in and through the physical body for a greater comprehension of the faith to be acquired. Furthermore, as previously explained, the physical human body is positioned as a central object in the faith as Tenrikyo's main teachings included that the body is "a thing lent, a thing borrowed" from God the Parent, that the body is sustained by the "Ten Providences of God the Parent," that one's mind is manifested through the body, and that bodily ailments are actually divine guidance from God the Parent in relation to one's mind. The interactions followers had with the divine were not positioned in Tenrikyo as something that occurred in an abstract spiritual realm "somewhere else," but instead as something that occurred in the here and now on the physical earth, often through physically lived experiences. Thus, a significant portion of "reading" the religion and its teachings was through personal experiences via one's living, breathing body. I again bring the reader's attention to these components of the religion to emphasize the prominent place that physical engagement with the religion, including time spent in the three principal sanctuaries of the faith located in the center of Tenri City, and extendedly in the pilgrimage town more generally, had in relation to the religion's dogma concerning the important position of the physical body and one's experiences through it.

"Coming home" to the Jiba: constructed familiarity with a pilgrimage town

The conceptualized relationship followers had to Tenri City was also a significant point of both the faith and of the transnational lived and imagined realities of followers included in my study.

From a theological Tenrikyo perspective, in thinking of a person's rootedness to the world and to social figures contained therein, it is important to include not only the connection that followers have to where they were born and raised in their present life, but also the connections that they have with Tenri City as this is where people are regarded to originate and where their original parent(s)535 are understood to continue to dwell.

The connection between the religion, its followers, and this pilgrimage site was multi-leveled. It included the aforementioned theologically based conception of the site as a "homeland" in a very profound sense. It also comprised the town's social function as a place of reunion with people they previously shared time with in various Tenrikyo contexts, as well as a place of meeting with members of the wider Tenrikyo social collectivity who they were likely to see again in other Tenrikyo contexts. It was common for followers 536 based in Europe, who had been in Europe, or who were otherwise connected to European Tenrikyo contexts to meet with others from this social collectivity and take part in a variety of shared moments when in Tenri City. These moments that occurred in this pilgrimage town in Japan then contributed to the construction of the multi-layered "TEC community." Thus, as evoked slightly previously, Harbottle's (2004) reference to the post-modern trend of looking at migrants as being in two interconnected "worlds" (i.e. social systems) rather than two separate ones is very pertinent to my research context. To understand the social world of TEC, Tenri City, which serves as an important site of lived and conceptual connections between members of the "TEC community," should be included. In complementary fashion, to understand this "European group" that comes together for numerous occasions in Tenri City, inclusion of TEC is similarly merited as the social collectivity on which my research was focused was one that was one that was constructed and occurred in two (or more 537 ) social and geographic contexts. For the European-based followers who composed the central component of my research population, their connection to Tenri City was more than theoretical. Throughout the lives of the majority of those born into the religion 538 , they had spent time in this pilgrimage town on various occasions and for various reasons, thereby rendering this place an important component of the cumulation of experiences that made them who they were and how they related to the world.

While followers often went to Tenri City for specific reasons, such as to attend a training program or special event, one did not need a specified reason to go there.

536 Or others closely connected to the faith who do not categorize themselves as such.

537 "Or more" is my own addition to Harbottle's encouragement to look at migrants as being involved in "two" dynamically intertwined social systems. 538 In general, this is most true for Japanese followers or followers of Japanese Tenrikyo parents.

During my first year of fieldwork, I had difficulty understanding the concept of Tenri City and the Jiba as being thought of very concretely as the home of one's parent, and connectedly, as one's own hometown. Finally, after asking Mr. Sugimoto detailed questions regarding the attributed meaning of going to the Jiba, he explained to me that just as one does not need to ask why I sometimes return home to Alaska where I was born and raised and where my parents still reside, one does not need to ask intricately detailed questions regarding why one goes to the Jiba.

One returns to visit one's parent(s) and where one is originally from. Thus, rather than pilgrimages to Tenri City carrying merely an abstract theological value, for many Tenrikyo followers539 , time spent there was imbued with a familial and familiar quality that was a prominent contributing factor to their relationship to this location and to the overall faith.

b. Uniting around the Jiba for the Monthly Service, creating a Tenrikyo world

A mystical point of focus that reverberates out from the Jiba to TEC through experiential and imaginative means

On the morning of the twenty-sixth of each month, the "real" Monthly Service is enacted. Followers fill the north, south, east, and west wings of the Main Sanctuary, each of which faces the sacred marker of the kanrodai, as they do in lesser numbers for both its daily Morning and Evening Services and throughout the day as followers come in on their own or in small groups to spend time in this revered site. In the arrangement of the four wings of the Main Sanctuary (depicted hereafter) which face each other, as was explained to me by numerous followers at TEC, attendees facing where the Service is performed around the Jiba are also facing each other in their worship. Through this, as I sometimes heard followers explain, the humanistic values of the faith, such as mutual respect, acting in unison, and that as humans, we are each other's mirror, are manifested and further encouraged among those present.

Image 11: Four wings of the Main Sanctuary. Image: TENRIKYO, date unknown.

Dispersed Tenrikyo followers are, by default, always trans-local people because of simultaneously being connected to where they are presently living but also to the sacred point of the Jiba, where they are regarded in the faith to be originally from. Key to their trans-locality is the centrally important ritual of the Service that reverberates out to influence the greater whole of the religion from the kanrodai stand at which, according to Tenrikyo dogma, God the Parent resides, humanity was first conceived, and where heavenly dew (kanro) will fall once humanity has become sufficiently purified 540 . The kanrodai around which this sacred ritual is performed is included in the third song of the Seated Service sung in three sets of three that is performed ideally in the Tenrikyo faith at least twice daily through the Morning and Evening Services, during the beginning of the Monthly Service, and at other times that elicit its performance. Thus, the kanrodai, and relatedly the Monthly Service performed around it, is a prominent component of the faith not only when followers are in Tenri City but also in their non-place-based practice of 540 The precise significance of the kanrodai is somewhat difficult to define. I include as a footnote an explanation of it from an official Tenrikyo website of Church Headquarters: "The Kanrodai, the Stand for the Heavenly Dew, is set up at Jiba of Origin as proof that Jiba is the place where humankind was first conceived by God the Parent at the time of creation. Jiba is given the divine name Tenri-O-no-Mikoto out of God's profound intention. The Kanrodai, which marks Jiba, serves as the focal point for our worship of God the Parent and our prayer for universal salvation. The Kanrodai is, indeed, the center around which the Kagura Service is performed by those who melt into God the Parent's intention while praying for universal salvation and the realization of the Joyous Life.

The Kanrodai is also the stand to receive the "Heavenly Dew" or the "Gift from Heaven," which will be bestowed through the performance of the Kagura Service when human minds have been completely purified and have attained true sincerity." (Tenrikyo Young Men's Association 2006).

the faith through which non-material connections to it are constructed and evoked on a regular basis.

Often, time spent facing the kanrodai during both collective group Services and more solitary moments was then carried with people who took part in these sacred moments to other locations, such as TEC and other European-based sites of worship, largely by means of the imaginary.

Through this, the emotional experiences that took place at the Jiba were then partially transferred to these other locations that were, in fact, incomplete reproductions of the Jiba, most prominently through the altars dedicated to God the Parent inside which sacred objects from this divine site are housed and by means of the Service ritual.

On numerous occasions during my fieldwork, I heard followers talk about how when at local Tenrikyo sites of worship, including TEC, they sometimes envisioned previous experiences of attending the Service performed in the main Tenrikyo sanctuary around the kanrodai and the kanrodai itself. For some, the experience of being at a Service performed around the kanrodai and being in front of the kanrodai itself were tangibly present elements of Tenrikyo contexts elsewhere by means of purposeful association based in the realm of the imaginary and further encouraged through translocal sensorial means, such as sight, sound, and bodily movement.

Through this, we can see that experiences around the kanrodai were then reactivated later at other Tenrikyo sites through conceptual and experiential means. Conversely, the ascribed significance of the Jiba that was constructed and solidified in Tenrikyo contexts elsewhere both through directing their focus to this sacred point when in front of altars dedicated to God the Parent and also through the more general focus toward this sacred point was a prominent theme of structured and unstructured discussions and referential materials, and moreover the purpose of the sites themselves, was then transferred to their experiences around the Jiba, thereby amplifying this sentiment when in front of this divine point.

The prominent position of this "main" Monthly Service in the faith and in the lived experience of followers renders a detailed description of it pertinent. It is commonly referred to, amongst other names, as the kagura zutome 541 ("Service of the Kagura Masks") to differentiate it from other Services (tsutome/zutome542 ). This masked Service is regarded as the real Monthly Service. All other Services performed around the world are canonically regarded as practice services through which people unite their hearts with the Jiba and the Service performed at it. According to Tenrikyo doctrine, the Kagura Service is a reenactment of God's creation of human beings and its performance is believed to help manifest God's providence that was present at creation (Tenrikyo Resource Wiki 2012-Dec.).

For this ritual, five male and five female designated masked performers symbolically recreate the working together in unity of the "Ten Providences of God the Parent" that God the Parent brought about to enable the conception of the first humans. This Service is performed with the same music as that of all other Seated Services throughout the world, thereby creating an auditory connection between this ritual and the performance of the Seated Service elsewhere. In this Service performed around the kanrodai, though, in contrast to other Seated Services where six performers execute the same hand movements in unison, at the Monthly Service performed around the kanrodai, each of the ten masked performers execute different hand dances, each enacting one of the "Ten Providences of the God the Parent," thus contributing to the distinction between this Service and the renditions that occur elsewhere. As explained on the website of TEC:

The Kagura Service is a reenactment in principle of God the Parent's providence at the time of creation. Ten Service performers encircle the Jiba-Kanrodai and symbolize by hand-gestures the principles of God the Parent's workings, by which humankind and the world were created. The Kagura Service is the means by which we call forth God the Parent's blessings of universal salvation, whereby the world will be reconstructed as the world of the Joyous Life. (Tenrikyo Europe Center 2016).

Demonstrating the congruity between Tenrikyo rituals and the wider realm of Japanese culture which rendered Tenrikyo more familiar to a Japanese person than a non-Japanese person that I have evoked throughout my thesis is that, in general, "kagura" refers to ancient Shinto ritual ritual. When the word "Tsutome" (Service) is used in Tenrikyo Scriptures and texts, it is generally considered to specifically refer to the Kagura Service… Scriptual expressions "Joyous Service," "Salvation Service," and "Service of the Kanrodai" are said to be variant expressions that refer to the same Kagura Service. The Kagura comprises one shift (the first of three) of the Tsutome. Service dancers and performers of the musical instruments (six men and three women for a total of nine) rotate or switch with others with each shift." (Tenrikyo Resource Wiki 2012c) dances. In these ancient Shinto ritual dances, similar to Tenrikyo, music plays a critical role, that of encouraging the kami 543 to come and dance. The musical component of this ritual, as well as its "spiritual" component, is based largely in the realm of the imaginary, that was recreated through the performance of the Service elsewhere and encouraged an experiential coherence between the Kagura Service performed around the kanrodai and Tenrikyo Services performed elsewhere.

Although being rooted in Japanese culture was not a necessary requirement to the sensitive reception of this ritual, it was a factor that contributed to it being more culturally contextualizable to some populations in comparison to others. This difference in levels of cultural resonance was one of the numerous factors that contributed to the presence of the two-tiered community that I observed to exist in relation to TEC in which Japanese people were generally positioned at its core and people of other cultural backgrounds were positioned closer to its periphery.

Constructing a collective experiential and conceptual reference by means of the Monthly Service

Included in the emotional experiences of many members of the "TEC community" was the experientially and theoretically impactful ritual of the Monthly Service that was orchestrated on the 26 th of each month around the sacred point of the Jiba. This contributing element existed within the individual social actors themselves, within small social groups such as their families or that of their lineage-based "home sites," and also within the collective emotionality of the "TEC community." To expand on this contributing element, in Tenri City, the global experience of attending this "true" Monthly Service did not only entail attendance of the ritual that was conducted in the Main Sanctuary over the span of several hours, but also the time spent in Tenri City surrounding this ritual through which social connections and emotional associations with this pilgrimage town, the religion, the Service, and also its religiously associated social world were formed and further developed over time.

Over the span of the several days leading up to the 26 th of each month, the followers' dormitories 544 in Tenri City would increasingly fill up with devotees coming to attend the 543 god/spirit 544 A later section of this chapter is dedicated to the followers' dormitories.

Monthly Service. During my fieldwork in Tenri City, at the time leading up to this monthly ritual and other special events that I discuss in further detail in the next chapter, the followers' dormitory 545 at which I was staying, and the town, were transformed from a calm and quiet place into a lively setting filled with many people who collectively generated a festive ambiance. Over time, a rhythm of peak periods of festive commotion coupled with calmer periods that included preparations for the upcoming cyclic peak of celebratory activity was established.

In practice, the overall event of the Monthly Service entailed not only the ritual itself but also the surrounding festivities connected to it. This was similar to Monthly Services held at TEC (and other Tenrikyo sites of worship) where the broader occurrence of the Monthly Service included not only the ritual component, but also the festive, social components surrounding it, such as both the preparatory gathering of core members of the "TEC community" the day prior and the post-Service meal. Similar to TEC, the social ambiance of Tenri City was largely based on the ebbs and flows of people coming to this pilgrimage town for specific events. In this, the principal means through which many people came to know these religious sites was during their peak periods of social festivity rather than their calmer sides that existed in discreet continuity for a greater portion of each month and year.

The monthly peak surrounding the time of these Monthly Services is congruent with the way they are referred to in Japanese, among other names, as "tsukinamisai.," which literally translates into English as "monthly celebration(s)." The celebratory nature of coming together for festive occasions, including but not limited to Monthly Services, was an important contributing factor to both Tenri City and to other Tenrikyo sites, including TEC. This would then often extend out to encourage a more generalized sense of community amongst the broader scene of Tenrikyo which then correspondingly included smaller contexts of it, such as that of the "TEC community." In this, we can see an important contribution to the construction and sustained cohesion of the European-based social collectivity on which my thesis is focused was, in fact, partially constructed in the broader realm of Tenrikyo centered principally in Tenri City and around the sacred ritual of the Service performed around the kanrodai.

545 I stayed at the followers' dormitory of the grand church of "my" lineage.

The date of the 26 th on which the principal ritual of the religion occurred every month was significant in and of itself and contributed to the shared history of the religion that served as a binding component between both the greater collection of Tenrikyo followers and between the followers included in what I refer to as the "TEC community." More precisely, the 26 th corresponds to two highly important dates in the faith: the date on which Tenrikyo was founded and the date on which the foundress withdrew from physical life, going out into the world to share her teachings, no longer encumbered by a body. Near the beginning of my fieldwork, I asked Mr. Sugimoto who decided for the Monthly Service546 to be held on the 26 th of each month.

He paused briefly to think about my question, then replied that it was God the Parent who decided upon this date because it was the day the religion was founded and the day the foundress withdrew from physical life to hasten the spread of the faith.

To elaborate on the first of these two highly important events associated with the important date of the 26 th , as mentioned at the beginning of my thesis, its foundational significance is linked to the date of October 26, 1838: the day Miki Nakayama was settled as the "Shrine of God the Parent" upon Miki's husband expressing his authorization for his wife to serve in this purpose. It should be highlighted that in this story, two important components of the faith are conveyed: the central position of the sacred point of the Jiba and also the close interconnection between the spiritual and the physical. The second important occurrence associated with the 26 th of the month is the date of January 26, 1887: the day on which the foundress withdrew from physical life at the age of ninety so as to hasten the spread of her teachings, remaining ever living on earth thereafter in spiritual form. This transformative event to the path occurred immediately after the Service had been executed in full upon her unwavering insistence to do so despite the risk involved from the persecution this budding religious movement was facing at the time.

Accounts of these two important events which coincide with the 26th of the month and are both strongly rooted to the area surrounding the Jiba in Tenri City were commonly known and often recounted in Tenrikyo contexts. They served as key elements of the faith that contributed to a shared history between the broader Tenrikyo social collectivity, of which the "TEC community" belongs. In returning to the Jiba, one was returning to the source of this collective history and this collectively shared imagined homeland. Similarly, in attending a Monthly Service at the Jiba, and though generally to a lesser degree, in attending this monthly ritual at other Tenrikyo sites of worship, one was engaging in the collectively shared experiential and cosmological foundation of the religion. Both of these factors contributed to an anchoring of the individual to the religion that encouraged interpersonal connections on both the more macro level of the broader Tenrikyo realm and on the more micro realm of the "TEC community."

c. Constructing belonging through presence and familiarity

Reconnecting with an emotionally evocative tale of motherly love through ritual, place, and recounted events I would like to pause on the second of these two pivotal events that are taught to have occurred on the 26 th of the month. Important to the religion's foundational story is the foundress' insistence on the importance of the Service and that it must be performed coupled with the profound sacrifice she made in relation to it. This adds an emotionally evocative element to the interconnected features of the religion, the pilgrimage town, the Service, the date of the 26 th when this ritual is performed, and the foundress' (and God the Parent's) benevolent, motherly (parental) love. The final Service during the foundress' physical life was reportedly performed at noon as Oyasama laid in what appeared to be a physically weakened state in a nearby room. At 2 pm, once the Service had been completed, she withdrew from physical life, thus, as explained in Tenrikyo discourse, "opening the portals to level the ground," going out into the world to diffuse her teachings and motherly love more freely, no longer encumbered by a physical body. This account was emotionally close to many followers, because at its center, it talks of a mother's love for her children and of her strong desire for her teachings to reach her children (humanity) as quickly as possible.

In the multiple instances I heard this story recounted over the span of my research, this pivotal event was conveyed with a dual-leveled intensity. The courageousness of these early followers willing to risk imprisonment in order to perform the Service was positioned as a model of inspiration for modern followers to understand the importance of the Service and to prioritize and be bold in their engagement with it. Oyasama's intense love for humanity as her children, shown through her choice to leave her physical body to go out into the world and hasten the spreading of her teachings, was a key component of followers' conceptualization of and emotional relationship to the faith.

At TEC, the importance of this final Service performed before the foundress' physical passing was generally accorded much more emphasis by Japanese followers, most of whom were raised in the faith, than by followers of other nationalities, including French and other European followers, who were not raised in the faith. I observed similar emphasis placed on this final, bravely performed Service during the foundress' physical lifetime by American Tenrikyo followers. Most of whom were of Japanese descent and raised in the faith, with many who I met being closely implicated in the religion, such as having been raised in a family that headed a site of worship. This difference may be partially reflective of the place that the mother-child relationship, and mother-child love, holds in Japanese culture and the primacy accorded to the mother-child relationship within the family structure. When the child is a baby, it is common for a symbiotic relationship to be practiced in which the mother and baby, or toddler, are largely one unit rather than separate entities for which independence for both should be worked toward from an early age. Japanese children often sleep with their parents, most commonly their mothers, for significant periods of time, sometimes well into their mid-childhood years. As explained by Ochiai (1989), it is often said that Japan has a cultural tendency to attach special importance to the mother-child relationship, which is commonly positioned as a particular feature of Japanese culture. She notes that the point in history at which the Japanese mother-child relationship came into existence is a matter of opinion. It may have been during the Edo period (1603-1868) or in the late Edo/early Meiji period (Meiji: 1868-1912), which coincides with the foundress' life (1798-1887). Ochiai continues that it may also have occurred sometime between the Taishō (1912-1926) and early Shōwa (1926-1989) periods during Japan's period of industrialization, at which time the Tenrikyo religion was developing into its current form.

As explored by Bell, L. and Bell, D. (2000), in their discussion which compares and contrasts Japanese and American family structures, within middle class American families, the marriage is considered to be the center or foundation of the family. They assert that emotionally for most Americans, the marital relationship is what comes first and the parent-child relationship is second. I would like to extend their generalized description of this common American family structure to the French one, which is largely similar. Contrastingly, they explain the Japanese family structure presents a different pattern in which the marriage is primarily for raising children rather than a personal relationship to fulfill the psychology of the mates. Two-families are joined for continuing the family line and many marriages are still arranged. The parent and child relationship, for which there are blood bonds, is viewed as naturally stronger and more basic than the marital contract (Lebra: 1984, 1976). Due to this structural difference in the normalized family structures of these two cultural contexts, it is understandable that the "mother's" sacrifice for her "children" in the Tenrikyo account of the foundress' physical passing received more emphasis from Japanese followers than from French or other European followers.

Furthermore, I hypothesize that it is also partially due to it not being an aspect of the faith that resonated with them as providing something they were looking for from a religion and/or spiritual practice. The resemblance between the self-sacrificial physical passing of the foundress in the Tenrikyo religious tradition and the self-sacrificial physical passing of Jesus in the Christian tradition may be a contributing reason to why this historical component of Tenrikyo was not accorded much emphasis by European followers in my observations. Because it did not provide a significantly alternate story to the dominant religion of Europe (Christianity), it was not a feature of Tenrikyo rendered a point of attraction via its significant alterity in comparison to other components 547 . I postulate that the emphasis placed on this final Service by many Japanese and Japanese-American followers that I encountered was also reflective of the tradition of according emphasis to this element of the religious story that was passed down in the religious contexts of which these populations were a part. In these contexts, this emphasis was an inherited tradition of both their individual families and church lineages and also the broader religious context that their affiliated groups had been connected with for most often numerous generations that also existed in the collective whole of the Japanese and American Tenrikyo scenes. Conversely, Tenrikyo did not have a long-term presence in Europe548 . Although core members of the "TEC community" expressed an emphasis on this benevolent sacrificial event in numerous Tenrikyo settings that included Europeans, in general this feature of the religion did not exist in the broader sphere of European Tenrikyo followers with the same ascribed significance or accorded attention in relation to other components of the religion.

An example of the emotional resonance that the account of the foundress' departure from physical life held for many Tenrikyo followers was demonstrated during my second year of participation in the European Seminar. For the third week of the program, I took part in the "Life of Oyasama" class taught in Japanese along with the only remaining participant of the German cohort: the previously mentioned thirty-something year old woman named Chihiro who was based in Vienna. Similar to other Tenrikyo trainings, as discussed previously, the official text on this component of the religion was utilized, in this case, "The Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo" 549 . Thus, although we were physically in France and covering the material via the Japanese language, the discourse involved in this highly significant transitional event was the same that followers throughout the world encountered when being educated about this important event in the religion's foundational history.

While Chihiro, the instructor, and I were taking turns reading aloud from this text that contained emotionally evocative language to relay the account of the foundress' physical passing, Chihiro became highly sentimentally involved in the account. This was displayed through her body by tears and a wavering voice that prompted the instructor to relieve her from reading aloud. The following is an excerpt from this text which describes this important event, and her followers' reaction once they saw that the foundress, their original and ever-loving mother, was no longer physically with them, though they did not yet understand that she remained nonetheless spiritually present. It is from the official translated English text that I used during my participation in the English-language cohort the previous year, but the content is the same in the English, French, and Japanese versions: Her followers felt as if the very ground on which they stood had crumbled away, as if the sun and the moon had ceased to shine, as if the world were enveloped in darkness. Separated from their true Parent, whom they had adored and yearned after for so many years and held irreplaceable in their hearts, they cried sorrowfully as if their bodies and minds would melt away. (The Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo 1996: 239).

Chihiro's emotional response to this account was not due to the newness of the information conveyed. She had been born into and raised in a Tenrikyo church and several years prior had taken part in the three-month spiritual training course of Shuyoka in Tenri City which used the same text that we were using in this European context. Rather, it was revisiting this pivotal event in this particular context which involved the combination of multiple emotionally evocative components that prompted her response.

Similar to other such Tenrikyo trainings, the European Seminar was a constructed space of reflection and development separate from everyday life. For many followers and in the general structure of engagement with this religion, "returning" to Tenri City, particularly when there for shorter periods of time 550 , served in like manner as such a constructed space. Followers were encouraged through the orchestration of the European Seminar and similar programs, and through the experience of "returning" to the Jiba, to pause and contemplate the path of Tenrikyo and its implications for one's own life and the world. In Chihiro's case, the focus on these emotionally warm components of the religion had already been fostered during the first two and a half weeks of the seminar through theoretical and ritual study which emphasized these central elements of the religion via pedagogical means. This structured method of encouraging a particular emotional state was constructed through the emphasis on the benevolent parental love that both God the Parent and the foundress had for us as their children and also the prominent enunciated and practiced teaching that all humans are brothers and sisters. There was emphasis on the importance of mutual help (tasuke ai), 549 More precisely, (Kohon Tenrikyo Kyoso den (稿本天理教教祖伝) was used for this class taught in Japanese. 550 People also live permanently or for multi-year periods in Tenri City. In such cases, the "special" effect of being there is commonly diminished due to a normalization by means of prolonged exposure to the site. performing acts of service for others (hinokishin), that each of us are at our own place on the path to spiritual maturity and thus should not be judged in comparison to others, and also through the twice-daily Seated Service. These combined components encouraged both acceptance of others as they were and deep introspection and sharing with others, thereby opening participants up to more profound emotional experiences.

For followers returning to Tenri City, similar moments of prayer, hinokishin, and a pointedly Tenrikyo mode of social interaction were commonly included in their time there, resulting in a parallel state of heightened emotionality in relation to the religion similar to what was fostered through the European Seminar. The account of the foundress' passing from her physical body, and the conceptual and emotional associations followers have with it, which Chihiro's example illustrates, were strongly connected with the central area of Tenri City where these events took place and where the ever-living foundress was understood to still reside in spiritual form. This important religious event was not only linked to this pilgrimage town through a remembrance of it based in the realm of the intellect but also through lived engagement with this story by means of the body when in this religiously focused location. Everyday throughout the central part of Tenri City which surrounds the Jiba, musical notes in a melody that was likewise present in other Tenrikyo contexts were played on loudspeakers to signal the time of 2pm when Oyasama was said to have left her physical body after this pivotal Service had been completed. At this time, in accordance with tradition, everyone in this central area where the music could be heard would stop whatever they were doing to pause and reverentially lower their head in remembrance of this event and the sacrifice that the foundress made out of motherly love for humanity and the path of Tenrikyo.

In this, we can see an example of the bodily production of emotion that was also conveyed through numerous other scripted Tenrikyo practices which paired enacted practice and auditory stimuli. The most notable instances were that of the Service dances in which performers enact Tenrikyo teachings through their bodily performance and the act of clapping four times accompanied with a bow in reverence to each of the three entities represented through the altars at Tenrikyo sites and at their analogous sanctuaries in Tenri City. Through this daily pause in which everyone in the vicinity assumed a bodily position of humble deference in remembrance of the sacrifice the foundress made out of motherly love signaled through these Tenrikyo musical notes that were likewise present in other Tenrikyo contexts, the emotional dimension of socialization via the body was displayed.

In reflecting on this daily moment of pause in which all social actors in the vicinity collectively took up this posture, we can better understand the processes at play in the daily production of imaginings and senses of belonging to the larger group as put forth by Bénéï (2008). As explored in her text through looking at the production of nationalism but which lends itself well to religion, the phenomenological experience of taking part in scripted enactments of devotion to a prescribed recipient is a concrete, physical, and embodied one in which both a collective discourse and an individuated one occurs. By assuming a set posture at established moments in which a collectively put forth emotional disposition is taught to be assumed, participants incorporate a "spontaneous" sentiment toward the organizational entity that becomes an integral aspect of everyday life. Thus, through taking part in this daily pause of reverence, and similarly other Tenrikyo practices such as the two mentioned above, one is incorporating an associated way of being and feeling that extends far beyond the precise moments of rituality, permeating into the daily lives of the individual participants and into the collective realm of the group. This daily pause of remembrance enacted by the body was part of the overall experience of being in Tenri City that promoted a shared experience of being there and contributed to followers' emotionally and experientially based relationship to this place and to the religion that served as a foundational connecting component between Tenrikyo followers, including those on which my research was focused. In my own experience of being in Tenri City and taking part in this reverential communal pause, despite not identifying as a Tenrikyo follower and having been in this location expressly for my thesis research, I recall these daily moments of symbolic pause marked through sound paired with a particular physical posture as moments of simplicity and purity which contributed to my positive memories of my time there. Such embodied experiences of engagement with the religion were favorable to a deepened emotional and intellectual connection to the faith, this religiously focused place, the central figures of the foundress and God the Parent, and with others who are associated with the aforementioned factors through conceptualized commonality.

The close association between this pilgrimage site and the religion of Tenrikyo that is encountered both through intellectually based study of the faith and also lived engagement with it is a key means through which its shared history and lived traditions are encountered and made part of both the broader social group and also that of the individual, as was demonstrated in relation to the emotionally evocative account of the foundress' physical passing. This shared intellectual, emotional, and embodied connection to a common history, and the place in which it occurred, is an influential mechanism through which one is, or becomes, a member of the faith and of its social collectivity 551 . For the core social actors of TEC, most of whom were from Japan, this connection was very strongly rooted in the experiences they and their family had in Tenri City. Even for members of the "TEC community" who were not "core members" of the group and often were not Japanese, it was still common to have spent time in Tenri City 552 . Thus, at TEC and in the Tenrikyo community, this strong connection between the faith's history and the faith's locational center was an important binding component of the group that was largely developed and based in this pilgrimage town, then transferred to the location on which my research was focused, where it was also developed. Through this multi-local development, a multidirectional construction of followers' relationship to the faith, and the maternal figure of the foundress, becomes apparent through the interplay between imaginative, experiential, and emotional factors.

Staying in one's followers' dormitory, fostering connectedness with one's lineage and a

Tenrikyo mode of communal life

As noted in the previous subsection, staying together in communal housing is a prominent experiential factor of staying in Tenri City, as it is in numerous other Tenrikyo contexts. While in Tenri City, followers 553 , including core members of the "TEC community," generally stay at the 551 Though for some members of the Tenrikyo diaspora located in other locations for whom returning to Tenri City was difficult, generally due to distance and economic constraints, such as those derived from their country's economic standing in the global market of exchange rates being low, this connection to the pilgrimage site was often contained mainly in the realm of the imaginary rather than through their personally lived experiences. 552 In comparison to followers in certain other locations, this was facilitated through the conversion rate of the Euro in the global economic market 553 And other connected individuals.

"followers' dormitory" (tsumesho) of their lineage-based grand church. These dormitories are dispersed throughout the central part of Tenri City and serve as their "home away from home" while there. As Kouame (1995) clearly explained, "These inns do not only offer lodging and food to pilgrims; they are also an opportunity for them to experience, for a few days, an intense communal life (meals taken together, collective room ...) 554 ." The experience of staying at a followers' dormitory invariably included this communal character. Most often, followers ate555 , bathed 556 , and slept557 in close proximity to others staying at the same dormitory. This was a prominent component of staying in Tenri City and thus, of one's Tenrikyo socialization. In coming to Tenri City, one was not only taking part in the religious sphere that occurred in the central area of this pilgrimage town surrounding the Jiba, but also in this residentially situated communal mode of Tenrikyo sociality that was also present in numerous other locations, thereby creating an experiential connection between these physically distant Tenrikyo contexts.

Though most core members of the "TEC community" occasionally stayed overnight at TEC with other members of this European-based group for various occasions through which their connection to TEC and its social world was deepened, when in Tenri City, they most often stayed separately in their respective grand church dormitories. Thus, while in Tenri City, the group with whom they were in closest physical and social proximity was not that of fellow European-based followers, but rather people connected to the vast lineage-based network of their own grand church and its connected subculture, just as it was for members of the "TEC community" when staying at TEC. While at TEC, I occasionally heard the grand church lineages of followers, and the locations of their dormitories in Tenri City, discussed among people. Along with this topic serving as a source of conversation, it also helped root them in a precise social group and an exact place of belonging in this religious city through their association with a particular followers' dormitory.

The connection that followers had to these grand church dormitories was more than socially and spatially based, it was also economic. While these followers' dormitories were partially financed through the 1000 yen 558 that people paid per night when staying there, they also were funded in part by the grand churches they were linked to, which were in turn financed through donations made by followers of their respective lineages. Most commonly, this donated money arrived to the grand church dormitories by means of followers giving economic offerings to their "home site 559 ," which then gave a portion of this money to its parent church, and then subsequently to its parent church if there were more links in its lineage before reaching its grand church. This grand church, then, used a portion of this offered money for its followers' dormitory and also passed a portion of the money to Tenrikyo Church Headquarters, which, as mentioned previously, financed TEC.

The diagram hereafter provides a visual representation of this flow of money. It is important to bear in mind when referring to this diagram that for the sake of simplicity, it only displays several sites of worship and several followers connected to each site. In reality, the lineage of any grand church includes many more sites of worship than are displayed in this diagram which exist in numerous layered patterns of parent and child sites, along with far more followers making economic offerings at each site than are depicted in this illustration. Furthermore, the existence and flow of money represented through dollar signs is a very approximate depiction of the actual proportional giving and transfer of money. In this simplified visual representation, the lines with dollar signs depict money that is offered by followers to the site at which they are rooted and then from one site to another, with the arrows indicating the direction of this economic transfer.

558 Approximately 10€ in 2016 when I conducted my fieldwork in Tenri City. 559 In Tenrikyo, this money is commonly understood as money offered to God the Parent. Among the multiple ways through which followers were connected to these dormitories, it was the personal experience of staying there that was most common. During my time in Tenri City, I mainly stayed in the followers' dormitory that the Sugimotos' mission station was connected with, accompanied by Yuko Sugimoto 560 and the Sugimotos' adolescent son 561 . Through my time at this dormitory, I, too, developed a familiarity with it and with certain people I met and got to know while there, i.e. fellow members of "my" lineage. Contrary to followers who repeatedly came to Tenri City over prolonged periods of time, in my case, this familiarity was not later extended and developed. For followers who came to this religious town on multiple occasions, such connections with both the dormitories themselves and with people found at them was 560 Similar to most married Tenrikyo women, Yuko's familiarity with and connection to this dormitory was one that began in adulthood when she came to have this dormitory as her Tenri City-based site of residence when she married Mr. Sugimoto and thus became part of his home site of worship and its connected lineage. 561 In my observations, the Sugimotos' assistance in helping me organize my trip and accompanying me during was in accordance with a broader pattern of the spiritual parent(s) 561 ) of followers structurally under their care who were relatively new to the faith and "returning" to Tenri City for the first time to arrange and often accompany them for much or all of the trip.

strengthened and served as a contributing component to their overall relationship with Tenri City, the global experience of Tenrikyo, and with their own grand church lineage. These followers' dormitories were a contributing component to the multi-group rootedness in which European-based followers were connected to both TEC and its community when on the European continent, and at times while in Tenri City, and simultaneously to another system of grouping, that of their grand church lineage. In this, the subcultures of these dormitories and their connected lineages often contained particularities that influenced the multitude of diverse perspectives found at TEC. As stated previously, the multiple lineages that members of the "TEC community" were rooted to contributed to the diversity found in the European Tenrikyo community. While the followers included in my study were mostly from the same religious background of Tenrikyo and largely from Japan, their particular Tenrikyo experiences and contributions to the scene of TEC were not uniform. This diversity was partially derived from their precise experiences of being in Tenri City, due to the subtle particularities of each followers' dormitory, along with other lineage-based particularities.

Although in theory these dormitories were meant to be followers' home away from home while in Tenri City, in practice, I observed a variety of relationships between the dormitories and the followers who stayed there. One's feeling of connectedness or disconnect to one's grand church, and in association its followers' dormitory, was influenced by multiple factors. Generally, in these grand church dormitories and other grand church lineage-based contexts, followers rooted to different "home sites" from the same lineage came together to form a greater social whole. Such moments of coming together facilitated shared moments that encouraged social connections between members of the wider grand church lineage and connectedly, identification with one's lineage.

For male Japanese followers born into the faith, their connection to their lineage, and its followers' dormitory, remained constant from birth until death, creating a life-long connection to this lineage-based social sphere. For a variety of other followers, notably most women 562 and people who became followers of the faith later in life, their relationship with these lineage-based contexts was often less solidified and constant. While I was in Tenri City, several Japanese female followers born in the faith who I knew from TEC spoke to me about and sometimes showed me the followers' dormitory of their childhood lineage. Once these women changed church lineages upon marriage, although when in Tenri City they may see the people with whom they developed bonds through the time they spent together in the followers' dormitory of their youth, among other lineage-based contexts, they no longer shared this intimate residential space.

Similar to the traditional Japanese family structure, married women were repositioned from their natal residential site to that of their husband's. For some, this transition was made with ease, while for others, becoming at home in one's new "home" context was less simple. Important to underline is that women's social base and position in this religious world was regarded from an early age to most likely be less fixed than that of men's. Although generally subtle, this was an ever-present undercurrent of difference between male and female relationships to the religious world of which they belong.

Regardless of one's gender, this familial association with one's followers' dormitory was an important component of being in Tenri City and of one's relationship to one's grand church. To give an example of this that I encountered during my research, Ji-young, the Korean follower who regularly attended TEC, explained to me in an interview that she had many positive memories of being in Tenri City. This was not only because of its religious significance but also because trips there were often made with multiple extended family members going at the same time in which their time in this pilgrimage site also functioned as family reunions that took place largely in the followers' dormitory where they stayed together. She explained to me that through the time with her family that she spent there, her positive associations with the followers' dormitory and connectedly, the pilgrimage town of Tenri City, were strengthened. For Ji-young, similar to other followers, her relationship to this religious context and the social scenes she took part in while there were very much interconnected.

During my two years of fieldwork, Ji-young returned to Tenri City twice. One of these visits was made as an addition to a work trip to China that coincided with the 130th anniversary of Oyasama leaving the world in physical form. Thirty-six members of the European Tenrikyo community and multiple members of her "home site" in Korea, including multiple relatives, travelled to Tenri City to commemorate this important occasion, to which a subsection is dedicated in the next chapter. While in Tenri City for this event, she stayed in the followers' dormitory of her grand church as she usually did and spent time mainly with people linked to her "home site" rather than with followers she knew through TEC. In this, we see an example of the dual-leveled connectedness that many members of the "TEC community" had to their "home site" and its connected grand church lineages and to TEC through time spent staying in both sites and being involved in both associated social contexts. To offer a contrasting example of the relationship many non-Japanese members of the "TEC community" had with their followers' dormitory and the grand church with which it was linked that showcases a contributing factor to the largely two-tiered nature of the "TEC community," I will discuss the much more limited connection that members of Bordeaux Kyokai generally had with "their" followers' dormitory in Tenri City. As explained previously, the French followers rooted to this relatively new Tenrikyo church came to know the faith as adults 563 . This was different than most Tenrikyo followers in Japan and also in countries where there has been a significant historical presence of the faith, such as the US and Brazil for which its presence is strongly linked to earlier waves of Japanese immigration and also countries such as South Korea and Taiwan for which Tenrikyo's significant presence is connected with Japanese colonization in these regions. Often the families of followers in such countries have been rooted to the same "home site" for multiple generations564 , making their connection to their grand church and its connected members a multi-generational one closely linked to their family history.

Contrastingly, these French followers did not have a historically developed familial relationship to the religion nor to the pilgrimage town in which it is based. Moreover, these French followers were, de facto, not Japanese nor from a culture that contains the concept of lineages as that typified in the Japanese household (ie) system. This negated the bridge of cultural familiarity that rendered this prominent component of lived engagement with the religion more familiar and relatable to Japanese people not raised in the faith than to analogous non-Japanese people, particularly those from cultural backgrounds significantly different from that of Japan, such as that of France and other countries strongly associated with Western European culture 565 .

As discussed in chapter six, an important contributing component among numerous members of Bordeaux Kyokai to their lack of identification with their grand church in Japan was that the lineage system of Tenrikyo did not bear the same resonance in the Western cultural framework in which they were situated as it did in a Japanese one. Relatedly, for most non-Japanese people who came to know the faith in France, or elsewhere in Europe, their connection to Tenrikyo was generally one that was principally conceptualized to be, and in practice, through the site(s) of worship in Europe with which they were connected. This was most often TEC, and for followers in the UK, Tenrikyo UK Centre, and their "home site" in Europe for those who had one. Such "followers," who were deemed as such largely through their association with a particular lineagebased site, were encouraged, and often did on at least one occasion, travel to Tenri City, often for the named reason of attending the nine Besseki lectures required to become a Yoboku, which I discuss in further detail in the next chapter.

On such "pilgrimage" trips, they usually stayed at their lineage-based followers' dormitory and also commonly included in their visit to Japan visit(s) to the parent church(es 566 ) of their "home site." Despite the inclusion of interactions with their broader lineage on these "pilgrimage" trips, such lived experiences were generally minimal in relation to their overall engagement in the religion in Europe, and in most instances, did not result in a significant sense of belonging in or connection to their broader lineage. This difference was a notable contrast between the lived experience common amongst Japanese followers in which, while they were connected with TEC and the broader scene of Tenrikyo in Europe, they were also simultaneously connected with and involved in their own church lineage, principally situated in Japan.

Through not taking part with frequency or over long periods of time in the highly integrational experience of staying in followers' dormitories in Tenri City, one's embeddedness in the broader 565 I would like to note that I am aware that this is a vast generalization which was not unanimously true in all contexts.

566 I put the option of plurality in parentheses because sometimes, such as in my own experience, it was arranged for these visits to include both the direct-parent site of one's "home site" and also the grand church of one's lineage when these sites were not one and the same.

Tenrikyo culture constructed through this experiential means was consequentially limited. At TEC, the continuance of this mode of sociality was largely brought about through members of the "core TEC community" who had spent significant periods of time in the formative context of Tenri City that included these communal living quarters. This was also true for the punctuated presence of visiting Tenrikyo followers, most often from Japan, who had in like manner spent significant periods of time in Tenri City, which included the experience of the communal life of dormitories, that rendered them partial "insiders" at TEC despite being new to this particular center.

In parallel, through becoming more embedded in the social world of TEC, and by participating in events such as the seminar for which one stayed at the center and became part of its social world for at least a moment in time, one became more of a "local" in the broader sphere of Tenrikyo that was partially constructed and reproduced through these influential core members of the group. Conversely, followers who had spent significant periods of time in Tenri City, which included as a component staying in the followers' dormitories, along with time spent in other contexts that involved a largely parallel mode of sociality and operation, were rendered "local" to the greater realm of Tenrikyo and thus to the inner-realm of TEC, even when they were new to this particular context. Through this, the existence of the two-tiered "TEC community" was encouraged by means of a Tenrikyo mode of socialization and integration that was developed partially by means of exposure to this Tenrikyo mode of communal residentiality.

Spending time at "parent sites" of one's lineage as a complementary component of "returning" to Tenri City

Often contained in the broader experience of followers, including but not limited to members of the "TEC community," traveling to Tenri City from outside Japan was a visit to the branch church and/or grand church with which they were linked via their church lineage. These visits experientially connected followers to another pointedly Tenrikyo residential context and to their specific church lineage. Going to these sites could generally be associated with one of several categories. The first was that of a follower returning to their "home site" where they were raised and still organizationally rooted. As stated previously, many of the core members of the "TEC community" were Japanese followers from Tenrikyo church families in Japan with a member of a commonly included component of an individual "returning" to Tenri City. This component of my fieldwork was also illustrative of the broader familial and lineage-based frameworks in which core members of the "TEC community" were simultaneously closely connected with TEC and with their own church lineage, with these two socio-religious spheres composed of different social actors and based on different continents. I will use my experience of visiting the branch churches at which Mr. Sugimoto and Yuko were respectively raised to offer a window into this sphere's role in the overall Tenrikyo sphere and more specifically, that of the "TEC community."

The first of these two lineage-based sites I will discuss is the one where Mr. Sugimoto was raised and that the mission station in France I attended Monthly Services at for two years was overseen as its "parent church." This branch church, where one of Mr. Sugimoto's two brothers568 and mother continued to reside at the time of my visit, was partially analogous to the residential world of TEC as it was composed of numerous people living together, in this case three extended families, sharing a largely communal life. At both TEC and this branch church, included in this communal life was the twice daily performance of the Service, the sharing of meals, a shared conception of members of the group making joint efforts toward the functioning of the greater "household" group, and the shared goal of making efforts for the path of Tenrikyo. In my direct observations and as I heard expressed by multiple members of this group, as well as by others in reference to them as exemplary of a Tenrikyo model, each member of this three-family group made efforts for the path in different ways which came together to construct a greater whole.

For example, Mr. Sugimoto's brother, a highly energetic unmarried man in his sixties, often did door-to-door missionary work in the area where this branch church was located. His efforts were aimed at both working to maintain and increase people's involvement in the Tenrikyo faith for those already connected to it, and to spread the faith to others who were not yet connected to it.

Mr. Sugimoto's mother, a woman in her eighties, had spent a significant portion of her life pulling weeds from the grounds surrounding the church so that it would be aesthetically pleasing to others as hinokishin. This was noted to me with implied praise to be evidenced through her hunched-over back that was largely caused by many years of being bent over for this manual task.

Mr. Sugimoto and his other brother were both making efforts to spread the faith, and their specific church lineage, to others through their overseas mission stations in the Paris and Los Angeles areas569 . Their presence in these overseas locations was encouraged and facilitated by the former head minister of this parent church who himself had wished to live abroad but had not been permitted to do so by his father because of he was the successor of this position. In this, we see a partially analogous example of the head "parent(s)" of TEC in which the head(s) of the site played a significant role in directing the lives of those under their authority.

The other family who lived at this branch church in a supportive role also contributed to the collective efforts of this lineage-based site. The senior member of this family during the time of my research was the middle-aged mother of two adult sons who had been born at another lineagebased site but came to live at and be a part of this branch church as an adolescent due to the relational dynamics between the groups. It was this woman who was in charge of preparing meals around which this multi-familial group would gather in the large dining hall adjacent to the branch church's sanctuary. The lives of both of her adult sons were also focused on making efforts for the path of Tenrikyo. One of her young adult sons had spent time in Australia as a visiting missionary in a role largely similar to the young adult residential missionaries at TEC, and during my time in Japan, went to live at "our" followers' dormitory for several months to provide assistance as hinokishin. Her other son at this time was with his wife in another town to spread the path of Tenrikyo and their branch church's specific membership, largely through conducting door-to-door missionary work.

The head family of this branch church was composed of three generations. The head minister was a man in his forties who had spent time abroad in the US during his undergraduate studies, further adding to the internationality of this three familied branch church group. His wife was a woman in her thirties who occupied a supportive role in the church in accordance with the ideal role of wife by providing foundational support to the overall running of a Tenrikyo site and familial household in collaboration with her husband, thereby enacting a "two-in-one" relationship. Her occupying a foundational role in the running of this church was facilitated through their two young children attending day care, thereby allowing her the time to attend to numerous tasks in support of the church. While most Japanese mothers of young children, including Tenrikyo followers, were stay-at-home mothers, this woman's utilization of daycare demonstrated that there was not a sole model of how one's occupation of a role can be assumed. The role of the acting head minister's parents, who previously served as the church's head and head wife, was largely similar to the senior parents of other multi-generational Japanese households in which their position in the group remained elevated while their responsibilities were significantly diminished.

This collectively functioning multi-family branch church was similar to the residential world of TEC, and to a lesser degree, the less fixed residential world that came about annually during the seminar and other gatherings that occurred at TEC. In such contexts, the presence of similar structural elements encouraged the construction of this shared foundational core element in those present, particularly those closely connected with such sites, such as their residents. As indicated previously, many of the core members of the "TEC community" were raised in such collectivelyoriented Tenrikyo churches where this type of communal living structure and mode of collaborative efforts made toward the path through particular enacted means was already part of their habitus, thereby rendering their reinforcement of this model through their reproduction of it at TEC a normalized continuation of this social model. It also rendered the social model recreated at TEC a familiar scene to Tenrikyo followers coming from Japan who were closely connected to the religion amidst a greater locational context of being abroad in Europe. In this, a strong sense of belonging was encouraged amongst such individuals in this specific context and social world amidst a broader realm of being in a "foreign" context. My visit to the other branch church I spent approximately one week at was atypical to followers not born in the faith "returning" to Tenri City from outside of Japan as it was not to a branch church or grand church of the lineage I was officially rooted to via the Sugimotos' mission station in France. Rather, it was the familial home and branch church at which Yuko Sugimoto was born and raised, though she was no longer officially regarded as a member of upon her marriage.

Despite Yuko no longer officially being a member of this church lineage or familial group and living in France, she remained closely connected with her natal home via distance, through prioritizing that her French-born children spent time there every year 570 , and through returning herself to spend time there every other year.

At the time of my visit, her father served as its head minister, as he had throughout the majority of Yuko's life. Before him, his father had served in this role, and continued to live in this household for many years afterwards in accordance with the traditional multi-generational Japanese household structure. Several years after my visit, the eldest of Yuko's two younger brothers (the eldest son of the family) assumed the role of this branch church's head minister at the age of approximately forty. As is standard in Tenrikyo tradition and in accordance with the prominent position of peak moments of celebration in both Tenrikyo and Japanese culture, an important ceremony for this transitional occasion was held for which a significant number of people were in attendance, including Yuko's maternal grandmother and the mother of the newly appointed head wife, both of whom traveled to be present for this important event 571 from other regions of Japan where they were living. The celebratory culmination of this event was exemplary of the important place that such gatherings held in the globality of lineage-based sites and the broader Tenrikyo context that occurred in Tenri City. This contributed to a greater pattern in Tenrikyo of ebbs and flows of more lively and more quiet moments that rendered an established mode of operation among Tenrikyo followers in Japan, particularly those closely connected to it, as was the case of most core members of the "TEC community." As discussed previously, this encouraged a punctuated pattern of increased and decreased activity to also be normalized at TEC, largely via these core social actors, thereby encouraging a trans local continuity between TEC and Tenrikyo sites elsewhere. This overarching similarity between Tenrikyo sites was accompanied by diversity between sites and, in the case of TEC, the presence of diversity within this specific context. Included in the insights I gained into my broader research context of the "TEC community" through my visit to this branch church in combination with my visit to the branch church where Mr. Sugimoto was 570 Visits back to Japan by her children usually occurred during their summer vacations and also included participation in the Children's Pilgrimage to Jiba festival that I discuss in the next chapter.

571 I specifically mention the presence of these women because it demonstrates that a strict model of singular (most often patrilineal) household and church membership was not followed, allowing rather for the maintenance of connections with family members with which one was not technically considered a member of the same household or church lineage.

raised was the diversity present between individual "home sites" and individual church lineages.

More specifically, some aspects of the church where Yuko grew up, such as precise interpretations of certain parts of the faith and certain components of how the Service was performed, differed from the branch church she became a part of upon marriage. Should I have only visited the branch church where Mr. Sugimoto was raised, and to which I was officially rooted, it would have been easy to draw erroneous conclusions about how Tenrikyo branch churches in Japan are operated.

Such inferences that could be made from exposure to only one's own "home site" and connected lineage were not unique to my position as an "outside" researcher. In speaking with Yuko several weeks after our shared time at her natal home and church, while at her husband's natal home and church where she was classified a member, she discussed her surprise when she initially came to this church via marriage. In coming to her newly acquired "home site 572 ," she discovered that numerous components of how this church was operated and moreover how the Service was performed differed from what she had been exposed to through her own familial branch church.

Included among these differences was that, for example, at Yuko's natal church both males and females served as performers in the daily Morning and Evening Services whereas at the natal church of her husband, only males served as performers in this twice daily Service. Another variation was the slight kinesthetic differences in how the Service itself was performed at these two churches. This latter difference was something I heard mentioned by young adult TEC residents who had previously been principally associated with one church lineage throughout their lives before coming to live at the multi-lineage site of TEC. These kinesthetic variations in how the Service was performed, along with other differences that existed between Tenrikyo churches and church lineages were part of the experience of being at this inter-lineage center. Such differences were largely reflective of the fact that Tenrikyo followers 573 (particularly males) commonly attended 572 At this time, the Sugimotos' mission station in the Paris area had yet been founded.

573 This is particularly so among followers in Japan as they are generally more easily able to attend the "home site" to which they are officially rooted and spend time in other contests of their lineage, such as the grand church of their lineage and its followers' dormitory in Tenri City, than many followers outside of Japan (or otherwise away from where their officially designated "home site" is located).

the lineage-based site of worship to which they were rooted throughout their lives and for multiple generations, and other sites of its lineage with less regularity. Through this, enacted and enunciated differences were developed and transferred between members of the group, many of which were imparted by its leadership and circulated within the social collectivity, constructing and establishing differences between individual lineage-based sites of worship and also the broader realm of church lineages over time.

The transition to a new familial and church lineage was partially an immediate transfer that occurred upon marriage, after which women usually would be organizationally considered part of their husband's group. In the traditional Japanese model that is still commonly practiced in church-based Tenrikyo families, this commonly translated to the woman moving into the physical household of her husband's family, attending the site of worship to which she was newly rooted, and being included in its lineage 574 . Their transfer to a new familial and lineage-based group was also a gradual state of integration based largely in their acquired knowledge, embodied familiarity, and normalization of the practices of the group(s) they joined.

At TEC, the subtle kinesthetic differences often observable in how the Service was performed by those in attendance, among other differences present, was not a hindrance in the construction or existence of a "community" at this site. In fact, such differences were a common and established part of this inter-lineage "community" as members were most often also active members of a lineage-based site of worship. It was their concordance with the group's practices, that included a component of diversity, which established their belonging in the "TEC community." Relatedly, this was an important factor in the ease with which Tenrikyo followers coming from other locations, particularly Japan, became integrated members of the social context on which my research is focused.

Although such newly arrived individuals were, by default upon arrival, not long-term attendees of TEC nor long-term members of the "TEC community," they were enculturated members of the broader culture of Tenrikyo, which as previously discussed, was intermeshed with Japanese culture from which Japanese followers were, de facto, enculturated members. For such Japanese followers, it was common to have been heavily involved in Tenrikyo contexts, such as having been brought up in Tenrikyo churches, participated in academic schooling and religious trainings in Tenri City, and/or otherwise spent significant amounts of time in this pilgrimage city and other pointedly Tenrikyo contexts. Thus, although their familiarity with TEC and with most people connected to this center had not been constructed over a significant period of time575 , the acquired knowledge, embodied kinesthetic modalities, and habituation to and normalization of the practices had most often already been constructed in them.

Conversely, non-Japanese people, including numerous long-time followers of the faith and individuals of other nationalities born and raised in the religion, often remained more peripheral to the social core of the "TEC community." This was evidenced through linguistic indications such as, for example, as previously noted, the employment of the pronoun "they" rather than "we" to refer to this core community and, often to the broader world of Tenrikyo that was based physically, administratively, socially, and via the country of nationality and residence of most of its followers primarily in Japan. This was a significant factor to the largely two-tiered nature of the "TEC community" in which there was simultaneously a larger social world which involved a complex combination of its interconnected social actors with diverse connections to the religion of Tenrikyo, the site of TEC, and to each other, and also a commonly present distinction between members of this social collectivity of the former and latter mentioned categories576 . Although not entirely, an important part of this distinction was constructed through these lineage-based sites of worship in Japan to which most core members of the "TEC community" were closely connected.

Another important contributing factor was the amount of time and the types of engagement spent in this pilgrimage town, which often occurred through participation in trainings and special events held there, as I discuss in the next chapter.

Chapter ten: Spending time in Tenri City for education and events, cultivating experiential familiarity and togetherness

a. Religious and academic trainings that contribute to the personal construction of followers and their relationship to the pilgrimage town and to the religion

The ongoing return to Jiba for organized reasons

In addition to followers' connection to Tenri City via time spent there for the Monthly Service and/or independent visits, as indicated immediately previously, another important experiential component of the religion directly linked to this pilgrimage town was time spent there for structured trainings and events apart from the Monthly Service. Because Tenri City (or more specifically, the point of the Jiba) was considered to be the home of one's original parent and one's own original hometown, one did not need a specific reason to go to Tenri City. In practice, however, coming to Tenri City was often paired with a specific motivation. It was common for the followers included in my study, particularly those positioned as core members of this group, to have spent time in this pilgrimage town for various religious trainings, academic pursuits, and special events. The existence and participatory experiences of taking part in such events and trainings was not only present in Tenri City, but also at TEC via their promotion, discussion and the embodied experience that followers carried with themselves from this pilgrimage town.

Throughout my research, calls for attendees of TEC to participate in various events held in Tenri City were included in both the bi-monthly TEC newsletter and also announced verbally at the end of TEC Monthly Services, as were similar announcements for events that were held locally at TEC and ACFJT. It was common for members of the "TEC community" to have had (or be having at present or in the anticipated future) important components of their selves formed in Tenri City via religious and academic schooling experiences, thereby positioning this pilgrimage town as an active component of the greater realm of TEC. Arguably, the experience of attending the nine identical Besseki lectures and then undergoing the important ritual through which one becomes a "Yoboku" was the most important contribution to the construction of the self that occurred in this religious town and the overall context of Tenrikyo. It is for this reason that I begin this chapter by bringing the reader's focus to this structured formation of the Tenrikyo self.

Acquiring the distinction of "Yoboku," "becoming a member" in Tenri City

As mentioned previously, becoming a "Yoboku" was often equated by followers 577 with becoming a full "member" of the religion. Though in the Tenrikyo faith the term "Yoboku" contained a dual meaning, its sense as conveyed in the previous sentence was the most common modern usage of this term and referred to the acquired title of this designation through specific structured steps exclusively possible in Tenri City. To begin my discussion on the attainment of this Tenrikyo-specific category of spiritual identity, I include an explanation of the term "Yoboku" provided on "Tenrikyo Resource Wiki 578 ."

Yoboku

Yoboku ようぼく・用木, translated as (useful) timber in the English translation of the Ofudesaki, has been generally defined as a person "who comes forward to serve God the Parent." The original meaning of the word Yoboku referred to a piece of wood to be used as material for a building or craftwork. It happens to be one of several constructionrelated metaphors Oyasama used to refer to individuals who were to participate in the reconstruction of the world into the world of the Joyous Life.

The term Yoboku eventually came to be used to refer to a Tenrikyo missionary or, more specifically, a person who has received the sacrament of the Sazuke as a result of Tenrikyo's post-war restoration effort to bring the religious organization and its practices closer to what Oyasama taught.

"Yoboku" as a category of Tenrikyo member

Tenrikyo once had the following three-tiered classification of its membership: 信 徒 shinto (believer), 教徒 kyoto (adherent), and 教師 kyoshi (instructor). When The Constitution of Tenrikyo was revised in 1959, this classification system was replaced with 信者 shinja (follower), ようぼく Yoboku, and 教人 kyoto (lay minister) The classification of Yoboku thereafter came to be defined as a follower who attended the nine Besseki lectures and received the truth (sacrament) of the Sazuke.

577 And others that have a somewhat limited amount of exposure to the religion. 578 Tenrikyo Resource Wiki is an online resource compiled by English-speaking Tenrikyo followers, many of whom are US-based.

According to A Glossary of Tenrikyo Terms:

"It may be noted that this definition of the term 'Yoboku' was introduced purely for the sake of convenience. As far as the Ofudesaki is concerned, the significance of being Yoboku is to serve in God's work of salvation as the instruments of Oyasama." (Tenrikyo Resource Wiki 2014) In my observations, followers were often not familiar with how and/or when the term "Yoboku" came to have the significance it held as a specific category of follower one acquires the designation of through the above-described structured means. Rather, I often heard it discussed as a "given" part of the religion in which its dual meanings and historical reasons for such were omitted. In practice, becoming a "Yoboku" was largely equated with a rite of passage through which one becomes a full member of the religion. Although this was not the "true" meaning of what it is to be a Yoboku, this ascribed meaning was a common delineator in people's level of perceived and practiced implication in the religion.

Historically, the "miraculous salvation" (fushigina tasuke) of the Sazuke579 healing ritual was the main attraction drawing new followers to the religion. Both the healing ritual itself and the rites required to become a Yoboku capable of administering the Sazuke were centrally important parts of Tenrikyo during the time of my study. In practice, outside of official contexts, such as an included component of the European Seminar and at the end of the Monthly Service, the actual frequency with which this healing ritual was employed was less common than what one may expect based on the central role it held in structured settings and discourse. Regardless of the frequency of its application in the daily lives of followers, it was a central part of the faith and of being a follower of it. Illustrative of this was that the Service and the Sazuke were often cited as the two main components of Tenrikyo.

For many followers born in the religion, attendance of the nine Besseki lectures and obtaining the status of Yoboku was largely associated with coming of age and becoming full adult members of the religion. Thus, for a significant portion of the greater Tenrikyo population, and for many members of the "TEC community," the experience of acquiring this designation was a shared formative experience and connectedly, the identity of being Yoboku was a collectively shared element between them. Houseman's (2004: 76) assertion that if a ritual action is efficacious, it irreversibly affects ordinary intercourse in perceptive ways and that a discriminatory, identitybestowing process whose ends (the initiated) are the means of its own reiteration to be the essence of initiation is pertinent in relation to the act of acquiring the status of Yoboku. As explained previously, this status was often associated with particular capacities in the faith and additionally, was a common term of reference in calling upon "Yoboku" to engage in certain positively framed behaviors and dispositions, with the implication being because they had acquired this status and had been transformed through the process of acquiring it, that they should be up to the task in relation to their spiritual identity. I include below an excerpt from a sermon delivered at the end of a TEC Monthly Service 580 that described the acquisition of this designation in more detail. I also include a related excerpt from The Doctrine of Tenrikyo.

Generally, anyone over the age of seventeen may take part in the Besseki lecture at the Jiba. This lecture lasts about an hour and a half. Its content represents Tenrikyo's fundamental teachings, i.e. the Truth of Creation, the meaning of the Service, the Model of Oyasama, the meaning of the Jiba, the ten protective functions of Oyagami 581 and the eight mental dusts. These different points are indispensable for the Tenrikyo faith. After having attended the Besseki nine times, if one wishes, one will have the glory of becoming a yoboku by receiving the principle of the Sazuke from the Shimbashira, as a substitute of Oyasama, in her sanctuary 582 . The yoboku is no longer a mere believer. Becoming a yoboku means being at a higher level than a mere devotee in which Oyasama can be served by working for the salvation of humanity by transmitting the Sazuke.

Nowadays, followers returning to the Jiba from foreign countries can take part in the lecture nine times in a single trip. (But these nine times are not consecutive, there must be a day taken off.) This is a rule established especially for those who cannot easily return because they are too far away. Normally we can only listen to this lecture once a month. Therefore, it takes nine months for us to receive the principle of the Sazuke. It is taught that a time equivalent to that of the growth of an embryo in the womb is necessary for it to be accorded to us. After which the principle of the Sazuke is given, in other words, we are 580 TEC Grand Service of October 2007 581 God the Parent 582 The rite of bestowing the Sazuke occurs inside a room adjacent to the foundress' sanctuary. (Morishita 2001: 137). regenerated. To become yoboku is to regenerate oneself in the present life. It is a precious event. (Nagao 2007 583 ).

A follower thus called forth returns to the Home of the Parent and attends the Besseki lecture. As one progresses through the sessions, one gradually sweeps away the dusts by virtue of the truth of the teachings, corrects one's conduct and, finally, the mind becomes clear. The desire to be saved becomes a desire for the salvation of others. This is when the truth of the Sazuke is bestowed and the mind is reborn. (The Doctrine of Tenrikyo 1993: 67 584 ).

The method of infusing the individual with the teachings and the faith through repeated exposure to nine identical Besseki lectures was similar to other learning contexts of the religion and the general experience of being involved in it, in which repeated exposure to core aspects of the religion was a primary means through which the faith was transmitted to and cultivated in the individual. Key examples of this include the rote memorization of the Eight Dusts and Ten Providences of God the Parent that was included as a component of the European Seminar, and the Service ritual in which performance of, or exposure to, the ritual rather than intellectualization of, or belief in, it was of central importance. In these examples, we can see that the principal means through which these important components of the faith were transferred to the individual was via experiential exposure; "being" or "becoming" Tenrikyo was not a one-time endeavor but rather a prolonged imbuing of the religion by the individual. Included in this was the process of 583 Original text : De nos jours, les fidèles des pays étrangers qui rentrent au Jiba, peuvent y assister neuf fois au cours d'un seul voyage. (Mais ces neuf fois ne sont pas consécutives. Il doit avoir un jour de repos.) C'est un règlement établi spécialement pour ceux qui ne peuvent y retourner facilement car ils demeurent trop loin. Normalement nous ne pouvons l'écouter qu'une seule fois par mois. Par conséquent il faut neuf mois pour que nous puissions recevoir le principe du Sazuke. Il est enseigné qu'une durée équivalente à celle de la croissance d'un embryon dans la matrice est nécessaire, pour qu'il nous soit accordé. Après quoi nous sera accordé le principe du Sazuke, autrement dit nous nous régénérons. Devenir yoboku, c'est se régénérer dans la vie présente. C'est un événement précieux. Généralement, n'importe quelle personne de plus de dix-sept ans, peut assister à la lecture du Besseki au Jiba. Cette lecture dure environ une heure et demie. Son contenu représente l'enseignement fondamental de Tenrikyô, c'est à dire la Vérité sur la Création, la signification du Service, le Modèle d'Oyasama, la signification du Jiba, les dix fonctions protectrices d'Oyagami et les huits poussières mentales. Ces differents points sont indispensables pour la foi de Tenrikyô. Après avoir assisté neuf fois au Besseki, s'il le désire, il aura la gloire de devenir yoboku en recevant le principe du Sazuke part le Shimbashira, substitut d'Oyasama, dans son sanctuaire. Le yoboku n'est plus un simple fidèle. Devenir yoboku signifie se trouver à un degré plus élevé qu'un simple fidèle et que l'on peut servir Oyasama en travaillant au Salut de l'humanité en transmettant le Sazuke.

attending the nine Besseki lectures necessary to take part in the rite through which one underwent this religious transformation of identity and position in the faith.

Acquiring the important designation of "Yoboku" was strongly connected with being in Tenri City as it was only in this location that it was possible to attend the Besseki lectures and undergo the transformational rite through which one acquired this categorical title. In this, there was a concrete connection between "being/becoming Tenrikyo" and being in Tenri City where the faith and the location at which it is based were shown to be largely intersecting spheres. It was common for followers to come to Tenri City specifically for the purpose of listening to the nine Besseki lectures and to undergo the rite through which one became a "Yoboku."

As noted previously, followers in Japan could only attend one of these nine lectures per month, whereas overseas followers were allowed an exemption to listen to these nine lectures in a condensed period of time due to the time and money involved in coming to Tenri City from overseas. The goal of these lectures was not simply to intellectually convey the information contained therein but to "settle the teachings" in the hearts/minds of those attending them. This spiritual "settling of the mind" through experiential repetition was conducted through a particular framework. The word "besseki" translates in English to "separate seat/ special seat." As I heard it explained by numerous followers, this term is used to convey the experience of listening to these lectures in a special setting apart from that of the everyday, which in practice was in a quiet room used specifically for this purpose. Moreover, the framing of this transformative experience of the faith's teachings was viewed as an important undertaking extended to the overall experience of attending them. Firstly, in order to attend them, an application form which included one's "home site" and church lineage with written support via a signature, or name stamp 585 , from a supervising individual in this lineage was required. This, as indicated previously, was one of the reasons that the young French woman of Bordeaux Kyokai, Nathalie, needed to have an official "home site" in order to fulfill her wish to become a Yoboku. In this, we can see that being affiliated with a particular "home site" was a required component of being a "full member 586 " of 585 In Japan, personalized name stamps are often used in place of a signature.

586 "Full member" is meant to refer to how this category was often conceptualized in practice rather than in official Tenrikyo discourse.

the religion as without one, there were important components of the religion one could not engage in.

Furthermore, prior to being able to listen to these lectures, one was required to take the "Besseki pledge 587 " aimed largely at situating the attendee in a particular psychological framework imbued with sacrality, sincerity, and receptivity. The experience of taking this pledge contributed to the positioning of their attendance as a significant undertaking that one should approach with reverential sincerity. This preparatory pledge was said in front of a Tenrikyo official clothed in Tenrikyo robes, thereby visually reinforcing its being part of a larger Tenrikyo ceremonial framework. These officiants each individually received followers in a large room that for this purpose accommodated multiple interviewer/ interviewee pairs to engage in this structured interpersonal directing of intention. The room in which this took place was located in a building in the central area of Tenri City approximately ten minutes by foot 588 from the Main Sanctuary specifically for these metamorphic lectures in which the physical space where this pledge was said and the Besseki lectures were attended later was an important component in the overall experience of this transformative endeavor. Through this, yet another connection between the religion of Tenrikyo and the physical space of Tenri City was demonstrated.

In practice, attendance of these nine lectures required neither attention to, nor retention of, the teachings contained within. It was simply required that one be physically present in the room nine times that these lectures were delivered, which was confirmed through the stamping of an attendance card each time it was attended. It is interesting to note that this card combined the 587 We call God the Parent, Tenri-O-no-Mikoto. God the Parent is God of Origin, God in Truth, who created human beings and the world where there was no form. God the Parent revealed the divine will to humankind through Oyasama as Shrine. It is due to Oyasama that we learned of the will of God the Parent for the first time. Oyasama is Miki Nakayama. God the Parent created human beings to see their Joyous Life and share in it. Thus the Joyous Life is the goal of our existence. I have come to know of God the Parent through the guidance of __________* and have learned of the divine will. And because I desire to understand it more clearly and to fix it in my mind, I have returned to Jiba at this time. We are taught that the Jiba is the place where God the Parent resides and where the Service for universal salvation is performed. I desire to learn the teachings of God the Parent thoroughly at Jiba, to follow the Divine Model of Oyasama with adoration, and to bring satisfaction to God the Parent and happiness to others. (*) Here, people reciting the pledge state the reason they came to know of the teachings. Examples: (1) name of the person who guided them to the teachings or invited them to the Besseki lectures, (2) "my parents' faith," (3) "illness," or (4) "personal problems." 588 This is a very approximate depiction of the actual distance based on my recollection which may not be fully accurate of the time required to walk between these locations.

seemingly antithetical components of a sacred experience (becoming a Yoboku), with a regulatory administrative component (the official verification of one's attendance through official documentation). In the process of becoming a Yoboku through gradual transformation via these lectures, it was not the intellectual reception of the information that was central. Although this, too, was framed as important. Rather, it was the physical presence of attendees at these lectures that was of primary importance, as reflected in the fact that the prerequisite to undergo the sacred rite through which one became a Yoboku did not necessitate any level of mastery of the information contained therein but simply to have been physically present for its deliverance.

It was somewhat common to hear from Yoboku who had undergone this rite as a young adult talk about having slept during parts of these lectures. Often included in this narrative was that they were initially not interested in attending the Besseki lectures and only did so because it was expected of them by their Tenrikyo families. Although, as was often stated in such accounts, they initially did not regard the lectures as interesting or important and thus fell asleep in them similar to what they might do in a class lecture they were not interested in attending. As they went through the process of listening to these lectures, their heart was changed and they more clearly understood the importance of these lectures and the path of Tenrikyo.

The first time someone told me that they had fallen asleep in these sacredly framed lectures, I was quite surprised as I had assumed that out of situationally required politeness and ascribed importance that directed attention would be accorded to these lectures. Although sleeping in them was viewed as far from ideal, there were occasional indications that from a commonly held perspective, lack of consciousness for parts of their lecture attendance did not completely negate their involvement in them. One expression of this was conveyed to me during an interview with a Japanese woman living in Europe who was a core member of the "TEC community" and whose formative experiences in the religion included having studied at Tenri University, which is located in Tenri City, and (of course) having undergone the experience of becoming a Yoboku.

During this semi-structured interview, our discussion took many directions, including my expressed surprise and intrigue that I had heard people talk about having fallen asleep in these lectures and indirectly posed the question of if the type of information conveyed through the Besseki lectures was not based exclusively in intellectual learning but also understood to be conveyed through other types of learning. She paused on this question, expressed positively that she regarded this perspective as interesting and insightful, and said that she thought it could. She then linked this means of learning to a statement she heard from one of her Tenri University professors who was highly implicated in the faith, that although he does not like for his students to sleep in his university classes, when they do, he continues to teach with the perspective that although he is not conveying the information to their awake selves, he is talking to their souls. As suggested by this woman during our interview, this differentiation between one's waked self and the more profound level of the soul was directly transferable to the emphasis placed on people's presence at these Besseki lectures and the lack of prohibition for attendees to sleep during its deliverance. Although their intellectual selves were not actively engaged in receiving the conveyed information when they were asleep, other parts of their selves remained to receive them.

Relatedly, a middle-aged female follower of Japanese ancestry from Brazil who I got to know during a shared trip to our mutual grand church for its Monthly Service told me about an important experience she had during a Besseki lecture she attended as a young adult. While largely in a state of sleep, she saw the foundress and was reassured through her kind and maternal presence as the teachings were conveyed via the appointed Besseki orator. It was not exclusively through the intellectual transfer of information via the spoken contents of the lecture to the intellectual and awake mind of the recipient that was contained in the overall experience of learning, but also learning via their soul that did not require a wakeful state to be touched.

As these lectures were largely in practice, though not in doctrine, a means through which followers became "full members" of the faith and furthermore, an experience in the religion accorded particular attention and importance, the experience of attending these lectures and the multiple means through which their attendance was understood to be transformative is illuminative to the structure of the faith and how the development of people was understood. The broader spectrum of learning that spanned beyond the realm of the purposefully engaged intellect was similarly present in other structured components of the faith, such as the Service ritual, as discussed previously. This strongly suggests that the overall experience of followers' involvement in and with the religion is not simply mediated by the intellect. People were also understood to learn and develop through the body and the soul, with these aspects of the person positioned as highly interrelated in the faith. Among these other forms of learning was that of the sensorial, embodied experience that I have integrated into various components of my overall discussion and analysis of the multifarious social collectivity on which my research was focused.

Religious trainings in Tenri City: constructing understandings of and personal relationships to the faith and the pilgrimage town in which it is based Beyond the Besseki lectures, other religious trainings that took place in Tenri City, such as the three-month spiritual training program of Shuyoka, also comprised part of the lived experiences of many followers included in my study, particularly among those I position as being part of the "core" of the "TEC community." In thinking of people's relationship with Tenri City, it is important to include not only theological components of the site, but also the moments of people's lives that take place there. Such experiences contribute to shared associations with various parts of the town and the types of trainings that take place there, which include pointedly religious trainings and also largely secular academic programs, both of which hold an underlying "fragrance" of Tenrikyo modes of thinking and operation which then become part of those who take part in them. In addition to the educational programs providing at least some instruction on the Tenrikyo faith, another commonality was the communal experience of living together in shared dormitories, whether in followers' dormitories where individuals stay for most religious trainings that are the focus of this subsection, or in the student dormitories for high school and university academic programs that are the focus of the next subsection.

The experiences at these religious trainings were then transported from Tenri City to TEC by those who participated in them and contributed to the "Tenrikyo mode of sociality" and the relationship between the faith and the town that was discussed in the previous chapter. The various spiritual training programs described in this subsection are just a sampling of the training programs available in Tenri City that followers, including many involved in my study, spent prolonged periods of time attending, acquiring a tangible closeness with the place and with the theoretical, ritual, and interpersonal teachings conveyed in them. The global experientially based formation acquired through their participation was facilitated, in part, by the simple fact that these trainings provided a specific reason for spending prolonged periods of time in this religiously focused town. This was reflective of the fact that in Tenrikyo culture, similar to as in Japanese culture in general, operating under the framework of engaging in a specific structured activity, such as taking part in a training, was accorded a much higher level of normalization and legitimacy than simply spending prolonged periods of time in a particular location for the overall experience of being there without a specific activity toward which directed efforts are being made. While at the rate of 1000 yen 589 per night to stay in a followers' dormitory, it would be economically feasible for many people to spend several months in Tenri City on their own, people generally spent prolonged periods of time there only for specific reasons, the far most common was training programs.

The most frequently attended and discussed of these religious trainings was Shuyoka: the threemonth "spiritual development course" referenced numerous times previously that followers commonly took at some point in their lives, often but not exclusively when young adults. I commonly heard Shuyoka referenced by followers as a particularly pivotal moment in obtaining both a greater understanding of and intimacy with the faith and a greater understanding of themselves, others, and the world. Often, it served as an important life event that they carried within themselves thereafter wherever they went, including to TEC and the other European locations where the key social actors of my study lived.

In this intensive three-month program, participants would engage in the study of doctrinal, historic, and ritual components of the religion during the first part of the day and in organized hinokishin activities during the latter part of the day before retiring to their respective grand church dormitories. During my time in Tenri City, I somewhat frequently saw groups of Shuyoka participants engaging in communal hinokishin activities, such as landscaping work, throughout this pilgrimage town, along with others engaging in similar efforts, who were pointed out to me by Yuko and Mr. Sugimoto's brother, each of whom accompanied me for a portion of my time there. I also otherwise saw groups of Shuyoka attendees partially identifiable through their wearing black happi coats 590 at various places in the central religiously focused area of the town.

Most such groups were composed of Japanese participants, but during my time there, there was also a large group of Brazilian followers, most but not of whom appearing to be of Japanese 589 Approximately 10€. 590 Wearing a happi coat did not invariably signal the person was a Shuyoka participant because they were worn by a significant portion of followers in this central, religiously focused area of Tenri City for a variety of reasons.

descent, taking part in the program in the Portuguese language who were often more vivacious than their Japanese counterparts. I had the opportunity to speak with some Shuyoka participants while having lunch in one of the large cafeterias in the central area of Tenri City, as I often did, and also one participant at the followers' dormitory where we were both staying.

As mentioned several chapters previously, the format of this religious training that included theoretical, ritual, and hinokishin practice alongside communal living was largely mirrored in the Tenrikyo European Seminar held at TEC. The partially parallel nature of these two religious trainings was one of numerous contributing factors of the experientially derived similarity between Tenri City and the European center at which my research was primarily based. As the majority of the key social actors of TEC had taken part in Shuyoka, and other trainings in Tenri City, their orchestration of this European program was often based on their acquired experiences that occurred there, thereby linking the two locations and experiences.

In addition to Shuyoka, another training that many core members of the "TEC community" helping to put on the European Seminar, particularly those serving as teachers, had taken part in was the "lay minister" training. Though this training was only two-weeks weeks in length, it was in accordance with the Tenrikyo model of organizational advancement in which completion of this course awarded the attendee with an increased official status within the hierarchical organization of the religion. Although both male and female followers included in my study had taken part in this training, it was a more prevalently held experience amongst males. This was partially reflective of the fact that males more commonly assumed leadership roles in the religion than women, though as noted previously, this was not an absolute rule.

In my European-based observations, little to no differentiation was made based on the attainment of this particular status but it remained an undercurrent in the religious world of Tenrikyo in Europe. For example, a certain number of followers based at a particular mission station needed to be "lay ministers" as one of the requirements to receive authorization from Tenrikyo Church Headquarters to become a "branch church." Furthermore, though not strictly required by TEC, teachers of the theoretical portions of the European Seminar had often participated in this "lay minister" training and their having done so, in certain cases, functioned as an attributed qualification for their serving in this role. Although not all seminar instructors had completed this training, nor conversely did all members of the "TEC community" who had completed it serve as seminar instructors, there was a connection between those who had participated in this and/or other religious trainings in Tenri City and those who served in more central roles at TEC. Yet another religious training present in the "TEC community" via several of its female core members was a post-high school two-year religious training that covered topics similar to those conveyed in Shuyoka and the European Seminar, though in more depth. It also included additional topics deemed important to the overall educational training, including the study of other "world religions," such as Christianity and Buddhism, which are explained in Tenrikyo to be previous teachings transmitted by God the Parent to humanity591 . I would like to use this twoyear religious training program as an opportunity to discuss the reasons that people participate in these programs that span beyond a desire to acquire increased knowledge and practice of the religion.

Just as the actual motivations to come to Paris on a missionary assignment varied and often existed beyond the scope of religious devotion, so too did the motivations of the young adults who went through this, and other, religious training programs. For example, one "core" woman of TEC who participated in this two-year training who I became close with over the span of my research told me that when she was younger, she would come each summer to Tenri City for the Tenrikyo Children's Pilgrimage festival. She thought that the young adult participants of this religious training program were so "cool" (kakoii) when she watched their highly precise and uniform marching band-esque movements in the evening parade of the children's festival. This inspired her to want to participate in the training program herself.

Though receiving inspiration through these "cool" parade performances was no doubt only a partial explanation of why she chose to participate in this program after high school, the "cool" bodily performances she cited were highly controlled movements practiced on a regular basis by its young adult participants. Through their enactment, both mental and bodily discipline were cultivated, becoming embodied in the participants through their repeated enactment over this twoyear period. Similar to the practice of the Service ritual, these embodied manifestations of a particular way of being were imprinted onto the participants who then transmitted this incorporated demeanor to others of the greater groups of which they were a part. It should be underlined in reference to this particular woman's example that it was precisely this embodied way of being that attracted her to participate in this two-year training. Thus, one can infer that this embodied demeanor was at least partially a purposeful cultivation of the self for her. The two-year program that this woman participated in differed somewhat in both content and student population from the graduate seminary program that the Yagishita siblings attended; among other differences was that the graduate seminary program required the prerequisite of an undergraduate degree while the other did not. Despite this and other differences between these two and other such religious training programs, they all had as their goal the extensive formation of participants who, ideally, carried the theoretical and experiential components of the training(s) into their respective lives and the communities of which they were a part. As explained to me numerous times throughout the span of my research (more commonly by female than male followers), Tenrikyo is not something one can know\understand (wakaru) simply through intellectually based thought but rather is something one comes to understand little bit by little bit through action and experience. This is reflective of the fact that in Tenrikyo, learning does not occur solely through the intellectualization of theological components of the faith, but also through experiential components of it encountered and internalized through the body.

By taking part in such training programs, they were involving their whole selves in the fully encompassing experience of engaging with the religion. It was somewhat common to hear of influential moments and changes in perspective that occurred during such trainings outside of, but in relation to, the structured part of such programs. While in Tenri City for these trainings, not only were followers studying the religion through structured means, but they were also engaging all of their senses in the totality of the training and the town. The relationship between the structured formation of the trainings and the all-encompassing, though less direct, sensoriality of being in Tenri City operated in a circular manner. Their embodied engagement with this religious context influenced their study of the teachings and religious practice while simultaneously, their structured study influenced, and often amplified, their embodied experiences.

For example, during the same formational period that students were engaging in study of the theological significance of the Jiba in concert with the account of how this sacred point came to be revealed and how the Main Sanctuary built around this point was subsequently constructed through the diligent efforts of followers, they were also taking part in the "classic" hinokishin activity common to such trainings of cleaning the floors of the external corridors of this centrally important building by using cloths to wipe them down by hand. Their exertion in doing this coupled with the posture of being bent down for this task was reinforcing a disposition of humbled dedication to the faith through their bodily efforts, paired ideally with their intention of doing this in service of others as an expression of thanks to God the Parent (i.e. hinokishin). This contributed in most cases to their cultivated reverence for and feelings of closeness to the sanctuary, the sacred point of the Jiba (and thus God the Parent), the faith, and other people connected to this religious world.

Conversely, their intellectually based study of the faith, and moreover the numerous aspects of it connected directly to this space, contributed to how their efforts were conceptualized, and thus, experienced. Each of these formative elements contributed to the expansion of feelings directed toward and familiarity with the other. Similarly, while they were engaging in class-based study of the Service ritual, they were also engaging in the twice daily Morning and Evening Services over which the Shinbashira and other important religious officials presided and that generally hundreds of followers 592 participated in, thereby contributing to the sensorially rich sights, sounds, reverberations, and kinesthetic sensations included in the experience. In this coupling of experiential and intellectually based learning, each formational means was contributing to how the other was understood, encountered, and externalized, thereby strengthening both.

While students were taking part in such trainings that also included the importance of living harmoniously with others, which was taught as a key reason God the Parent brought about human existence and that this pro-social modality is a central component of what will bring about, and constitute, the salvific state of the "Joyous World," they were living in the shared housing facilities of either their followers' dormitory or in a dormitory they shared with their training cohort. Through this, they were sharing their living space with others who were also taking part in a concentrated engagement with the religion, and thus, also likely to have Tenrikyo teachings and Tenrikyo culture in the forefront of their behavioral modality and mindset, further immersing students in this lived interaction with this religious world.

Being in such contexts further encouraged the inculcation and deepening of their lived connection to the faith through the coupling of their embodied selves via lived experience and their intellectual selves by means of "book learning" in which they were practicing what they were studying and studying what they were living. The amplifying two-directional mirroring and reinforcement of being in Tenri City or, to a lesser degree, another Tenrikyo space such as TEC, and engaging in study and other pointedly formative activities of the faith was an important means through which the intellectual selves and the embodied selves of followers were both inculcated with the religion and bonded with the physical religious setting in which this training occurred. This highlights an important structured means through which followers were endowed with their understandings of and lived connections to the faith, and connectedly, to Tenri City.

Although neither attendance of such trainings nor a "return" to Tenri City is required to qualify as a "member" of Tenrikyo, the dual connection of having studied the religion and engaged in lived experiences with it, which ideally includes time in this pilgrimage town, are generally two methods of learning through which followers come to know the faith, with each amplifying and reinforcing the other. As demonstrated in previous chapters, this dual means of engaging in and 592 Or, possibly more.

becoming increasingly linked with the faith that included both mental and bodily engagement is common to formative contexts of Tenrikyo. This two-part reception of religious influence is amplified through this religiously focused location and engaging in the faith there. Further demonstrating the role that Tenri City plays in Tenrikyo contexts elsewhere, such as TEC, was the impactful role trainings held there had in shaping many of its followers and thus, the overall socio-religious spheres of which they are a part.

Schooling in Tenri City: an experiential connector between TEC and the pilgrimage town via members of the TEC community

Such prolonged periods of time spent in Tenri City for the pointed purpose of the formation of one's self also included academically focused learning, most notably the religion's two private boarding high schools and its university. Similar to the spiritual training programs that involved staying in communal dormitories, attendance at these schools included collective housing for students in the form of school dormitories, thereby rendering the experience of attending one of these schools also an all-encompassing one. These academic institutions were a key reason that followers spent prolonged periods of time in Tenri City, through which experiential connections were formed with numerous aspects of the city, the sacred sites located there, and with fellow members of the larger Tenrikyo scene. These relationships often became long-term social connections that spanned over physical and social spaces, including TEC and the European context of Tenrikyo, contributing to a dispersed network of "core" followers. Over the duration of my fieldwork, I slowly came to learn of the prevalence of such experiences among many of the core members of the "TEC community." This fostered an experiential commonality between them and a connection to the greater Tenrikyo social world.

Among the Japanese followers who came to TEC as missionaries 593 , it was highly common to have attended one of the two Tenrikyo-affiliated boarding high schools located in Tenri City: Tenri High School (Tenri Kōkō) and Tenri Gaguen High School (Tenri Kyōkō Gakuen). The latter included a stronger religious emphasis and was the more commonly attended of the two schools by the core members of TEC. Though not a requirement, students who attended these boarding 593 And in two cases, the children of missionary families born in Europe.

high schools, particularly the latter with its more pointed religious focus, were often from Tenrikyo church families, as were most core members of the "TEC community."

In addition to the two Tenrikyo high schools, Tenri City also hosted Tenri University, a private university attended by both followers and non-followers, including a significant portion of the core social actors of TEC. For followers, the period of generally four years of undergraduate studies was included in their multitude of experiences in this pilgrimage town. The time these individuals spent in Tenri City for academic education, along with other periods of time spent there, contributed to their having a deepened relationship with this religious town and the religion itself through the memories and experientially based associations formed there. Among the followers connected to TEC, and in the Tenrikyo scene in general, the real-life connections formed with Tenri City via prolonged periods of time spent there, such as during high school and/or university, through which tangible connections with this city, the sacred sites contained there, and the religion contributed to the existence of a common base between them which encouraged their connectedness and were a factor in their coming together to form a "community." These schools were not only present in my fieldwork through the memories of those who attended them many years ago, but were also part of the ongoing transnational story of TEC.

From my own vantage point, this ongoing connection was most pronounced through the oldest son of the Sugimoto family, Masa. Masa left France during my fieldwork at the age of fifteen to attend Tenri Gagukuen High School, before going on to attend Tenri University. Masa's path of pursuing his studies in Tenri City was similar to the path his father took over thirty years previously, when he also received his high school and university education in this pilgrimage town, before going on to engage in Tenrikyo-based work in California and then in France.

Masa was part of the "TEC community" from birth. His high school attendance halfway around the world in Tenri City was a present part of the "TEC community" in various ways. One example was the goodbye party held at TEC just before his departure that was attended by Tenrikyo followers of the "TEC community," many of whom had seen him grow up and also by some of the non-Tenrikyo people I include in the greater "TEC community," such as numerous young adult connected to TEC and its social world via ACFJT. This moment of coming together to send this young man off showcased this young man's familial connection to the "TEC community" and also the ongoing connection between TEC and Tenri City. Another example of the interconnectedness between the "TEC community" and Masa's time of study at this Tenrikyo high school took place when I was with members of the "TEC community" in Tenri City to participate in the Children's Pilgrimage to Jiba festival. Our group crossed paths with Masa while he was getting ready to perform in the festival parade with his school's Taiko drum club that he had joined earlier in the year, thereby allowing us a window into this new period of his life. I discuss this instance in more detail slightly later in this chapter.

The multilocality of many followers included in my study, and of the greater collective whole of the "TEC community," that was based (often among other places) in both Tenri City and at TEC was developed through spiritual and academic training programs that drew a significant proportion of its core members to spend prolonged periods of time in Tenri City. Through this, we can clearly see that the construction of the "TEC community" was partially fostered through its core members sharing a common experiential and theological base. In addition to such structured religious and academic trainings that drew followers to this pilgrimage town, another principal draw that encouraged their presence and thus, their experientially based incorporation of the religion, were special events that encouraged followers to come together in this religious homeland. The remainder of this chapter is dedicated to a discussion of these events.

b. Connecting with the greater Tenrikyo sphere via special events

The 130 th anniversary of Oyasama's withdrawal from physical life: celebrating in Tenri City and via distance at TEC, two layers of engagement by the TEC community During the two-year span of my fieldwork, the largest, most important, and most anticipated special event was the 130th anniversary 594 of Oyasama's withdrawal from physical life. This was one instance in the larger whole of the religion that included large commemorative celebrations 594 Each tenth anniversary of this event is commemorated. During the three years leading up to it, followers are encouraged to make extra efforts for the path of Tenrikyo. It was less than one year before this anniversary that I switched my research topic to Tenrikyo in Europe after I was exposed to it in some depth through my acceptance of invitations to come to various religious trainings and gatherings, which I do not view as merely coincidental timing due to the internal emphasis on increasing one's efforts to lead others to the path during this time. This occurred, for example, by referring to Japanese followers based in Europe simply as people "from" these European countries, which while technically true at the times in question, it eclipsed the fact that these individuals were often Japanese followers born and raised in the faith. Many but not all of them held official Tenrikyo positions in Europe, such as hosting a lineage-based site in their home and/or serving as TEC/ACFJT staff. Thus, for most coming from Europe, due to their official positions, they were there not only asprivate followers but to varying degrees also asrepresentatives of the sites in Europe which they headed or were closely associated 600 . This was in agreement with the general tendency of core members of the "TEC community" to "return" to this pilgrimage town more commonly than people situated in more of the periphery of this group, thereby serving as connectors between these two contexts and the social actors included in them. Also included in this text was that, "A day earlier, on the 25th, 29 followers from the Europe group gathered at the North worship hall 601 . After performing the seated service, they earnestly participated in the hinokishin cleaning of the eastern corridors 602 with cloths especially made for this occasion by the Europe Women's Association." Worthy of highlighting for my thesis is both their coming together to engage in the "classic" hinokishin activity of polishing the corridor floors of the Main Sanctuary and that they used cloths made specially for this purpose by the Europe Women's Association, which was another way the "TEC community" was connected to this important commemorative occasion while in Europe.

My own participation in this anniversary celebration took place at TEC on the calendar date of this occasion of January 26 but was connected to Tenri City and the members of the "TEC community" who were there for this important event. At this European center, there was a 10 am focused fieldwork, I was a little surprised by the brevity and simplicity of the anniversary celebration held at TEC that was commemorated by a performance of the Seated Service led by Eriko Kawakubo 604 , while her husband was in Tenri City for the event in accordance with his representative role. After this brief commemorative ritual in the sanctuary of TEC, refreshments of chocolate cake, chips, and beverages were enjoyed in the small dining room of the center located on its ground floor by the small collection 605 of people who came to the center for this occasion as we passed around two photos sent by the "European" group in Tenri City which showed them posed together in front of the sanctuary where the foundress is understood to dwell in spiritual form.

For the small group gathered at TEC, it was largely what those with whom we had social connections, and extendedly Tenrikyo followers in general, were doing halfway around the world in Tenri City that was the main event in which we were participating, despite our physical distance from it. Our connection to what was occurring in this pilgrimage town was brought to us in large part through the photos of those with whom we were linked who were there but also, according to the faith, through uniting our hearts with the point of the Jiba and the hearts of others also directing their hearts toward this point. Through this, we can see that although TEC and Tenri City are physically located half-way across the world from each other, they are, in practice, intricately connected.

The International Young Men's Association Hinokishin Corps: creating a transnational male space of social connection and religious engagement Although my participation in the 130 th anniversary of Oyasama's passing from physical life was at a distance from Tenri City, during my fieldwork in this pilgrimage town, several important international events were held there which drew members of the "TEC community," along with many others. This allowed me a closer look at the assemblage of dispersed followers coming together for special events in this pilgrimage town. To offer a vignette of the type of international Tenrikyo gatherings that occurred semi-regularly in Tenri City that united followers of the 604 As a reminder, Eriko Kawakubo was the head wife of TEC. Similar to many other head wives, she was often charged with leading rituals when her husband was not available to lead them. 605 Approximately 18 people were at TEC for this commemorative occasion.

transnational Tenrikyo scene, I describe in this and the following subsections of this chapter the several international events that occurred during my time there. The first of the several international events that occurred during my time in Tenri City was the 9 th "International Young Men's Association Hinokishin Corps." This international assortment of Tenrikyo Young Men's Association members 606 came together in Tenri City to perform communal hinokishin activities chiefly comprised of physically arduous tasks 607 . For this event, young adult male Tenrikyo followers came to Tenri City from multiple international locations, such as the US and Brazil, but which also included numerous young men coming from Europe who were connected to TEC.

As a woman, I did not participate in this male event myself but did gain knowledge of it through conversations with male followers I knew from Europe who did. In their discussions of the event, their discourse focused not only on their hinokishin efforts via the labor they provided but also on the experience of coming together with other diasporic Young Men's Association members. In coming together for this hinokishin event, social connections were formed and strengthened both between the individuals and between their respective groups.

Upon my slight suggestion that Young Men's Association activities might provide a context of male bonding that took place while talking with an approximately thirty-year-old European-born man about the event, he proceeded to explicitly discuss the comradery and ease with which a variety of topics were discussed during the all-male hinokishin event focused on physical labor.

He noted that none of these topics involved women, despite the fact that some of the young men were thinking of finding someone, evidenced in the fact that shortly afterwards familiar faces from this hinokishin event were seen at a speed dating event for English-speaking Tenrikyo followers608 . Interestingly, the explicit goal of this speed dating event was to be a meeting point 606 Generally in Tenrikyo, if one is a male follower between the ages of 15 and 40, one is a member of this association by default. 607 I was in Tenri City at the time of this International Young Men's Association Hinokishin Corps and saw people I knew from Europe who were there chiefly to participate in this event, but did not participate in the event myself because as a woman, my presence would have been rather strange, as was explained to me by a male core member of TEC.

for diasporic members of the Tenrikyo social collectivity, in this case specifically Englishspeaking individuals seeking marital partners. That this hinokishin event was a specifically male space, which by default excluded females, was something I discussed with the previously referenced European-born follower. Within the current model of Tenrikyo, based on both the foundress' teachings of gender equality and the notion of gender equality espoused in modernity and even more so in the West than in Japan, issues relating to gendered roles and spaces occasionally arose. One context among others in which this issue came up was the question of if the "Young Men's Association" should continue to be exclusively male or if in modernity, it should be open to all followers of appropriate age, regardless of gender. This follower's discussion of the social benefits of such male spaces was in the greater context of discussing this small controversy and his counterargument that the Young Men's Association was created for specific reasons and that this group's organization of hinokishin activities did not prevent other Tenrikyo activities from being organized for a more general audience. Thus, to him, this gender-specific group should continue to function as such as it did not prevent anyone from engaging in such activities themselves. Despite this expressed view, activities organized by the "European Tenrikyo Young Men's Association" were most often open to all interested young adults. This was noted to me several times throughout my research to be an adaptation to the French cultural context where young men and women prefer to engage in activities in shared spaces rather than maintaining a gendered separation between both the spaces they occupy and the activities in which they engage609 . Though, when this European group joined with the larger international collectivity of Tenrikyo Young Men's Associations, they conformed to the norm of this context being an exclusively male space. Thus, while the European Young Men's association based at TEC was partially influenced by the less gendered social norms that were perceived as being at play in France, they were also Tenri Forum: an international gathering of English-speaking followers, reuniting with members of a linguistically based sphere of Tenrikyo Several days after the International Young Men's Association Hinokishin Corps, an international gathering of English-speaking followers sponsored by the Tenrikyo Overseas Department titled "Tenri Forum" was held for the second time; its inaugural session was held ten years prior. The main purpose of this forum was for English-speaking followers to come together, connect with each other, and discuss "new frontiers" for the faith. According to the event's Facebook page, which was used as both promotion of the forum and a point of information and communication for registered participants: "Tenri Forum 2016 is an opportunity to examine ways to implement the teachings and engage in appropriate ministries in English-speaking parts of the world" (Tenri Forum, Facebook, 2016).

In a later section of its Facebook page, the intended purpose of the gathering was explained through the following text:

We have just begun to renew our efforts so as to reach our next milestone after having just celebrated the 130th Anniversary of Oyasama. At this important juncture, we now want to critically look back on how we have been proceeding with what Tenri Forum 2006 sought as new frontiers in the mission. Tenri Forum 2016 will again provide the platform for which to examine ways to implement the teachings and engage in appropriate ministries for promoting the joy of life in English-speaking parts of the world. With opportunities to reconnect with old friends as well as make new ones, this special gathering yearns most of all to unite as many like-minds (as) possible from across the globe at the Home of the Parent so as to share ideas and experiences with regard to the manifold pathways of salvation.

During this two-day gathering, attendees stayed together in the international followers' dormitories, forming connections with the greater English-speaking Tenrikyo community. In contrast to the international gathering of young men, as a native English speaker, my participation in this event was encouraged and viewed as "normal." This was fortunate as it served as a valuable opportunity to learn more about the greater international community of Tenrikyo that TEC was connected with, which in the case of this forum was largely based in the US: one of several extra-European countries with which TEC was significantly linked610 . During this forum, I made new social connections, primarily with followers coming from the US. Among them were people I had previously heard of both via their connections with people I knew through TEC and also for some, the role they played in the greater Tenrikyo scene that extended into TEC and ACFJT. I also reunited with the two followers based outside of Europe who I had gotten to know the previous summer in the English cohort of the European Seminar, which I discuss in more detail shortly.

Though Tenri Forum was only two-days long, many followers had come to Tenri City from outside of Japan to participate in it and it serves as an excellent example of the type of moments through which social connections between dispersed followers were formed and strengthened. It should be noted regarding these geographically dispersed connections that communications were exchanged via its Facebook page before and after the event, thereby extending the forum's socially linking capacity beyond the two days of the gathering itself. As I was a newcomer to this scene and was not yet socially connected to many of the participants, it was common for people I met to suggest we become connected via Facebook, which I invariably accepted. Through this, I increasingly saw the interconnectedness of English-speaking followers (and followers based in and/or linked to the North American and European Tenrikyo scenes) through our shared Facebook "friends," and by means of publicly visible personal exchanges between these connected followers.

Similar to other participants, by taking part in this forum, I reunited with numerous Tenrikyo followers living far from me who I had gotten to know in other Tenrikyo contexts, most notably the European Tenrikyo Seminar which had provided my in-depth introduction to the religion and its social world a year prior. The first such reunion took place several days before the forum when I was coming back from the Evening Service held in the Main Sanctuary to "my" followers' dormitory. While walking down a central pathway, I bumped into Kenta, the young Japanese man with whom I had participated in the English cohort of the European Seminar the previous summer 611 .

He was particularly surprised to see me in Tenri City because when we had participated in the European Seminar together, I was not a follower, was not very familiar with the religion, nor had I yet decided to focus my research on a Tenrikyo related topic. I was surprised to see him because, although I knew Kenta was from the city of Osaka, located approximately one hour from Tenri City, I was not expecting to cross paths with him. Over the span of my time there, I increasingly realized that such unplanned meetings were, in fact, often part of the experience of spending time in Tenri City. As planned, when I met him previously at TEC, he had returned to live in his natal city of Osaka, where I learned he had become a taxi driver. He was in Tenri City for the evening to visit friends and was planning to come back several days later to participate in the English Forum, where we would spend time together, catch up more, and reconnect like old friends, which was common in such Tenrikyo gatherings. First, though, he invited me to join him and his friends at a nearby ikazaya (Japanese pub) where we caught up and chatted and I met the other young adult Tenrikyo followers he was there with, thereby becoming increasingly connected to part of the broader interconnected social realm of Tenrikyo. This interconnection was exemplified through the fact that one of his Japanese friends who requested to add me as a Facebook friend had multiple Tenrikyo friends in common with me on this social networking site, several of whom were based in the US or Europe.

At the forum two days later, our English cohort of the previous year's European Seminar was further reunited through the presence of our instructor from Hawaii, Mary. We made a point of sitting together during the cafeteria lunch included as part of the program to chat and catch up. This shared moment was but one example of the continuity of social connections that developed and was sustained between disparate Tenrikyo followers. Moreover, this forum showcased how specific social spheres of Tenrikyo, in this case a linguistic (and largely geographic) sphere, were constructed, sustained, and developed through pointed efforts to foster connection that were continued over time and amongst geographically dispersed followers.

c. The festival of the "Children's Pilgrimage to Jiba": reuniting with a familiar context of joy and with members of the TEC community

Fostering connectedness with fellow members of the TEC community, Tenri City, and the faith through an annual children's festival Among the special events hosted in Tenri City that members of the "TEC community" participated in, the annual "Children's Pilgrimage to Jiba" (kodomo ojiba gaeri) held on the central grounds surrounding the main Tenrikyo sanctuaries merits particular attention. It was a monumental event for many young followers who came to Tenri City, often annually, to participate in this elaborate children's festival. Included in this ten-day event that groups, most often of lineage-based churches or overseas collectivities, usually participated in together for two or three days were carnival games, "fun-house" style activities, and an outdoor swimming pool, along with other activities aimed at fostering an entertaining event through which children would enjoy their time in Tenri City while learning about and practicing the teachings of Tenrikyo and developing positive relationships with others, with the religion, and with this religiously-focused location. Also included as one of the main festival attractions were impressive nightly parades in which many groups participated. These groups included those coming from overseas locations (such as TEC), various clubs from the schools in Tenri City discussed previously, and lineagebased churches.

For many Tenrikyo followers who grew up in Japan, as children, coming to Tenri City for the Children's Pilgrimage festival was often the highlight of their summer vacation and the main occasion in the year they came to Tenri City. For young followers living outside of Japan, the Children's Pilgrimage festival was also frequently a main reason that they came to Tenri City. As a result, the festival existed as a purposeful facilitator of children developing a familiarity, and in most cases positive memories and associations, with this sacred location from an early age. It is interesting to note that it was not only children raised in Tenrikyo families who participated in this festival; many non-Tenrikyo children were invited by and came with their Tenrikyo friends, which Tenrikyo children were encouraged to do, providing them with experience of making efforts to share Tenrikyo with others from an early age. During the festival, I heard estimates that as many as half of the children in attendance were not from Tenrikyo families 612 . Demonstrating the common practice of inviting non-Tenrikyo children to this festival was that during the period of my fieldwork in Paris, I encountered multiple non-Tenrikyo Japanese people who told me they were familiar with the religion because they had been invited to participate in the Children's Pilgrimage festival as a child in Japan.

As previously explained, an important aim of the festival was for the children to construct positive memories and emotional states that they associate with Tenri City, and connectedly, the religion. Such associations acquired through participation in this festival usually became anchored in their early constructions of the self. This extended to many Tenrikyo children living in Europe. Every year, a group of children coming from Europe and their parents (most of whom were Japanese, with mothers significantly more present at this festival than fathers), as well as some adult followers without children of their own participated in the festival as a group. During the two days of their scheduled participation, they stayed together in the dormitory reserved especially for overseas followers, which was occupied by groups coming from various countries also there to participate in this festival, illustrating the transnational character of the event and of the religion.

Although Tenrikyo activities often did not look like obvious manifestations of "joy," largely due to the serious facial expressions of the involved individuals, despite this emotional state being at the heart of the faith and its discourse, the children's festival blatantly, and without much in the way of Japanese adult subtlety, featured a joyous exuberance. In this purposefully promoted emotional ambiance, Tenrikyo values such as gratitude, friendship, helping others, and joy through child-centric imagery, songs, activities, and discourse were explicitly put forth. (The two photos included at the end of this chapter offer a visual sampling of the atmosphere purposefully constructed at this festival.) By examining how Tenrikyo values and practices were presented to children, we can better see the idealized values and behaviors of the group through simplified or exaggerated representations. Thus, the emphasis on the values mentioned above are exemplary of the idealized values of the group. This festival was also demonstrative of the formative 612 The children not from Tenrikyo families who attend this festival are usually invited by Tenrikyo friends. experiences that helped shape the adults of the group into who they were as the festival had not changed much over the past several generations. Thus, although the TEC group's participation in this festival was only for two days out of the year, it was an experience that reverberated through the group in numerous ways.

During this annual event, various aspects of the faith were interwoven into the festival through which a deepened familiarity and positive association with the religion and the pilgrimage site where it took place was purposefully cultivated in participants. In the morning, for example, before participants scattered to various festival areas, they first assembled together in the Main Sanctuary for a Morning Service ritual held specially for those participating in the children's festival at a time later than the principal Morning Service held at the sunrise, followed by a short talk given by the Shinbashira. Thus, through participating in the festival, children were also developing an embodied familiarity with the Seated Service and with the sacred point of the Jiba around which the Main Sanctuary was constructed. This familiarity was not conveyed through explanation but rather through first-hand participation.

Although, for example, one can talk about the impressive effect and associated feeling that comes with clapping together four times in unison with hundreds or even thousands (depending on the day) of others sitting in the four wings of the sanctuary which face each other and the sacred point of the Jiba, first-hand participation in this ritual experientially impressed it upon participants. In the child-focused talk delivered by the Shinbashira following this ritual, numerous central components of the religion were discussed; for example, the fraternity of all humans, the importance of helping one another, and the importance of having fun and appreciating life, thereby setting the tone for the day and further instilling these aspects in those present. For some in attendance, these words would create lasting memories due to the specialness with which the festival was regarded, thereby imprinting their experience of it, which included numerous key elements of the religion, onto their forming selves.

All core members of the "TEC community" had participated in this experience, often as both children and adults, rendering it a common component of their imprinted experiences with Tenri City and with the religion itself. During the year of my participation in it, thirty-eight people coming from Europe, twenty of whom were children, participated together in this "European group." An explicit example of the importance that participation in this festival held in the formative experiences of many followers raised in the faith was conveyed to me by a Japanese follower who had been living for over a decade in the UK. On the incredibly hot and humid July day on which we were taking part in the TEC group's participation in the festival, I was seated with most of the other adults of our European group under a canopied section of the area while the children played in a fun-house style carnival area for our allotted timeslot at this particular attraction.

The forty-something year old UK-based follower I was sitting by had brought her elementary school-aged son, along with two similarly aged children of a non-Tenrikyo Japanese friend living in the UK, to participate in the festival. She told me that when she was a child, she loved coming to this festival and had very good memories of it. She wanted her son to also have such an experience and later to have fond memories of it, and thus was motivated to bring him. For this woman, an explicitly stated motivation of coming to Tenri City for the Children's Pilgrimage was not simply the momentary enjoyment of the festival but also the cultivation in her son of enduring positive memories of it and connectedly, the development of a familiarity with and positive feelings toward this pilgrimage site and the Tenrikyo religion.

The presence at TEC of the Children's Pilgrimage: an example of the outstretch of events in Tenri City to TEC

What is of primary importance for my thesis in relation to my discussion of the participation of many members of the "TEC community" in the Children's Pilgrimage to Jiba and other events held in Tenri City was that moments of community formation occurred not only at TEC or even exclusively on the European continent but also elsewhere, primarily though not exclusively in Tenri City. Conversely, while the Children's Pilgrimage to Jiba took place, as explicitly stated in its name, in Tenri City 613 , its presence extended to other Tenrikyo sites, including TEC, through multiple channels. The structured participation of the European group in this festival was not something that occurred exclusively during the two days of its collective participation in the festival in Tenri City, but also extended to TEC and members of the "TEC community" at other times of the year. For instance, starting in the early spring, there was an announcement of the date that the group from TEC would participate in the Children's Pilgrimage to Jiba in the bimonthly TEC newsletters, accompanied with a request that parents "expecting to return to Jiba" with their children over the summer participate in it. At TEC, during the months leading up to the festival, it was a commonly discussed topic and part of the collective endeavors of the group despite being something that would take place on the other side of the world, thus rendering participation in the pilgrimage festival a local feature of TEC.

The personal connections between many of the central social actors of TEC were developed not only through shared moments at TEC, but also in Tenri City. For most followers, the "Europe group" was not the only possible group with whom they could participate in the festival as it was common for lineage-based church groups 614 to attend the festival together for several days of organized participation, during which time they would stay together in the followers' dormitory of their grand church. In both the "Europe group's" shared participation and also that of lineagebased groups, taking part in the festival as an organized group served as a means through which participants created shared memories that further linked them to each other and to the broader social collectivity of which they were a part. Part of this linking was through the planning and anticipation of this shared activity, as was participating in the shared experience.

A secondary example of the presence of this festival that extended to TEC was demonstrated through the sonoral connection between the two contexts that proved to be an evocative link upon my return to TEC after having participated in the children's festival. This experiential connection occurred through the music played throughout the festival that I heard again during my second time participating in the European Seminar during our morning hinokishin tasks. While engaging in these cleaning tasks at TEC with others through the Tenrikyo-esque modality of working diligently in cheerful collaboration with others while this music played, I felt an embodied connection to the scenes of the Children's Pilgrimage festival that I had been immersed in shortly 614 Some European-based participants take part in the festival both with the European group during its scheduled time of attendance and also with their lineage-based group, or in certain cases the lineage group of their mother before marriage, during the group's separate scheduled time of participation. before. Through this, I was transported out of the locational specificity of TEC and into a broader Tenrikyo experientiality.

The sensorial connection between the memories and associations acquired in this festival was facilitated through these kawaii615 ("cute") Tenrikyo songs that were played on loudspeakers throughout the festival grounds and at various key moments of the festival, and also during our morning hinokishin efforts as TEC. As we were going about our communal morning chores, some TEC staff members were singing along with these upbeat songs that covered a variety of Tenrikyo themes, demonstrating their familiarity with them and further involving themselves in their reverberations through both listening to them and reproducing them through their vocal cords and breath. Although I am not sure if these particular songs date back to when these staff members participated in the festival as children or if they were introduced more recently, what was clear was that they served as a sensorial bridge between Tenrikyo contexts on opposite sides of the world. The notably feel-good Tenrikyo songs that I had assumed to be a vehicle of emotional imprinting unique to the Children's Pilgrimage festival were serving to add cheer to another Tenrikyo context, in this case that of TEC. In this, one can see that particular emotional experiences and dispositions conveyed through these songs and the activities engaged in while listening to them linked disparate locations that belonged to a greater Tenrikyo culture.

Reuniting with past and present members of the TEC community at the Children's

Pilgrimage to Jiba: the continuation of a shared social world Not only were experiential links between disparate contexts part of participating in the Children's Pilgrimage to Jiba, the festival also served as a context through which social actors connected to the "TEC community" were reunited with one another, thereby facilitating their continued connection. During the "European group's" participation in the festival, we were reunited with numerous members of the "TEC community," both past and present, who were living in Japan. In this subsection, I will discuss three such instances.

The first I will discuss was my own reunion with my former language exchange partner, Kanae, who I hadn't seen in over a year and a half since she returned to Japan after finishing her scheduled term as a Japanese teacher at ACFJT. She came to Tenri City at this time from the Tokyo region where she had relocated for work following her return to Japan. While in Tenri City, she met up with the "European group" to spend time with a large segment of the "TEC community" that she had previously been very much a part of. People in the "European group" were glad, but not surprised, to see her. Such a reaction was similarly displayed when other people who had been actively part of the "TEC community" met up with us during our participation in the festival, demonstrating that this was a common component of being in this pilgrimage town, particularly for large organized events which drew many people.

Another notable reunion that occurred between our "European group" and a "member" presently based in another location was with Masae Yagishita 616 who was taking part in the two-year graduate seminary. When we saw her, she was helping with the hands-on instructional practice of the Service instruments 617 that took place in a large hall in of one of the numerous buildings in the central, religiously focused area of the city that was being used for festival activities as a scheduled hinokishin task included in her participation in the seminary program 618 . Along with other young adults similarly dressed neatly in white polo shirts and dark slacks helping in a similar way, Masae worked one-on-one with children learning to play these instruments in a manner akin to the practice sessions to learn the instruments that I took part in at TEC during the European Seminar and also the Sunday manabi (practice) sessions.

Our reunion with Masae, who had been part of the "TEC community" since birth, occurred discretely in passing. This was in contrast to the more exuberant reunion that took place with 616 As a reminder, Masae Yagishita was the youngest four Yagishita siblings to have helped orchestrate the Englishcohort of the European Seminar the first year I took part in this program. 617 Only the "male" percussion instruments were placed out in this large room to practice. The "female" stringed instruments require more instruction and practice to gain a minimum ability to play and, moreover, are reserved solely for females in contrast to the percussion instruments, which are colloquially referred to as "men's instruments" but were not specified by the foundress to be reserved for only one gender. 618 It is common for followers, particularly youth or young adults, to help with part of the festival as hinokishin, which is usually expressed as a particularly "fun" (tanoshii) and well-liked part of being at the festival. The older Sugimoto son who was attending high school in Tenri City, for example, joined his classmates by helping with a ninja\ water pistol obstacle course by shooting participants with water from a hidden spot of the course. The younger Sugimoto son helped distribute cool beverages to participants in the hot Japanese summer heat with a similarly aged group that his parents had arranged for him to join, as he had done for the past several years. Kanae the day before, which involved numerous members of our group engaging extensively in catching up and spending time with her. Masae was there to help with this task as part of the serious and focused two-year seminary program. As discussed previously, a diligent work ethic is highly valued in both Japanese and Tenrikyo cultures, particularly in contexts such as this one where such a demeanor was standard. Due to the context and the culture(s) in which she was operating, her lack of extensive attention accorded to the presence of our group was culturally prescribed and thus well received. Although our interactions with her at this time were limited and discrete, there was a subtle delight among members of our group in seeing this core young adult member of the "TEC community" engaging in this activity and developing as a person and as a follower of the faith. This familial satisfaction in seeing her blossoming in the faith, and as a young woman, was evidenced through discreet attention directed toward her from of our group paired with subtle facial indications and comments, such as that she was there, said with a subtle smile, often expressed mainly through the eyes, coupled with an indicative look in her direction, or that she looked "genki" (seemed to be doing well). Such expressed reactions to seeing her in this context suggested that the experience was regarded as positive for her personal development, and connectedly, her spiritual advancement on the path of Tenrikyo. Similar to other members of this group who took part in trainings and educational programs in Tenri City, Masae's experience during this period of her life would later return with her to Europe and to the "TEC community."

Her life afterward would be a continuation of her experiences developed in Tenri City and conversely, her previously developed experiences in Europe were a part of her life in Tenri City, embodying a continuity and connection between the two locations.

The third reunion with a "member" of the "TEC community" living in Japan occurred during a particularly excited moment that showcased not only the social reunifications that happened in Tenri City and more specifically in this part of my thesis, during this festival, but also the collective emotionality that was often a present feature of this group. Throughout my fieldwork, the purposeful sharing of (most often "joyful") emotions through bodily expressions of affective states was a commonly present feature of my research, including in this instance that occurred during a festive moment of behind the scenes parade preparations for the festival. I was with about thirty people coming from Europe, the majority but not all of whom were Japanese core members of TEC. It was against the muggy, dark evening backdrop of Japanese summer, amidst a carnival-esque excitement of illuminated parade floats that would soon make their debut. This included our own scheduled time in the spotlight of the parade that we were awaiting, for which we would perform a cheerful but simple choreographed dance number, albeit in only approximate synchronicity, which we would later share laughs about, that we had learned the day before and practiced numerous times together in preparation of the moment that was soon to come. It was a communal moment of anticipation, thereby heightening our collective emotionality.

Dressed in bright blue "Tenrikyo Europe" t-shirts that we donned for the occasion 619 , with several people additionally sporting festive accessories such as Europe-themed costume hats and blue, white, and red pom-poms 620 that were included for the convivial effect they could add to our tshirt clad group, we assembled into a several-person-wide line, figuring out the best locations for everyone for our performance in the parade. Interestingly, several males of European or mixed Japanese-European descent were purposefully positioned at the front to emphasize the Europeanness of our group 621 . Similarly, others in our group of non-Asian ancestry were in like manner positioned in prominent positions, such as at the rear, further adding to the "non-Japaneseness" of our group amidst the broader, prominently Japanese collection of people present to showcase the contemporary global expansion of the religion. Some people knew the choreography better than others, and in preparation of the public moment soon to come, many were practicing it or reviewing certain parts through micro-versions of its gestures, often through collaboration with others.

Surrounding us were numerous other groups who were also readying themselves for the big moment. We had already watched the parade the night prior which showcased numerous groups 622 on the bleachers that lined the path for this purpose and soon would have others watch us. Some groups, similar to our own, would be exclusively on foot, representing their group 619 Photos of our group's performance in the parade are included at the end of this chapter. 620 Blue, white, and red are the colors of both the French and British flags. These pom-poms were made several days previously by two core TEC women, along with their children and myself. 621 One of these European men was not a Tenrikyo follower, but was taking part in the festival with his non-Tenrikyo Japanese wife and their children as they had previously done multiple times 622 Each group featured in the parade was accorded one scheduled appearance during the entire ten-day event.

through costumes and performances. Others would have parade floats, some with lights, that were included in this busy backstage scene. There was also a hubbub of sounds between the chatter that circulated within our own group, the loudspeaker announcements which accompanied each group as they came out from this backstage area followed by cheers from the spectators, and the other groups who like us, were preparing for the moment soon to come.

Significantly contributing to the exciting cacophony of sounds was the taiko drum group of Tenri Kyōkō Gakuen High School which the older son of the Sugimotos, who had left France earlier that year to attend this high school, was a member as his choice of extracurricular school activity623 . For most of the people included in our "European group," the last time they had seen this young man, who had been part of the "TEC community" since birth, was at the goodbye party held for him at TEC before his departure. In little time, he appeared to have grownup quite a bit, as I heard numerous members of our group comment on enthusiastically, and was embracing and apparently excelling in a sportive Japanese art that he had never done before.

In this brief moment, there was a shared familial pride that circulated among us in seeing him growing up and doing well in his new surroundings. Although he was the son of the Sugimotos, he was socially positioned as the figurative nephew/cousin of many members of the "TEC community" who were assembled together halfway around the world from where this group was primarily based. Extendedly though, not only were those close to him included in our excitement at seeing him with schoolmates atop their float, energetically preparing for their performance. As was common in numerous TEC scenes, and extendedly scenes of the broader Tenrikyo world, our group was accustomed to acting and expressing emotion in unison. In such group scenes, for example, it was common that when some would externally express joyful excitement and appreciation through clapping and cheering with an enthusiastic smile, others would join in even if they were not aware of, or included in, the source of the collective emotional state that was expressed outwardly through embodied indications, and then spread to others.

Conclusion: Transportations, adaptations, and social linkages: multiple layers of group construction and solidification

How is a community constructed between interwoven social spheres?

As demonstrated, although my fieldwork was centered at TEC, as was my research population, neither were exclusive to this singular, precise physical location, but included, rather, multiple other sites connected in various ways to TEC that also constituted important parts of the ongoing story of the eclectic "TEC community." This became a palpably evident feature of my "field site" over time, through spending several years with the conglomeration of diverse social actors who existed in multiple webs of connection to TEC and to each other, and which spanned across time, space, and even relationships to and understandings of the Tenrikyo religion that came together to constitute a greater interconnected social whole624 .

The central question around which my thesis was constructed was how this collection of individuals came together to form a "community" despite their diversity and multiple ways of being connected to TEC and its associated social world. Some people's membership in this "community" was clearly evident, namely those I referred to as "core" members of this group.

For others, the question of if they should be positioned as "members" of the group or not was more complex. To a great extent, it was the existence of "core members" in multiple spheres of this community that served as an important basal linking feature of the broader group into which more peripherally positioned people were then included. By being connected to this social base, one was connected to its broader group. In this, it was not necessary for any one individual to be involved in all spheres of this multilayered social collectivity to be a part of its larger whole as "membership" was non-fixed and openly defined. Rather, one's involvement often rendered the person, to varying levels and in various ways, part of the greater ensemble of this unbound community which spanned beyond a particular moment or singular place.

My thinking about the globality of the social world of TEC, with its regular, and diverse, inflow and outflow of actively involved group members as comprising a broad interconnected social familiarity through time spent there and whose connections to members of the group were also continued through sustained linkages that manifest themselves in other locations and in ways beyond the physically bound site of TEC. This often occurred partially via distance and partially through seeing each other on punctuated occasions, the most frequent place for these reunions being Tenri City. For such individuals, despite no longer being at TEC, they remained connected to its associated social world. As we could see, for example, through my former languageexchange partner, Kanae, joining up with part of the "TEC community" for a day of this group's collective participation in the Children's Pilgrimage to Jiba festival in Tenri City.

Moreover, while the "TEC community" was not exclusively bound to the physical site of TEC, spending time at TEC was the primary means through which its "members" became included in it. Thus, important to thinking about the construction and continuation of this social world is how and why people came to this center, which for many was primarily for organized events and activities held there, for which a commonly included component was the construction of a purposefully warm and communal social ambiance in which anyone present could, and usually did, become a group member, even if simply for a moment in time while there. As discussed previously, in the model of welcoming individuals not born into the faith, the emphasis was often placed on encouraging their presence, and when possible, sharing the religion and implicating such newcomers in the faith as much as possible. It was most often their active presence, though, that was primarily sought, which this collective sense of community encouraged.

I would now like to focus on several aspects included in this site that served both as solidifiers of community formation and which rendered TEC, and its connected social world, concomitantly reflective of "Tenrikyo culture" and of the French and European context in which it was situated, thereby according it both a likeness with the broader realm of Tenrikyo and a specificity associated with this specific site. As explored through numerous angles in this text, although TEC can be viewed as a Tenrikyo site of worship at which a broader Tenrikyo culture was present and ongoingly (re)produced, it was not identical to other Tenrikyo sites. One important contributing factor to the difference between TEC and lineage-based sites that fostered TEC's comparatively less fixed and unbound character was that the social composition of lineage-based sites were generally more fixed over time than TEC, which was in a constant state of flux from a combination of TEC's perpetually rotating residential staff, the inclusion of people regardless of church lineage, and the diverse population connected to this site and included in its social world. These features encouraged a less defined boundary between who was and was not in its associated "community" for which ongoing change and fluidity were key features.

TEC as a bridge to a broader "Tenrikyo culture" and a site of localized community construction In conjunction with the particularities of TEC, it was nonetheless a Tenrikyo site at which a partially non-site specific social and physical construction linked the experience and associated feelings of being at it to other Tenrikyo sites. In addition to comments made by followers indicating as such, this was also demonstrated by the ease with which visiting, or newly arrived followers adjusted to TEC. As previously demonstrated, this was in large part due to their high level of familiarity with Tenrikyo culture through their previous involvement in it elsewhere, rendering this broader mode of operation already part of their habitus before they ever came to TEC. The similarity between TEC and Tenrikyo sites elsewhere, though, was not allencompassing. TEC had certain features that were unique to it, such as its multilingual character discussed later in this concluding discussion, the high level of diversity in nationalities represented at the center, and, as multiple Japanese followers told me, a more laidback character in comparison to how Tenrikyo settings in Japan generally functioned.

TEC was simultaneously a French and European Tenrikyo site and an oasis of Japanese and Tenrikyo cultures, with this latter aspect linking participants at this site to these broader spheres, which encouraged a sense of continuity and connection between Tenrikyo sites and contexts elsewhere (as well as Japan and Japanese culture) and TEC. Multiple Japanese Tenrikyo followers at TEC clearly explained the importance they attributed to this continuity for their wellbeing that was facilitated through their being at TEC and engaging in a "Tenrikyo mode of sociality" that took place there, for example by performing hinokishin tasks communally with others. These referenced Japanese Tenrikyo followers included both those living permanently or semi-permanently in Europe and also young adult followers in Europe for shorter stays, such as university foreign exchange students who found familiarity and a "home away from home" at TEC amidst their being abroad. Most commonly, such individuals told me that they liked being at TEC because they felt at home there due to its similarity to Tenrikyo social environments of which they were a part in Japan.

To discuss this linking feature through more concrete means, I would like to now focus on the kitchen of TEC as an exemplary space of community formation and solidification that promoted group inclusion and a grounding connection to "Tenrikyo culture" for numerous women who engaged in communal efforts in a typically "Tenrikyo" manner of working together in this space.

As explained previously, near the end of large collective meals at TEC, such as those held after Monthly Services, a small collection of women would assemble in the kitchen to put things away and wash dishes. Their relatively mundane domestic efforts were done amidst a generally jovial atmosphere filled with chit-chat and a Tenrikyo mode of cooperation that was similarly present in numerous other settings, such as during structured hinokishin activities at TEC and in other Tenrikyo contexts, and also in the scripted symbiotic passing of offerings to the altars from one ritual actor to another, as described in chapter seven. In addition to the necessary function of these chores that their efforts provided, their working collectively in the kitchen was an established component of TEC events that included meals which involved a particular rhythm and mode of sociality. Being in the kitchen for this collectively orchestrated task served as a time that women of the "TEC community," most prominently "core" members, would come together in an informal context of domestic labor through which familial-like interactions between them were facilitated and which sometimes included newcomers or infrequently present individuals who were experientially included with ease into this inner context. Many of these "core" women had known each other for numerous years, in some cases, numerous decades. During their time in front of dirty dishes after these meals, and similarly during their time preparing them, they would chat, catch up with one another, laugh, and share an informal "behind the scenes" time of togetherness. Though these communal tasks were not in the forefront of TEC events, they were an often-present component that served as an important contributor to the center's broader social whole and the ongoing construction of a feeling of community.

Throughout my two-year period of participant observation, I often gravitated toward the kitchen sink to wash dishes. Such scenes comprised a significant portion of my time at TEC, as they did for many core female members of the "TEC community" and also for some less centrally implicated women included, at least momentarily, in this social world. Through taking part in these mundane domestic chores, we were engaged in an informal space of comradery through which social relationships were built, maintained, and reinforced with other women also taking part in these communal efforts. I found it revealing that Japanese Tenrikyo followers who came to the center for the first time, such as newly arrived students on exchange from Tenri University, would immediately jump into helping with various types of chores at TEC, without being invited to do so. Their automatic participation in these tasks demonstrated that helping with such chores, framed as "hinokishin," in a typically "Tenrikyo" manner which involved a high level of cooperation that was also present in both ritual and other non-ritualized contexts at TEC and other Tenrikyo settings was a naturalized of being at a Tenrikyo site for those inculcated with "Tenrikyo culture."

The specific type of cooperation that occurred in such scenes was also reflective of another central tenet of Tenrikyo, that of "mutual help" (tasuke ai) through the cooperative manner with which such tasks were orchestrated that promoted these collective chores to serve as religiously framed moments of togetherness. Through this, their embodied actions were a physical manifestation of the religion's main teachings as well as an experiential linkage to both the social world of TEC and a broader Tenrikyo way of being.

The TEC Monthly Service as a connector to the wider realm of Tenrikyo through sensorial, material, and intentional factors

To continue my discussion of the existence of a Tenrikyo ambiance at TEC, I would now like to shift my focus to the sanctuary of TEC and the Service ritual performed there. By being at TEC for its Service, meaning both its Monthly Service that was attended by a significant portion of the "TEC community" or its daily Morning and Evening Services, which most often involved only TEC residents, one was connected to the wider realm of Tenrikyo through multiple means. In discussing this connecting feature via ritual engagement, I will focus principally on the Monthly Service, but most features I discuss could also extend to its twice daily Services as well. A principle linking feature of these Services was their sensorial coherence with Services performed elsewhere via visual, auditory, and gestural components. This, in combination with how the Service was conceptualized and engaged, promoted an important linking feature between Tenrikyo sites and also between these sites and Tenri City, and moreover, the point of the Jiba located therein from which all humans are said to originate and toward which followers are taught to direct their prayers through this ritual and ideally also their bodies for "homecoming" pilgrimages.

Whether one was watching or taking part in the performance of a Tenrikyo at TEC, in Hawaii, or in Tokyo, the scene that unfolded would be largely similar. As a result, an association was evoked between disparate Tenrikyo sites and the scenes that took place at them amongst people who had been exposed to multiple such contexts. The visually transmitted similitude between the ritual spaces of the sanctuary at TEC and at other Tenrikyo sites, particularly the area on which the altars were located and the Service was performed 626 , was a key means through which their sensorial and experiential similitude was evoked amongst followers at TEC, who unanimously and axiomatically had been exposed to other Tenrikyo sites of worship as well.

Further contributing to the visual congruence between dispersed Monthly Services was the sartorial uniformity of these performers being dressed in Tenrikyo ceremonial wear 627 , coupled with their execution of the highly scripted ritual gestures that are the same, regardless of location628 . A principal difference in the visually transmitted scene of the Monthly Service at TEC and at most (or all) Tenrikyo sites in Japan was the presence of stools on which the instrumental and Seated Service performers at TEC were seated, in comparison to being seated on the ground in kneeling position in Japan. Also contributing to the small amount of visual distinctiveness between the monthly ritual performed at TEC and at Tenrikyo sites in Japan was the frequent presence of several visually non-Japanese performers629 at TEC in comparison to in 626 A notable difference, though, between the sanctuary of TEC and of most Tenrikyo sites of worship in Japan, was that at TEC folding chairs on which people sit replaced the tatami mats 626 in Japan on which Service Performers and attendees kneel. In Japan, performers of the Seated Service and the musical instruments kneel, while performers of the thirteen other Mikagura-uta songs perform the dances in a standing position both in Japan and at TEC. 627 There was some sartorial diversity present at a small number of Tenrikyo sites, generally as place-based adaptations for the location in which they were located. Generally, though, the ceremonial wear was the same, regardless of location.

Japan, where reflective of the country's population, Service performers were usually unanimously Japanese.

Likewise, the auditory component of the Service was also similar at Tenrikyo sites throughout the world, principally through the Service songs and the ritual marker of reverentially clapping four times that is repeatedly enacted at numerous transitional moments throughout the ritual event, the latter of which also involving the active bodily participation of everyone in attendance. These aural components of the Service were not only relayed to the experience of those present via their ears and the connected registration of these sounds that was based in conscious thought, but also through the vibrations put out by these songs that were reverberated through the body. This rendered the connecting similarity between attending Services in disparate Tenrikyo sites one that was not only registered through the largely intellectually based experiential formators of sight and sound, but also through the more intimate bodily realm of sensation.

The felt bodily experience that was relayed to those in attendance (both those in the audience area and those performing the Service) further contributed to a solidification of the continuity between TEC and other Tenrikyo sites through the specific prescribed kinesthetic movements and techniques du corps, such as the manner with which the four reverential claps were executed with a subtle bow and for the Service performers, the manner with which the dances and the instruments were performed. Being part of the "TEC community" also meant being part of the broader Tenrikyo world and having one's embodied self contribute to the reproduction of this transnational way of being. In this, as discussed by Bourdieu (1977), we can see that organizations, such as that of Tenrikyo, which exist at disparate locations, including TEC, create obedient bodies that reproduce existing conditions.

To continue exploring the connection between the Service at TEC and the wider Tenrikyo sphere via the physical, I would like to again briefly evoke the opening of the portal door of the altar dedicated to God the Parent which occurred at the beginning of each Monthly Service. This rather brief act was, in fact, a key component of the ritual. Although the significance of this ritualized act was rarely discussed, it is an interesting component of the Monthly Service in relation to the concept of social connectedness that is central to my thesis. As previously explained, at all Tenrikyo sites of worship throughout the world, "sacred objects" from the Jiba are housed inside the altar to God the Parent, thereby conferring a metaphysical coherence between sites630 .

Relatedly, constructed feelings associated with the sacrality of these sites, particularly their sanctuary spaces and the ritual of the Service performed identically at them, were also a nonplace specific feature of these disparate Tenrikyo sites. Thus, regardless of which site of worship one was at, one was not only connected mentally/spiritually to other Tenrikyo followers throughout the world and to the Jiba, but also materially by means of the altars toward which this ritual is performed, or more specifically, via the sacred objects contained within that are regarded to share the same "essence" and origin.

Tenrikyo Services, whether they were held at TEC or elsewhere, moreover also functioned as a bridge to the wider realm of Tenrikyo through the "spiritual" understanding of the Service that most Tenrikyo followers held and connectedly, the intention with which those taking part in this ritual engaged in it. Whether in the more passive role of an observer while seated in the audience section or the more active role as a Service performer, followers were, at least ideally, uniting themselves with the Service performed around the Jiba. Connectedly, they were directing their hearts/minds toward uniting with the Jiba, God the Parent, the foundress, and with other followers doing the same, all of which are positioned in the faith as being highly interconnected. Thus, not only was the Service a key moment of unification amongst many locally living followers who regularly attended the Monthly Service at TEC, but it also served as a conduit of unification with the broader collection of followers in Japan and throughout the world, with the Jiba, and with the spiritual figures of God the Parent and the foundress who are theologically understood to dwell at that point631 . Thus, although the TEC Monthly Service primarily involved locally living followers, it was also a chief connector between the specific context of TEC and the greater, partially non-site-specific Tenrikyo realm.

Factors of localization displayed in the TEC sanctuary that rendered it semi-place specific

While TEC was largely similar to other Tenrikyo sites, it also had certain place-specific features, some of which were purposeful adaptations to the local context in which this center was located while others came about more on their own. In this subsection, I will focus primarily on several differences presented in its sanctuary. According to both my own observations and discussions with followers from a variety of Tenrikyo churches in Japan, there was often more openness toward negotiation away from tradition at TEC than in most Tenrikyo contexts in Japan. This constant negotiation through attempting to adjust traditions and practices to fit this European context, coupled with its generally less strict overall approach, was, in fact, a key feature of TEC.

An often-cited difference, for example, between the sanctuary of TEC and Tenrikyo churches in Japan was that, similar to the stools on the performance area, in the audience section, followers sat on folding wooden chairs, whereas in Japan, followers knelt on a tatami floor. This was reflective of the "traditional" manner of sitting and room style in these respective cultures.

Although this may be a seemingly simple difference, I would come to realize it to be significant to the bodily experience of the Service in multiple ways, such as how the body is positioned when bowing to the altars, and in my own experience of engaging in both styles of sitting (or kneeling), how the vibrations from the percussion instruments, most notably the large taiko drum, entered and were felt in my body. This experiential difference from sitting rather than kneeling, though, like most other adaptations made at TEC, did not significantly alter the content of the rituals performed in this space, nor the meaning followers ascribed to these rituals and to the space itself. Some followers, most commonly Japanese followers born into and raised in the faith, would choose to kneel in the back of the room due to their preference for this bodily position, thereby opening the possibility to do so to anyone who wished 632 . It should be noted, though, that the sensation of kneeling on the hard, wooden floor of TEC's sanctuary was not identical to that of kneeling on a relatively softer tatami mat as was done in Japan. Thus, although the followers who chose to kneel in the back of Monthly Service, it was something he could allow. He then added that if people were to perform the remainder of the Mikagura-uta dances in a standing position, he would have to say something because that would simply be too much. This insight was received a year after my research became focused on TEC and was also immediately after my approximately one and a half months spent in Japan for fieldwork. Although I did notice that during the TEC Monthly Service, the subtle gestural enactment of these dances was only done by a small number of people in attendance, and that none of these people were Japanese nor "core members" of the group, this was the first time I heard it stated that their miniature performative accompaniment was not actually supposed to be done.

For such individuals who acted outside the prescribed norms of this religious tradition, they were in the process of becoming members of the group and its connected culture, not only through learning the teachings of the religion, but also through slowly learning how to conduct their embodied selves in numerous contexts. The shaping of these newcomers into fully integrated "members" of the group concerned not only their social involvement in Tenrikyo contexts and their practice of the religion, but also numerous other, often discrete, factors, many of which were contained in and expressed through the body. "Becoming Tenrikyo," or becoming a fully integrated "member" of the group, was a gradual process inculcated through both direct explanation and/or instruction, and also through the indirect method of exposure to norms and practices via "initiated" individuals, such as the core members of the "TEC community." Thus, "initiated" individuals communicated through their own spoken and enacted example what it was to be a "member" of Tenrikyo, not only in a strictly religious sense, but also a cultural one.

Despite the injunction against performing these sacred dance gestures when not a designated Service performer which existed largely as an inferred social fact, I never heard this variation outside the prescribed standard commented on, other than in the previously mentioned instance during the seminar 635 . This was partially reflective of the cultural prohibition in both Japanese 635 It should be noted that I was often not viewed first and foremost as a "researcher," despite my open declaration of this fact, but as a member of the group and as an individual (and more specifically, an American living in Paris who came to learn of and become involved with the religion rather recently), similar to the eclectic mix of numerous other individuals who came to be involved with the religion of Tenrikyo and TEC rather recently. Because I was not "core member of the group," it is likely that polite discretion may have discouraged comments on the matter to be said in my presence that may have been said in more private contexts or between close individuals. and Tenrikyo cultures against speaking poorly of others or discussing their faults, which commenting on numerous individuals at TEC doing something they were "not supposed to do" could be deemed. The purposeful overlooking of this breech in ritual etiquette was also reflective of the welcoming context purposefully constructed at TEC in order for the diversity of people who came to this center to feel comfortable, at ease, and enjoy their time at the center and in applicable instances such as the one presently discussed, take part in the religion, thereby encouraging their positively viewed connection to the center, to the religion, and to each other.

The atypical allowance of people in the audience section actively taking part in these ritual gestures was just one example of the constant negotiation at TEC regarding how much of the religion's traditions and regulations (both official and unofficial) should be adhered to and enforced, versus how much fluidity and difference should be allowed in this French (and European) context. This was principally motivated by the goal of appealing to local audiences and spreading the faith to them. Excessive prohibitions placed on what people in attendance could and could not do were recognized to risk being perceived as excessively restrictive, thereby potentially rendering their participation in Tenrikyo activities and events (including its rituals) less appealing, which would be counterproductive to one of the center's main aims: sprinkling the fragrance of the faith to others.

Another example of the less strict approach to the orchestration of Monthly Services at TEC in comparison to that typical of Tenrikyo contexts in Japan was in regard to the question of punctuality versus tardiness. At TEC, there was usually a handful of people who would slowly trickle into the sanctuary after its official Monthly Service start time of 10:30 am. Excluding some people dressed as ritual performers who were elsewhere on TEC grounds at its start time and would quietly come in shortly after the ritual had begun, these latecomers were usually not "core members" of the group. The subtle interruption of the sanctuary door opening and closing and people coming to sit down after the Service had begun was noteworthy to me because it contrasted with the general importance placed on punctuality in Japanese culture.

Relatedly, when my intended thesis research topic was focused on Japanese migrants in Paris in other ways, this was a notable element of change displayed by some Japanese people in France that was discussed by both Japanese people living in France themselves, as well as French people highly involved in the "Japanese scene" of Paris636 . The tardy attendees to this monthly ritual often included both non-Japanese and Japanese attendees, showing that a divide in adherence to this cultural norm was not based solely on one's previously formed cultural background, but was also impacted by their current situations. Small differences, such as the three mentioned in this subsection, were peppered throughout the experience of being at TEC and accorded it a placebased particularity that included both cultural adaptations and flexibility while remaining largely congruent with Tenrikyo sites elsewhere. In this, participants were linked to both a place-based specificity and the broader realm of Tenrikyo, which came together to comprise the experience of being at TEC, which was the principal means from which the "TEC community" was formed.

The multilingual feature of TEC as reflective of its unique social composition

Another place-based particularity of TEC that rendered being part of its connected social world a unique experiential affiliation amidst a broader Tenrikyo context was its multilingual character that was reflective of this center serving as a site for both locally living people and the broader European continent, and as an extension of the Tenrikyo religion as it existed in Japan. This multilingual feature was something I heard numerous "core members" of TEC comment on as a place-specific aspect of this center, reflective of it being the main Tenrikyo site for numerous European countries with their respective languages, in concert with its "core" members being principally Japanese. Often, the concomitant existence of multiple languages that was an ongoing feature of TEC's orchestration and communications was spoken about as a challenge, but also as a positively regarded and interesting feature of this center637 . By reflecting on the issue of language at TEC, we can gain insight into the multiple layers that were simultaneously included in this site "on the ground" and in its connected social world.

As discussed in several parts of my thesis, the Japanese language was the default language of everyday life at the center, reflective of its residents and other "core members" being Japanese 638 , as was, the "core" of its connected world that bound its entirety together despite the center of TEC itself being in France. Further adding to the prominence of the Japanese language at TEC was the fact that numerous non-Japanese people who came to this center had at least some competency in the language. Often for such people, that TEC provided a context in which they could practice the Japanese language was an appealing feature of coming there, as was the case for most of the non-Tenrikyo/ non-Japanese young adults connected to TEC via ACFJT, further demonstrating the socially linking contribution of this language.

In local contexts that extended beyond the center's core members and other Japanese participants, French was the principal language employed at the center, and was also the primary second language of the core members of the group based in France639 . Although TEC was the site of a Japanese (new) religion, it was located in France, and thus in certain ways, was a French Tenrikyo center. Extendedly, whether one was French or not, being connected to TEC (and thus, the "TEC community") was to have a connection with France, which was another distinguishing feature of being affiliated with this center and its connected "community" amidst the broader whole of Tenrikyo.

As TEC was charged with serving not just France, but the entire European continent, or more precisely, the Tenrikyo sites and followers (and people affiliated with the religion) in this broader geo-cultural region, the inclusion of other languages reflected this situation. In contexts that included the wider European Tenrikyo sphere, English was often a main language of communication, with Japanese and French remaining ever-present. This third language of prominence at the center was associated both with the UK being the second country in Europe in terms of having a Tenrikyo presence, and also the international nature of the center which commonly included people of numerous countries and English being the primary modern-day language of international communication. Simultaneously, other languages were commonly present at TEC, as was demonstrated through the addition of a German-language cohort to the Tenrikyo European Seminar the second year I took part in it and the presence of a selection of Spanish-language Tenrikyo books being available on the bookshelves of the center's library/lounge area. assert that there was not diversity in precisely how these Tenrikyo-specific terms were understood nor, in my observations, was it necessary to be familiar with these terms in order to be included in the social world of TEC. Rather, the ample employment of these terms acted as a binding element, among numerous others, through which a socio-religious base of ideologically linked people existed as a foundational element of the "TEC community" into the folds of which non-Tenrikyo people, or people who had not been initiated into having an extensive familiarity with Tenrikyo-specific terms, were included.

To take a closer look at how these binding terms existed in practice, and to discuss insights that may be gained through thinking about the conception and employment of these important religiospecific terms, I will use the example of "hinokishin." Helping out at TEC in mandated, structured ways and also in more spontaneous ways was commonly positioned as "hinokishin" by followers at TEC, as I observed such endeavors to be similarly framed in other Tenrikyo contexts.

During the first part of my research, I was at times surprised to hear my own simple, occasional efforts at this center to help with upkeep (such as by cleaning), most often with others in informal contexts, referred to as "hinokishin" because I did not view it as such. From my own perspective, I did so because I regarded it as appropriate from a functionally reciprocal perspective in relation to how often I was there, benefitting from their facilities, food, and the efforts of others. By core members of TEC referring to my participation with this Tenrikyo term, they were both employing the vocabulary commonly employed in Tenrikyo contexts for such efforts and also associating my actions, in a positively framed manner, with this religious act at a time when most were aware of my being a newcomer to the faith640 .

In contrast to my own efforts being positioned under this religious term during a time I was new to Tenrikyo but also initiated to its principal teachings and actively seeking to involve myself in the socio-religious world of TEC and learn more about Tenrikyo, I sometimes observed followers change what terms they employed when talking to non-followers participating in various "nonmarkedly religious" activities and events at or connected to TEC that involved scheduled times of structured "hinokishin." In such instances, instead, these scheduled sessions were referred to as "cleaning time" and other similar variations. This demonstrated that the employment of such Tenrikyo-specific terms was an enacted marker of religious "membership" (or formation) but that fluency in these religious terms was not a prerequisite for group inclusion.

Such changes in lexical reference were most often because non-followers who participated in these activities were not familiar with Tenrikyo-specific terms, such as "hinokishin." Thus, for the sake of simplicity, other words were sometimes employed despite the often-present biproduct of changing the activity's referential term that its ascribed meaning contained in its categorically "spiritual" term, which would ideally be inculcated and strengthened in the individuals taking part in the activity, was largely eclipsed. Nonetheless, their participation imprinted the action and the manner with which it was engaged by other group members taking part in it onto the less religiously implicated social actors also engaging in the collective efforts.

Even if one was unfamiliar with the term "hinokishin" and its associated theological meaning, participation nonetheless served to experientially imprint two enacted features commonly included in Tenrikyo activities linked with key tenets of the faith: those of making efforts for the benefit of others and of working together in collaboration with others through a particular model of cheerfully engaged symbiotic cooperation. Through the actions in which they engaged, rather than the surrounding discourse, such non-Tenrikyo participants were embodying important components of the faith. In this, the religion's behavioral modality was becoming part of them, not through an enunciated belief in the religion or necessarily even extensive knowledge of its theology, but by means of its enacted practice. This demonstrates how welcoming people to TEC, and other Tenrikyo contexts, was a proactive means of conducting missionary work not only through the potential outcome of producing an increase in Tenrikyo "members," but also through facilitating the embodiment of its enacted practice, which was one means of "dispensing the fragrance" of the faith in and of itself.

In this, we can see the dual interplay of reframing such activities with, or without, the application of Tenrikyo-specific terms. Their employment ascribed to them a Tenrikyo-specific spiritually framed meaning, which served to connect many people to everyday, enacted components of the religion. Occasionally, though, it was the omission of Tenrikyo-specific terminology which connected people to aspects of the broader experientiality of the religion and promoted their inclusion in the "TEC community." Although being a follower of Tenrikyo was partially based in the use of this religio-specific language, being included in the broader social world of TEC was largely constructed through lived experiences, as was, in fact, being a "member" of Tenrikyo.

In joining in communal endeavors framed as "hinokishin" at, and connected to TEC, through which shared moments of conviviality came about, everyone to some degree was, or quickly became, a contributing member of this "community." For some people, their membership in this "community" was largely for a particular moment in time and their momentary belonging in this group during such moments did not translate into a prolonged or otherwise deep affiliation with it. Often though, such shared moments of collaboration served to both strengthen the bond between the involved social actors and to connect those individuals to the broader "TEC community." My own fieldwork was a concentrated entry into, and presence in, this multilayered social world for two years after being previously included somewhat in its periphery, as discussed in chapter three, and then transitioning again to being connected to this "community" to a lesser degree, albeit in a different way than before. Although my own evolving story of inclusion in this "community" is not the same as anyone else's, it was one contribution, among numerous others, to its entirety.

Introduction

Mes recherches se sont focalisées, essentiellement mais pas exclusivement, sur le site principal européen de la nouvelle religion japonaise de Tenrikyo, le Tenrikyo Europe Centre (TEC), situé dans la banlieue parisienne d'Antony. À partir de cette recherche, ma thèse s'est concentrée sur un conglomérat éclectique de personnes liées au TEC, et liées entre elles, de manières diverses : Généralement, lorsqu'on me posait ce genre de questions, je me contentais de dire vaguement que j'étudiais « la nouvelle religion japonaise de Tenrikyo à Paris, en France, et plus largement, en Europe ». Je ne pensais pas qu'une telle réponse décrivait correctement ce que j'observais et à quoi je participais, mais il n'y avait pas de meilleure façon de décrire brièvement les contextes multi-sites et multi-couches de mon travail de terrain. Ce n'est qu'après avoir décidé de mettre un terme à cette période de deux ans de travail de terrain ciblé, et de prendre de la distance par rapport à mon contexte de recherche, que je me suis beaucoup impliquée dans ce dernier (qui était proche géographiquement de là où je vivais). Ainsi, en prenant du recul, le sujet sur lequel ma thèse allait se concentrer est enfin devenu clair. Et par conséquent aussi le fait de savoir qui composait en réalité ma population de recherche, et pour quelles raisons.

Ce manque de définition de mon sujet de recherche et de ma population de recherche pendant cette longue période de travail sur le terrain était principalement dû au fait que je n'avais pas prévu de concentrer mon étude sur le TEC ainsi que sur son monde social. Mon enquête s'est plutôt concentrée sur ce groupe de manière largement indéfinie, suite à plusieurs développements non planifiés, après avoir commencé ma recherche de doctorat sur un autre sujet d'enquête, qui a ensuite évolué vers un second, avant de se concentrer finalement sur sa « population de recherche » actuelle, mais d'une manière qui restait à déterminer. Ces deux premiers sujets de recherche concernaient les migrants japonais 646 à Paris, mais aucun d'entre eux ne touchait au domaine religieux. Enfin, j'ai découvert et me suis impliquée dans mon contexte de recherche actuel grâce à une combinaison de facteurs et d'événements détaillés dans le troisième chapitre, qui, en somme, sont survenus lorsque j'ai étudié la langue japonaise dans un centre culturel japonais « laïque »647 pour préparer mon travail sur le terrain.

Ayant été étudiante à l'Association culturelle franco-japonaise de TENRI pendant un peu moins de deux ans avant que mes recherches ne se concentrent sur le TEC et le Tenrikyo, ce changement imprévu s'est produit après avoir accepté spontanément une invitation à participer à un séminaire religieux intensif de trois semaines organisées au TEC (cf. chapitres 7 et 8), sans trop savoir dans quoi je m'engageais. Cette entrée imprévue dans ce qui est devenu mon contexte de recherche s'est avérée être une introduction rigoureuse au monde socio-religieux du TEC et de la religion Tenrikyo, et allait être fructueuse pour orienter ma recherche vers son sujet actuel.

Peu après avoir participé à ce séminaire religieux, et après plusieurs échanges avec les membres de ce groupe, j'ai décidé de « leur » demander la permission (c'est-à-dire aux membres du TECqui est un groupe défini de manière ambiguë) de mener ma recherche doctorale sur le monde social dans lequel je suis entrée. Je ne comprenais pas encore parfaitement le fonctionnement du TEC et de Tenrikyo, mais je considérais le chef et le personnel clé du TEC comme étant les personnes à qui je devais adresser cette demande. Pour ce faire, j'ai envoyé un courriel à mon contact clé dans le groupe, mon professeur de japonais M. Sugimoto, qui m'avait invité à 646 Tout au long de ma thèse, j'utilise le terme « migrant ». Ce terme désigne les personnes d'un pays qui « migrent » pour vivre dans un autre pays, indépendamment de leur pays d'origine ou de leur motivation migratoire. Si le terme « migrant » est couramment utilisé pour désigner les personnes originaires de pays en développement qui se déplacent vers un autre pays pour des raisons économiques ou politiques, ce n'est pas toujours le cas. Comme l'expliquent Benson et O'Reilly (2016) dans leur article sur les « migrants de style de vie », qui aborde également divers autres types de « migrants » et de « migrations », y compris les « migrants de retraite », il y a souvent un chevauchement entre les diverses catégories employées dans les études sur les migrations, dans lesquelles l'affectation de groupes de personnes à une seule catégorie de migrants ou de migration est souvent problématique. En utilisant ce terme, je souhaite souligner le caractère mobile (« migratoire ») des acteurs sociaux auxquels je fais référence avec ce terme et qui vivent dans un pays autre que celui dans lequel ils sont nés et ont été élevés plutôt que comme une référence implicite à leur(s) raison(s) de déplacement. Cette complication a été présente tout au long des deux années que j'appelle période de « travail de terrain ciblé », ou « travail de terrain concentré ». Cette période s'étend de juillet 2015, date à laquelle j'ai participé au séminaire de trois semaines au TEC, à juillet 2017, date à laquelle j'ai choisi de quitter en grande partie le monde socio-religieux dont je suis devenue une « membre » régulièrement présente et très impliquée 649 , afin de créer la distance qui me semblait nécessaire pour mieux réfléchir et analyser ce monde social. J'ai continué à être en contact avec certains membres de ce groupe et, dans une moindre mesure, avec le monde socio-religieux dans lequel mes recherches se sont concentrées et j'ai également continué à vivre en région parisienne, réduisant ainsi l'écart absolu entre être « sur le terrain » et « chez soi »650 .

Pendant ma période de « travail de terrain concentré », j'ai continué à passer du temps au TEC et j'ai fait la connaissance de diverses personnes liées au centre de différentes manières, tout en continuant à assister aux cours de japonais à l'ACFJT pendant ma première année de travail de terrain concentré. Pour ces cours de langue, mon professeur était à nouveau M. Sugimoto, chez qui j'étais présente régulièrement pour les Services Mensuels organisés dans sa station Pour décrire brièvement ma période de deux ans de travail de terrain concentré, j'étais basée en région parisienne (comme je l'étais auparavant et le serai encore par la suite), et j'étais régulièrement présente à presque tous les événements et activités organisés au TEC (ou liés à celui-ci) que je mentionne et discute tout au long de ma thèse. Mon implication prenait la forme d'un engagement hebdomadaire (au moins une fois par semaine, souvent plus). Comme expliqué précédemment, j'ai également continué à assister aux cours de japonais bihebdomadaires à l'ACFJT, donnés par l'homme qui était devenu mon « parent spirituel », selon le système d'organisation Tenrikyo, pendant ma première année de « travail de terrain concentré ». Il m'accueillait également dans sa maison familiale pour le rituel du « Service mensuel ».

Après avoir choisi d'axer mes recherches sur ce monde socio-religieux, j'ai également passé près d'un mois et demi pendant l'été sur le terrain au Japon. Cela s'est déroulé principalement, mais pas exclusivement, dans la ville de pèlerinage de Tenri. Mes observations comprenaient également une dimension numérique. J'étais en effet de plus en plus connectée via Facebook aux membres de ce monde socio-religieux, à la fois avec ceux qui vivaient en Europe et, dans une moindre mesure, avec ceux qui vivaient aux États-Unis et au Japon ; généralement avec l'autre personne envoyant la « demande d'ami ». Ces liens m'ont permis de mieux comprendre les nombreux acteurs sociaux qui font partie du monde social non lié sur lequel porte ma recherche et qui y sont connectés. Ils ont également montré l'interconnexion entre les nombreuses personnes disparates que j'ai rencontrées tout au long de ma recherche.

En général, mon engagement durant cette période de deux ans de « travail de terrain concentré » s'est traduit à saisir chaque opportunité de participer au monde éclectique du TEC et de Tenrikyo d'une manière qui me semblait appropriée. Ma participation très zélée s'est accompagnée de mon abstention de certains types d'engagements que je considérais comme inappropriés. Cette différenciation était fondée sur ma propre compréhension de ma présence en tant que chercheuse non-Tenrikyo qui s'est impliquée dans la foi Tenrikyo par intérêt « anthropologique », plutôt que par adoption, ou adoption potentielle, de Tenrikyo en tant que tradition religieuse et source de foi spirituelle. Une perspective que j'avais exprimée ouvertement, et que j'ai maintenue651 tout au long de mon travail de terrain et par la suite. En tant que tel, j'avais souvent un pied dans, et un autre hors, de ce contexte religieux ; la « navigation » et la négociation de ce que je ferais et ne ferais pas faisant partie intégrante de mon travail de terrain.

Pour donner au lecteur un exemple concret de cette négociation et navigation, lorsque j'étais dans la ville de Tenri, j'ai assisté à sept des neuf conférences « Besseki » requises pour devenir un « Yoboku » (une désignation importante de Tenrikyo que j'expliquerai plus tard dans ce texte, de même que les conférences Besseki). Ma participation à sept de ces conférences reflète l'intérêt anthropologique que je porte à cette expérience, car celles-ci sont considérées comme un élément important de l'engagement religieux et de « l'initiation », combinée avec l'encouragement de mes « parents spirituels » (et d'autres) à les suivre. Comme je ne me considérais pas comme un adepte de la foi Tenrikyo, j'ai choisi de n'assister qu'à sept des neuf conférences requises, car je n'ai pas jugé approprié de me soumettre au rite sacré de devenir un Yoboku et je me suis donc abstenue d'acquérir la condition d'admissibilité qui était celle d'assister aux neuf conférences. Ce choix était contraire aux souhaits de plusieurs adeptes avec lesquels j'étais liée, car le Tenrikyo est une religion évangélique qui cherche à attirer de nouveaux adeptes, mais ce choix a néanmoins été accepté.

Tout au long de mon travail de terrain, j'ai tenté de tenir ce difficile équilibre entre un engagement religieux soutenu par les adeptes de Tenrikyo faisant partie de ma population de recherche, et ma propre opinion par rapport aux types d'engagement auxquels je devrais ou ne devrais pas participer. Cela étant dit, je dois également expliquer que, bien que j'aie volontairement mis un pied dans la religion et un pied en-dehors, je me suis impliquée dans mon contexte de recherche d'une manière authentique et personnelle, et ma manière d'appréhender la religion elle-même s'est faite de cette manière.

Comme expliqué précédemment, j'ai choisi de ne pas assister à la totalité des neuf conférences Besseki, ce qui aurait signifié devenir un Yoboku. De même, j'ai décliné une invitation prometteuse à participer au Service mensuel du TEC en tant qu'exécutant de rituel, car je ne voulais pas me présenter comme étant quelqu'un que je ne considérais pas être réellement (un adepte de Tenrikyo), ni participer à une forme d'engagement rituel avec le sacré. Cependant, cela ne m'empêchait pas d'avoir des expériences personnelles avec la ritualité du TEC. Par exemple, à deux reprises, j'ai effectué le Service du matin et du soir « religieusement », c'est-à-dire comme le prescrit la foi et comme le font (idéalement) les adeptes actifs, seule à la maison pendant environ un mois. Bien que je n'aie généralement pas discuté de cet engagement rituel personnel avec les membres de ma population de recherche, et que je n'évoque pas directement cette expérience dans ma thèse, mon engagement dans cette forme de pratique religieuse était fait avec autant de sincérité que possible à partir de ma position conceptuelle, et m'a fourni des aperçus intimes sur cet aspect important de Tenrikyo.

Je ne prétends pas que mes propres expériences étaient les mêmes que celles des personnes de ma population de recherche qui ont également accompli cet acte rituel deux fois par jour (ce qui est sans doute impossible car les gens le comprennent et le vivent différemment). Je mentionne cet engagement expérientiel privé plutôt pour montrer l'une des nombreuses façons dont j'ai été fortement impliquée dans mon contexte de recherche. Même si ce n'était pas en tant que « initiée » totale (si une telle chose existe vraiment dans un groupe si large et éclectique) ni en tant qu'observatrice non affectée, mais en tant que personne venant d'un contexte personnel particulier et d'une situation de vie actuelle qui apprenait et faisait graduellement de plus en plus partie de ce monde social. Tout comme d'autres personnes, en fonction de leurs propres antécédents et de leurs situations de vie actuelles, j'étais impliquée d'une manière réelle et sincère au-delà des moments précis où je participais au « travail de terrain », jusqu'à ce que cela devienne une partie de ma vie et de moi-même.

Mes conclusions ont principalement été induites par ma participation au monde socio-religieux éclectique que j'appellerais la « communauté TEC ». Y compris par la référence à une multitude de conversations informelles qui ont été instructives, aidées en-cela par mes notes de terrain. Mes recherches comprenaient également des entretiens semi-structurés, enregistrés numériquement, avec quinze personnes représentatives de nombreux aspects, ou « sphères », de mon contexte de recherche. Malheureusement, bien que la plupart des connaissances acquises grâce à ces entretiens soient incluses dans ma thèse, les enregistrements numériques réels de ces entretiens ont été perdus après avoir terminé ma période de deux ans de travail sur le terrain. En ce qui concerne cet aspect de ma recherche, il est utile de préciser que certaines de mes demandes d'interviews de membres de la communauté du TEC ont été accueillies avec réticence. Bien qu'ils n'aient pas 652 dit directement non, leur refus a été exprimé de manière détournée, souvent par l'omission d'un oui ou d'un non direct, associé à la mention d'un élément lié au déroulement de notre conversation mais qui l'orientait dans une direction légèrement différente, ce qui permettait d'éviter la demande. J'en ai déduit que je devais faire preuve de prudence en demandant aux gens de participer à des entretiens structurés, car cette demande s'est révélée inconfortable pour certaines personnes à qui j'ai posé cette question.

Des interactions moins prédéfinies que les entretiens semi-structurés avec un enregistreur numérique et, le plus souvent, un questionnaire ouvert, se sont révélées riches en informations par rapport à un certain nombre de ces entretiens enregistrés. Cela est dû en grande partie à la facilité accrue avec laquelle les personnes ont parlé de manière informelle, en particulier après avoir fait connaissance 653 . Ainsi, après avoir perdu ce nombre limité d'entretiens enregistrés, je n'ai pas réalisé de nouveaux entretiens enregistrés avec des membres de ma population de recherche afin d'obtenir des citations directes à inclure dans ma thèse. Ceci en raison du fait que je ne pensais pas que cela était nécessaire pour ma discussion, qui était, à ce moment-là, en bonne voie de développement. Une autre raison était le fait d'avoir délibérément quitté ce monde socioreligieux. Enfin, au fil du temps, des contraintes de temps (et d'énergie) ont fait que je me suis concentrée sur l'utilisation de la richesse des informations déjà obtenues, plutôt que de retourner sur « le terrain » pour obtenir des citations directes. Ce qui est décrit ici n'est qu'un bref aperçu de la façon dont j'ai mené mes recherches. La méthodologie que j'utilise est également un élément indissociable de mon texte.

Résumé de la thèse par chapitre

L'organisation de cette thèse suit, dans une large mesure, ce qui s'est présenté à moi de façon organique, à travers mon implication dans le monde social éclectique du TEC. Plus précisément, outre cette section d'introduction et une brève conclusion à la fin de mon texte, ma thèse est composée de quatre sections. La première section, composée de deux chapitres, pose les bases de mon contexte de recherche afin de préparer le lecteur aux trois autres sections qui suivent, développées principalement à partir de mon propre travail sur le terrain. Les trois dernières sections reflètent principalement les subdivisions spatiales du lieu où la « communauté TEC » a été construite, a existé et a été liée. La deuxième section, composée de trois chapitres, se concentre sur le côté local de la « communauté TEC » qui a principalement impliqué des personnes vivant dans la région parisienne. La troisième section est également composée de trois chapitres et élargit son champ d'action au domaine spatial plus large du continent européen. La quatrième section est composée de deux chapitres et se concentre sur la ville de pèlerinage de la ville de Tenri au Japon, où Tenrikyo est basée spirituellement et institutionnellement, ce qui est également une composante importante du groupe sur lequel porte ma thèse. Ci-après, je vous livre un résumé plus détaillé de ces chapitres, et plus particulièrement des points clés que j'y aborde. Pour développer ce concept de « poussières », dans le Tenrikyo, les « huit poussières » sont enseignées comme étant huit tendances nocives du coeur/esprit métaphoriquement assimilées aux « poussières ». Plus précisément, il s'agit de l'avidité (oshii), de la convoitise (hoshii), de la haine (nikui), de l'amour de soi-même (kawai), de la mesquinerie (urami), de la colère (haradachi), de la cupidité (yoku) et de l'orgueil (koman). En plus de cette liste, il est généralement admis que la Je soutiens que, bien qu'elles n'étaient pas membres de la religion, ces personnes étaient néanmoins membres de la « communauté TEC » (à des degrés variés) de par leur implication dans ce groupe, souvent sur plusieurs années, ceci en combinaison avec des interactions propices à la construction de la communauté, et à l'inclusion de ces personnes dans celle-ci. Souvent, elles ont participé avec plus ou moins de régularité aux activités de la TEC (la plupart du temps des activités n'ayant que peu à voir avec la religion), et elles ont entretenu des relations à long terme avec les principaux membres de la communauté religieuse de la TEC. Ainsi, ces personnes sont devenues des membres de la « communauté TEC » plus large, centrée et liée à la communauté TEC, indépendamment de leur manque d'affiliation religieuse avec Tenrikyo. Ce n'est là qu'un des multiples exemples du flou des frontièresprésent tout au long de ma thèseentre ceux qui peuvent ou devraient être inclus dans cette « communauté » et ceux qui ne peuvent pas ou ne devraient pas l'être. D'après mes observations, il n'y avait pas de frontière marquée entre les « insiders » et les « outsiders », mais plutôt des gradations et de multiples couches de personnes incluses dans ce monde social multiforme.

Section I : Introduction au contexte de la recherche

Bien que les personnes non-Tenrikyo qui selon moi sont incluses dans la « communauté TEC » ne soient pas devenues des adeptes de Tenrikyo eux-mêmes (du moins pas pendant la durée de mes recherches), l'objectif de diffusion de la foi a néanmoins été atteint grâce à leur participation expérientielle. Dans quelle mesure cette technique attirera de nouveaux adeptes de la foi, bien qu'en nombre non négligeable, reste incertain. Au moment de mes recherches, plus de trente-cinq ans après la fondation de l'ACFJT, le nombre de fidèles de Tenrikyo ayant été exposés à la religion par l'intermédiaire de l'ACFJT était minime, voire nul. L'interprétation interne de la position de l'ACFJT par rapport aux objectifs plus larges de la religion a varié. Le faible nombre de personnes de l'ACFJT qui sont devenues des adeptes de Tenrikyo a été exprimé par certains comme un signe que le centre culturel n'atteignait pas son objectif. Par ailleurs, selon une autre opinion à laquelle j'ai été exposée au cours de mes recherches, l'obtention d'un résultat immédiat, en attirant un grand nombre de personnes qui devenaient rapidement et résolument adeptes de la religion, n'était pas l'objectif du centre culturel et donc, qu'elles n'étaient pas en deçà de cet objectif en n'y parvenant pas. Souvent, les membres principaux de la communauté TEC exprimaient une opinion nuancée, non polarisée, selon laquelle on ne savait pas si l'ACFJT atteignait son objectif de diffusion de Tenrikyo, ni de quelle manière et sur quelle période de temps.

Au-delà de l'objectif d'attirer de nouveaux membres rapidement, le simple fait de faire connaître l'existence de Tenrikyo était considéré comme un progrès pour le chemin, comme l'exprimait à la fois le discours officiel de Tenrikyo (qui émanait du siège de l'église de Tenrikyo), et les nombreux adeptes du TEC. À ce propos, j'ai souvent entendu dire de la part des principaux adeptes, qui étaient la plupart Japonais, que l'un des principaux défis auxquels Tenrikyo est 667 Cela dit, il est important de noter que la foi permet une variété de chemins de vie et que ceux-ci sont généralement considérés comme étant en corrélation avec le caractère et la « destinée » (innen) de l'individu, bien qu'il existe une variété de perspectives à la fois plus strictes et plus libérales en la matière.

668 Lors de mon travail de terrain, lorsque le chef masculin était absent du TEC (la plupart du temps pour s'occuper de tâches associées à son rôle de chef), c'était généralement sa femme qui le remplaçait pour officier lors des rituels. aptes à jouer un rôle « fondationnel », consistant principalement à s'occuper de diverses tâches importantes, mais en grande partie en coulisse. Si le rôle de la femme du chef du TEC peut sembler moins important que celui de son mari, du fait de la position publique au premier plan du centre de ce dernier, d'un point de vue interne, le rôle du mari et de la femme sont les parties égales, bien que différentes669 , d'un ensemble plus vaste qui a contribué de manière collaborative au fonctionnement du site et à l'avancement de la religion. Ce rituel a été un moyen important pour établir un pont entre le TEC et les autres sites de Tenrikyo. Bien que le TEC soit situé dans la banlieue parisienne, le Service mensuel n'était pas rattaché à un lieu spécifique de Tenrikyo, puisqu'il était célébré de la même manière dans des sites disparates de Tenrikyo. Lors d'un Service mensuel du TEC, si l'on observe la scène qui se déroule à l'intérieur du sanctuaire, qui est typiquement « japonais », on voit principalement des Japonais, mais aussi un mélange éclectique de personnes de divers autres pays. La localisation géographique est ainsi difficile à deviner. Globalement, la scène qui se déroulait chaque mois au TEC pendant ces rituels n'appartenait pas distinctement à la banlieue parisienne où elle se déroulait, mais plutôt au Tenrikyo au sens large, dans lequel les mêmes éléments rituels étaient mis en oeuvre dans chaque lieu de culte de Tenrikyo.

Outre le rituel lui-même, cette similitude se manifestait également à travers de multiples autres facteurs, notamment le site, le mode de sociabilité qui l'accompagnait et le repas en commun qui suivait le rituel. Cette similitude était également renforcée par la présence importante de Japonais, dont la plupart sont nés et ont été élevés en tant que fidèles de Tenrikyo, et qui faisaient également partie des membres principaux de la « communauté TEC ». Leur présence influençait de manière significative le monde social qui s'est créé pour ces rassemblements rituels. L'influence prépondérante de ce rituel a également été démontrée par le symbolisme qu'il contenait, et qui consistait à réunir différents rôles pour construire un ensemble plus vaste grâce à une coopération symbiotique qui était manifestement présente dans le discours général et les actions du groupe à d'autres moments (ce que j'aborde dans différentes parties de ma thèse).

Le Service, comme je l'ai parfois entendu dire au TEC et dans d'autres contextes de Tenrikyo, n'est pas une performance axée sur les compétences musicales ou de danse des exécutantes du rituel, mais un exercice et une exposition de personnes occupant différents rôles qui se réunissent pour créer un plus grand ensemble. Dans de tels discours, j'ai parfois entendu que l'unité collective mise en place par les acteurs rituels instrumentaux et de la danse était assimilée à la Bien que le Service mensuel ait fonctionné comme un élément unificateur entre les personnes présentes, il a également montré la composition à deux niveaux de la communauté TEC, dans laquelle certaines personnes présentes étaient positionnées plus près du noyau du groupe et de la religion Tenrikyo, tandis que d'autres étaient positionnées plus en périphérie. L'un des signes de cette double qualité était les différents types de vêtements portés par les participants. À chaque occasion de ce rituel mensuel, certaines personnes portaient le kimono cérémoniel de Tenrikyo ou le costume-pantalon du « hakama », qui, dans presque tous les sites Tenrikyo du monde, est l'habit rituel porté par les exécutants 672 du rituel de Service. D'autres personnes présentes 672 Il existe des variations concernant le port de ces robes cérémonielles de Tenrikyo pour les services mensuels sur la scène mondiale de Tenrikyo, principalement en raison de spécificités de lieu qui incitent parfois à prendre des dispositions spéciales, comme en Corée, l'un des principaux pays en dehors du Japon à avoir une présence de Tenrikyo. Dans ce pays, en raison des relations historiques entre le Japon et la Corée, les « robes de tous les jours » portaient un manteau noir court de type « happi » japonais, tandis que d'autres encore portaient leurs vêtements de tous les jours (non-Tenrikyo)673 .

Dans la pratique, malgré cette réaffectation mensuelle des rôles de l'exécution du Service qui pouvait permettre à diverses personnes de participer activement à ce rituel, ce sont surtout les mêmes acteurs religieux que l'on pouvait voir dans le sanctuaire, vêtus de la tenue rituelle des exécutantes du rituel, et qui étaient majoritairement des adeptes japonais étroitement liés au TEC et à la religion Tenrikyo. Le rituel du Service mensuel est divisé en trois parties qui ont chacune une composition différente de quinze acteurs rituels, ce qui permet à une multitude de personnes de participer activement à sa réalisation. Malgré cela, ce sont généralement les « membres principaux » de la communauté TEC, le plus souvent des Japonais, nés et élevés dans la foi674 , qui ont servi d'acteurs rituels, tandis que d'autres personnes présentes, dont beaucoup sont situées au niveau périphérique de la « communauté TEC », ont regardé et écouté cette représentation rituelle depuis la section du public du sanctuaire de TEC. Ce fut un cas répétitif, parmi d'autres, où le caractère à deux niveaux de la « communauté TEC » s'est manifesté physiquement. Que l'on soit un acteur rituel ou dans le rôle plus passif d'un participant se trouvant dans l'auditoire en assistant au Service mensuel, on prenait part à une expérience d'immersion sensorielle qui se déroule de la même manière sur les autres sites de Tenrikyo, quel que soit l'endroit, reliant ainsi de manière expérientielle le Service mensuel du TEC à la sphère plus large de Tenrikyo.

Ce manque de diversité des origines nationales parmi les exécutantes n'est pas dû à une préférence pour les acteurs rituels japonais, mais à un manque de personnes disponibles et qualifiées de nationalités autres675 , désireuses de participer aux Services mensuels du TEC. Dans En outre, lorsque je pense à mon contexte de recherche, il est important de garder à l'esprit que les « membres » de Tenrikyo en Europe ne formaient pas un groupe uniforme, tant dans leur 679 C'est le seul site en Europe à avoir été classé comme « église de branche » (bun kyokai), qui est une catégorie plus large et hiérarchisée de sites basés sur la lignée par rapport aux vingt-et-un autres sites basés sur la lignée en Europe, tous classés comme « stations de mission » (fukyosho). 680 Ces dernières étaient pour la plupart, mais pas exclusivement, d'origine japonaise. 682 Cela exclut les familles qui accueillent les stations de mission chez elles.

683 Parmi les personnes qui sont venues au TEC pour ce séminaire, il y avait également des personnes vivant en Europe qui ne se considèrent pas comme des « adeptes » ou des « membres » de la religion, mais qui sont néanmoins venues au TEC pour participer à ce programme ; ainsi que des personnes vivant en dehors de l'Europe, rencontrées notamment lors de mon travail de terrain aux États-Unis et au Japon, et qui ont participé au séminaire en tant que membres du personnel. Pour la plupart des membres principaux de la « communauté TEC », lorsqu'ils venaient au TEC pour des activités communes, ils arrivaient dans un monde social et physique qu'ils connaissaient depuis longtemps. Lors d'une édition du séminaire, beaucoup plus de personnes ont participé au programme en tant que personnel (une catégorie qui comprend à la fois les instructeurs et l'autre personnel) qu'en tant qu'étudiants. Ainsi, en considérant le séminaire comme une expérience partagée entre de nombreux membres de la communauté TEC, ce n'est pas exclusivement en tant qu'étudiants que les membres de cette collectivité sociale ont acquis l'expérience d'y participer.

En participant à ce programme, que ce soit en tant qu'étudiant, membre du personnel ou les deux, 688 un point de référence commun a été acquis, qui a servi de point commun obligatoire entre ceux qui ont participé à ce programme en même temps. Ce point commun a été étendu, dans une moindre mesure, à ceux qui y avaient participé à des occasions distinctes, mais qui ont néanmoins partagé l'expérience généraleet, plus largement, avec des personnes qui avaient participé à une formation Tenrikyo similaire ailleurs. En décrivant dans ce chapitre les participants avec lesquels j'ai pris part au Séminaire européen, je fais une présentation détaillée, produite à un moment précis et dans un cadre particulier, mais qui peut être étendue au monde social plus large sur lequel porte ma thèse, et qui en est le reflet.

Chapitre 9 : « Rentrer à la maison » à Tenri : liens vécus et imaginaires avec un site de pèlerinage Bien que mes recherches se soient principalement déroulées en Europe, elles étaient indissociablement liées à l'Eglise Mère de cette foi, située dans la ville de Tenri. Comme je l'explique dans une sous-section du chapitre 9, alors que l'ensemble des personnes que je désigne collectivement par le terme de « communauté TEC » était principalement interconnectée par leurs 688 Certaines personnes ont participé au séminaire en tant qu'étudiants une année et ont aidé au séminaire en tant que personnel les autres années. La seconde année où j'ai participé au séminaire, une jeune femme japonaise élevée dans la religion et qui était en Europe pour un échange universitaire a aidé au séminaire en tant que personnel de soutien pendant une partie de celui-ci, mais a également participé à certains cours en tant qu'étudiante. 694 Ou d'autres personnes étroitement liées à la foi qui ne se classent pas dans cette catégorie.

695 Le reste de mon travail de terrain au Japon comprenait environ une semaine à l'église et au foyer familial où Yuko est née et a grandi, environ une semaine à l'église où M. Sugimoto est né et a grandi, et plusieurs jours à la grande église de « ma » lignée pendant son Service mensuel. conceptuel commun associé à cette foi, basée sur le domaine de l'imaginaire, et qui a encouragé les liens sociaux entre les adeptes qui partageaient ce cadre. Lorsqu'on pense à la relation que les gens entretiennent avec la ville de Tenri, il est important d'inclure non seulement les éléments théologiques du site, mais aussi les moments de la vie qui s'y déroulent pour ces gens. De telles expériences contribuent à des associations partagées avec diverses parties de la ville. De plus, les types de formations qui s'y déroulent comprennent des formations essentiellement religieuses, mais aussi des programmes académiques pour une large part non-religieux. Ces deux types de formations sont un élément sous-jacent des modes de pensée et de fonctionnement de Tenrikyo, et ceux-ci deviennent ensuite partie intégrante des personnes qui participent à ces formations.

Parmi les nombreux entraînements spirituels qui ont lieu dans cette ville de pèlerinage et dont je traite dans ce chapitre, j'accorde une importance particulière aux conférences Besseki, invariablement identiques, qui se déroulent dans une salle spécifique réservée à cet effet. Le fait d'avoir assisté à neuf de ces conférences identiques est la principale condition pour pouvoir suivre le rite par lequel on devient un « Yoboku ». Le statut de Yoboku est un élément important de la construction de l'identité religieuse auquel je fais référence dans plusieurs parties de ma thèse.

Pour expliquer brièvement cette désignation, une personne ayant ce statut peut effectuer un type de guérison par la foi appelé le « Sazuke », qui est l'un des éléments clés de Tenrikyo. Dans la pratique, bien que ce ne soit pas sa définition officielle, cette désignation est souvent associée au fait d'être un adulte pleinement initié à la religion. L'acquisition de l'importante désignation de « Yoboku » était fortement liée au fait de se rendre dans la ville de Tenri, car ce n'est qu'à cet endroit qu'il était possible d'assister aux conférences Besseki et de participer au rite transformationnel par lequel on acquérait ce titre. En cela, il y avait un lien concret entre être/ devenir Tenrikyo et être dans la ville de Tenri. Ces conférences transmettent les aspects clés des enseignements de la foi : en effet, selon la théorie pédagogique, c'est l'exposition répétée à ces conférences et à leur contenu spirituel qui permet de faire progresser la « maturité spirituelle 697 » des participants.

697 Japonais : (kokoro no) seijin (心の) 成人. En japonais, le mot « seijin » se réfère généralement à l'atteinte de la maturité ou de l'âge adulte lui-même. (« Kokoro no » se traduit par « du coeur/esprit »). Dans la littérature Tenrikyo, le terme en vient à avoir une connotation plus profonde de maturité spirituelle, qui inclut souvent l'idée qu'en augmentant sa « maturité spirituelle », on devient plus humain, c'est-à-dire humain de la manière dont Dieu le Parent nous a créé.

Le processus répétitif de participation à ces neuf conférences Besseki identiques fournit un très bon exemple du modèle pédagogique particulier de Tenrikyo, dans lequel une personne est formée spirituellement grâce à une exposition répétitive à une expérience au fils du temps. Les adeptes vivant au Japon698 ne peuvent assister aux conférences Besseki qu'une fois par mois, ce qui fait que le processus s'étend sur un minimum de neuf mois. J'ai parfois entendu des adeptes, en particulier des Japonais étroitement impliqués dans la religion, expliquer que cela était similaire à la formation de neuf mois d'un bébé se développant dans le ventre de sa mère avant de naître. Il suffit d'être présent à ces conférences (même si l'on dort une partie du temps) pour acquérir le droit de devenir un Yoboku. C'est la présence physique à ces conférences, plutôt que la manière dont elles sont reçues intellectuellement, qui est au premier plan. De même, dans une perspective plus globale de Tenrikyo, c'est par l'engagement des gens dans des pratiques et des activités religieuses que leur appartenance religieuse a été largement définie. Cela montre qu'« être membre » de Tenrikyo n'est pas exclusivement, ni même principalement, positionné dans le domaine de la croyance mais plutôt par rapport à ce que l'on fait.

Ces périodes prolongées passées dans la ville de Tenri dans le but précis de se former comprenaient également la fréquentation d'écoles « académiques », notamment deux internats de lycées privés et l'université, dans lesquels de nombreux membres de mon groupe de recherche avaient étudié (ou, dans le cas de membres plus jeunes, étudiaient ou prévoyaient d'y étudier plus tard). Tout comme les programmes de formation spirituelle impliquaient l'hébergement commun, la participation à ces écoles comprenait aussi des logements collectifs (des dortoirs étudiants), ce qui faisait de la fréquentation de l'une de ces écoles une expérience globale. Ces institutions académiques étaient une des raisons principales pour lesquelles les adeptes passaient de longues périodes dans la ville de Tenri, grâce auxquelles des liens expérientiels se formaient avec de nombreux aspects de la ville, les sites sacrés qui s'y trouvaient, et avec les autres membres de la scène plus large de Tenrikyo. Ces relations sont souvent devenues des liens sociaux à long terme qui s'étendaient au-delà des espaces physiques et sociaux précis, y compris le TEC et le contexte européen de Tenrikyo, contribuant à un réseau dispersé de « noyau » d'adeptes. Au cours de mon cette expérience, souvent en tant qu'enfants et parfois aussi en tant d'adultes, ce qui en fait un élément commun de leur expérience dans la ville de Tenri, ainsi qu'avec la religion elle-même.

Un objectif important du festival était de permettre aux enfants de construire des souvenirs positifs et des états émotionnels qu'ils associent à la ville de Tenri, et de manière connexe avec la religion. Ces associations acquises grâce à la participation à ce festival s'ancrent généralement dans leurs premières constructions du soi. En examinant comment les valeurs et les pratiques de Tenrikyo étaient présentées aux enfants, nous pouvons mieux voir les valeurs et les comportements idéalisés du groupe à travers des représentations simplifiées ou exagérées. En outre, non seulement les liens expérientiels entre des contextes disparates faisaient partie de la participation au Pèlerinage des enfants au Jiba, mais le festival a également souvent servi de contexte pour réunir les acteurs sociaux liés à la « communauté TEC », facilitant ainsi leur connexion continue.

Pendant les deux jours de participation collective du groupe « européen » à ce festival, nous avons été réunis avec de nombreux membres de la « communauté TEC », passés et présents, qui vivaient au Japon. Ma participation à ce festival m'a permis, entre autres, de mieux comprendre la proximité du groupe sur lequel mes recherches se sont concentrées. Ce groupe « européen » avec lequel j'ai participé au festival était composé de personnes provenant de plusieurs lieux de résidence en Europe (y compris des personnes en dehors de la région parisienne que je n'avais pas encore rencontrées). Il était évident que ce festival était un moment spécial à la fois individuellement pour les participants, mais aussi collectivement pour ce groupe basé en Europe dans lequel le festival a servi à former et à renforcer les liens entre eux. Malgré leurs lieux de résidence dispersés et leurs lignages différents, ils avaient des liens durables avec la scène de Tenrikyo en Europe, le TEC, et sa communauté connectée. La réflexion sur leur participation collective nous fournit un exemple saillant de la nature bi-locale (voire multi-locale) des expériences qui ont solidifié les liens des individus impliqués ensemble en tant que groupe. Bien que cette « communauté » ait été principalement basée au TEC, son monde social était ainsi aussi fortement lié à la ville de Tenri.

(à des niveaux et des manières variées) de l'ensemble de cette « communauté », qui s'étendait audelà d'un moment particulier ou d'un lieu singulier.

Ma réflexion sur la globalité du monde social du TEC, avec ses flux réguliers et diversifiés d'entrée et de sortie de membres du groupe activement impliqués, comme constituant une large entité sociale interconnectée malgré son manque d'unité (un seul lieu ou un seul moment donné) a été largement inspirée par l'exploration que Clifford (1997, 1990, 1981) Même si une partie importante de la « communauté TEC » a été, au fil du temps, transitoire, le flux continu de personnes allant et venant de TEC a été une caractéristique constante de ce site.

Certaines personnes incluses dans cette « communauté », comme ses « membres principaux » vivant ailleurs en Europe, venaient au TEC et s'intégraient activement dans son monde social pendant de longues périodes, voire à vie 700 . D'autres faisaient activement partie de cette « communauté » pendant des périodes plus courtes, par exemple dans le cas des jeunes adultes missionnaires venus vivre au TEC, le plus souvent pendant plusieurs années et alors qu'ils travaillaient à l'ACFJT. Pour ces personnes, l'appartenance à ce groupe était généralement très forte pendant une certaine période de leur vie, puis diminuait considérablement par la suite, sans nécessairement prendre fin, car les liens sociaux formés au TEC se poursuivaient souvent après le départ des personnes du centre européen. 700 Comme le TEC n'existe que depuis 1970 et que beaucoup de membres du noyau dur de sa communauté sont plus jeunes ou sont arrivés en Europe après cette période, il n'est pas possible de dire que leur lien est « à vie », bien que pour ceux qui sont nés dans les familles du noyau dur de ce groupe, il est probable que ce soit le cas.

On peut ainsi constater que la « communauté TEC » ne comprend pas seulement ceux qui sont au TEC à un moment donné ou ceux qui viennent actuellement avec une certaine régularité. Elle comprend également des personnes qui faisaient auparavant partie de ce monde social sur place au TEC, grâce auquel elles ont acquis une familiarité avec le TEC et avec sa « communauté », composée de personnes ayant cette même familiarité. Cela s'est souvent produit en partie grâce à la distance et en partie en se voyant à des occasions ponctuelles, l'endroit le plus fréquent pour ces réunions étant la ville de Tenri. Ces personnes, bien que n'étant plus au TEC, sont restées connectées au monde social qui lui est associé. Japon est la présence de tabourets sur lesquels les exécutantes du Service au TEC sont assis (alors 701 Une différence notable, cependant, entre le sanctuaire de TEC et la plupart des lieux de culte de Tenrikyo au Japon, est que dans le premier, les chaises pliantes sur lesquelles les gens s'assoient ont remplacé les tapis de tatami sur lesquels les participants et les exécutants de Services s'agenouillent. Au Japon, les exécutants du Service sont assis et les musiciens s'agenouillent. Les interprètes des treize chants Mikagura-uta exécutent, eux, les danses en position debout, tant au Japon qu'au TEC.

702 Cette cohérence excluait la première partie du Service mensuel effectué autour du Jiba le 26 de chaque mois.

703 Une certaine diversité culturelle était présente sur un petit nombre de sites de Tenrikyo, généralement sous la forme d'adaptations au lieu où ils se trouvaient. Mais en général, les tenues de cérémonie étaient les mêmes, quel que soit le lieu. qu'au Japon les exécutantes sont agenouillées au sol). La présence fréquente de plusieurs artistes visuellement non japonais 704 au TEC entre également en compte dans la légère différence visuelle entre le rituel mensuel pratiqué 705 au TEC et dans les sites de Tenrikyo au Japon. Au Japon en effet, où les exécutantes du Service sont le reflet de la population du pays, elles sont généralement toutes japonaises. Une différence souvent citée, par exemple, entre le sanctuaire du TEC et les lieux de culte de Tenrikyo au Japon est que, comme pour les tabourets sur la scène, dans la section du public, les spectateurs s'assoient sur des chaises pliantes en bois, alors qu'au Japon, les spectateurs s'agenouillent sur un sol en tatami. Cela reflète la manière « traditionnelle » de s'asseoir et de se tenir dans la salle dans ces cultures respectives. Bien que cette différence puisse sembler triviale, je me suis rendu compte qu'elle était significative pour l'expérience corporelle du Service, et ceci de multiples façons. Par exemples, la position du corps lorsque l'on s'incline devant les autels, et selon ma propre expérience la manière de s'asseoir / s'agenouiller, et la manière dont les vibrations des instruments de percussion (en particulier le grand tambour taiko) étaient ressenties dans mon corps.

Cette différence expérientielle par rapport à la position assise plutôt qu'à la position agenouillée n'a cependant pas, comme la plupart des autres adaptations effectuées au TEC, modifié de manière significative le contenu des rituels effectués dans cet espace, ni la signification que les adeptes attribuaient à ces rituels et à l'espace lui-même. Certains adeptes, le plus souvent des adeptes japonais nés et élevés dans la foi, choisissaient de s'agenouiller au fond de la pièce en raison de leur préférence pour cette position corporelle, ouvrant ainsi la possibilité de le faire à quiconque le souhaitait 708 . Il convient toutefois de noter que la sensation de s'agenouiller sur le sol en bois du sanctuaire de TEC n'était pas identique à celle de s'agenouiller sur un tatami relativement souple, comme c'était le cas au Japon. Ainsi, bien que les adeptes ayant choisi de s'agenouiller à l'arrière du sanctuaire de TEC recréaient partiellement l'expérience d'être dans un sanctuaire de Tenrikyo au Japon de par leur posture, cette recréation expérientielle n'était que partielle.

Une autre différence au TEC s'est manifestée à travers les gestes effectués par les personnes présentes : il y a celles qui exécutent les gestes ritualisés du Service, et celles qui ne les exécutent pas. Contrairement aux Services quotidiens du matin et du soir qui se déroulaient dans le sanctuaire et auxquels tout le monde assis dans la salle participait généralement709 par l'exécution de ses gestes, pour le Service mensuel, les mouvements de danse rituelle étaient « censés être » exécutés uniquement par les exécutantes désignées du Service dans l'espace rituel situé directement devant les trois autels et non par ceux de la salle. Bien qu'en pratique au TEC, il y avait généralement un petit nombre de personnes présentes qui se joignaient à l'exécution des gestes de danses du Service, le plus souvent pendant la partie introductive du Service assis du rituel, tandis que la plupart observaient avec révérence la performance sur scène conformément à leur rôle non performatif prescrit.

Le plus souvent, les personnes qui ont participé activement à ces gestes rituels depuis la partie « spectateur » de la salle ne sont pas nées dans la foi. Ainsi, leur approche légèrement différente de leur participation à la religion reflétait en partie le fait qu'ils n'avaient pas été élevés dans la Malgré cette injonction qui existait en grande partie comme un fait social implicite, je n'ai jamais entendu quelqu'un commenter cette variation par rapport à la norme prescrite, sauf lors du séminaire mentionné précédemment 711 . Cela reflétait en partie l'interdiction culturelle, tant dans la culture japonaise que dans celle de Tenrikyo, de parler mal au sujet des autres de discuter de leurs défauts, ce qui pouvait être considéré comme un commentaire sur le fait que de nombreux membres du TEC faisaient quelque chose qu'ils étaient censés « ne pas faire ». Le fait de ne pas tenir compte de ce manquement à l'étiquette rituelle reflète également le contexte d'accueil construit au TEC afin que la diversité des personnes qui viennent à ce centre se sentent à l'aise et apprécient les moments qu'ils y passent et, dans des cas comme celui qui est discuté ici, prennent part à la religion, encourageant ainsi leur connexion perçue comme positive au centre, à la religion et entre eux.

L'élément atypique de personnes dans la section du public participant activement à ces gestes rituels n'était qu'un exemple de la négociation constante au TEC concernant la part des traditions et des règlements de la religion (officiels et non officiels) à respecter et à faire respecter, par rapport à la fluidité et à la différence qui doivent être autorisées dans ce contexte français (et européen). Cette démarche a été principalement motivée par l'objectif d'attirer les publics locaux et de leur transmettre la foi. Il a été reconnu que les interdictions excessives imposées aux personnes présentes risquaient d'être perçues comme excessivement restrictives, rendant ainsi potentiellement moins attrayante leur participation aux activités et événements de Tenrikyo (y 711 Il convient de noter que j'ai rarement été considérée avant tout comme une « chercheuse », malgré mon affirmation sur ce fait. J'étais souvent considérée en premier lieu comme une membre du groupe (et, en tant qu'individu, comme une Américaine vivant à Paris venue apprendre la religion et s'y engager assez récemment), à l'instar du mélange éclectique de nombreuses autres personnes venues s'engager dans la religion de Tenrikyo et du TEC assez récemment. Comme je n'étais pas « membre principal du groupe », il est probable qu'une discrétion polie a pu décourager les commentaires sur la question faits en ma présence, et qui auraient pu être faits dans des contextes plus privés ou entre personnes proches. Pour examiner de plus près comment ces termes ont existé dans la pratique et pour discuter des enseignements qui peuvent être tirés de la réflexion sur la conception et l'emploi de ces termes importants spécifiques à la religion, j'utiliserai l'exemple du « hinokishin ». Les adeptes au TEC ont souvent qualifié le fait d'apporter une aide mandatée et structurée, comme par exemple participer à des taches ménagères collectives, mais aussi d'apporter de l'aide de manière plus spontanée comme étant le « hinokishin ». À cet égard, j'ai observé que de telles classifications étaient formulées de manière similaire dans d'autres contextes Tenrikyo. Au cours de la première partie de mes recherches, j'ai parfois été surprise d'entendre que mes propres efforts simples et occasionnels dans ce centre pour aider à l'entretien (par exemple par le nettoyage), le plus souvent avec d'autres dans des contextes informels, étaient qualifiés de « hinokishin » (alors que moimême je ne les considérais pas ainsi). De mon propre point de vue, je l'ai fait parce que je le considérais comme approprié d'un point de vue fonctionnel réciproque par rapport à la fréquence à laquelle j'y étais, bénéficiant de leurs installations, de leur nourriture et des efforts des autres.

Les principaux membres du TEC qui se sont référés à ma participation avec ce terme Tenrikyo ont utilisé le vocabulaire communément employé dans les contextes Tenrikyo pour de tels efforts et ont également associé mes actions, de manière positive, à cet acte religieux à un moment où la plupart étaient conscients que j'étais un nouveau venu dans la foi716 . Contrairement à mes propres efforts, qui étaient positionnés sous ce terme religieux à une époque où j'étais nouveau à Tenrikyo mais aussi initiée à la connaissance de ses principaux enseignements et où je cherchais activement à m'impliquer dans le monde socio-religieux du TEC et à en apprendre davantage sur la religion Tenrikyo, j'ai parfois observé que les adeptes modifiaient les termes selon le contexte. Ces modifications linguistiques étaient employées lorsqu'ils parlaient à des personnes qui n'étaient pas adeptes et qui participaient à diverses activités et événements « non religieux » au TEC ou liés à celui-ci, qui impliquaient des heures programmées de « hinokishin » structuré. Dans de tels cas, ces sessions programmées étaient plutôt appelées « le nettoyage » et autres variations similaires. Cela a démontré que l'emploi de ces termes spécifiques à Tenrikyo était un marqueur « d'appartenance » (ou de formation) religieuse, mais que la maîtrise de ces termes religieux n'était pas une condition préalable à l'inclusion d'un groupe.

Ces changements de référence lexicale étaient le plus souvent dus au fait que les personnes qui n'avaient pas participé à ces activités ne connaissaient pas les termes spécifiques à Tenrikyo, comme « hinokishin ». Ainsi, par souci de simplicité, d'autres mots ont parfois été employés

Figure 1 :Figure 2 :Figure 3 :Figure 4 :Figure 5 :

 12345 Figure 1: Spatial layout of TEC grounds……………………………..…………………………167 Figure 2: Tenrikyo dual-layered system of organization…………….………………………….282 Figure 3: Connections and movement of followers between mission stations and general TEC population……………………………………………………………………...………..284 Figure 4: Connections between Bordeaux Kyokai and other sites………………………..…….297 Figure 5: Multi-directional connections of Sugimoto mission station………………………….300

  de TENRI (ACFJT), in central Paris associated with TEC and Tenrikyo in preparation for my intended fieldwork did I discover and become involved in my present research context. I was a student at ACFJT for a little under two years before my research came to be focused on TEC and Tenrikyo. This unplanned shift came about after my impromptu acceptance of an invitation to attend an intensive three-week religious seminar held at TEC, about which chapters seven and eight are dedicated, without knowing much about what I was entering into. This unplanned concentrated entry into what became my research context proved to be a rigorous introduction to the socio-religious world of TEC and of the Tenrikyo religion that would be fruitful in directing my research to its present topic.

  the first beings who over time would develop into humans. The husband figure of the fish fades away from this story, leaving only the maternal figure of Oyasama in the contemporary reverential focus toward these original parents, with what precisely happened to the husband character of the fish somewhat unclear. Similar to a number of other somewhat undefined aspects of the faith, I heard numerous theories about this matter from followers over the course of my fieldwork.

  founding of a Tenrikyo center in Paris that was included in the one-hundred-day trip made by the Shinbashira and others in 1960, chiefly to present academic papers at the 10 th Conference of the International Association for the History of Religions in Marburg and the 25 th Conference of the International Association for Oriental Studies in Moscow, as well as to attend the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. On this trip, the Shinbashira was accompanied by Yoshinori Moroi, a prominent scholar of religion and Tenrikyo doctrine who was also the head minister of Yamana Grand Church, who had to remain in Paris for most of the trip before eventually returning to Japan and passing away the following year. Kato (2017a: 104) explains that Mr. Moroi 112 reportedly had a strong desire to spread Tenrikyo teachings in France, which may or may not have been strengthened by his prolonged stay in Paris. Evidencing this desire is an account publicized by Mr. Moroi's wife a year after his passing, which states that Mr. Moroi, in praying for his recovery in May 1961 at the Main Sanctuary of Tenrikyo in Tenri City, made a resolution saying, "I shall quit all my duties and positions at the Church Headquarters and then start anew as a missionary. If I receive the blessing and recover from my illness, I shall embark on missionary work in France." (Moroi

  Culturelle Franco-Japonaise de TENRI: A "laique" cultural center and language school in central Paris that served as the door through which I came to TEC a. ACFJT as a potential point of entry into the religion How I came to know Tenrikyo and TEC via ACFJT: using my own experience as a case study A question often asked by people throughout my research was why or how I decided to focus my research on the Japanese new religion of Tenrikyo. This inquiry was often accompanied with the understandable assumption that religion was already in the forefront of my research interests when I decided to focus my thesis on its present topic. It was not. In this chapter, I will explain how I found myself, without prior intention, focusing my thesis on the eclectic and multi-layered composition of social actors connected in various ways to TEC who I refer to collectively as the "TEC community."My purpose in including my own story of how I became acquainted with TEC and the religion of Tenrikyo and how my research became focused on them is not simply to offer an autobiographical exposé or to depict myself as an "anthropological hero," both of which Olivier de Sardan (2008) rightly cautions against. Rather, I wish to use my own experience as a case study in its own right, which Olivier de Sardan poses as a more appropriate reason to discuss one's own personal experience during fieldwork when one's own story is similar to others included in the group of study. In my case, although my own introduction to Tenrikyo, TEC, and other Tenrikyo sites was not identical to anyone else's included in the eclectic "community" upon which my research was focused, my own story holds numerous features that were shared with others who came to be part of this group and included in the social world of TEC at an adult age 123 .

Figure 1 :

 1 Figure 1: Spatial layout of TEC grounds

  Tenrikyo structure. Contrastingly, one of the previous heads of TEC, Mr. Miyamoto, was from a family that served as the leadership of a grand church in Japan. (After occupying the role of TEC head, Mr. Miyamoto went on to occupy several other important nominated roles, including that of the head of the Tenrikyo newspaper published in Tenri City, the president of Tenri University, a Besseki lecturer 211 , and most importantly within the Tenrikyo faith, a Service performer who dances in the Daily and Monthly Services held in the Main Sanctuary 212 of Tenrikyo in front of the kanrodai 213 : a role filled only by individuals in the inner-circle of Church Headquarters' leadership.) Regardless of their inherited role in the greater Tenrikyo organization, while at TEC, the person serving in this nominated role assumed this leadership position in a manner that was largely reflective of the broader Tenrikyo structure and culture from which they came and continued to be heavily based in. As indicated above, a dominant feature of how the head of TEC and his wife occupied their leadership roles at this center was based on the gendered, family model of Tenrikyo, and more specifically, on the pair-based model of husband and wife.

  Shih's (2010) discussion of Oriental modernity through a specifically Chinese and Japanese vantage point is interesting in this regard. He asserted that Oriental modernity is concerned principally with self-image rather than self-identity. Central to understanding this differentiation is the distinction between identity and image. Identity is concerned with a boundary between the internal and the external. If there is not an established difference between what is internal and what is external, identity cannot be established. In defining what one is, one is also defining what one is not. Image is about how one is evaluated by others. People perform according to roles agreed upon by themselves and others. Because each situation involves a different relationship, one is required to perform differently in different situations to receive a positive evaluation.

  from Yoboku's Guide to Tenrikyo, translated by Tenrikyo Overseas Department Image 4: Performance of the Monthly Service at TEC. (Photo from website: Tenrikyo Europe Centre 2016) Not seen in this photo are the three stringed "women's instruments" located on the right side of the stage.

  Image 5: Lesson on Tenrikyo ritual for core members of TEC wearing Tenrikyo happi coats in preparation of Tenrikyo European Seminar orchestration, TEC sanctuary. Photo: Info TEC 2019.

  Image 6: TEC Monthly Service men's instrumental performers. Photo: Tenrikyo Europe Centre 2016d. Image 7: TEC Monthly Service women's instrumental performers. Photo: Tenrikyo Europe Centre 2016d.

  Chapter six: Home-based Tenrikyo sites of worship in Europe: the transplantation of a lineage system to a new cultural and geographic context a. Transferring a Japanese organizational system to a European context European-based mission station families as long-term, core members of the TEC community

  330 renrakusho 連絡所 Similar to other laterally based sites, TEC and Tenrikyo UK Centre bring together followers from multiple church lineages but cannot serve as a "home site" to anyone. This is an important point of differentiation that was purposefully brought to my attention by multiple key actors of TEC.These lateral overseas sites are administratively supervised by the Tenrikyo Overseas Department 331 . As explained byKato (2017a: 75), a lineage-based site of worship is "symbolically connected with Tenrikyo Church Headquarters in terms of these two interlacing organizational structures, with the spiritual relationship with its lineage traditionally being the primary source of connection(Yamada 2012: 325-28)."When I first met Masato Kato during my initial impromptu participation in the Tenrikyo European Seminar (July 2015), in our discussion of the Tenrikyo religion in its international context, he explained that large Tenrikyo populations outside of Japan are generally associated with major waves of Japanese immigration, with their descendants composing the majority of followers in these locations, or countries that had been occupied by Japan 332 . As was also brought to my attention by Kato at this time, the locations of the larger, laterally based "mission headquarters" are directly reflective of these historical circumstances. "Tenrikyo Mission Headquarters of America" (located in Los Angeles, founded in 1934) which is responsible for the continental United States 333 and Canada, "Tenrikyo Mission Headquarters of Hawaii" (located in Honolulu, founded in 1954), and Tenrikyo Mission Headquarters of Brazil (Sede Missionária do Brasil, located in Sao Paulo, founded in 1951) are largely the result of these regions' sizable reception of Japanese immigrants. Lateral sites such as Tenrikyo Mission Headquarters in Taipei (founded in 1934) and Tenrikyo Mission Headquarters of Korea (presently located in Seoul, founded in Busan in 1909) are demonstrative of significant Tenrikyo populations outside of Japan whose presence is associated with Japanese colonialism 334 . 331 Tenrikyō kaigaibu 天理教海外部 332 His point is further discussed in Kato 2017a (66-68).

Figure 2 :

 2 Figure 2: Tenrikyo dual-layered system of organization.

Image 8 :

 8 Presence of lineage-based Tenrikyo sites in Europe. Most of these European mission stations were quite socially connected with each other, particularly on the part of the families who hosted them. As partially explained previously, their interactions usually took place at TEC or other Tenrikyo sites open to all followers regardless of church lineage, such as certain contexts in Tenri City, rather than at each other's home-based mission stations. Through this, TEC, and extendedly Tenri City, functioned as meeting places for spatially dispersed followers of different lineages.

Figure 3 :

 3 Figure 3: Connections and movement of followers between mission stations and general TEC population.

Figure 4 :

 4 Figure 4: Connections between Bordeaux Kyokai and other sites.

Figure 5 :

 5 Figure 5: Multi-directional connections of Sugimoto mission station

359

  Communication: March 12, 2016.

  Tenrikyo high school for approximately one year, and then slightly later participated in the commonly attended "spiritual training" program of Shuyoka held there. She had already received extensive training in the concepts covered in Shuyoka through her previous participation as a student in the three-week training of the European Seminar and moreover, through her recent completion of the two-year seminary program. Her participation in this Shuyoka course was to accompany her longtime Korean-British boyfriend not raised in the faith in this training.

368

  Original text: In der Tenri Japanisch-Deutschen KulturWerkstatt werden jedoch keine religiösen Aktivitäten durchgeführt. Sie steht als Plattform für interkulturelle Begegnungen ausdrücklich und ihrem grundlegenden Zweck entsprechend allen Menschen offen. Der Anspruch, den kulturellen Austausch auf Augenhöhe zu fördern und damit einen Beitrag für ein friedliches Zusammenleben zu leisten, entspricht den Grundüberzeugungen der Tenrikyo. Die Tenrikyo unterhält neben der Tenri KulturWerkstatt in Köln die Association Culturelle Franco-Japonaise de Tenri in Paris (gegründet 1971) und das Tenri Cultural Institute of New York (gegründet 1991), die ebenfalls mit ihren Angeboten die interkulturelle Verständigung fördern.

  Text-based classes: structured schooling of a transnationally shared Tenrikyo knowledge base The structured class sessions of the program functioned as a way of constructing an intellectually and ritually based foundation of the religion in the participants that was similarly present throughout much of the TEC, and more broadly Tenrikyo, social collectivities. The dispersal of this shared religious base was organized much like a school day. Each class session was fifty-five minutes in length, with a fifteen-minute break between each one. The classes were of similar content to Tenrikyo trainings that occurred elsewhere, such as the Shuyoka program in Tenri City. They were also comparable to Tenrikyo training programs held at disparate Tenrikyo locations throughout the world 447 . Due to the non-place specific character of much of the program's content and structure, by participating in the European Seminar, participants were connected to a transnational Tenrikyo experience and knowledge base. This contributed to a component of an experientially and cosmologically based foundation of the wider global Tenrikyo realm that connected followers throughout the world to the religion and concurrently, with other people who had also participated in such a training or were otherwise familiar with the material. The shared foundational component conveyed through the seminar was a mechanism that connected disparate individuals and groups.

  questions are highly relevant to my research, and to this precise subsection focused on the employment of transnationally shared materials in a training program that is similar in content and structure across the broader Tenrikyo scene. In accordance with Kurotani's assertion, how the participants of the European Seminar, that was by default influenced by the local context where it was occurring, encountered this locally orchestrated training that was highly similar to numerous other Tenrikyo trainings orchestrated in both Tenri City and other transnationally dispersed locations was a prime example of the "local" being influenced by the "global." Conversely, the specific scene of the European Seminar and more generally, how Tenrikyo exists in Europe, influences how these religious actors engage in Tenrikyo in both this precise local context and more generally.

Figure 7 :

 7 Figure 7: Multidirectional official and unofficial connections between Mary and sites/spheres with which she was connected.

527

  An image of the Foundress' Hall is included in this document several pages later.

  dramatic imagery, thereby emphasizing the wonders of nature, which is directly connected with the central teachings of Tenrikyo.Image 9: Tenrikyo Main Sanctuary. Photo: TENRIKYO 2017-18.

Figure 8 :

 8 Figure 8: Flow of monetary offerings between sites.

  By taking part in this training, that included the disciplined movements displayed in their parade performance as part of their regular kinesthetic training practiced in the central area of Tenri City, and thus commonly seen, they were being trained in this positively regarded way of being that was a motivating draw for this woman to participate. The connection between kinesthetic and moral training in Tenrikyo holds a good deal of similitude with Bénéï's (2008) discussion of the physical and moral training of primary school students in western India in which the prescribed controlled immobility and stiffness students adopt during phenomenological experiences of daily morning assemblies were expected to be enacted through their moral rectitude throughout the school day. In this Tenrikyo training program aimed at forming young adults, and in like manner in a variety of other Tenrikyo activities and prescribed or encouraged acts, becoming what Tenrikyo positioned as an ideal person internally was partially shaped through the movements that the body enacted, often with regularity, externally.

(

  French time) Seated Service performance held in unison with what had occurred in Tenri City, starting at 10:30 am (Japan time), eight hours ahead of France 603 . Considering the intense lead-up to and importance placed on this event that I observed during the initial five months of my 600 This theme of a select individual or individuals serving as the representative of their greater group was demonstrated in various instances throughout my research.601 This is one of the four wings of the Main Sanctuary facing the point of the Jiba.602 of the Main Sanctuary 603 Japan does not practice daylight savings time. This difference in time zones is reflective of the difference during the winter months.

  influenced by the norms at play in the sphere of the larger Tenrikyo context. The difference between the gendered inclusivity that took place in Europe compared to the gendered exclusivity that took place in Tenri City for this Young Men's Association event showcased the context-dependent nature of much of my research population in which adaptations and changes in relation to what is deemed best in a particular context were a routine component of my research. Although in many ways, TEC was a transplanted rendition of Tenrikyo in Japan and the religiously focused scene that took place in Tenri City, place and context-based adaptations were a routine component of my observations.

  Through my participation in this festival, among other insights, I gained a deeper understanding of the closeness of the group on which my research was focused. This "European" group with whom I participated in the festival came together from multiple European residential locations, including individuals outside of the Paris area who I had not yet met. It was evident that the Children's Pilgrimage was a special moment both individually for the participating children and adults, and also collectively for this European-based group in which the festival served to form and strengthen connections between them. Despite their dispersed residential locations and separate church lineages, they had enduring connections with the scene of Tenrikyo in Europe, TEC, and its connected multi-place-based community. This was but one of the multiple examples of how Tenri City served as an important place of community formation and connection for this European-based group. Image 12: The European group coming out from the backstage area in the publicly viewable area of the parade. Photo courtesy of Masato Fujiwara.

  je les appelle collectivement la « communauté TEC ». Ce terme s'est imposé à partir de mes observations et de mon point de vue après plusieurs années de travail sur le terrain. Il permet de décrire succinctement les acteurs sociaux interconnectés inclus dans ma population de recherche et le monde social qu'ils ont formé ensemble. Bien qu'étant principalement basé sur ce contexte précis, il s'entend pourtant bien au-delà. Choisir ce terme comme thème central d'étude, vise à illustrer la multitude des complexités sociales ayant cours au TEC et liées à celui-ci. En outre, elles se sont réunies pour former ce qui se présente comme un vaste ensemble social interconnecté. Dans cette recherche, j'explore les raisons pour lesquelles cet ensemble de personnes, à la fois diversifiées et dispersées, a pu constituer une communauté malgré l'absence de liens à la fois conceptuels et expérientiels. Nonobstant le fait que le TEC trouve ses bases en banlieue parisienne, cette « communauté TEC » s'étend bien au-delà de cette localité. Par exemple lors de moments précis dans le temps ou pour toute description globale et singulière (comprenant également la nationalité, le pays de résidence ou même l'identité religieuse) il existait un groupe plus large de la « communauté TEC ». Je soutiens le fait que ce groupe de personnes très diverses constitue en effet une réelle « communauté », et qu'il convient en outre de parler d'une « communauté TEC » ; tout comme le groupe sur lequel j'ai effectué mon travail de terrain, malgré son manque de singularité. Dans ma discussion sur la façon dont cette « communauté » s'est formée et pourquoi elle a constitué une communauté, j'insiste sur le fait que devenir et être membre de la « communauté TEC » et, plus largement, du monde socio-religieux de Tenrikyo dont elle fait partie, se produit à la fois par des moyens conceptuels et par des expériences corporelles. Comme je l'explore et l'explicite tout au long de ma thèse, le principal rituel religieux de Tenrikyo, le « Service », est composé d'une série de chants et de danses. Ceux-ci sont les principaux vecteurs de la théologie de Tenrikyo grâce à leur exécution par les acteurs rituels. L'engagement religieux est largement une expérience corporelle riche en sensorialité. Au-delà de ce rituel, le corps humain est à la fois considéré comme une source clé de la compréhension spirituelle, et la raison centrale pour laquelle la foi enseigne aux adeptes d'exprimer leur gratitude envers « Dieu le Parent », ce qui encourage à mettre l'accent sur le corps et les expériences physiques. Dans ma thèse, je considère les expériences sensorielles et incarnées partagées comme un moyen essentiel de construire des liens entre les individus eux-mêmes, mais aussi entre ces individus et le groupe plus large dont ils font partie et dont ils se sentent membres. En examinant l'ensemble des personnes diverses et dispersées et aux multiples « sphères », c'està-dire aux contextes spatiaux, sociaux, d'affiliation et/ou temporels plus précis, on constate que l'ensemble constitue une entité sociale interconnectée plus large. Bien que le TEC ait été fondé et se soit développé en tant que centre européen Tenrikyo à la fois pour étendre la présence de cette religion en Europe et pour servir comme point de rassemblement pour les adeptes vivant sur ce continent, les multiples « couches » de sa collectivité sociale interconnectée se développent et évoluent constamment. Simultanément, le maintien de certaines caractéristiques a fourni des cadres de cohérence contraignants qui ont favorisé la reproduction de sa structure générale, y compris les nombreux éléments producteurs de liens sociaux. Pendant mon enquête au TEC, en particulier lors de mes observations des événements et des rassemblements structurés, j'ai été saisie par le sentiment d'unité dont me faisaient part les adeptes de Tenrikyo et les personnes non-Tenrikyo (faisant partie du monde social de TEC et donc de sa « communauté »). Ce sentiment d'unité était également présent au-delà de l'emplacement précis de ce centre, où se trouvaient tous les acteurs sociaux, ce qui montre que cette « communauté » s'est construite sur le site de TEC, mais pas exclusivement. Dans ma thèse, je démontre que pour les fidèles de Tenrikyo, l'élément de liaison de la religion et, par conséquent, les croyances et traditions partagées, promeuvent la notion de « communauté ». En outre, même pour les personnes qui ne sont pas « membres » de la religion Tenrikyo mais qui font néanmoins partie du monde social continu et à plusieurs niveaux du TEC, les relations et les liens se sont formés à partir d'interactions personnelles directes entre les membres de la « communauté TEC ». Je montre également que ces interactions qui favorisent un sentiment de « communauté » sont souvent axées sur le travail en commun dans un même but, qu'il s'agisse d'un objectif plus large comme l'organisation d'un événement de plusieurs jours ou la promotion de l'expansion de Tenrikyo en Europe par une faction qui composait la plupart du « noyau » de ce groupe 641 ; ou d'objectifs beaucoup plus modestes, tels que faire la vaisselle dans la cuisine du TEC selon un modèle de coopération symbiotique également présent dans le rituel principal du « Service » (et par conséquent un aspect important de sa cosmologie et de son modèle social idéalisé). Travailler ensemble pour atteindre un objectif collectif plus important est un principe clé de Tenrikyo, tel qu'il se manifeste et s'incarne dans son rituel de Service 642 . De tels efforts de collaboration favorisaient un sentiment d'appartenance à la microsphère sociale dont les acteurs sociaux font immédiatement partie. Ces efforts de collaboration ont également fonctionné comme un élément de liaison du groupe plus large, puisqu'ils constituent un point en commun basé sur l'expérience. Le sentiment d'appartenance a également été encouragé par le chevauchement entre ces sphères précises, et par la présence d'acteurs sociaux impliqués dans un bon nombre d'entre elles, fonctionnant ainsi comme des liens sociaux. En passant du temps au TEC et en participant à son univers social, les participants se sont appropriés et ont intériorisé les normes associées à ce centre et à la fréquentation d'un segment de sa « communauté ». Les adeptes de Tenrikyo qui ont par la suite rejoint la communauté TEC étaient déjà familiers avec la plupart de ses normes. Cette familiarité facilite grandement l'intégration dans le contexte précis du TEC et de sa « communauté ». Celle-ci comportait également ses propres particularités, que les adeptes allaient progressivement apprendre, intérioriser, mettre en oeuvre, et ensuite transmettre aux autres. Cet apprentissage croissant des normes encourageait les gens à se sentir et à fonctionner comme faisant partie d'un tout plus vaste (je reviendrai ultérieurement sur ces caractéristiques). En premier lieu, intéressons-nous plus en détail à l'ensemble des acteurs sociaux qui constituaient ma « population de recherche ». 641 J'expliquerai un peu plus tard ce que j'entends par « noyau ». 642 Le rituel du « Service » fait référence au Service mensuel et à une version plus courte effectuée, idéalement, deux fois par jour (voir infra).Si tant de micro-contextes étaient présents, et de plus dans l'ensemble plus large des personnes connectées de diverses manières au TEC, qu'est-ce qui les a amenées à constituer collectivement une « communauté » ? Un facteur facilitateur important est que les frontières entre les nombreux canaux de connexion au centre et le monde social lié à ce centre n'étaient pas nettes et étanches, mais plutôt différenciées par des marqueurs mis en actes de compartimentation à travers lesquels les croisements et les interconnexions étaient répandus. Certaines personnes ont fait partie de la « communauté TEC » pendant un certain temps, puis se sont fortement, mais souvent pas entièrement, éloignées de ce monde social. D'autres faisaient partie de cette « communauté » pendant des périodes prolongées et continues. Cette fluidité dans l'inclusion des personnes dans le monde social de TEC, et dans la manière dont elles étaient connectées, était une caractéristique clé constante en concert avec la variabilité de la composition précise des personnes activement incluses dans le monde social de TEC à un moment donné. Si la plupart des adeptes de Tenrikyo venus au TEC étaient japonais, d'autres nationalités étaient également représentées. Certains adeptes étaient plus fervents que d'autres dans leur foi et dans la pratique de cette religion. Par conséquent, une grande variété de conceptions et de façons de pratiquer la religion s'est manifestée dans l'ensemble d'acteurs religieux réunis au TEC. Pour certaines personnes faisant partie de ma population de recherche, il n'était pas clair si elles devaient être considérées comme « membres » de la religion ou non. Alors que d'autres personnes, comme je l'ai précisé auparavant, qui sont venues au TEC et qui faisaient partie de son monde social et donc de sa « communauté », ne se considéraient elles-mêmes pas du tout comme des « membres » de la religion. Une caractéristique assez remarquable du TEC (sans doute due en partie à son emplacement : proche de la grande ville cosmopolite qu'est Paris) est le nombre élevé en son sein de personnes qui sont nées et ont grandi hors d'Europe. Lors de tout événement majeur du TEC, comme par exemple le rituel du « Service mensuel » (que j'expliquerai par la suite), au-delà de la présence peut-être plus attendue de Japonais en raison du fait que le Tenrikyo est une « religion japonaise » ou, comme on le dit le plus souvent au Japon, une « nouvelle religion japonaise », il était fréquent qu'une dizaine d'autres nationalités 643 y soient représentées. leur maison. Le niveau secondaire, plus périphérique, des personnes incluses dans ce que j'appelle collectivement la « communauté TEC » est plus difficile à résumer brièvement car il comprend des personnes appartenant à des catégories multiples, et qui ont été impliquées dans ce monde social de différentes manières. Méthodologie Durant mon travail sur le terrain et ultérieurement, on m'a souvent posé des questions générales sur mes recherches de thèse. Plus je passais de temps « sur le terrain », plus je comprenais la réponse à cette questionqui au premier abord semblait simple mais qui était en réalité compliquée et floue -d'une manière tangible et proche. Malgré la micro-compréhension intime obtenue par des observations directes que j'ai pu développer pendant les deux années de mon « travail de terrain ciblé » sur le monde social du TEC, il est pourtant resté difficile d'exprimer succinctement quelles personnes étaient précisément inclues dans ce contexte social à plusieurs niveaux dans lequel j'étais entré, et que j'avais ensuite choisi pour mener mes recherches, et sur quel sujet précis ma thèse allait se porter.

  participer à cette formation, pour lui faire part de mon intérêt à mener une recherche sur « Tenrikyo en France, et principalement sur le TEC », en lui demandant de pouvoir le rencontrer ainsi que plusieurs autres personnes du centre religieux, dont son chef, pour discuter de cette possibilité. Plusieurs jours après avoir envoyé ce courriel, j'ai reçu une réponse de mon professeur qui m'a dit qu'il pouvait « accepter ma proposition avec plaisir 648 ».Par la suite, c'est au domicile familial de M. Sugimoto que j'ai assisté aux Services mensuels de sa « station missionnaire ». De manière connexe, puisque c'est M. Sugimoto qui m'a d'abord invité à des événements clairement religieux au TEC et qui m'a donc « introduit au chemin », c'est lui qui a été désigné comme étant mon « parent spirituel » (ri no oya 理の親) dans la religion. Lorsque j'ai appris cela, je me suis sentie déconcertée car je n'avais jamais exprimé une quelconque envie de faire partie de cette religion. Au contraire, j'avais justifié mon implication et ma motivation par le fait de mener des recherches anthropologiques pour ma thèse, et non pas par une quête religieuse personnelle. Cette ambiguïté entre la position à laquelle on m'a assignée, c'est-à-dire quelqu'un qui apprend et s'implique dans la foi Tenrikyo par l'entremise d'une multitude d'adeptes (que je fréquentais en réalité pour mon travail de terrain), et ma propre perspective selon laquelle j'étais une chercheuse intéressée par ce monde socio-religieux (et non pas une adepte (potentielle) de la religion), était une composante importante de mon travail de terrain.

  missionnaire. Grace à ma participation « multidirectionnelle », il est devenu évident qu'en me concentrant sur le TEC en tant que principal site de recherche, je ne m'intéressais pas seulement à la présence de « Tenrikyo en France ». Cela concernait le Tenrikyo en Europe de manière plus générale, car le TEC sert de point de rencontre entre les adeptes et les sites de Tenrikyo répartis dans plusieurs pays européens. En outre, ce site était intimement lié à des personnes et des structures hors d'Europe, principalement au Japon mais aussi aux Etats-Unis, etc. Enfin, le TEC incluait des personnes externes à la religion Tenrikyo, comme celles liées au TEC via son centre culturel de l'ACFJT. Ainsi, bien que mes recherches se soient concentrées sur le TEC, elles ont impliqué de multiples sites interconnectés et de multiples couches d'acteurs et de groupes sociaux reliés au TEC de diverses manières, et souvent les uns aux autres. Le va-et-vient était un thème important du monde social de ce centre, tout comme la multiplicité des manières d'être connecté à ce centre et à la « communauté TEC ».

Chapitre 1 :

 1 Les débuts du Tenrikyo : une « nouvelle religion japonaise » Chapitre 2 : La foi, son expansion en Europe, et la question complexe du nombre de membres et de qui est « membre » Les chapitres 1 et 2, qui ont pour principal but d'ancrer le lecteur dans le contexte de ma recherche et au-delà, sont regroupés en une seule section de ce résumé afin de traiter brièvement les points clés présents dans ces deux chapitres. On considère que Tenrikyo a été fondée en 1838 par une paysanne japonaise du nom de Miki Nakayama. Alors que Miki servait de médium spirituel improvisé pour un shugen (praticien rituel associé à une secte religieuse montagnarde) afin traiter une maladie de jambe persistante du fils de Miki, Dieu serait descendu au sein de Miki et se serait exprimé à travers elle : « Je suis le Dieu des origines, le Dieu de la vérité. Il y a un lien de causalité dans cette Résidence. En ce moment, je suis descendu ici pour sauver toute l'humanité. Je souhaite recevoir Miki comme le sanctuaire de Dieu » (The Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo 2006 : 1). Finalement, trois jours après que Dieu soit descendu sur Miki, et contre l'avis de ses proches, son mari, craignant que son refus ne coûte la vie de sa femme, a accepté la demande de Dieu, en disant : « Je vous offre Miki » (The Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo 2006 : 7). En ce jour, le 26 du dixième mois de 1838, Miki a été « établie comme le sanctuaire de Dieu ». Ce jour est considéré dans la religion Tenrikyo comme le jour de sa fondation. Les cinquante années suivantes de la vie de la fondatrice sont désignées par Tenrikyo comme le « modèle divin ». (hinagata). Selon les croyants, son esprit était en parfaite conformité avec la volonté de Dieu pendant cette période. Comme l'a noté Kato (2017a), bien que la foi Tenrikyo 654 soit issue d'enseignements religieux transmis par une femme, elle a développé et maintenu une structure organisationnelle à prédominance masculine. Une seule femme a par exemple occupé un poste d'Honbuin (personnel clé du siège de l'église Tenrikyo) (Watanabe 2015 :15). Bien que la fondatrice ait indiqué dans ses nombreux enseignements que les hommes et les femmes étaient à la fois mutuellement nécessaires et égaux (des adeptes japonais m'avaient confié que c'était tout à fait révolutionnaire à cette époque au Japon), elle a largement maintenu les rôles de genre : les femmes étant principalement associées à la sphère domestique et à la maternité, et les hommes à des rôles dans la société en général, y compris à des rôles de direction dans la religion. Tenrikyo est une religion humaniste qui se concentre sur les questions de ce monde et les explications de la nature humaine et du fonctionnement du monde. Le point central de cette histoire de la création est que Dieu le Parent a créé les humains pour qu'ils mènent une vie joyeuse (yoki gurashi), c'est-à-dire un état de vie heureux focalisé largement sur le bien être des autres et des relations interpersonnelles, à atteindre dans ce monde plutôt que dans l'au-delà (Kato 2017a, La doctrine de Tenrikyo 1993). La vie joyeuse est expliquée comme étant une vie de gratitude et de travail pour le bien-être des autres. L'aide mutuelle (tasuke ai) et l'harmonie humaine sont présentées comme une dynamique pro-sociale centrale, promue comme la véritable raison pour laquelle les humains ont été créés, et la trajectoire ontologique ultime de notre existence. Comme l'a noté Kato (2017a), l'idée que Tenrikyo soit une vérité salvatrice de ce monde est également caractéristique des autres nouvelles religions japonaises. En plus de l'enseignement central de la foi concernant la raison pour laquelle Dieu le Parent a créé les humains, et le destin et le but ultime de l'existence humaine et le chemin de Tenrikyo, il existe plusieurs autres enseignements essentiels à la foi. Le plus important est que le corps nous est prêté par Dieu le Parent (enseignement que l'on retrouve dans Tenrikyo surtout sous le nom de kashimono-karimono-« une chose prêtée, une chose empruntée ») et que seul le coeur/esprit 654 La fondatrice n'a pas utilisé le nom « Tenrikyo » pour désigner ses enseignements. (kokoro) nous appartient. Dans cette tradition religieuse, lorsqu'une personne meurt, on dit qu'elle « meurt pour renaître » (denaoshi 出直し : « pour prendre un nouveau départ »). Selon la cosmologie Tenrikyo, les humains sont renés plusieurs fois, chaque fois dans un nouveau corps prêté par Dieu le Parent pour être utilisé durant cette vie. L'existence du corps prêté par Dieu le Parent, et plus largement son fonctionnement, est rendue possible grâce aux « Dix fonctions protectrices de Dieu le Parent » (Juzen no shugo 十全の守護), pour lesquelles les adeptes sont encouragés à avoir de la gratitude. On dit que les maladies physiques sont, en fait, des manifestations physiques de la guidance aimante de Dieu le Parent pour le mauvais usage de nos esprits, générant des « poussières » nocives (hokori ほこり) sur nos coeurs, que le chemin de Tenrikyo est censé aider à éliminer. Parfois avec la maladie particulière dont on souffre en corrélation avec une « poussière » particulière et/ou un mauvais alignement d'une Providence particulière de Dieu le Parent.

  fausseté et la flatterie doivent également être évitées. Parce que l'être humaine utilise librement son coeur et son esprit, il a accumulé au cours de sa vie ces « poussières » nocives sur son coeur, entravant ainsi son bien-être physique, émotionnel et sociétal. Ceci, explique-t-on, est le résultat d'une mauvaise utilisation de nos coeurs et de nos esprits au fil du temps, depuis que la conception des premiers humains a été facilitée par Dieu le Parent, dans le désir de nous avoir comme enfants afin que nous puissions nous aider les uns les autres comme des frères et soeurs et vivre dans la joie. La motivation de Dieu le Parent étant le désir de partager notre joie, tout comme les parents humains se réjouissent de voir leurs enfants heureux et s'entraider.On dit que l'accumulation de ces « poussières » se développe en une « causalité » (innen 655 ) au fil du temps, affectant ainsi les circonstances de la vie actuelle et future de chacun. L'objectif principal du chemin de Tenrikyo, et de son rituel de « Service », ainsi que des actes de « hinokishin 656 », est de « balayer » ces poussières du coeur, au fil du temps, augmentant son propre bien-être et celui du monde, contribuant ainsi au salut du monde de la « Vie Joyeuse 657 » (yoki gurashi), libéré de tout mal physique et social. Il convient toutefois de préciser à propos de cet enseignement que selon la doctrine de Tenrikyo, les résultats négatifs qui surviennent en raison des « poussières » sur le coeur d'une personne ne sont pas des punitions, mais plutôt une « guidance divine aimante » (tebiki) de Dieu le Parent nous exhortant à purifier nos pensées égocentriques(Kato 2017a, La Doctrine de Tenrikyo 1993).Les disciples apprennent à effectuer le « hinokishin » (littéralement : contribution quotidienne 658 ), qui est (idéalement) un acte quotidien de service rendu à autrui en guise d'expression de gratitude envers Dieu le Parent pour nous avoir prêté un corps physique et avoir facilité son fonctionnement, grâce aux Dix fonctions protectrices de Dieu le Parent. Le hinokishin est également censé aider à balayer les « poussières » nocives du coeur du praticien. Comme le lecteur l'a probablement constaté, on accorde au corps une importance capitale dans le Tenrikyo, ce qui explique en partie pourquoi j'insiste dans ma thèse sur le plan théorique sur le corps physique et incarné. Par exemple, en mettant l'accent sur l'influence des expériences sensorielles sur la perception et les sentiments construits qui se prêtent à la formation d'un groupe plus large et à l'adhésion à un groupe.Un autre enseignement clé de Tenrikyo est que la « fondatrice », servant de Sanctuaire de Dieu, était divinement prédestinée depuis l'époque où les humains ont été conçus par l'action de Dieu le Parent au point sacré du Jiba. Ce point sacré est maintenant situé au centre de l'Eglise Mère de Tenrikyo, dans ce qui est devenu, par ce mouvement religieux, la ville de pèlerinage de Tenri (Tenri Shi), dont traitent les chapitres 9 et 10 (toujours en relation avec ma population de recherche). Ce qu'il est essentiel de comprendre concernant l'ontologie du Jiba, c'est qu'elle fait de 656 Le hinokishin est expressément défini dans le Tenrikyo comme étant l'accomplissement d'actes de service pour autrui en tant qu'expression de gratitude envers Dieu le Parent pour nous avoir prêté un corps physique et pour avoir facilité son fonctionnement. J'ai parfois entendu des adeptes dire que le hinokishin aidait aussi à balayer les « poussières » du coeur, bien que l'importance accordée à ce bénéfice potentiel varie selon les personnes.657 Cf. infra. 658 Hinokishin est un mot composite spécifique à Tenrikyo. Ci-après, je n'utilise pas d'italiques pour écrire « hinokishin » car c'est un terme couramment utilisé dans les contextes Tenrikyo, quelle que soit la langue parlée. Tenrikyo une religion de pèlerinage. Parce que tous les humains sont considérés comme originaires du point du Jiba, ils sont accueillis avec les mots « welcome home » (okaeri nasai), plutôt que simplement « welcome », même si c'est la première fois que la personne se rend dans la ville de Tenri. Le principal rituel Tenrikyo, brièvement évoqué précédemment, est le plus souvent désigné dans le discours Tenrikyo en anglais et en français par le terme « Service » (en japonais : Otsutome 659 ). Le Service peut se référer à une version plus courte du rituel, une prière à accomplir idéalement tous les matins et soirs, ou à d'autres moments de la journée. Ou à une version plus longue et plus complexe qui a lieu une fois par mois dans les lieux de culte Tenrikyo, et qui est appelée à juste titre le « Service mensuel » (tsukinamisai). Il peut également faire référence à la version légèrement différente du Service mensuel effectué au Jiba par des acteurs rituels spécifiques occupant des positions importantes dans l'organisation religieuse. Chacune de ces versions du Service est réalisée grâce à l'exécution de chants et des danses de Mikagura-Uta. Habituellement, seules quelques chansons du répertoire sont interprétées pour les Services du matin et du soir, principalement les trois premières chansons appelées le « Service assis » (suwari zutome). L'interprétation complète des chansons étant exécutée lors du Service mensuel. En plus de la raison principale de ce Service, qui est conforme à la doctrine et qui consiste à « balayer les poussières » du coeur, j'ai également entendu des fidèles nommer d'autres raisons pour lesquelles il est célébré, comme par exemple pour exprimer sa gratitude à Dieu le Parent et à Oyasama. Pour en revenir à mon insistance théorique sur le rôle du corps physique, le Service étant la principale forme de culte, de prière et de cérémonie ritualisée dans la foi, le rôle prépondérant du corps est donc encore renforcé dans cette tradition religieuse.Dans cette première partie, j'aborde également les débuts de l'histoire de Tenrikyo en Europe et la création du TEC. Un point important à retenir est que lorsque j'ai décidé d'axer ma recherche de thèse sur le monde social de TEC à l'été/automne 2015, TEC était sur le point de célébrer son 45e anniversaire. Ainsi, ma période de deux ans de travail de terrain concentré 660 s'est déroulée à un moment où le centre avait déjà un certain nombre de pratiques et d'antécédents établis, mais était encore en train de se développer et de trouver la meilleure façon de fonctionner en France et, plus largement, sur le continent européen qu'il était chargé de servir. À cette époque, le TEC avait déjà connu plusieurs décennies d'évolution mais n'était pas encore complètement installé dans un mode de fonctionnement fixe et restait ouvert à de nouveaux développements et adaptations.Section II : Le côté local de la communauté TECChapitre 3 : L'association Franco-Japonaise de TENRI : un centre culturel « laïque » situé dans le centre de Paris qui m'a servi de porte d'entrée au TEC Le troisième chapitre est une introduction à ce qui allait devenir mon contexte de recherche : le centre culturel de l'ACFJT, qui propose comme activité principale des cours de japonais situés au centre de Paris. Il s'agit à la fois d'une introduction à mon contexte de recherche et d'un compterendu de ma propre expérience d'apprentissage et d'implication dans ce contexte. Mon premier contact avec Tenrikyo et le TEC a été l'étude du japonais à l'ACFJT pendant un peu plus d'un an et demi, avant que mon sujet de thèse ne se déplace vers son objectif actuel. J'y étudiais le japonais comme préparation linguistique à mon projet de thèse initial, qui portait sur un autre sujet impliquant des migrants japonais à Paris. Comme la plupart des Français qui ont choisi d'y suivre des cours de japonais ou de participer à ses activités culturelles, je n'avais pas conscience de son lien avec un groupe religieux lorsque j'ai commencé à y étudier.Bien que son affiliation religieuse soit souvent inconnue des personnes qui s'y rendent, la raison première de l'existence de l'ACFJT est de servir de pont pour faire connaître le Tenrikyo aux membres de la population parisienne 661 . Ce but missionnaire sous-jacent de l'ACFJT est présent depuis ses débuts, lorsqu'elle a été fondée en 1971, un an après la fondation du TEC. Cet objectif discret est lié au fait que la religion n'est pas discutée à ce centre culturel en raison de sa catégorisation comme centre culturel laïque. En France, il existe une division stricte entre les contextes dans lesquels la religion est considérée comme appropriée et/ou autorisée, et ceux où elle ne l'est pas. Le principal moyen d'atteindre cet objectif a été de favoriser les liens entre les adeptes de Tenrikyo qui travaillent à l'ACFJT et les non-adeptes qui viennent y suivre des cours.En favorisant de telles relations, les premiers pourraient exposer les seconds à la foi lors d'interactions informelles qui se dérouleraient en dehors de ce centre laïque. L'ACFJT est l'un des nombreux sites connectés au TEC et dont les membres de ce que j'appelle la « communauté TEC » élargie en sont venus à en faire partie. Cette « communauté » comprenait des personnes vivantes localement, et qui étaient socialement impliquées dans le TEC et son monde social bien qu'elles ne soient pas, pour la plupart, elles-mêmes des adeptes de Tenrikyo ni ne s'impliquaient dans le côté religieux de TEC. La majorité de ces personnes ont été mises en contact puis impliquées dans la « communauté TEC » en faisant d'abord la connaissance des missionnaires Tenrikyo travaillant à l'ACFJT, et en acceptant des invitations à venir au TEC pour des événements et des activités qui n'avaient pas ouvertement un caractère religieux. Ces activités non religieuses organisées au TEC sont la principale raison pour laquelle les personnes qui étudient à l'ACFJT (ou qui y sont liées) sont venues au centre religieux. En se rendant au TEC pour des activités qui n'étaient pas ouvertement de nature religieuse, ils ont été indirectementmais délibérémentexposés au centre religieux et à la religion de Tenrikyo. Du point de vue officiel de Tenrikyo, qui est partagé par beaucoup de ses adeptes, y compris ceux en Europe et plus encore, ceux qui opèrent activement dans un rôle missionnaire, c'est grâce à cette introduction que « des graines sont semées », et qui peuvent plus tard germer et produire quelque chose. C'est l'une des nombreuses métaphores agricoles contenues dans cette religion, et qui reflètent le contexte agraire dans lequel vivaient la fondatrice Miki Nakayama et les premiers adeptes. De nombreuses personnes non-Tenrikyo viennent aux événements du TEC et sont souvent liées à l'ACFJT depuis plusieurs années. Une des raisons pour lesquelles les personnes non-Tenrikyo ont environ un demi-siècle plus tard. Elle aborde également la question du nombre de « membres » de la religion Tenrikyo et explique, dans un contexte précis, pourquoi il s'agit en fait d'une question compliquée. continué à venir au TEC pour participer à de tels événements est qu'elles apprécient l'atmosphère, qui reflèteet il est utile de le soulignerune culture Tenrikyo plus large mettant l'accent sur la camaraderie, le travail en commun et la joie. Dans le monde social très diversifié du TEC, un petit groupe de jeunes adultes du centre culturel était assez régulièrement impliqué dans des activités « non religieuses » organisées au TEC ; ils formaient ainsi un groupe d'amis. Pour la plupart, il s'agissait d'étudiants en japonais, actuels ou passés, de l'ACFJT. Leur vie sociale était largement centrée sur les moments partagés à l'ACFJT, au TEC ou dans des activités liées à ces centres, comme par exemple la distribution de soupe et des boissons chaudes aux sans-abri du centre de Paris chaque dimanche soir pendant l'hiver 662 . Bien que la plupart de ces personnes non-Tenrikyo ne se soient pas engagées de manière significative dans la religion Tenrikyo, elles ont néanmoins été exposées à Tenrikyo par leur engagement social au sein du groupe.

  confrontée en Europe est d'être peu connue sur ce continent. Du fait que le TEC accueille des événements apparemment « laïques », les non-Tenrikyo se familiarisent avec la foi en venant au centre religieux et en profitant de l'atmosphère chaleureuse qu'il offre, même si ces visites ne les amènent pas rapidement à adopter la religion. Dans une telle approche, la principale technique missionnaire employée consiste simplement à créer une ouverture permettant d'exposer à la religion Tenrikyo les personnes potentiellement intéressées. Ce faisant, on espérait que certains de ces non pratiquants s'intéresseraient à la religion et finiraient par en devenir des adeptes. Cette approche consistant à créer des ouvertures potentielles permettant aux gens de connaître et d'embrasser la foi a été un thème majeur de la manière dont les tentatives de diffusion de la foi ont été faites au TEC, par l'intermédiaire de l'ACFJT, et dans de multiples autres contextes liés à cette scène européenne. Chapitre 4 : La vie résidentielle au TEC : la recréation d'un modèle résidentiel Tenrikyo dans une localité française Le quatrième chapitre déplace donc légèrement la focale de l'ACFJT et de la composante non-Tenrikyo de la « communauté TEC » vers la sphère résidentielle de TEC. C'est dans celle-ci que vivent les jeunes adultes japonais envoyés à l'étranger par l'organisation religieuse de Tenrikyo en tant que « missionnaires » ; le plus souvent pour travailler à l'ACFJT en tant que professeurs de japonais, avec le chef de TEC 663 , sa famille et plusieurs autres personnes. Contrairement aux « membres » de la « communauté TEC » qui ne sont pas des fidèles de Tenrikyo (cf. chapitre 3), que je place plutôt à la périphérie de ce groupe, ces résidents du TEC étaient des membres principaux de cette « communauté ». Plus précisément, beaucoup de ces résidents faisaient partie de TEC et de son monde social pendant qu'ils vivaient au centre. Certains de ces résidents sont ensuite devenus des membres à long terme du groupe, quittant le TEC pour devenir des résidents à long terme en France. Cependant, la plupart des jeunes adultes missionnaires résidents sont retournés au Japon, tout en restant en contact avec le TEC et les membres de sa communauté, bien qu'à un degré moindre. Je démontre que cette sphère résidentielle de personnes vivant en communauté au TEC a constitué une famille socialement construite, que j'appelle la « famille résidentielle de TEC », qui a été créée et reconstituée au fil du temps par des personnes solidement ancrées dans la culture japonaise et dans la « culture Tenrikyo » (un terme que j'expliciterai au chapitre quatre). Ces personnes ont rejoint le TEC et se sont intégrées à la vie du centre par la formation expérientielle, puis, à un moment donné, elles ont quitté cette sphère résidentielle. Bien que la composition précise de cette sphère résidentielle ait varié au fil du temps en raison d'un afflux et d'un exode plus ou moins constants de résidents, un bon nombre de ses caractéristiques sont restées 663 Jusqu'à présent, tous les chefs de TEC étaient des hommes. constantes dans le temps. Parmi leurs nombreuses contributions au groupe plus large de la « communauté TEC », ils ont servi de base sociale et d'hôtes à ceux qui sont venus au TEC, en particulier aux nouveaux arrivants, et aux personnes situées à la périphérie de ce groupe et qui ne s'y sentaient pas forcément chez eux. Le plus souvent, ces résidents missionnaires sont nés et ont été élevés dans les églises de Tenrikyo, soit parce que leur père 664 était un ministre de l'église, soit parce que leur famille vivait sur les terrains de l'église, pour lui apporter un soutien (les habituant ainsi à vivre sur un site de Tenrikyo). Il était également fréquent que ces résidents aient suivi des formations académiques et/ou spirituelles dans la ville de Tenri ; ils logeaient là dans des logements communautaires, ce qui rendait encore plus nécessaire un mode de résidence communautaire « Tenrikyo ». En venant au TEC, ils apportaient avec eux leurs expériences de vie dans ces autres contextes de Tenrikyo qu'ils transmettaient ensuite dans ce centre européen. Je soutiens que la congruence matérielle, sociale et spirituelle entre TEC et les autres sites de Tenrikyo ait encouragé le transfert au TEC de manières d'être formés antérieurement et développés dans d'autres contextes de Tenrikyo, et que cela a contribué à la poursuite d'une culture japonaise de Tenrikyo au TEC. Mais c'est la présence générale de ces résidents, plutôt que les individus eux-mêmes, qui a été une composante constante de la composition sociale du centre. La composition précise de ce monde résidentiel changeait régulièrement grâce à l'introduction assez régulière de jeunes adultes « missionnaires » venant du Japon, qui restaient le plus souvent au centre entre un et quatre ans. Bien que certains de ces individus aient fini par rester en France après la durée prévue de leur mission, la trajectoire prévue de leur venue en France (et au TEC) était temporaire. En général, leur séjour au TEC et en France s'inscrivait dans le cadre de la formation personnelle des jeunes adultes avant leur mariage et leur installation dans une vie « adulte » plus établie. Pour le monde social local de la vie résidentielle au TEC, c'est fondamentalement la structure sociale globale et les traditions du centre, plutôt que les acteurs sociaux individuels impliqués, qui constituaient son mode de socialité. Le chef du centre, ainsi que son épouse, ont également joué un rôle important dans la vie quotidienne de ce site car ce sont eux qui ont été chargés de la plupart des détails liés à la gestion du centre et de la supervision et de l'orientation des jeunes adultes qui y vivaient. Grâce au rôle directif du chef du centre, qui a été soutenu et renforcé par sa famille, et à la présence continue de jeunes adultes résidents à qui l'on a inculqué les cultures du Tenrikyo et du TEC 665 , cette dernière était transmise aux nouveaux résidents par ceux qui y vivaient déjà depuis un certain temps. Grâce à cela, une constante sociale et culturelle a été maintenue tout au long des arrivées et départs des résidents individuels. Bien que située à l'autre bout du monde, la religion de Tenrikyo et les membres de la communauté TEC étaient tous les deux originaires de la même région. Un lien étroit avec leur pays et leur culture d'origine a été maintenu, faisant ainsi de ce site un lieu d'ancrage familial au sein du contexte français plus large dans lequel il était situé. La fluidité et la variation de la composition des résidents qui, ensemble, constituaient ce contexte familial reconstruit et influençaient son fonctionnement, était une caractéristique établie du TEC.Malgré le changement continu de ses résidents, les pratiques générales et la micro-culture de la vie résidentielle y sont restées similaires tout au long de mon travail de terrain. En cela, la continuité sociale du centre qui s'est étendue au-delà de la composition précise de ses résidents a été démontrée. Cette cohérence dans la structure du centre, qui a été influencée par tous les missionnaires résidentiels partageant un habitus général « Tenrikyo » et japonais malgré leurs nombreuses différences, a favorisé un mode de socialité continu au centre. La culture Tenrikyo, toujours présente, encourageait, entre autres choses, un sens familial de la communauté pour ces résidents, sens qui se transmettait ensuite aux autres personnes qui interagissaient avec eux, en grande partie au TEC.La distinction entre les jeunes missionnaires adultes qui résidaient au TEC et la « communauté de base à long terme du TEC » était dans certains cas moins distincte que ce que je suggère en les désignant par des catégories distinctes. Non seulement ces jeunes adultes missionnaires résidents ont contribué de manière significative au caractère de TEC et de l'ACFJT au cours de leurs affectations de plusieurs années à ce titre, mais la communauté de base à plus long terme de TEC a également été influencée de manière importante par les personnes qui sont d'abord venues en France et au TEC à ce titre, puis ont continué à vivre en France par la suite. Cela montre que si les missionnaires en visite dont il est question dans ce chapitre sont venus en France pour une période déterminée et que leur participation locale à la vie du TEC était considérée comme très probablement temporaire, leur présence a parfois évolué vers une présence plus permanente. Avec l'augmentation de leur durée dans le monde social des TEC, leur rôle a changé, passant d'une position sociale située à court terme et hiérarchiquement inférieure à celle d'un jeune adulte missionnaire résident, puis à celle d'un membre de longue date de la communauté des TEC, de statut supérieur.Depuis sa création, et conformément au modèle de direction le plus couramment suivi dans les lieux de culte de Tenrikyo, le TEC est dirigé par une série de chefs masculins et leurs épouses 666 .Tous sont originaires du Japon et ont donc apporté avec eux leur habitus japonais, y compris leur conception et leur mise en oeuvre des relations sociales. La tendance des sites de Tenrikyo à être gérés par un couple marié dans lequel le mari sert de chef officiel et sa femme de soutien de base reflète l'important enseignement de Tenrikyo sur les « relations deux-en-un » (futatsu-hitotsu) qui se manifeste le plus souvent, mais pas exclusivement, par des maris et des femmes jouant des rôles complémentaires dans un but commun. Il reflète également les rôles traditionnels des hommes et des femmes au Japon, qui présentent un modèle de collaboration similaire. Bien qu'elle ne soit pas obligatoire dans la religion, comme l'enseignait la fondatrice et comme l'était l'opinion générale de la société à l'époque où elle vivait, l'unité sociale du mari et de la femme (fūfu) est présentée comme étant le modèle idéal de l'existence adulte 667 .Au TEC, le chef masculin du centre officiait lors des cérémonies religieuses et servait de leader et de représentant public du centre 668 . Ceci en accord avec le fait que les hommes sont associés à l'élément du ciel, qui est positionné au-dessus, et donc considéré comme indiquant une aptitude à superviser les choses. Sa femme jouait également un rôle crucial au centre, bien que moins visible, en accord avec le fait que les femmes étaient associées à l'élément de la terre, et donc 666 Pour préciser cette formulation, il s'agit d'un chef masculin et de son unique femme.

  La combinaison de ce couple qui gérait ensemble ce centre avec de jeunes adultes résidents constituait un monde résidentiel familial. Ces jeunes adultes étaient une composante permanente de la « famille » résidentielle en constante évolution qui vivaient ensemble et partageaient leur vie pendant leur séjour au TEC. Si leur séjour au TEC a été temporaire vis-à-vis de celui du chef du centre et de sa famille, ils constituaient eux aussi une composante importante de son monde social. Leur présence perpétuelle a largement contribué à l'existence de la « communauté TEC » qui était centrée sur ce site, car c'est en grande partie grâce à ces jeunes adultes résidents que le centre fonctionne, et que la vie quotidienne existe et qu'elle est partagée avec les autres.Les jeunes adultes résidents eux-mêmes étaient continuellement en train d'arriver, de rester un certain temps, puis de quitter à nouveau le TEC. C'était une caractéristique importante du monde résidentiel du site et, par conséquent, du sentiment de la communauté quelque peu fluide mais soudée670 . Ce ne sont pas tant les résidents individuels que leur présence généralisée qui ont permis la poursuite d'un mode de sociabilité japonais Tenrikyo dans ce centre situé à l'autre bout du monde par rapport à son lieu d'origine. La continuité de l'ambiance sociale du côté résidentiel du TEC a été largement soutenue par la structure de la vie au centre. De même, la communauté élargie du TEC, qui a exercé une grande influence sur ce groupe et qui a été à son tour influencée par celui-ci, a également maintenu une continuité qui a été mise en évidence par les nombreux commentaires formulés par les membres de longue date. Cette continuité, tant dans la sphère de la vie résidentielle que dans la « communauté TEC » au sens large, est due à de nombreux facteurs. Certains d'entre eux étant les facteurs structurels, qui ont influencé les interactions et les expériences sociales qui se sont produites dans ces contextes micro-et macro-sociaux. Si certains aspects de la vie quotidienne au TEC étaient quelque peu propres à ce centre parisien, d'autres aspects étaient également présents dans de nombreux autres contextes de Tenrikyo. Ces similitudes entre les sites ont permis aux nouveaux arrivants de cette communauté résidentielle de s'intégrer relativement facilement dans la vie sociale, tandis que ses aspects uniques ont encouragé les nouveaux arrivants à adhérer au « club » des personnes qui y ont vécu. La culture de cette relation avec le centre est fondée sur le fait d'avoir passé du temps au TEC. Dans une moindre mesure, des séjours plus courts au centre, comme lors du Séminaire européen de Tenrikyo de trois semaines au cours duquel les participants sont restés sur place au TEC, ont également permis de se familiariser avec le centre, ce qui a également favorisé chez ces participants un niveau accru de connexion et d'appartenance à la « communauté TEC » générale. Ainsi, la structure et le mode de sociabilité qui ont eu lieu dans le cadre de la vie quotidienne résidentielle au TEC ont été une composante importante de la « communauté TEC » au sens large. Ce mode de vie au TEC n'était pas organisé et orchestré au hasard, qu'il s'agisse des événements et des formations qui incitaient les gens à y rester pour des périodes plus courtes ou de la vie quotidienne au centre à laquelle participaient les résidents à long terme. La structure de la vie quotidienne à laquelle on participait pendant son séjour était plutôt une construction sociale qui fonctionnait comme un unificateur et qui reliait les gens à la fois au site spécifique du TEC et au domaine plus large de Tenrikyo en raison de ses nombreuses similitudes avec d'autres contextes résidentiels de Tenrikyo, favorisant ainsi un sentiment d'appartenance à deux niveaux. Chapitre 5 : Services mensuels au TEC : s'unir à la foi et à un segment local de la « communauté TEC » par le biais d'un acte sacré qui se produit régulièrement Comme le chapitre 4, le chapitre 5 se concentre sur le niveau local parisien de la « communauté TEC », mais il s'étend de la sphère plus intime de la vie résidentielle au TEC à celle du rituel principal du centre, le Service mensuel. Au centre de chaque site de culte Tenrikyo se trouve la célébration du « Service mensuel ». Pour ces rassemblements rituels mensuels au TEC, il y avait généralement environ trente à quarante personnes présentes. Les deux tiers environ étaient des femmes. Soixante à soixante-cinq pour cent étaient des Japonais (ou dans le cas de plusieurs jeunes adultes, les enfants de parents missionnaires japonais nés en Europe). Environ dix pour cent étaient français, et les vingt-cinq à trente pour cent restants étant composés d'une multitude d'autres nationalités. La plus représentée de ces autres nationalités est la République du Congo, en raison de la présence de la religion dans ce pays depuis 1966 671 , combinée à la présence importante de Congolais vivant en région parisienne. Parmi les personnes présentes régulièrement à ce Service Mensuel, il y avait également plusieurs personnes originaires de pays d'Amérique latine, deux du Royaume-Uni et une femme coréenne.

  fois aux différentes personnes d'un groupe et aussi aux « Dix fonctions protectrices de Dieu le Parent » qui se réunissent à l'unisson pour créer un ensemble collectif plus grand. Comme Dieu le Parent l'a fait au début de la création humaine et continue à le faire actuellement, facilitant ainsi le fonctionnement du monde naturel et de nos corps physiques. En prenant part au rituel du Service, les participants s'engageaient dans un rituel par lequel les gens s'unissaient (à la fois dans l'action et, dans une perspective Tenrikyo, également spirituellement) pour former un plus grand ensemble par des moyens sacrés. Ce rituel sacré était censé avoir été enseigné aux humains sous la direction bienveillante et divine de Dieu le Parent et, plus globalement, de la fondatrice qui est la mère originelle. Les adeptes étaient encouragés à pratiquer à la fois directement le rituel de Service, et indirectement dans d'autres contextes, en dehors de cette démonstration rituelle exemplaire.

(

  kyofuku), tenues de cérémonie composées d'une robe noire facile à enfiler, sont utilisées pour les services quotidiens du matin et du soir. Elles sont beaucoup moins typiquement japonaises que le costume hakama des hommes ou le kimono des femmes habituellement portés pour les services mensuels, ceci afin d'éviter les manifestations flagrantes de « japonisation ». ce schéma qui correspond à l'origine nationale, nous voyons un exemple de la « communauté TEC » à plusieurs niveaux dans laquelle son « noyau » était principalement composé de Japonais nés dans la foi, avec des personnes d'autres nationalités situées le plus souvent à sa périphérie. De même, nous pouvons également constater qu'en dépit des efforts déployés par le TEC et de l'ensemble des missionnaires basés en Europe pour amener à la foi de nouveaux adeptes issus du contexte européen local, la scène Tenrikyo en Europe est restée principalement, mais pas entièrement, japonaise.La similitude de l'exécution des chants du Service assis, ainsi que des treize autres chants du Mikagura-uta dans les sitesde Tenrikyo, quel que soit le lieu, était un point commun clé des lieux de culte Tenrikyo. Six hommes jouent des instruments à percussion à gauche de la scène, et trois femmes assises à droite jouent des instruments à cordes. Les danses hautement chorégraphiées du Service mensuel étaient exécutées par les trois femmes et les trois hommes à l'unisson, sans hâte, au son de la musique d'accompagnement jouée en accord syncrétique. Ces chants et danses ritualisés, exécutés par un ensemble d'individus qui se sont unis pour créer un ensemble mélodique plus large, étaient au coeur de la foi et aussi au coeur de la communauté construite au TEC. Le symbolisme de ces chants et de ces danses a fait l'objet de discussions occasionnelles au TEC et dans de nombreux autres contextes Tenrikyo, où une importance capitale était accordée à la signification de ce rituel théorisée à plusieurs niveaux, chacun d'entre eux ayant pour thème central l'unisson harmonieuse entre les différents participants. Le chef du TEC a clairement expliqué, lors d'un moment d'instruction du programme de formation du Séminaire européen de Tenrikyo, qu'il est plus important que les acteurs du rituel soient attentifs les uns aux autres et qu'ils alignent leur rôle individuel sur celui des autres, que de jouer un rôle rituel particulier de manière habile ou non. En cela, les schémas interactifs ont été clairement mis en avant. En relation avec ce point, j'ai parfois entendu dire que cet aspect collaboratif d'harmonisation du rituel est une excellente formation à développer en soi-même grâce à la performance harmonisée du Service à exporter ensuite dans le reste du monde. Cette personnes autorisées à se produire dans le cadre du Service mensuel de TEC après avoir suivi le séminaire religieux de trois semaines au TEC qui n'étaient pas des Yoboku selon l'autorisation du responsable de TEC. Mais indépendamment de cette flexibilité, il faut évidemment pouvoir exécuter la musique instrumentale ou les danses d'un segment du service à exécuter. capacité de développement personnelle et sociale a été largement attribuée à la capacité du rituel à encourager une attention particulière aux autres et une disposition à s'efforcer à s'harmoniser avec les autres. Cet événement mensuel très important au TEC a encouragé ce mode de concordance relationnelle collaborative entre les uns et les autres à transcender le rituel pour être également présent dans le mode dominant de sociabilité des scènes qui se sont déroulées au centre, ainsi que dans d'autres contextes liés à ce centre. Alors que les gens se réunissaient au TEC pour le rituel du Service mensuel, le modèle social qu'il contenait émanait également pour exister chez les participants dans un modèle bidirectionnel de construction dispositionnelle. Une autre similitude expérientielle entre le Service mensuel du TEC et celui de la plupart des autres sites de Tenrikyo est que le rituel lui-même est suivi d'un repas amical partagé par les personnes présentes. Au TEC, cela prenait la forme d'un repas élaboré qui durait généralement plus longtemps que la partie rituelle de cette réunion (qui durait entre une heure et demie et deux heures). Le repas était préparé la veille par, en principe, les femmes du noyau de la « communauté TEC » vivant localement. Outre le lien spirituel entre les participants que le rituel encourageait, le partage amical de nourriture et de boissons qui suivait était un facteur important de la construction de la « communauté » qui était basée dans ce centre et liée à celui-ci. L'inclusion d'un repas commun après le Service mensuel du TEC était conforme à la manière dont les services mensuels étaient menés dans la plupart des autres lieux de culte Tenrikyo au Japon et ailleurs dans le monde. Ce repas, qui durait généralement plusieurs heures, constituait en pratique la seconde moitié du Service mensuel du TEC au cours duquel les participants se réunissaient pour partager un moment d'amitié moins formel que le rituel hautement scénarisé. Au cours de ces repas, les bavardages amicaux entre les participants produisaient invariablement un bourdonnement animé qui résonnait dans toute la salle. La bonne ambiance était encore renforcée par un environnement social jovial, recréé chaque mois, emprunt d'une convivialité exprimée par l'échange de sourires, de salutations et de bavardages entre les participants qui entraient en contact les uns avec les autres, comme par exemple lors de rencontres aux tables du buffet, mais aussi lorsqu'ils étaient assis aux tables pouvant accueillir chacune huit à dix personnes. La durée de ces repas après le Service mensuel était généralement un peu plus longue que le rituel religieux lui-même, le nombre de personnes présentes diminuant souvent au fur et à mesure que les gens poursuivaient leurs conversations autour d'un café. Finalement, un certain nombre de personnes restantes (en particulier les femmes qui faisaient partie du noyau du groupe) se mettaient à nettoyer la cuisine, en lavant la vaisselle et en rangeant les restes de nourriture. Tout comme le rituel du Service mensuel et le repas pris par la suite, le nettoyage après le repas était également une entreprise communautaire (dans ce cas, en grande partie féminine) qui comportait le même mode de sociabilité Tenrikyo, et qui contribuait également à la construction continue des relations entre les individus impliqués, ainsi qu'au sentiment communautaire de l'ensemble plus large de personnes impliquées dans ces moments. Au TEC, comme dans beaucoup d'autres sites de Tenrikyo, ces moments amicaux partagés autour de la dégustation ont fonctionné comme une composante importante de la construction de la communauté entre les gens, principalement locaux, qui assistaient régulièrement à ces événements mensuels. Ces moments spécifiques ancrés à la fois dans l'espace et dans le temps ont également contribué et influencé la sphère plus large de cette communauté multicouche et multi-sites par la construction d'une base sociale partagée dans cette sphère du groupe élargi. Les personnes qui participaient à ces moments partageaient davantage que de la nourriture : elles partageaient aussi des moments chaleureux d'interaction qui était une caractéristique notable des événements de Tenrikyo que j'ai observés dans de nombreux contextes en France et aussi au Japon. Pour de nombreuses personnes venues au TEC, tant pour les Services mensuels que pour d'autres événements qui s'y sont tenus, et qui n'étaient pas toutes adeptes de la religion, c'est en grande partie cette atmosphère chaleureuse qui les a attirées (ainsi que, pour beaucoup d'entre elles, son ambiance typiquement japonaise) et qui les a encouragées à continuer à participer. Ainsi, ces repas étaient un facteur clé de contribution non seulement pour la construction de la communauté religieusement impliquée de ce centre, mais aussi pour sa sphère sociale plus large, qui comprenait des « membres » non-Tenrikyo de la communauté TEC. Tant dans le rituel lui-même que dans le repas partagé qui suivait, et au-delà de toute signification théologique attribuée, c'est par les corps des personnes présentes que cela se produisait, soulignant ainsi le rôle des corps dans la construction d'une « communauté » à travers cet événement. C'est un thème important qui travaille toute ma thèse. SECTION III : La communauté TEC plus large : Le TEC comme lieu de rassemblement des adeptes de Tenrikyo dans toute l'Europe Chapitre 6 : Les lieux de culte Tenrikyo à domicile en Europe : la transplantation d'un système de lignage dans un nouveau contexte culturel et géographique Le chapitre six traite de la présence de lieux de culte basés sur le lignage en Europe, dont vingttrois étaient dispersés dans huit pays pendant mon travail sur le terrain. Le système organisationnel de Tenrikyo, basé sur le lignage, est un reflet du système des ménages japonais. Chaque personne désignée comme « membre » de Tenrikyo (une catégorie en grande partie indéfinie), est liée à un site particulier basé sur le lignage, que je désigne dans ma thèse comme étant leur « site d'appartenance », ainsi que son lignage connecté. Le type de relation entre le site régional du TEC et les vingt-trois lieux de culte du système lignager en Europe pendant mes recherches a été un élément essentiel pour comprendre la présence multicouche de la religion Tenrikyo sur le continent européen. Le TEC n'était pas relié à ces sites de culte en tant qu'entité de supervision officielle, mais plutôt en tant que centre de soutien et de camaraderie. Ces stations missionnaires étaient toutes connectées au TEC et composaient ainsi une partie importante de sa communauté. La plupart de ces stations missionnaires européennes étaient socialement assez connectées les unes aux autres. C'était particulièrement le cas pour les familles qui accueillaient ces stations missionnaires. Les interactions se déroulaient généralement au TEC ou dans d'autres sites de Tenrikyo ouverts à tous les adeptes, quelle que soit leur lignée religieuse, comme certains contextes dans la ville de Tenri, plutôt que dans les stations missionnaires des uns et des autres. Ainsi, le TEC, et plus largement la ville de Tenri, ont fonctionné comme des lieux de rencontre pour des adeptes de différents lignages.L'accent mis dans ce chapitre sur les sites du système lignage est pertinent pour ma discussion générale car un des principaux objectifs du TEC était de fournir un soutien non seulement aux missionnaires 676 et aux adeptes de la région parisienne, mais aussi de servir de source de soutien et de lieu de rassemblement pour les stations missionnaires et les adeptes en Europe. Bien que mon travail de terrain ait été principalement basé en région parisienne, et ensuite au Japon, les personnes que j'ai connues au TEC tout au long de mes recherches comprenaient également des personnes vivant dans d'autres parties de l'Europe venues en visite au centre. L'une des nombreuses contributions offertes par le TEC aux adeptes qui y venaient était un sentiment de force religieuse découlant de son environnement de foi commune, dans lequel les efforts pour la voie de Tenrikyo et la mise en oeuvre de ses enseignements étaient encouragés. Après y avoir passé du temps, ils pouvaient ensuite rapporter avec eux cet ancrage dans la religion socialement promue à leurs stations missionnaires respectives (pour ceux qui y étaient affiliés) et, plus généralement, à leurs vies respectives.Par ailleurs, le segment le plus important de cette couche européenne plus large de la communauté TEC était les familles qui ont fondé et continué à gérer les stations missionnaires en Europe. Ces familles avaient été connectées au TEC et à son monde social pendant des périodes importantes, le plus souvent plusieurs décennies. Ils ont fourni la sous-structure de la continuité à long terme du monde social de ce centre. Beaucoup de membres de ces familles missionnaires étaient présents de façon assez régulière au TEC, par exemple lors d'événements spéciaux qui attiraient des personnes venant de plusieurs endroits. Entre autres, ces rassemblements servaient effectivement de « réunions de familles » pour ce groupe de personnes qui constituaient en grande partie le noyau de la communauté du TEC à long terme.Comme la plupart des autres sites Tenrikyo de lignage dans le monde, les sites de lignage en Europe étaient situés au domicile de la personne désignée comme chef du site. Chaque site 677 basé sur le lignage était supervisé par une « église parente », qui à son tour était supervisée par une autre « église parente » (s'il y a plus de liens hiérarchiques) avant d'atteindre le centre spirituel et organisationnel de la religion au siège de l'église Tenrikyo (Tenrikyo Kyokai Honbu 575 天理教教会本部). Presque tous les sites de lignage en Europe ont été fondés (et dirigés) par des Japonais nés et élevés dans des familles fortement impliquées dans la religion, souvent dans des églises Tenrikyo au Japon (quelles soit dirigées par leur parentgénéralement, leur pèreou par une famille vivant sur place pour fournir une assistance et du soutien). La plupart des familles des stations missionnaires qui vivaient en région parisienne étaient régulièrement présentes au TEC. Les familles qui dirigeaient des sites de lignage en dehors de la région parisienne étaient moins régulièrement au TEC, mais venaient généralement plusieurs fois par an. Le plus souvent pour des événements plus importants visant à rassembler les adeptes vivant sur tout le continent européen, ce qui reflète l'un des principaux objectifs du TEC. En cela, leur venue au TEC s'apparentait beaucoup à un retour à un contexte familial. Leur présence au TEC pour divers rassemblements a donné le sentiment qu'il existe une communauté à long terme reliée à ce centre, dans laquelle les nouveaux arrivants sont accueillis et où les personnes se trouvant en périphérie sont incluses 678 . Selon le système général de Tenrikyo, ce sont ces sites basés sur le lignage qui étaient chargés d'attirer les nouvelles personnes sur le chemin de Tenrikyo et constituaient donc un élément important de la présence de cette religion en Europe et de la « communauté TEC » plus large, bien au-delà des familles qui les géraient. La plupart de ces sites basés sur le lignage étaient de petite taille. Plusieurs personnes qui les ont gérées m'ont confié que, bien que certaines personnes viennent chez eux pour participer à leurs Services mensuels (ce qui est la tâche principale des sites de lignage), ces personnes n'étaient pas des « membres » et les sites qu'ils dirigeaient n'avaient pas de « membres » officiels en dehors de leur famille immédiate. Cependant, plusieurs des sites européens basés sur le lignage comptaient un nombre plus important de personnes vivant localement parmi ces membres. Le plus important d'entre eux était le « Bordeaux Kyokai 679 ». Le Bordeaux Kyokai est classé dans le système d'organisation Tenrikyo comme une « église de branche » (bun kyokai), qui est une catégorie hiérarchiquement supérieure à celle de « station missionnaire » dans le système de lignage Tenrikyo. Ces deux catégories sont basées sur le lignage mais, en pratique, et pour les besoins de ma discussion, il y avait peu de différence entre les « stations missionaires » et cette « église de branche ». Ainsi, par souci de concision, je regroupe souvent cette « église de branche » avec les autres « stations missionnaires » européennes dans ma référence à ces vingt-trois sites basés sur le lignage en Europe. Bien que le Bordeaux Kyokai n'ait pas été le principal objet de mes recherches, il a constitué une partie notable de la présence de Tenrikyo en Europe, à la fois en raison de sa taille et du fait que la quasi-totalité (voire même la totalité) de ses membres étaient français, tout comme son chef. Un site Tenrikyo dirigé par une personne « occidentale » était assez rare, et cette caractéristique notable lui valait d'être connu à l'international. Cette église présente ainsi une autre caractéristique de la composition éclectique des personnes et des situations précises impliquées dans le groupe plus large sur lequel porte mon étude. Le niveau de loyauté et d'enracinement des adeptes de Tenrikyo à leur propre « site d'appartenance » et son lignage connexe par rapport à la foi Tenrikyo au sens large était une juxtaposition intéressante, bien que souvent subtile, de perspectives liées à la culture qui était présente dans de multiples contextes de mon travail de terrain. Souvent, les personnes d'origine européenne, latino-américaine et nord-américaine 680 , avaient tendance à accorder moins d'importance à leur « site d'appartenance » officiel que les Japonais. Mes observations ont fortement suggéré qu'un tel système basé sur le lignage était, en général, plus facilement conceptualisable pour un Japonais que pour un « Occidental ». Cette différenciation est culturellement contextualisable par rapport à la présence de ce système existant dans le domaine plus large de la culture japonaise, alors qu'il n'est pas courant dans les contextes occidentaux.

  histoire personnelle avec la foi que dans leurs interactions avec le TEC et sa communauté connectée. Certaines personnes en Europe qui ont été classées dans la catégorie des adeptes de Tenrikyo parce qu'elles étaient enracinées dans un site spécifique basé sur le lignage comme leur « site d'appartenance », et dans de nombreux cas également parce qu'elles avaient le statut de « Yoboku 681 », ne venaient pas souvent ou pas du tout au TEC. Certains adeptes de Tenrikyo en Europe sont devenus des adeptes de cette voie alors qu'ils étaient en Europe et ont donc été enracinés dans l'un des multiples sites basés sur le lignage sur le continent. D'autres personnes en Europe sont devenues des adeptes de la voie eux-mêmes ou par l'intermédiaire de leurs ancêtres dans des lieux de culte situés ailleurs (souvent au Japon), et ont donc eu leur « site d'appartenance » situé en dehors de l'Europe 682 . En général, pour ces adeptes, le TEC servait de site Tenrikyo géographiquement plus proche où ils pouvaient se rendre pour des activités explicitement religieuses et aussi, comme indiqué auparavant, pour être socialement connectés à d'autres adeptes de la foi. Ce dernier motif a été mentionné comme une raison de venir au TEC depuis des endroits situés en dehors de la région parisienne. Le chapitre 6 donne, entre autres, un aperçu d'une partie de la « communauté TEC » qui s'inscrivait dans la durée tout en étant répartie sur plusieurs pays européens. Chapitre 7 : Le séminaire européen annuel de Tenrikyo : éduquer les adeptes par une formation structurée, construire un monde social virtuel Dans le chapitre 7, je décris le Séminaire européen de Tenrikyo de trois semaines qui se tient chaque année au TEC. Ce séminaire a été ma première introduction approfondie à la religion Tenrikyo et au monde social du TEC. Il a rassemblé principalement des adeptes (et des personnes liées à Tenrikyo qui ne se considèrent pas comme telles) venant de nombreux endroits en Europe 683 . En tant que telle, ma participation m'a permis de faire connaissance avec de nombreux 681 Il faut être affilié à un « site d'appartenance » particulier pour assister aux neuf conférences Besseki et devenir un Yoboku.

  membres de la « communauté TEC ». Au cours de ma première année de participation, alors que je ne connaissais que très peu Tenrikyo et son monde social en Europe, il était évident que j'étais entré dans un monde social fascinant et interconnecté, principalement basé sur des relations interpersonnelles étroites, associées, pour la plupart, à une relation étroite avec la foi. Bien que je ne m'en sois pas rendu compte à l'époque, il s'agissait en grande partie d'une version condensée du contexte que j'allais explorer pendant les deux années suivantes dans le cadre de mon travail sur le terrain.Le Séminaire européen était un programme annuel orchestré au TEC pour que les participants puissent apprendre ou approfondir leur compréhension des différentes composantes de la religion Tenrikyo. Il a fonctionné non seulement comme un temps d'instruction religieuse pour ceux qui ont participé au programme en tant qu'étudiants, mais aussi comme une période importante de rassemblement entre les membres dispersés de la « communauté TEC » qui sont venus au centre pour y prendre part en tant que personnel ou en tant qu'étudiants. Pour la plupart, le temps passé avec d'autres personnes dans ce contexte correspondait à des réunions avec des personnes qu'ils connaissaient déjà plutôt qu'à des rencontres initiales ; la plupart des personnes présentes avaient déjà des relations proches avec d'autres personnes lors de cette formation. Mais ce n'était pas le cas pour tous, et les liens sociaux établis précédemment n'ont pas été partagés entre toutes les personnes présentes. De ce fait, cette formation a également servi de période propice à rencontrer d'autres personnes. Les liens seraient maintenus et approfondis dans de nombreux autres contextes, cette période initiale passée ensemble servant de base à de futures interactions. Ainsi, le séminaire a servi de moment clé pour tisser et renforcer des liens qui connectaient les personnes incluses dans cette scène ; liens qui se sont ensuite étendus pour exister aussi comme agent de liaison relationnelle contribuant à la « communauté TEC » plus large. Comme c'était souvent le cas pour les personnes qui venaient à faire partie de cette « communauté », leurs interactions sociales continuaient souvent à se produire dans de nombreux contextes après leur participation à ce programme, comme au TEC et souvent aussi dans d'autres endroits, le plus important étant la ville de Tenri. Le caractère fluide des rencontres avec les membres de ce groupe social dispersé mais interconnecté dans des contextes variés était un thème central de la « communauté TEC », comme cela était également le cas pour la sphère sociale plus large de Tenrikyo. La nature spécifique du temps passé ensemble dans les rassemblements de Tenrikyo était essentielle à la formation et au développement de ces relations sociales interpersonnelles et à leur relation avec le groupe plus large. En réfléchissant aux liens sociaux qui se sont créés et ont été approfondis pendant ces scènes de Tenrikyo, il est important de comprendre que ce n'est pas simplement en passant du temps ensemble que ces liens sociaux se sont formés et développés. C'est aussi grâce à l'environnement social spécifique qui a permis un haut niveau de collaboration intellectuelle et concrète, en combinaison avec un comportement de bienveillance mutuelle encouragé de manière générale, qui a délibérément favorisé un sentiment de « communauté ». Ces modalités relationnelles particulières comprenaient une collaboration inclusive et un environnement social visant à faciliter la satisfaction et le bien-être de toutes les personnes présentes, ainsi qu'une forme concentrée d'immersion expérientielle dans la religion. De telles modalités n'étaient pas, selon mes observations, propres à la TEC, mais faisaient plutôt partie de la culture plus large de Tenrikyo. Au cours de mon travail de terrain, j'ai vu cette façon d'être et d'interagir avec les autres se manifester dans divers contextes pendant mon séjour au Japon, à la fois dans la ville de Tenri et dans les quatre lieux de culte basés sur le lignage que j'ai visités ailleurs dans le pays. J'ai également été exposée à des preuves de son existence par des interactions avec des adeptes venant de nombreux pays qui ont eu lieu notamment, mais pas exclusivement, à la ville de Tenri et au TEC, et aussi en voyant des contextes Tenrikyo ailleurs via l'internet et des sources textuelles. Ainsi, la manière générale d'être de Tenrikyo, qui comprenait diverses pratiques mises en oeuvre, des attitudes exprimées et des tendances interactionnelles que j'ai connues au cours du séminaire, reflétait le monde plus large de Tenrikyo auquel elle appartenait. Un élément important de l'expérience de la participation au Séminaire européen était le fait de rester ensemble dans l'hébergement commun. Pendant le séminaire, le personnel et les étudiants ont séjourné sur le site du TEC. Cet élément riche en expérience des non-résidents séjournant au TEC n'était pas exclusif au séminaire. À d'autres moments de l'année également, tant dans le cadre de groupes organisés que dans celui de groupes plus petits et informels, des personnes ont séjourné au TEC. En conséquence, ils étaient liés au centre et à son monde social. Le monde résidentiel à long terme du TEC (dont il est question au chapitre 3), n'était qu'un type de construction communautaire qui s'est produit pendant le temps passé au centre. La présence de ces invités à court terme était une caractéristique assez régulière du centre, et influençait à la fois l'ambiance du centre pendant leur séjour et renforçait son caractère non figé et socialement ouvert. Ces moments de partage d'un espace assez intime dédié au repos ont été un élément important dans le développement des relations entre les personnes de la « communauté TEC ». Les moments de proximité familiale qui se sont produits en habitant des espaces partagés pendant des durées variables n'étaient pas uniques au TEC. Ils étaient également une caractéristique importante dans d'autres contextes de Tenrikyo, tels que les dortoirs associés aux lignages à la ville de Tenri (dont je parle au chapitre 7). Le logement partagé était une caractéristique importante de la modalité sociale communale de nombreux contextes Tenrikyo et encourageait la construction de liens sociaux entre les personnes présentes. Cet élément, parmi d'autres, partagé entre des contextes Tenrikyo dispersés, a contribué à créer chez les adeptes le sentiment d'appartenir à une « famille » Tenrikyo plus large, pour reprendre le terme, et plus largement l'analogie, que j'ai entendu tout au long de mon travail de terrain. Au TEC, en grande partie grâce à des modalités sociales particulières qui ont été établies par la présence permanente des adeptes déjà solidement imprégnés de la « culture Tenrikyo », une base sociale dispositionnelle et interactionnelle a été établie dans laquelle les invités de courte durée du centre ont été inclus pendant leur présence. L'expérience du partage de la chambre avec d'autres personnes a encouragé l'intensification des valeurs et des pratiques Tenrikyo importantes, telles que la camaraderie, la coopération et la vie communautaire pendant les périodes d'engagement soutenu dans la religion. Un élément commun qui a permis de relier le séminaire du TEC à cette « culture Tenrikyo » plus large est la similitude qu'il partage avec d'autres formations Tenrikyo. Le plus remarquable est sa ressemblance avec le cours de développement spirituel de trois mois de « Shuyoka » qui s'est tenu dans la ville de Tenri et qui a constitué une expérience formatrice importante dans la vie de nombreux adeptes, y compris de nombreux membres de la « communauté TEC ». Cette ressemblance a été commentée par de nombreuses personnes faisant partie de ma population de recherche et connaissant les deux programmes. Le Séminaire européen et le Shuyoka ont été considérés comme similaires à d'autres programmes de formation religieuse organisés dans la ville de Tenri et dans les centres régionaux de Tenrikyo aux États-Unis, en Corée, au Brésil et en République du Congo par des adeptes qui les connaissaient bien. Compte tenu de cette similitude évoquée, participer au séminaire du TEC signifiait également participer partiellement à la pédagogie et à l'expérience non spécifiques au lieu de formation religieuse dispensée de manière similaire ailleurs. Grâce à ces points communs, la connexion et la mise en oeuvre d'un modèle particulier d'interaction sociale ont été encouragées, ce qui a permis aux participants au Séminaire européen d'être connectés à un modèle social Tenrikyo plus large. Inversement, ce modèle plus large a été ancré et développé chez les participants. En conséquence, nous pouvons constater que ces formations ont servi, entre autres, de moments privilégiés d'inculcation et de pratique de cette culture Tenrikyo partagée de façon disparate. Les personnes qui ont participé au Séminaire européen en tant qu'étudiants étaient généralement classées dans une ou plusieurs catégories. Pour les adeptes nés dans la foi en Europe (dont la majorité avait des parents missionnaires japonais), il était plus courant de participer au programme en tant que jeunes adultes. Une autre catégorie couramment représentée était celle des personnes d'âges divers qui sont venues embrasser la foi (ou qui ont un intérêt à en apprendre davantage sur elle) en tant qu'adultes en Europe. Les personnes de cette catégorie n'étaient généralement pas japonaises ou d'origine japonaise. Le plus souvent, ces participants venaient 684 de France et du Royaume-Uni, ces deux pays ayant la représentation la plus importante de la religion en Europe. Cela s'explique également par le fait que le séminaire était généralement composé d'une série d'enseignements en langue anglaise et d'une autre en langue française 685 . L'autre catégorie de participants la plus représentée était celle des adeptes de Tenrikyo d'autres pays (comme la République du Congo, la Corée et le Japon) qui avaient souvent déjà participé à une formation similaire dans leur pays d'origine 686 , mais qui souhaitaient approfondir leur connaissance de la foi et leur compétence quant à la manière d'en discuter avec des personnes d'origines linguistiques et culturelles différentes. et dans la « communauté TEC ». La culture Tenrikyo était principalement basée physiquement et culturellement au Japon, mais elle s'étendait également au-delà de ce contexte spécifique au lieu en servant de pont entre les sites Tenrikyo disparates et les adeptes pour relier ceux du groupe plus large. Cette « culture » partiellement non spécifique à un lieu a contribué à l'existence de la « communauté TEC » à deux niveaux, composée d'un noyau très soudé de personnes qui étaient principalement japonaises et nées et élevées dans la foi Tenrikyo et d'un ensemble plus large de personnes socialement positionnées dans une position plus périphérique, dont la plupart n'étaient pas représentatives des deux caractéristiques mentionnées ci-dessus. Ces deux caractéristiques ont contribué à en ancrer une dans la modalité sociale présente dans le noyau de ce groupe, qui était quelque peu transférable d'un site de Tenrikyo à l'autre 687 , bien que ce ne soit pas le seul facteur qui ait contribué à déterminer qui faisait ou pas partie du noyau de la « communauté TEC ». Inversement, l'existence d'une culture Tenrikyo au sein du TEC a également été un facteur important qui a contribué à l'appartenance de nombreux membres de la « communauté TEC » à la sphère transnationale plus large de Tenrikyo, même s'ils ne faisaient pas partie du noyau de ce groupe. Pour ceux qui se trouvent déjà dans la culture Tenrikyo, comme les membres principaux de la « communauté TEC » et d'autres personnes précédemment impliquées dans la religion, le fait de s'engager dans des pratiques simples qui en font partie les reconnecte souvent à un engagement social, mental et incarné avec la religion. Ce lien partagé avec la sphère socio-religieuse globale, développé par l'expérience, a été créé dans des lieux disparates et dans différentes lignages grâce au maintien de points communs établis. Le monde social de TEC a été créé et recréé au fil du temps grâce à une cohérence dans le mode comportemental sous-jacent et à une sociabilité liée émotionnellement qui a été maintenue pour la plupart, malgré une fluidité dans la composition précise des acteurs sociaux impliqués. Cela a été facilité par la perpétuation des éléments clés de la « culture Tenrikyo » grâce à la présence d'adeptes déjà solidement enculturés avec cette modalité sociale, tels que les résidents du TEC et le personnel des séminaires, ainsi que par des spécificités qui ont réaffirmé sa continuité parmi ceux qui y étaient déjà ancrés et qui ont permis d'inclure les nouveaux venus et les personnes moins impliquées pendant leur séjour. Le Séminaire européen a été un contexte important dans lequel cette façon d'être a été promue et pratiquée et est donc une composante importante à inclure dans les réflexions sur la « communauté TEC ». SECTION IV: « Devenir Tenrikyo » dans la ville de Tenri : une composante importante de la communauté TEC située de l'autre côté du monde Chapitre 8 : Le Séminaire européen en tant que microcosme social virtuel reflétant le monde social plus large du TEC Dans le chapitre 8, je propose des vignettes ethnographiques des participants au Séminaire européen lors mes deux années de participation afin de fournir des exemples de personnes qui ont contribué au micro-contexte de cette formation annuelle et, plus largement, au monde social du TEC. Je présente les situations personnelles des trois personnes qui, avec moi, ont suivi les cours en anglais la première année de ma participation à la formation, et de trois des quatre personnes avec lesquelles j'ai suivi les cours en français la deuxième année de ma participation. Je décris également le groupe de disciples qui ont servi d'instructeurs dans ce programme, en mettant particulièrement l'accent sur les deux « instructeurs invités » (l'un d'eux est venu enseigner à une partie des classes en anglais les deux années de ma participation). Les deux instructeurs étaient d'origine japonaise mais ont élevés aux États-Unis. Les classes en différentes langues du séminaire étaient partiellement représentatives des sousgroupes linguistiquement liés du TEC et, plus largement, de Tenrikyo. En prenant part à une classe spécifique, on participait également à un ensemble plus large, composé d'acteurs sociaux liés par leur communauté linguistique et, pour beaucoup, par leur lien avec un pays particulier, comme la France ou le Royaume-Uni. Ce lien linguistique s'est manifesté tout au long des deux années de ma participation au programme. Tout comme un examen plus approfondi du Séminaire européen a permis d'illustrer le domaine plus large de Tenrikyo et du TEC, une discussion détaillée des participants présents à cette formation donne un aperçu utile de l'ensemble des personnes qui composent le monde social éclectique, à plusieurs niveaux et non figé du TEC. Si les personnes régulièrement présentes aux Services mensuels du TEC étaient largement représentatives de la population locale de Tenrikyo vivant en région parisienne, les moments de rassemblement de personnes provenant de multiples endroits, comme pour le Séminaire européen, ont contribué au sentiment d'être à un « carrefour social », construit et reconstruit à plusieurs reprises au TEC.

  liens mutuels avec le TEC, cette « communauté » était en fait bi-locale. Elle s'est construite grâce à la connexion imaginée et expérimentée que beaucoup de ses membres (notamment ses membres principaux), avaient à la fois avec le TEC et avec la ville de Tenri au Japon. Cette construction communautaire principalement bi-locale a été favorisée par les moments partagés collectivement entre de nombreux membres, notamment les membres principaux. Dans ces deux derniers chapitres, un élément important de ma discussion concerne la manière dont le fait d'être à la ville de Tenri et de participer à diverses expériences dans cette ville a encouragé un sentiment de connexion avec la religion et avec les autres adeptes.Le chapitre 9 aborde divers aspects de cette ville de pèlerinage qui démontrent le lien entre les sitesde Tenrikyo et les adeptes d'ailleurs et ce lieu à vocation religieuse. J'accorde également une attention particulière aux trois principaux sanctuaires de Tenrikyo dédiés aux ancêtres, à Dieu le Parent et à la fondatrice qui sont situés au centre de cette ville de pèlerinage. Je soutiens que ces trois entités spirituelles sont vénérées physiquement dans ces sanctuaires, et, en plus petit, sous la forme d'autels représentant ces entités, sur d'autres sites de Tenrikyo (au Japon et ailleurs). Ceci a permis d'établir un lien matériel manifeste entre elles 689 . C'est l'une des nombreuses façons par lesquelles, lorsque l'on se trouve sur un site de Tenrikyo ailleurs, y compris au TEC et sur les sites basés sur le lignage en Europe, on est lié de manière intrinsèque à la ville de Tenri. Le haut niveau d'interconnexion entre le TEC et la ville de Tenri a été un facteur important dans la manière dont le groupe éclectique et interconnecté sur lequel porte mon étude a été construit, maintenu et développé. De ce fait, une perspective transnationale est essentielle à une discussion sur ce monde social. Le lien conceptuel que les adeptes, y compris en Europe, ont été encouragés à établir avec ce site sacré constituait un point commun important, indépendamment du fait qu'ils y aient passé beaucoup de temps ensemble ou au contraire que leur lien avec ce lieu ait été largement ou entièrement imaginaire. Cela étant dit, il est important de souligner que le temps passé dans la ville de Tenri était un élément clé de la formation d'un lien personnel avec la foi et d'un lien avec les autres personnes qui partageaient l'expérience d'être là. 689 La plupart des sites de Tenrikyo (mais pas tous) ont les trois autels. Certains sites plus petits et plus récents n'ont pas d'autel dédié aux ancêtres, et dans une moindre mesure, certains n'ont pas non plus d'autel pour la fondatrice. Dans ces cas, cela est dû au coût de l'autel et/ou à des contraintes spatiales. le Service au TEC ou dans d'autres lieux de culte de Tenrikyo éloignés du Jiba, ils fermaient les yeux et imaginaient le Jiba et l'accomplissement du Service vers ce point. La seconde manière dont j'ai entendu les adeptes parler du lien entre le Jiba et l'accomplissement du Service ailleurs, c'était en unissant leur coeur avec le Jiba et, par conséquent, avec tous les autres qui, de la même façon, reliaient également leur coeur avec le Jiba. Dans ce chapitre, je me concentre sur la signification émotionnelle et conceptuelle de cette ville de pèlerinage pour les adeptes de Tenrikyo.J'y parle également des « dortoirs des adeptes » (tsumesho 詰所). Chaque lignage a son propre « dortoir des adeptes » où les adeptes de leurs lignages respectifs séjournent généralement. Ces dortoirs sont pertinents pour ma discussion générale car ils donnent un aperçu de la double connexion que les adeptes de Tenrikyo membres de la « communauté TEC » avaient à la fois avec le monde social de TEC et avec celui de leur propre lignage. En outre, les dortoirs de ces adeptes illustrent le fait que rester en communauté avec d'autres personnes dans un environnement résidentiel à caractère religieux est un élément courant de l'expérience globale de Tenrikyo, comme le montre cet exemple de l'hébergement commun au TEC. Dans ce chapitre, je détaille également mon expérience de la visite de l'église qui supervise directement, en tant que « parent », la station missionnaire en France avec laquelle j'étais associée. Ainsi que ma visite de sa grande église « parent » ; les deux étant situées ailleurs au Japon. Je parle de ces visites dans ce chapitre parce que pour les adeptes venant de l'étranger, la visite à ces sites « parents » était souvent incluse dans le voyage global au Japon pour visiter la ville de Tenri.En pensant au monde social du TEC, il ne suffit pas de regarder ce qui se passe en Europe pour comprendre cette « communauté », dont l'une des caractéristiques principales est la transnationalité. Au contraire, la tendance récemment développée parHarbottle (2004) dans l'anthropologie post-moderne, qui consiste à considérer les migrants comme faisant partie de deux systèmes sociaux interconnectés de manière dynamique plutôt que de deux systèmes statiques et séparés, est tout à fait applicable à mon étude. Dans le cas de l'ensemble des acteurs sociaux sur lesquels mes recherches se sont concentrées, il s'agit non seulement de nombreux migrants originaires du Japon, et qui y retournaient occasionnellement, mais également de la religion de Tenrikyo elle-même, qui pouvait être vue comme un « migrant » allant du Japon vers l'Europe. De plus, comme tous les humains ont été conceptualisés dans la religion comme étant originaires du point sacré du Jiba, quel que soit leur lieu de naissance, tous les humains ont été considérés comme des migrants dans un sens plus profond, même s'ils ne réalisent pas eux-mêmes cette vérité. L'un des principaux objectifs de Tenrikyo est d'enseigner cette vérité aux gens et de les amener ainsi à « rentrer » à ce lieu de pèlerinage, appelé dans la religion « le foyer du Parent 693 », soulignant ainsi le lien familial que les gens ont avec elle. La relation conceptualisée que les adeptes avaient avec la ville de Tenri était un point important à la fois de la foi et des réalités transnationales vécues et imaginées inclus dans mon étude. Dans une perspective théologique de Tenrikyo, en pensant à l'enracinement des adeptes dans le monde et aux figures sociales qu'il contient, il est important d'inclure non seulement le lien que les adeptes ont avec le lieu où ils sont nés et ont grandi dans leur vie actuelle, mais aussi les liens qu'ils ont avec la ville de Tenri. Le lien entre la religion, ses adeptes et ce lieu de pèlerinage se situait à plusieurs niveaux. Il comprenait la conception théologique susmentionnée de cette ville de pèlerinage en tant que « ville natale » dans un sens très profond. Il comprenait également la fonction sociale de la ville en tant que lieu de réunion avec des personnes avec lesquelles ils avaient auparavant partagé du temps dans divers contextes de Tenrikyo, ainsi qu'un lieu de rencontre avec des membres de la collectivité sociale de Tenrikyo au sens large qu'ils étaient susceptibles de revoir dans d'autres contextes de Tenrikyo. Il était courant pour les adeptes 694 basés en Europe, qui avaient été en Europe, ou qui étaient autrement liés aux contextes européens de Tenrikyo, de rencontrer d'autres personnes de cette collectivité sociale et de prendre part à divers moments partagés lorsqu'ils se trouvaient dans la ville de Tenri. Ces moments ont ensuite contribué à la construction de la « communauté TEC ». Mon propre séjour dans la ville de Tenri a montré que de telles réunions étaient une composante courante du fait de « rentrer ». Pendant la période cumulée d'environ un mois (sur le mois et demi de travail sur le terrain que j'ai effectué au Japon en juillet et août 2016 695 ), j'ai eu de nombreuses 693 Oyasato en japonais.

  a faite du développement simultané du surréalisme et de l'ethnographie à Paris pendant l'entre-deux guerres. Bien qu'une grande partie du mouvement surréaliste ait eu lieu à Paris, ses participants n'étaient pas, dans une large mesure, statiquement ou exclusivement basés dans cette ville. De même, il n'était pas nécessaire que l'ensemble des individus liés à la « communauté TEC » et faisant partie de celle-ci se trouve au TEC en même temps ou soit inclus dans la même sphère de ce monde social pour être inclus dans son grand ensemble interconnecté. Souvent, ses membres « voyageaient » entre les différentes sphères du groupe élargi, à la fois physiquement et contextuellement, les reliant ainsi entre elles.

  En outre, si la « communauté TEC » n'était pas exclusivement liée au site physique du TEC, le fait de passer du temps au TEC était le principal moyen par lequel ses « membres » y étaient inclus. Il est donc important de réfléchir à la construction et à la pérennisation de ce monde social, et se demander comment et pourquoi les gens venaient dans ce centre. Celui-ci était, pour la plupart des gens, destiné en premier lieu à l'organisation d'événements et d'activités. Un de ses éléments les plus courants était la favorisation d'une ambiance sociale communautaire et chaleureuse, dans laquelle toute personne présente pouvait (et généralement le faisait) devenir membre du groupemême si ce n'était que temporaire. Dans le modèle d'accueil des personnes qui ne sont pas nées dans la foi, l'accent a souvent été mis sur l'encouragement de leur présence et, lorsque cela était possible, sur le partage de la religion et l'implication de ces nouveaux venus dans la foi autant que possible. C'est cependant souvent leur présence active qui était principalement recherchée, ce que ce sentiment collectif de communauté encourageait.Je voudrais maintenant me concentrer sur plusieurs aspects de ce site qui ont servi à la fois à solidifier la formation de la communauté et à rendre le TEC, et son monde social connecté, simultanément reflet de la « culture Tenrikyo » et du contexte français et européen dans lequel elle se situe, lui conférant ainsi à la fois une ressemblance avec le domaine plus large de Tenrikyo et une spécificité associée à ce site spécifique. Comme nous l'avons exploré sous de nombreux angles dans ce texte, bien que le TEC puisse être considéré comme un site de culte de Tenrikyo où une culture Tenrikyo plus large était présente et (re)produite en permanence, il n'était pas identique aux autres sites de Tenrikyo. Un facteur important qui a contribué à la différence entre le TEC et les sites basés sur le lignage et qui a favorisé le caractère relativement moins fixe du TEC par rapport aux autres est que la composition sociale de ces derniers était généralement plus fixe que le TEC, qui était dans un état constant de flux. Cela provenant d'une combinaison de la rotation perpétuelle du personnel résidentiel du TEC, de l'inclusion de personnes issues de plusieurs lignages, et de la population diverse connectée à ce site par plusieurs canaux de connexion et incluse dans son monde social. Ces caractéristiques ont favorisé une frontière moins nette entre les membres et les non-membres de la « communauté » associée, pour laquelle le changement et la fluidité continus étaient des caractéristiques clés. Le TEC, un pont vers une « culture Tenrikyo » plus large et un site de construction d'une communauté localisée En conjonction avec les particularités du TEC, c'était néanmoins un site de Tenrikyo où une construction sociale et physique en partie non spécifique au site reliait l'expérience et les sentiments associés à d'autres sites de Tenrikyo. Outre les commentaires des adeptes qui l'ont indiqué comme tel, cela a également été démontré par la facilité avec laquelle les visiteurs ou les adeptes nouvellement arrivés se sont adaptés au TEC. Comme cela a été démontré précédemment, cela était dû en grande partie à leur niveau élevé de familiarité avec la culture de Tenrikyo grâce à leur implication antérieure dans d'autres sites Tenrikyo, ce qui fait que ce mode de fonctionnement plus large faisait déjà partie de leur habitus avant qu'ils ne viennent au TEC. La similitude entre le site de TEC et ceux de Tenrikyo ailleurs n'était cependant pas totale. Le TEC présentait certaines caractéristiques qui lui étaient propres, comme son caractère multilingue, dont nous parlerons plus tard, une grande diversité des nationalités représentées et, comme de nombreux adeptes japonais me l'ont dit, un caractère plus décontracté par rapport à la manière dont les sites de Tenrikyo au Japon fonctionnaient généralement. Le TEC était à la fois un site français et européen de Tenrikyo et une « oasis » de culture japonaise et Tenrikyo, ce dernier aspect reliant les participants de ce site au monde de Tenrikyo plus large, ce qui a favorisé un sentiment de continuité et de connexion entre le TEC et les sites et contextes de Tenrikyo ailleurs (ainsi qu'avec le Japon et la culture japonaise). De nombreux adeptes japonais de Tenrikyo au TEC ont clairement expliqué l'importance qu'ils attribuaient à cette continuité pour leur bien-être, qui était facilitée par leur présence au TEC et leur engagement dans un « mode de sociabilité Tenrikyo », par exemple, en effectuant des tâches de hinokishin avec d'autres personnes. Parmi ces adeptes japonais, on trouve aussi bien des personnes vivant de manière permanente ou semi-permanente en Europe que de jeunes adultes faisant des séjours plus courts en Europe (comme les étudiants universitaires en échange qui ont trouvé dans le TEC une familiarité et une sorte de « chez-soi » au cours de leur séjour à l'étranger). Le plus souvent, ces personnes m'ont dit qu'elles appréciaient être au TEC parce qu'elles s'y sentaient chez elles en raison de sa similarité avec les environnements sociaux de Tenrikyo dont elles faisaient partie au Japon. Afin de discuter de ce lien de manière plus concrète, je voudrais maintenant me concentrer sur l'espace de la cuisine du TEC en tant qu'espace exemplaire de formation et de solidification de la « communauté TEC ». Cet espace de la cuisine a favorisé l'inclusion dans ce groupe et un lien avec la « culture Tenrikyo » pour de nombreuses femmes qui se sont engagées dans des efforts communautaires d'une manière typiquement « Tenrikyo ». Vers la fin des grands repas collectifs au TEC, comme ceux qui avaient lieu après les Services mensuels, un petit groupe de femmes se rassemblait dans la cuisine pour faire la vaisselle, ranger la nourriture qui restait, etc. Leurs efforts domestiques relativement banaux se faisaient dans une atmosphère généralement joviale, remplie de bavardages et d'un mode « Tenrikyo » de coopération qui était également présent dans de nombreux autres cadres, comme lors des activités du hinokishin structurées au TEC et dans d'autres contextes Tenrikyo. En plus de la fonction nécessaire de ces tâches que leurs efforts ont permis d'accomplir, leur travail collectif en cuisine était une composante établie des événements du TEC qui comprenait des repas impliquant un rythme et un mode de sociabilité particuliers. Le fait d'être dans la cuisine pour cette tâche collectivement orchestrée constituait un moment où les femmes de la « communauté TEC », plus particulièrement les « membres de base », se réunissaient dans un contexte informel de travail domestique qui facilitait les interactions de type familial entre elles et qui incluait parfois des nouveaux arrivants ou des personnes peu présentes qui s'intégraient facilement dans ce contexte intime. Beaucoup de ces femmes du « noyau » se connaissaient depuis de nombreuses années, dans certains cas, depuis de nombreuses décennies. Lorsqu'elles faisaient la vaisselle, de même lors de la préparation des repas, elles bavardaient, riaient et partageaient un moment informel de convivialité « en coulisses ». Bien que ces tâches communes n'aient pas été au premier plan des événements du TEC, elles étaient souvent présentes et contribuaient de manière importante à l'ensemble social du centre et à la construction continue d'un sentiment de communauté. Tout au long de mes deux années du terrain, j'ai souvent gravité vers la cuisine pour faire la vaisselle. De telles scènes ont constitué une partie importante de mon temps au TEC, comme elles l'ont fait pour de nombreuses femmes du « noyau » de la « communauté TEC » et aussi pour certaines femmes moins impliquées dans le centre, mais qui faisaient aussi partie, du moins momentanément, de ce monde social. En prenant part à ces tâches domestiques banales, nous étions engagées dans un espace informel de camaraderie à travers lequel les relations sociales étaient construites, maintenues et renforcées avec d'autres femmes participant également à ces efforts communautaires. Un fait que j'ai trouvé très révélateur était que les adeptes japonais de Tenrikyo qui venaient au centre pour la première fois, comme les étudiants nouvellement arrivés en échange de l'Université de Tenri, se lançaient immédiatement dans divers types de tâches au TEC sans y être invités. Leur participation automatique à ces tâches démontrait que le fait d'aider à ces tâches, appelées le « hinokishin », d'une manière typiquement « Tenrikyo » (qui impliquait un haut niveau de coopération également présent dans les contextes rituels et non rituels du TEC et d'autres lieux de Tenrikyo), était quelque chose de naturel à faire sur un site de Tenrikyo pour ceux qui étaient imprégnés par la « culture Tenrikyo ». Le type spécifique de coopération qui se produisait dans ces scènes reflétait également un autre principe central de Tenrikyo, celui de « l'aide mutuelle » (tasuke ai) par la manière coopérative avec laquelle ces tâches étaient orchestrées, et qui encourageait ces tâches collectives à servir de moments de convivialité encadrés par la religion. En cela, leurs actions incarnées étaient une manifestation physique des principaux enseignements de la religion ainsi qu'un lien expérientiel à la fois avec le monde social du TEC et avec une manière plus large « d'être (une adepte de) Tenrikyo ». Le Service mensuel du TEC comme lien avec le domaine plus large de Tenrikyo par des facteurs sensoriels, matériels et intentionnels Pour continuer ma discussion sur l'existence d'une ambiance Tenrikyo au TEC, je voudrais maintenant me concentrer sur le sanctuaire du TEC et le rituel de Service qui y est pratiqué. En étant au TEC pour son Service, c'est-à-dire à la fois son Service mensuel auquel participait une partie importante de la « communauté TEC » ou ses Services quotidiens du matin et du soir, qui n'impliquaient le plus souvent que des résidents du TEC, on était connecté au contexte plus large de Tenrikyo par de multiples moyens. En discutant de cette connexion via l'engagement rituel, je me concentrerai principalement sur le Service mensuel, mais la plupart des éléments dont je parle pourraient également s'étendre à ses Services du matin et du soir. L'une des principales caractéristiques de ces Services était leur cohérence sensorielle avec les Services effectués ailleurs par le biais d'éléments visuels, auditifs et gestuels. Ceci, combiné à la façon dont le Service a été conceptualisé et engagé, a favorisé une importante fonction de liaison entre les sites de Tenrikyo et également entre ces sites et la ville de Tenri, et de plus, le point du Jiba qui s'y trouve et dont on dit que tous les humains en sont originaires, et vers lequel, à travers ce rituel, les adeptes apprennent à diriger leurs prières, et idéalement aussi à travers leurs corps par les pèlerinages. Que l'on assiste (ou participe) à la représentation d'un Service Tenrikyo au TEC, à Hawaï ou à Tokyo, la scène qui se déroule est largement similaire. En conséquence, une association a été évoquée entre des sites Tenrikyo disparates et les scènes qui s'y sont déroulées chez des personnes ayant été exposées à de multiples contextes de ce type. La similitude transmise visuellement entre les espaces rituels du sanctuaire de TEC et ceux d'autres sites de Tenrikyo, en particulier la zone où se trouvent les autels et où le Service est effectué 701 , a été un moyen essentiel d'évoquer leur similitude sensorielle et expérientielle parmi les adeptes de TEC, qui ont été unanimement exposés à d'autres sites de culte Tenrikyo également. L'uniformité vestimentaire de ces participants, en tenue de cérémonie de Tenrikyo, ainsi que l'exécution de gestes rituels hautement scénarisés et identiques, quel que soit le lieu 702 , ont également 703 contribué à la congruence visuelle entre les Services mensuels dispersés. La principale différence visuelle entre la scène du Service mensuel au TEC et celle de la plupart (ou la totalité) des sites de Tenrikyo au

  De même, la dimension sonore du Service était également similaire entre les différents sites de Tenrikyo à travers le monde. En particulier les chants du Service et le marqueur rituel consistant à frapper quatre fois des mains avec révérence, répété à de nombreux moments de transition tout au long de l'événement rituel (ce dernier impliquant également la participation corporelle active de toutes les personnes présentes). Les personnes présentes ont fait l'expérience de ces éléments sonores du Service à travers leurs oreilles et la mémorisation de ces sons (sur le mode de la pensée consciente). Mais ils en ont également fait l'expérience à travers les vibrations émises par ces chants répercutées sur le corps. Ainsi, la similitude entre les Services de Tenrikyo sur différents sites n'était pas seulement mémorisée par les sens de la vue et du son (appréhendable par l'intellect), mais aussi par le domaine corporel plus intime de la sensation. L'expérience corporelle ressentie qui a été relayée aux personnes présentes (tant celles qui se trouvaient dans la zone du public que celles qui effectuaient le Service) a contribué à renforcer la continuité entre le TEC et les autres sites de Tenrikyo grâce aux mouvements et techniques kinesthésiques spécifiques prescrits par le corps. Comme la manière dont les quatre frappements de mains révérencieux ont été exécutés avec une inclination subtile du corps et, pour les exécutants du Service, la manière dont les danses et les instruments ont été exécutés. Faire partie de la « communauté TEC » signifiait également faire partie du monde Tenrikyo au sens large et contribuer à la reproduction de cette manière d'être transnationale. En cela, comme l'explique Bourdieu (1977), nous pouvons voir que des organisations qui existent dans des lieux disparates, comme celle de Tenrikyo (y compris le TEC), créent des corps obéissants qui reproduisent les conditions existantes. 704 C'est-à-dire, non asiatique. considérés comme résidant à ce point 707 Ainsi, bien que le Service mensuel du TEC ait principalement impliqué des adeptes vivants localement, il a également été un lien principal entre le contexte spécifique du TEC et le domaine de Tenrikyo plus vaste, en bonne partie non spécifique au lieu. Facteurs de localisation affichés dans le sanctuaire du TEC qui le rendent semispécifique au lieu Si le TEC était largement similaire aux autres sites de Tenrikyo, il présentait également certaines caractéristiques propres au lieu, dont certaines étaient des adaptations ciblées au contexte local, tandis que d'autres étaient plus indépendantes du contexte local. Je me concentrerai principalement sur plusieurs différences présentées dans le sanctuaire du TEC dans cette soussection. D'après mes propres observations et mes discussions avec les fidèles appartenant aux diverses églises Tenrikyo au Japon, il y avait souvent une plus grande ouverture à la négociation de la tradition en dehors du Japon que dans la plupart des contextes Tenrikyo au Japon. Cette négociation constante, qui consiste à essayer d'adapter les traditions et les pratiques à ce contexte européen, associée à une approche globale généralement moins stricte, était en fait une caractéristique notable du TEC.

  708 J'ai observé la jeune Française Nathalie, qui a participé avec moi au Séminaire européen, le faire. culture Tenrikyo, ce qui rendait ces codes comportementaux moins intrinsèquement ancrés en eux. Leur participation corporelle à ce rituel se faisait généralement par une forme réduite des gestes, généralement seulement avec leurs mains ou simplement avec leurs doigts, plutôt qu'avec leurs bras entiers, comme le faisaient les acteurs du rituel sur scène. Cette pratique était autorisée, mais pas activement encouragée, par le chef du TEC, qui était chargé de déterminer, selon son propre jugement, dans quelle mesure les règles et traditions de Tenrikyo devaient être strictement respectées et dans quelle mesure il était convenable de s'écarter de ces règles et traditions.Lors de la discussion avec le chef du TEC sur l'injonction aux membres du public de ne pas exécuter les danses du Service pendant le Service mensuel 710 , il nous a confié que bien que les personnes dans la partie « spectateur » de la salle soient censés ne pas faire cela pendant le Service mensuel, il pouvait le permettre. Il a ensuite ajouté que si les gens devaient exécuter le reste des danses Mikagura-uta en position debout, il devrait intervenir car ce serait tout simplement trop. Cet éclairage est venu un an après que mes recherches se soient concentrées sur le TEC et immédiatement après mon séjour d'environ un mois et demi au Japon pour le travail de terrain. Bien que j'aie remarqué que pendant le Service mensuel du TEC, la mise en scène gestuelle subtile de ces danses n'était faite que par un petit nombre de personnes présentes dans la partie « spectateur », et qu'aucune de ces personnes n'était japonaise ni ne faisait partie du « noyau » du groupe, c'était la première fois qu'on m'expliquait qu'elles n'étaient pas censées faire cet accompagnement miniature.Ces individus ayant agi en dehors des normes prescrites par cette tradition religieuse étaient en train de devenir des membres du groupe et de la culture qui lui est liée, non seulement en apprenant les enseignements de la religion, mais aussi en apprenant petit à petit à se conduire de manière convenable dans des contextes variés. La transformation de ces nouveaux venus en « membres » pleinement intégrés au groupe concernait non seulement leur implication sociale dans les contextes Tenrikyo et leur pratique de la religion, mais aussi de nombreux autres facteurs, souvent discrets, souvent liés au corps, et exprimés par le corps. « Devenir Tenrikyo », ou devenir un « membre » pleinement intégré du groupe, était un processus graduel inculqué à la fois par une explication et/ou une instruction directe, mais aussi par la méthode indirecte d'immersion dans les normes et pratiques, grâce à la présence d'individus « initiés », tels que les membres du noyau de la « communauté TEC ». Ainsi, les individus « initiés » ont montré par leur propre comportement ce que c'était d'être « membre » de Tenrikyo, non seulement dans un sens strictement religieux, mais aussi culturellement.

  souligner que le domaine pragmatique et quotidien de la langue reflétait et contribuait à la multiplicité présente au TEC, qui était une caractéristique clé de ce centre et de son monde social éclectique et multiforme connecté. Bien que la majorité des « membres » de la « communauté TEC » soient japonais et que le centre de TEC soit lui-même basé en France, son monde social n'est ni entièrement français ni entièrement japonais. Au contraire, il appartenait à une inclusion fluide dans laquelle la frontière de différenciation entre ce qu'il devait être inclus dans cette « communauté » et ce qui ne devait pas être inclus n'était pas claire. On pouvait être à la fois dedans et dehors, selon la couche de ce monde social sur laquelle on se concentrait, car la spécificité de ce centre européen découlait en partie de sa multiplicité.Lier le vocabulaire et l'action au milieu de la diversité : l'exemple des multiples façons de parler de la conceptualisation et de l'engagement du « hinokishin » Si la caractéristique multilingue du TEC a favorisé un sentiment d'inclusion et de diversité à plusieurs niveaux, l'existence d'un vocabulaire spécifique à Tenrikyo a fourni une cohérence sous-jacente aux « initiés» dans laquelle, indépendamment de l'endroit où l'on se trouve dans le monde ou du lignage auquel on appartient, l'utilisation active d'un vocabulaire spécifique à Tenrikyo a été une caractéristique marquante du fait d'être dans un contexte Tenrikyo qui a servi de lien entre les adeptes. Il ne s'agit pas de suggérer qu'il n'y avait pas de diversité dans la manière précise dont ces termes spécifiques à Tenrikyo étaient compris et, d'après mes observations, il n'était pas nécessaire de connaître ces termes pour être inclus dans le monde social du TEC. Au contraire, l'emploi de ces termes a agi comme un élément, parmi de nombreux autres, grâce auquel une base socio-religieuse de personnes liées idéologiquement a existé en tant qu'élément fondateur de la « communauté TEC » dans laquelle des personnes non-Tenrikyo, ou des personnes qui n'avaient pas été initiées à une connaissance approfondie des termes spécifiques à Tenrikyo, ont été incluses.

Table of Contents

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	Title Page…………………………………………………………………………………………..1
	Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………….………..3
	Abstract………………………………………………………………………………….………....6
	Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………….9
	List of Figures……………………………………………………………………...…………… .18
	List of Images…………………………………………………………………………………….18

  conveys, in the early nineteenth century, the Late Mito School 70 did not deny Confucian heritage, but mediated by Kokugaku 71 , deemed Confucian rituals to be insufficient. It was asserted that the worship of indigenous deities was equally important to Confucian-style rites for a well governed polity. Thereafter, Jikyo became part of the language used in Meiji edicts, no doubt influenced by the Late Mito School in its designating the main duty of great rulers. Although the Late Mito School conceived of the indigenous way (i.e. Shinto) and Chinese learning (i.e. Confucianism) as essentially equivalent, the 1869 and 1870 imperial edicts

  , since these accounts are secondhand rather than by Mr. Moroi himself, the extent to which they accurately depict what he truly had in mind is unknown. What is more certain, though, is that there was an awareness amongst followers he was associated with, including his wife, that Mr. Moroi held a unique vision about conducting missionary work in France and more broadly, in Europe.Mr. Moroi's wish of conducting missionary work in France was then transferred to a Japanese follower rooted to the Grand Church at which Mr. Moroi had been head minister named Chikayoshi Kamata, who would later become the first president of ACFJT. At the time, Kamata was a first-year student at a postgraduate seminary course held in Tenri City that I discuss in relation to its more recent attendance by European-based followers included in my study. He had plans afterwards to either attend graduate school in Japan to be able to teach at Tenri University or to participate in missionary efforts at Tenrikyo Mission Headquarters in America, located in

Moroi had indicated in his letter sent to her from Paris in July 1960 that he expressed hope to make Paris the base for missionary work in Europe, as well as a transit point for the Shinbashira on his missionary trip to Africa (Watanabe 1988: 452 [cited in Kato 2017a: 104]). As Kato (2017a: 104-105) notesLos Angeles. In early September 1960, Mr. Moroi asked him in person to fulfill his unattained dream of conducting missionary work on his behalf (Kato 2017a). Kamata recalls that Mr. Moroi viewed Paris as a more suitable place from which to start missionary efforts in Europe than places such as Britain or Germany due to its geographic and cultural characteristics. In response to Mr. Moroi's request, Kamata began correspondence courses on the French language (Kato interview with

  During this same time, the Tenrikyo Young Men's Association had also begun recruitment efforts to send an association member to Europe, selecting Kenzo Tanaka, who had studied French at Keio University 113 in Tokyo and was the foreseen successor to become head minister of his church. Kamata left Japan on November 12, 1964 and arrived in France in December of the same year. Tanaka left Japan in April of 1965. In an interview Kato (2017a) conducted with Kamata, Kamata recalled of his impression of the Japanese presence in France during his initial period in this country in 1964 and 1965 that there was little public interest in Japanese culture. At this time, there were only four Japanese restaurants in Paris and about 5,000 Japanese expats in France, with significantly fewer long-term residents(Kato interview with

Tenrikyo Church Headquarters decided to begin missionary efforts in Europe as early as 1961 and asked Yamana Grand Church to send Kamata from Tenrikyo Church Headquarters rather than from this grand church. The second Shinbashira decided to send Kamata to Paris as a student from Tenrikyo Ichiretsu Foundation, the scholarship body of Tenrikyo Church Headquarters.

  From this viewpoint, whether or not one is a member of the religion is based primarily on one's own self-understanding. Another way membership could be determined is if other Tenrikyo followers view the person as a fellow follower based on their actions, such as being kind, helping others and coming to Monthly Services (if they live somewhere where this is possible, Mr. Takeshita specified.)To illustrate this point, Mr. Takeshita told us about an instance of being on a subway car one evening in Japan at which time a drunk man was harassing young women while loudly proclaiming to be a Tenrikyo follower. Mr. Takeshita told us that even though this man was proclaiming himself to be Tenrikyo, because his actions were not in accordance with what it means to be a follower of the path, Mr. Takeshita did not accept his proclamation, nor would sense of the question. In this thesis, I am mainly concerned with membership in the first two senses (self-perception and inclusion by others) as the latter, more profound sense explained by Mr. Takeshita is a complicated theological question that I do not wish nor view as contextually appropriate to address in this anthropological thesis focused principally on social dynamics, notably the question of what constitutes a community and how it is constructed.

religion. His friend's question then prompted Mr. Takeshita to think about how one does, in fact, become a member of the religion and what renders one a follower. He told us that there isn't really a specific process through which one becomes a member of the faith. Some people think of becoming a Yoboku as being almost synonymous with becoming a full adult member of the religion, but in fact, becoming a Yoboku capable of transmitting the healing gift of the Sazuke is something different than becoming a follower of the path.

Mr. Takeshita then told us that the question of how it is determined if a person is a Tenrikyo follower or not is a question that could, in fact, hold multiple meanings. One possible way this question could be addressed is simply by if a person views her/himself as a member of the religion or not. most other Tenrikyo followers. Similarly, he added, even if a person does not say they are a Tenrikyo follower, if their actions are in line with what it is to be a Tenrikyo follower, such as coming to Monthly Services, being kind, and helping people, others are likely to refer to the person as a follower even if the person has never declared her/himself as such.

He then went on to say that beyond the basic question of if someone is a "member" of the religion in the eyes of both oneself and other Tenrikyo followers, this question in certain contexts can also refer to a more profound sense of what it is to be a Tenrikyo follower. He used himself as an example. He said that even though he performs the Morning and Evening Service every day, participates in Monthly Services at both TEC and at his own mission station, tries to help others, and is otherwise active in the religion, if he was asked this question by a religious official during a Tenrikyo training in Tenri City, the question would have a different meaning.

The religious official would already know by Mr. Takeshita's presence at the training that he is a Tenrikyo follower in the most common sense. Such a question, rather, would be asking in a more profound sense if he was really a follower of Tenrikyo, meaning if he could honestly say that he continually strives to follow the model set by the foundress through how she lived, performs the Service earnestly out of true sincerity rather than simply because it is a prescribed religious act, etc. Such a question would be meant to prompt reflection on both oneself and the path of Tenrikyo. Mr. Takeshita told us that even though he could affirmatively answer with confidence to the first two senses of the question which ask if he is a Tenrikyo follower both in how he views himself and how other followers generally view him, he could not as easily answer affirmatively to the latter

  Tenrikyo religion the most honest and natural response to general

	questions people commonly posed as small talk. I was commonly asked, "What do you do?" or if
	my being a student had been mentioned or assumed 137 , I was asked what I studied. My shying
	away from disclosing my research was based on the general lack of mention or evidence of the
	religion at the cultural center that was purposeful on the part of its Tenrikyo staff. I was
	concerned that my open discussion of my research, which would necessitate mention of the
	religion, could potentially pose a problem to the group I was studying and possibly to my position
	as a welcomed researcher, which I generally was at that point.
	About a half year after my research became focused on this topic, during which time I had been
	attempting to navigate this situation appropriately without knowing exactly how to do so, I raised
	the topic of my uncertainty to Mr. Sugimoto. He told me that although he does not usually speak
	about the Tenrikyo religion to students at ACFJT, if someone shows interest and/or asks pointed
	questions, then it is fine to talk about it, particularly when in more private, one-on-one contexts
	rather than in class. Although he did not discuss the religion in his classes 138 and was often
	discreet about his involvement in the religion, such as in his responses to the question of what he
	did over the weekend for which he omitted mention of religious activities that often occupied a
	significant portion of them, he did not regard its mention as something that should categorically
	never occur within the walls of the laique center.
	123

As I will again note in the main text of this document, my use of pseudonyms for people included in my study and my abstinence from using their real names, even in this acknowledgements section, is my own choice rather than reflective of their request for this.

The facultative "s" is something I will explain in the main body of my text.

Tenrikyo is sometimes written as "Tenrikyō" to convey its long "o" sound, as it is pronounced in Japanese. In my text, I choose to omit the macron (straight bar mark) because in English, it is often written without this marker of vowel elongation, thereby rendering it a "correct" version in this language.

I will explain what I mean by "core" slightly later.

The "Service" ritual refers to both the Monthly Service and a shorter version performed, ideally, twice daily that I will expand upon later.

My use of "nationality" in this instance is to reference the country where people were born and raised, regardless of their current nationality(ies).

The categorical differentiation between Japanese people and non-Japanese people is a commonly present juxtaposition made by Japanese people commonly referenced through the word "gaijin" (外人, the two kanji characters of which literally mean "outside" and "person") to talk about the broad category of non-Japanese people, or through its more polite variation "gaikokujin" (外国人 the three kanji characters of which literally mean "outside," "country" "person.")

A subsequent subsection of this introductory section is dedicated to the category of "religion" in Japan and why Tenrikyo belongs to this category.

In this statement, I am referring to the dominant modern-day cultures of these regions.

I never did meet formally with the other staff members to discuss the possibility of my conducting research on this group, but they were aware of my doing so, as were most other people I spent time with throughout the course of my fieldwork.

Although I was not, at least in my own perception, a member of Tenrikyo, I had become part of the "TEC community."

As I will explain later in this text, although I was living in Paris during this general period, I am not a native Parisian, but rather, was born and raised in Alaska.

There was a certain level of occasional blurring of my perceptual boundary that sought to maintain my status as a non-Tenrikyo anthropologist rather than an adherent or practitioner of the faith, as is somewhat common to researchers highly involved in such contexts.

The people I am referencing who indirectly did not offer an affirmative response to my interview requests were Japanese and furthermore, did not occupy hierarchically high positions in the Tenrikyo religion or at TEC, which may have contributed to their apprehension to serve as vocalized sources of authority on TEC and the Tenrikyo faith, despite that my requests to interview them were not seeking this.

I would like to reiterate that I tried to be purposefully forthcoming with people that I was conducting anthropological research for my thesis, thus, the potential of my including such informal discussions in my findings was an openly expressed possibility.

The second part of this introductory section discusses the Tenrikyo religion and the history of its development along with the early history of this religion's initial presence in Europe and the later founding of TEC approximately a half-century later, along with a discussion on the question of how many "members" of the Tenrikyo religion there are, along with a contextualizing explanation of why, in fact, this is a complicated question.

Generally in my thesis, I refer to people between eighteen and thirty years of age as "young adults" or the variants of "young women" and "young men."

Until present, all heads of TEC have been male.

It is possible, though significantly less common, for women to serve as head ministers. This was not the case, however, for any of the TEC residents I spoke with or heard about.

These categories were not mutually exclusive. Not all "core members" of the TEC community were Japanese and not all Japanese people of this group were core members.

The term "home site" is my own creation to explain this concept. It is not one I heard used by Tenrikyo followers.

Unless the church in question is a "grand church," in which case it is directly supervised by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters.

Although the "TEC community" was multi-layered and included a close-knit "core," newcomers and people less implicated in the group were purposefully welcomed, often with efforts for them to be included in the group. This was largely because of the religion's emphasis on both human fraternity and the importance of harmonious collaboration and friendship in combination with its emphasis on missionary work to bring more people to the path of Tenrikyo and solidly anchor them in it. Despite these efforts, in practice, there was often an observable demarcation between "core" and more peripheral members of the group.

Lineage-based sites each have a designated day of the month on which they orchestrate their Monthly Services. Sites in Europe had their designated Monthly Service days different than the designated day for this ritual of the Monthly Service, thereby allowing people to attend both.

The existence of a lineage-based site is dependent on its founding, which involves certain requirements; the founding of a mission station is chiefly based on an agreement between the founder of the mission station, who will serve as its head, and the head of the lineage-based site which will serve as its supervising entity. Thus, no additional "members" of a mission station need be counted for it to hold this designation, however this ambiguous demarcation of religious identity is defined.

This was the only site in Europe to be categorized as a "branch church" (bun kyōkai), which is a larger and hierarchically higher category of lineage-based site in comparison to the other twenty-two lineage-based sites in Europe, which are all categorized as "mission stations" (fukyōsho).

Along with, in my observations, several followers based in the U.S and Japan.

Most, but not all, Tenrikyo sites have all three altars. Some smaller, newer sites do not have an altar dedicated to the ancestors, and to a lesser degree, some also do not have an altar for the foundress. In such cases, this was due to the expense of the altar and/or constraints of available space.

Kodomo o jiba gaeri. I will sometimes refer to this festival as the "Children's Pilgrimage festival" for linguistic brevity rather than its full name of the "Children's Pilgrimage to Jiba" festival.

"Oya" is a gender-neutral word meaning "parent. "Sama" is an honorary Japanese suffix attached to names to express a great amount of respect and\or status.

The differentiation between "human thinking" and the intention of God the Parent is a component of Tenrikyo discourse.

Exactly when the ie system became widely established in Japan is a somewhat complicated issue that I choose to omit an in-depth exploration of because it is not pertinent to my study.

In modern Japan, it is possible for households to be passed on to and/or headed by women in marital contexts, but this is rarely practiced, with the motivation to do so usually being that a family only has female children to continue their lineage/ household.

In Tenrikyo, women are regarded as the foundation of the collective whole, whether that be a marital relationship, a family, a group of Tenrikyo followers, etc.

In Tenrikyo, there is not a rigid view of gender in relation to masculinity and femininity and it is generally held that men can possess feminine qualities and vice-versa to varying degree, depending on the individual.

The foundress did not use the name "Tenrikyo" as a label for her teachings.

The period surrounding the beginning of the Meiji era (1868) was one of significant societal change and upheaval in Japan that was accompanied by numerous mystical, salvific, prophetic movements. "The year leading up to the revolution of 1868 was full of bizarre and miraculous events. Amulets rained from the sky in Kyoto and Osaka. (Brady note: The village where Tenrikyo was founded, that would later come to be known as Tenri City, is located approximately 60 km from Kyoto and 50 km from Osaka.) Prophets swept through the land preaching the arrival of the Future Buddha (Miroku)… Famines, droughts, and fires plagued the nation… starvation led to further unrest… It was rumored that, in their anger at the polluting presence of foreigners, the gods had begun spreading disease and calamity, which led to mass pilgrimages to sacred shrines. Common to many of these movements was a radical disjunction; reality, increasingly dreamlike and decayed, was in need of regeneration. They labeled this coming change "world renewal" (yanaoshi), a phrase used in rural protest to describe the radically transformed world that would accompany the presence of the new Buddha."(Josephson 2012: 130).

sangenten 三原典

In Tenrikyo discourse, "Jiba" is written with syllabic hiragana characters (ぢば), but as I heard it explained during a religious training at TEC, the two kanji characters (場所) that would be used to write this word translate to something like "place, place," which in this explanation was said to be thought to strongly emphasize the importance of this specific place.

At the time, it was out of the question for the emperor of Japan to interact in any way with foreigners. Thus, the treaty was concluded between Perry and representatives of the Japanese emperor.

Inoue (1991) notes that one of the most striking features of Japanese new religions is the high number of women acting as founders and current leaders. "The most popular explanation for the high proportion of female members of new religions is the discrimination suffered by women in Japanese society, leading them to resolve personal problems through religious movements. The presence of a powerful tradition of female-centered worship in Japanese religious history is often pointed to as an element lying behind the large number of female founders or current group leaders of new movements." (p. 21).

According to Tenrikyo discourse, the foundress of Tenrikyo was serving as an impromptu medium when God the Parent first took her as its shrine but this was not her usual role. As explained to me by a core member of TEC, although the foundress is sometimes regarded as a shaman by non-Tenrikyo people, according to Tenrikyo dogma, she was something else (the original mother of humanity and Shrine of God).

This resulted in the Ministry of Doctrine and the Great Promulgation Campaign in 1872[START_REF] Krämer | How "Religion" Came to Be Translated as "Shūkyō": Shimaji Mokurai and the Appropriation of Religion in Early Meiji Japan[END_REF].

Although the strategic changes Tenrikyo made in response to criticisms directed toward it seem sufficient to have prevented its dissolution, public wariness of the group was not completely eliminated, evidenced by articles that attacked Tenrikyo as superstitious which continued to be printed in a variety of sources at least through the turn of the century (Josephson 2012: 240).

"Spiritual growth" and "spiritual maturity" are both common translation for the Tenrikyo term: (kokoro no) seijin (心の)成人.

In English Tenrikyo written discourse, "God" is written with a capital "G."

This is a very abridged version of Tenrikyo's creation story.

In contrast to the Judeo-Christian story of Eve being tempted to eat the forbidden fruit by a serpent, in the Tenrikyo creation story, there are no negative connotations attached to the role of a snake.

Both the phonetic script of hiragana and the kanji characters are used to write Tenri-O-no-Mikoto in Tenrikyo texts.

I will discuss the Tenrikyo concept of the "Joyous Life" later in this text.

Hinokishin is a Tenrikyo-specific composite word. Hereafter, I do not use italics to write "hinokishin" because it is a commonly used term in Tenrikyo contexts, regardless of the language spoken.

おつとめ Although this is the principal name for the Service ritual, there are also other names in existence which I will elaborate on later.

As I will explain in chapter one, I was connected to TEC, primarily via studying at its affiliated cultural center, for almost two years before my thesis became focused on this topic. I also continued to be somewhat connected to this social world after I decided to end this two-year period of concentrated fieldwork.

Kato's doctoral thesis (2017a) was conducted at SOAS University of London in the Department of Religions and Philosophies. His research was funded by the Tenrikyo Ichiretsukai Foundation (the scholarship body of Tenrikyo Church Headquarters) and he was also a staff member of the Tenrikyo Overseas Department.

As stated previously, one of the main tenets of Tenrikyo is faith healing, namely through the administration of the Sazuke ritual, and faith healing, primarily through this means, has historically been the most common way people were drawn to and became followers of the faith.

I refer to Yoshinori Moroi as "Mr. Moroi" to avoid any possible confusion with his wife who I also mention in this paragraph.

Keio University is a highly reputed private university and known as the oldest institute of modern higher learning, established in 1858 as a school for Western studies.

In 1945, Taiwan was placed under the administrative control of the Republic of China by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Japan did not renounce its sovereignty overTaiwan until 1952.

Mission stations are the smallest form of lineage-based sites of worship. It is to lineage-based sites, rather than sites affiliated with geographic region such as TEC, that "members" are officially affiliated. I will discuss the Tenrikyo lineage system extensively in chapter four.

This includes in locations, such as the US, where official statistics are taken through self-categorizing survey techniques such as the census because Tenrikyo is a minority religion that is usually lumped into other categories, such as "other," or in Japan, the broader category of "new religion."

I say "social world" of Tenrikyo because not all people I am referencing came to be followers of the religion despite becoming part of the "social world" linked to TEC.

My year spent in Japan was in the small farming and fishing town of Saroma, located in the northeastern part of the northern island of Hokkaido.

Buto is a dance form that arose in Japan in 1959 during the country's post WWII period. It is a dance form characterized by performers in white body makeup with hyper-controlled motion exploring and depicting taboo and grotesque imagery, often centered on death, amongst other topics. Please note that this is an over-generalized summary of the artform which some practitioners may not entirely agree with.

Etablissement d'Enseignement Supérieur Libre déclaré auprès du Ministère Français de l'Education (Rectorat de l'Académie de Paris

déclarée auprès du Ministère Français du Travail de l'Emploi et de la Formation professionnelle.

In my thesis, I use the term "local population" to refer to people living in the Paris area rather than "French." This is because the population of Paris (and the surrounding area) includes many people from elsewhere, thereby rendering it inaccurate to refer to the residential population of the area through a descriptor of a single nationality.

In founding the cultural association and relatedly choosing Japanese language instruction as its key activity, the delegates from Tenrikyo who helped found the center received guidance from Suzuki Atsuya who was an official charged with cultural activities at the Japanese Embassy in France who had a close connection with the acting head of Tenrikyo (Shozen Nakayama, the second Shinbashira.[START_REF] Kamata | Tenri Nichi-Futsu bunka kyōkai sōsetsu no keii 天理日仏 文化協会創設の経緯[END_REF] [Cited in Kato 2016], personal communication with Takahashi Sugimoto, present assistant-director of assistant director and key informant: July 2016).

This woman later became his wife once, after serving approximately four years at TEC, it was decided it was time for him to return home, largely with the thought that it was time for him to marry this woman, who had returned to Japan, and settle into the next chapter of his life.

On the wall to the right of the reception, there is a calligraphy scroll with the words "yōki gurashi" written artistically with Japanese characters. These words are translated into English in the Tenrikyo religion as "The Joyous Life" and are so central to and commonly used in Tenrikyo they could be described as the religion's slogan. For a Japanese follower of the religion, the slogan would be an immediately recognizable religious reference. For a nonfollower studying at the center, even if they could read the characters, the expression's connection to the Tenrikyo religion, rather than being simply positive words, would not be evident unless a person is familiar with the religion.

Since 2011, Japanese students have started studying English from grade five (age ten) rather than the first year of junior high school (age twelve).

As an American living in Paris of a somewhat young adult age during my fieldwork, it was rather common for people to ask me if I was studying in France.

I was his student for three semesters.

"Le Japon" was published by ACFJT from 1979 to 1983. It discussed Japanese culture and current events and was sold in locations such as bookstores, Japanese restaurants and kiosks, and sold at least 2,500 copies each time.

Though not explicitly stated by Kato 2017a, one can infer that the main religious activity was the nine Besseki lectures required to become a Yoboku, which is often unofficially regarded as the rite through which one becomes a full "member" of the religion, despite this not actively being in accordance with Tenrikyo's official explanation of what it is to be a Yoboku.

Dieu existe, il fait du judo à Denfert.

"Oyagami" is the Japanese term of reference that is translated into English as "God the Parent."

I attended this language exchange group, along with two others, to have more contact with and learn more about Japanese migrants in addition to the more obvious goal of practicing the language. I began attending these groups after I had already established a language exchange with Kanae.

As I note in chapter four, Tenrikyo was not included in the well-known list, "La commision parlementaire n° 2468," published by the French government in 1995 which listed 173 "movements jugés sectaires" (movements judged to be "cult-like").

We were speaking in Japanese. The word she used was "kokoro" (heart/mind).

To refresh the memory of a reader previously unfamiliar with Tenrikyo, "hinokishin" is a Tenrikyo specific term literally meaning "daily contribution," in which followers perform acts of service as an expression of gratitude to God the Parent, chiefly for loaning us physical bodies and also to "sweep away" harmful tendencies from one's heart, referred to as "dust."

Kanae's casual advice to look up Tenrikyo online if I was curious to learn more was somewhat opposed to several concerned comments I later heard from a core Japanese member of TEC in her forties during the beginning of my more in-depth introduction to Tenrikyo that there is a lot of misinformation about the religion online in response to my mention that out of curiosity, I had previously read some about the religion online.

No medical training other than several basic CPR courses more than a decade before, which was largely irrelevant to this situation.

The Japanese language does not differentiate between singular and plural nouns. At the time, I interpreted it to imply potentially multiple married couples but came to later realize the residential social composition of TEC is generally single, young adults from Japan and an older, married couple from Japan who operate the center.

Working a high number of hours is not unique to TEC or Tenrikyo. It is also rather common in broader Japanese society. In Tenrikyo, "(hard) work" (hataraku) is a main Tenrikyo value. This, along with early rising and honesty are often discussed as three important values ("three treasures" mistu no takara) in Tenrikyo.

The official term employed in modernity for this joyousness is "the Joyous Life": yōki gurashi 陽気ぐらし.

In Tenrikyo, there is a heavy use of agrarian metaphors conveyed by the religion's foundress.

As is common in Japanese speech, a specifying pronoun was not included in this statement. It was implied, though, that she was talking about herself and others who were similarly living at the center.

Anecdotes of Oyasama, the Foundress ofTenrikyo (1976) (Kohon Tenrikyo Oyasama-den Itsuwa-hen 稿本天理 教教祖伝逸話篇 ) is an anthology of anecdotes about the foundress that is of the supplemental texts (jun-genten 準原典) to the Tenrikyo scriptures.

The second half of this anecdote continues: "She added: "Do not do anything that would waste another person's life. "Do not waste even a single vegetable leaf. "Leftovers will nourish you. It is not gluttony.""

The standard Japanese word for missionary work (布教: Fukyō) is also used, though less commonly, to discuss efforts to spread the faith.

This work is commonly referred to as the world's first novel, though there is significant controversy about assertion.

The primary author is generally thought to have been Lady Murasaki Shikibu. The first translator of this work to modern Japanese thought its later chapters were written by her daughter. There are additionally multiple other theories regarding its precise authorship.

This is not to say that conveying the faith through intellectual means via discussion on its dogma was not also sought out and encouraged to varying levels depending on the individuals and the context.

Such as the European Seminar and also the annual youth retreat, "Palette," that draws together Tenrikyo youth (and some others) from numerous European locations that I attended twice.

It was not required that people helping with the event be at TEC in the morning. Some people arrived around noon to help only with the portion of it open to the public rather in the morning to help with finalizing preparations

Regarding the sowing of seeds that may eventually turn into some of these people becoming followers of the faith, connected to the concept of rebirth that exists in the religion, I heard several times that even if their efforts do not lead people to becoming followers of the faith in this life, perhaps they will in a later life.

"Tenri-O-no-Mikoto" is one of multiple names Oyasama taught as a name of God the Parent.

The original Japanese term (oya gokoro) that is often translated into English as "parental love" literally means (approximately) "parental heart," which it is also sometimes translated into in English as, depending largely on the context and the translators preference. The original Japanese term (gokoro) is the same word as "kokoro," though pronounced slightly differently, that is at the center of the faith's discourse and teachings in relation to oneself which is generally translated into English as "heart" or "mind" and in French as "coeur" or "esprit." The English word "love" is most commonly translated into Japanese "ai" (愛), is not commonly used in Japanese discourse. Similar to many other non-Western languages, the word "love" is difficult to directly translate into Japanese and is often not contextually used in the same way.

The daily Morning and Evening Services are comprised chiefly of the Seated Service. The performance of one or two of the thirteen Mikagura-uta dances are often also included in this twice daily ritual, depending on the site, though it is not required.

Parc de Sceaux draws crowds well beyond the ACFJT/ TEC group every year who come to celebrate the springtime blooming of the many cherry trees in this park. One year when I participated in the event, there was a rainstorm on the scheduled day of the picnic. TEC staff decided that rather than canceling the event last minute, that the picnic would be hosted inside the main building TEC. As an impromptu adaptation to the circumstances, several of the young adult male residential missionaries printed pictures of cherry blossoms and hung them on the

Like at TEC, at many Tenrikyo sites in Japan, mochi is pounded in preparation of the new year. A large annual event in Tenri City from January 5-7 is the serving of mochi soup (o-zoni) made of large mochi cakes that have first been offered in the main sanctuary which draws approximately 80,000 annually

This distribution was officially an activity of the European Young Men's Association but was open to anyone wishing to participate. I took part in this distribution with regularity for two winter seasons. About half the people helping with this activity on any given Sunday evening were non-Tenrikyo young adults, such as those referenced above. During these outings during which we split into most often two groups of about four to eight people and

As mentioned previously, there had been earlier missionary efforts in England at the turn of the 20th century. In my above statement, the beginning of the religion's presence in Europe is associated with the 1970 founding of the missionary center that would later become known as TEC.

Based on my own interactions with Japanese people, I was and am still not in complete agreement that Japanese people do not, in general, facially display their thoughts and feelings, but found his perspective to be interesting, particularly as it reflected a purported Japanese cultural norm.

180 The word used in Japanese is tasuke, which can translate to "help" or "save" in both mundane and more profound ways.

The original email was in French.

"San" is a gender-neutral honorific suffix similar to "Mr." or "Ms."

This talk was simultaneously translated into Japanese and French, made available to attendees through headsets, as talks given at this multilingual site often are.

In order to be a performer in the TEC Monthly Service, one must have undergone the rite in Tenri City to become a Yoboku, or, under the current head of TEC, I occasionally observed a special allowance to be made for people who had participated in the three-week seminar at TEC or a similar program elsewhere (such as in the Republic of the Congo) through which one is exposed to much of the same information as the series of nine-identical Besseki lectures given exclusively in Tenri City required to become a Yoboku. Additionally, one must be capable of performing in the Service, either through correctly playing one of the Service instruments or performing the intricately choreographed dances.

Such as Japanese people who are ill, for example with a cold, and thus wear a medical mask to avoid potentially contaminating others.

"TEC culture" and "Tenrikyo culture" was largely, though not completely, synonymous.

About halfway through my fieldwork, the young woman who had been serving in this position returned to Japan and another woman sent from Japan assumed her position.

Neither of these young women were raised at this church. One of them, who was quite passionate about Tenrikyo, was there based on her own personal volition. The other young woman explained that her going to live at the church had been largely the choice of her mother who thought time spent in the feminine role of performing domestic work at this church would be good preparation for her future married life, which in Tenrikyo, particularly in more traditional Japanese contexts of it, is sometimes regarded as the projected life trajectory of women.

Tenrikyo first came to the Republic of the Congo in 1966, but the presence Risa and Mayuko's church lineage was a recent development.

In Tenrikyo, it is important for followers to make pilgrimages to Tenri City (if they are able to do so). When coming from overseas, it is common for followers to visit not only Tenri City but also the lineage-based parent churches of their "home site".

One of these Japanese women told me about a Congolese roommate they had at this church, implying that this church was already welcoming, at least to some degree, followers from Congo.

They did not study French at ACFJT even though it offered specialized French classes for Japanese people.

The building in which the Miyamoto sisters and several other young female TEC residents lived did not usually welcome short-term guests. Occasionally, though, it did when the other guest space was full due to a particularly

Paris is a city where rent prices are often quite high and apartments can be difficult to secure, thus her expressed positivity in acquiring a relatively inexpensive apartment in a central location of this city was likely associated with this.

In France, she had been employed for several years in a professional capacity.

These honeybees are in accordance with the title of this section; although they are not human, they, too, are social actors.

The predetermined amount of time visiting young adult "missionaries" spent at TEC was occasionally extended.

This was a generally followed model, but not a prescribed one in the Tenrikyo religion.

And his wife, Mrs. Miyamoto, though I heard about her much less frequently.

In Japanese culture, it is common to bring gifts of specialty foods from the location from which one is coming. A common reminder of the connections that TEC had with other sites was through the foods brought from various places throughout Europe, and also from overseas locations such as Japan, the US, and Congo.

In Japanese culture, one's age is directly associated with one's hierarchical position in which older people are awarded more status and respect than younger people.

The heads of Tenrikyo sites are most commonly male, though less commonly, women sometimes also serve in this position.

In Japanese Tenrikyo discourse, the term that most commonly translated in English to "save" is "tasuke." This Japanese word can also be translated to "help" and can convey multiple types of assistance, from casual help to profoundly rescue. (In Tenrikyo text, this Japanese word is most commonly written as "たすけ," using these syllabic hiragana characters per the original writings of the foundress rather than in the kanji characters used most commonly in Japanese to write this word.)

This is in accordance with Japanese culture in which, generally, women become part of their husband's household and lineage upon marriage.

Because this wording is a little unclear, I would like to clearly specify that this refers to one male head and his one wife.

With this said, it is important to note that a variety of life paths are permitted in the faith and are generally viewed as being correlated with the character and associated "destiny" (innen) of the individual, though a variety of both stricter and more liberal perspectives of this matter exist.

During my fieldwork, when the male head was away from TEC, which was most often to him attending to duties elsewhere associated with his leadership role, his wife usually served in his place as the officiate of rituals.

These gender-based roles are the most commonly followed ones, but a variety of other models also exist.

This is an highly esteemed, nominated position.

神殿 Shinden

As a reminder, the kanrodai is a hexagonal marker located on the sacred point of the Jiba, where God the Parent dwells.

The level of freedom one has in not adhering to the model of marrying and, if possible, having children is partially dependent on one's family and the particular milieu in which one is situated.

The current Doctrine of Tenrikyo(Tenrikyo kyōten ) was compiled by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters based on Tenrikyo's three main scriptures written by the foundress, the Ofudesaki, Mikagura-uta, and the Osashizu, and was authorized by the second Shinbashira (spiritual and administrative leader of the faith), Shozen Nakayama, on October 26 1949. (The Doctrine of Tenrikyo: 1). The phrase "parental love" is used fourteen times in this 15,193 word book and similarly "parental heart" is used three times.

I never heard this analogy used directly in reference to them.

This is the term a follower knowledgeable of this community used to describe it when I asked if there is anything I should be aware of if I conduct my thesis research on this group when I was considering the possibility.

This person was Kanae, my language-exchange partner.

When her mother served in the position of head wife was before Kanae came to TEC as the first female sent from Japan to work at ACFJT; at the time Mrs. Miyamoto held the position of head wife, exclusively young menoften sent by the Tenri Young Men's Association, came to TEC for this purpose.

While this was generally the case, it was not a set rule. Breakfast, for example, was usually attended to by head's wife, thereby diminishing the likelihood that she would be participating in other tasks at this time.

Miserliness (oshii), covetousness (hoshii), hatred (nikui), self-love (kawai), grudge-bearing (urami), anger (haradachi), greed (yoku), arrogance (koman). Though not specifically "dusts," falsehood (uso) and flattery (tsuisho) are usually also included in this list as things Oyasama cautioned to avoid.

The hyoshigi (wooden clappers), chanpon (symbols), surigane (small gong), taiko (drum) are the four instruments played in the Morning and Evening Services.

The presence of chairs in the sanctuary of TEC was a place-based adaptation to the European context in which the center was located.

This is a smaller space than the basement-level multi-purpose room we had meals in during the seminar.

The everyday breakfast of residential life at TEC was different than the center's morning meal when the center hosted overnight events for which non-residents stayed at the center. At such times when there were "guests," fresh baguettes purchased from local bakeries were served with an assortment of jams, honey, butter, etc. Regarding this, numerous long-time TEC residents told me that they particularly liked when the center hosted people for overnight events because they get to have what they regarded as a special treat for breakfast.

Ofudesaki: literally "tip of the writing brush," refers to A 17-part collection of 1,711 waka poems, written by the foundress from 1869 to 1882 through divine inspiration from God the Parent.

Osashizu ("Divine Directions") is a written record of oral revelations given by Izo Iburi, the foundress' main disciple who after the foundress' physical passing in 1887, received the "grant of speech" from the foundress and dictated instructions through divine inspiration.

Most commonly but not exclusively from women.

This gendered allocation of labor was not absolute and occasionally male staff also engaged in meal preparation.

Because I was not a TEC resident nor a core member of the TEC community, the scenes I was exposed to were de facto "public" scenes.

The majority of the Japanese people I discussed tatemae and honne with were not people I knew through Tenrikyo contexts.

The title of this book in its cited English translation is "The anatomy of self: the individual versus society" (1986).

The model of Christianity Shih discusses is particularly reflective of a Protestant framework: the predominant Christian denomination of both his home country of Taiwan and also the United States where he had spent a significant amount of time for graduate studies and thereafter as a visiting scholar at numerous American academic institutions.

In saying "publicly performed," I am referring to both moments in highly public spaces and also between limited numbers of people in less visible spaces between people who still maintain a certain level of polite distance.

During the span of my fieldwork, the 50th anniversary of the Congo Brazzaville Church (the main Tenrikyo site in the country) was celebrated.

The website of TEC existed in Japanese, French, English, and Spanish.

In French, it is similarly called the "Service Mensuel."

At most Tenrikyo Monthly Services, these ceremonial robes are kimono for women and hakama pant suits for men.

This statement is directed more at the social dynamics of the female changing room because I have little knowledge about the social dynamics of the male changing rooms.

This is true in all instances of Tenrikyo sites of worship that I have seen in person or in photographs. It is possible, though, that there exists a Tenrikyo site I have not encountered that differs aesthetically from the norm because this component of the religion is a traditionally followed component of the religion, but not a mandated one.

I use the word "sonoral" rather than "auditory" because I wish to convey reference not only to the reception of the produced sounds in the ear but also reception of the vibrations produced through these sounds in the entire body, as was included in my own engagement with this ritual.

In English, the term "sacred object" was invariably used to refer to them, and in French, they were referred to as "objet sacré."

The sacred object remains hidden by small red curtains placed behind its small wooden doors.

I cannot say with certainty if the God the Parent is represented "through" the altar dedicated to it, or God the Parent is understood to actually dwell in the altar due to the sacred object which contains its essence. Based on my observations, this is a highly complex theological question for which there is not a conclusive and unified answer.

At TEC Monthly Services, it was common for several people present to be attending a Tenrikyo Monthly Service for the first time, largely due to the fact that Tenrikyo followers are often encouraged to invite non-followers to a Service. The majority present, though, were people who had developed a high level of familiarity with this ritual over time.

These "hierarchically important duties" include, for example, serving as the head of a lineage-based site of worship in Europe, serving as an instructor charged with teaching components of the European seminar (thereby acting as a voice of authority on the religion,) and occupying important positions at ACFJT, such as long-time permanent Japanese teachers of the center (some of whom also occupy ACFJT administrative positions ). Numerous such referenced individuals occupied all three of these categories simultaneously.

When I attended Monthly Services at the Sugimotos' mission station, at which I was often the only person in attendance outside their immediate family who lived at their house, its head, Mr. Sugimoto, in like manner made this low-pitched "oh" sound while opening the doors of the altar to God the Parent which housed similar sacred object while preparing for the Monthly Service, which he did alone while I was usually seated on a couch facing the other direction and his wife and children were busy elsewhere. This suggests that this method of opening the altar doors with this accompanying reverential sound was not done for the sake of an audience, since in this case, there basically was none.

The precise amount of time that "Shinto" has existed in Japan is an unclear and complex matter that is beyond the scope of my thesis.

As noted in the beginning portion of my thesis, important to the contextualization of these changes is that this time coincided with what is regarded as the beginning of Japanese modernity and also the time Tenrikyo was in its infancy.

I acknowledge that the precise meaning of this term is often vague and contentious.

In Tenrikyo, spiritual impurities are generally framed as "dusts" (hokori). One of the main reasons the Seated Service is performed is to "sweep" them away from one's heart.

The third refrain of the Seated Service uses the active form of the verb (harote). I sometimes heard it explained that this form of conjugation was to emphasize the purification process as an ongoing endeavor.

Shinto is commonly characterized as "animistic" by outside researchers. In the Japanese language, there is not a commonly used word that corresponds to the notion conveyed through the term "animist."

Kamidana: 神棚, written with the kanji of kami and shelf.

Including, for example, during the European Seminar and the three-day youth retreat of Palette.

Traditionally, the number four in Japanese was considered unlucky because it is sometimes pronounced shi, which is the phonetic pronunciation of the word for death, though written with a different kanji character. This number is still sometimes avoided, such as buildings not having a "fourth" floor, etc.

https://www.tenrikyo.or.jp

This may have been facilitated by my being there during the summer months when it is more common for people from overseas locations to be there.

Anthony had native or near-native competency in English.

The Besseki lectures are supposed to be verbatim the same every time, regardless of who delivers them, so they are, by default, repetitive.

Most people who did not wear Tenrikyo-specific attire appeared to wear what they would otherwise in their everyday lives rather than something nicer or more formal for the occasion.

In my observations, most often, happi coats associated with a "home site" in Japan used kanji lettering while happi coats associated with home sites of worship in Europe or other locations in which Latin letters are the primary script use Latin letter. Occasionally, the opposite was true, largely for stylistic reasons.

"Spectator" is meant to reference people not performing in the ritual.

"Japanese followers" in this instance is meant to include European-born (often adult) children of Japanese Tenrikyo families.

His wife, who was not born into the faith but participated in various Tenrikyo activities with her husband, and their adolescent daughter did not join him in this daily ritual.

Ji-young had taken introductory Japanese lessons at ACFJT, but had not studied the language enough to join in social interactions at TEC in the Japanese language

In Korea, these sacred songs are performed in Korean due to the historical relationship between Japan and Korea that rendered the use of the Japanese language and overtly Japanese cultural symbols problematic.

Often, the words were understandable to Japanese people but their deeper meanings were indicated as more difficult to discern.

This excludes small sites that don't have enough performers\ instruments for a full Service performance and the Service as it is performed at the Jiba.

This was done with a tassel of red cords referred to as a kazutori.

Toshie Miyamoto is one of the Miyamoto sisters who lived on TEC grounds as a young adult after her parents, who previously headed TEC, returned to Japan.

These three hierarchical systems also tend to be gender-based, though in the Tenrikyo system, males and females are explained to be equal, but different, in which ideally there is collaboration between the female role (ideally positioned as the "earth" or foundation) and the male role (ideally positioned as the "sky" or in a broader, overseeing position, such as a "head" position).

At the Monthly Services of the Sugimotos' mission station that I attended, there was only a partial representation of the scripted roles due to the limited number of people present.

Tenrikyo Children's Association is for children up to 14 years old and is one of the three Tenrikyo associations along with the Tenrikyo Women's Association and the Tenrikyo Young Men's Association for Tenrikyo males aged 15-40 years old.

This refers to both "members" and "non-members" as Tenrikyo is regarded as a path of spiritual development rather than a single-step door to salvation.

This included the wife of the head of TEC.

Although offerings were placed in front of these three altars every morning, the offerings placed there on the day of the Monthly Service were much more copious and also often more diverse and often involved more exceptional items.

Many of these treats had been brought by followers as gifts and souvenirs from both local and non-local sources. While placing these treats on the trays, it was common to hear comments about the various treats with mention of who and where they were from.

In this instance, my use of the word "younger" refers to mainly people in their twenties and thirties, or to a lesser degree, early forties, with women older than this often descending to the lower-level multi-purpose room where the post-Service meal was held in accordance with their age-related hierarchically higher position which distanced them from this simple task done by mainly hierarchically lower younger people and also to serve as hosts

This is reflective of an important Tenrikyo teaching that men are the sky and women are the earth and thus serve as a foundation for the faith and their families.

This was generally the case not only at post-Monthly Service meals, but also at a variety of other communal meals included as a component of TEC events.

"Kunisazuchi-no-Mikoto: in the human body, the providence of the female organ, of skin and of joining; in the world, the providence of joining in general." (The Doctrine ofTenrikyo 1993: 31).

I explain in detail this gathering from a "feminine vantage point" because, as a woman, I participated in the women's sphere of these days.

Complete title: "Tenrikyo Europe Women's Association."

This was a standard meal at TEC on such occasions that called for an inexpensive and simple meal for many people.

These women's association meeting were generally conducted in Japanese, though, on the one occasion that I saw a non-Japanese woman there, who additionally did not speak Japanese, come to one of these meetings, a certain amount of French was used to include her. The majority of people's speech remained in Japanese, though, as they were used to doing in this context. During this meeting, she occasionally looked at me, the only other non-Japanese person present, discreetly signaling her feeling somewhat out of place in this context where she did not

In saying this to me, he added that although people say that French people are racist, the Japanese are much worse. Thus, he appreciated that he was accepted into this family.

His mother never performed in the Monthly Service nor was she qualified to do so. In my observations, her presence seemed to be motivated primarily to simply be present, both for its ritual portion and the time of amical togetherness thereafter.

In the Tenrikyo faith, all followers are theoretically missionaries of the religion. In my use of this term, I wish to more specifically refer to people actively operating in this role, such as mission station families and individuals sent to TEC by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters to work at TEC or its affiliated cultural center.

And one site of worship categorized in the Tenrikyo system of organization as a "branch church" (Bordeaux Kyokai) rather than a "mission station" that I include in my general discussion of and reference to "mission stations."

When there is a marriage between a Tenrikyo man and a Tenrikyo woman, generally, the woman will become part of the man's church and thereafter, their children are part of this church. This is in accordance with the household (ie) system in Japan.

It is also possible, though somewhat less common, for women to serve as head.

In the one instance of this that had already taken place at a French mission station, it was the head of the mission station's parent church in Japan that decided it was time for the approximately thirty-year-old daughter of the acting mission head to take over the position.

In Eastern Europe, a significant portion of the population is Orthodox Christian, but there are no Tenrikyo mission stations in the countries where this is a major religion, thus why I omitted including "Orthodox Christian" in this statement.

The "pyramid" business model is a commonly present component of Japanese corporations but similarly refers to the private entrepreneurial model of "pyramid business schemes" that are both commonly practiced and sometimes viewed dubiously in the US.

I note this because I sometimes encountered the impression among Japanese people (i.e. people born and raised from Japan) that people of Japanese ancestry and Japanese physical features remained "Japanese," when this did not present itself always as the perspective of such aforementioned people.

In Bhappu's 2000 article discussed immediately hereafter, there was no mention of specifically the merchant class.

Merchants were categorically included among the lower classes. The upper class was occupied principally by the samurai class.

The most commonly followed model is for the eldest son to serve as his father's successor in accordance with this being the general model in Japanese society, though this is not always the case.

I use the term "grandparent" metaphorically to refer to sites, most commonly grand churches, that are two "generations" removed from one's "home site". This is not a term I encountered in my research.

In the Tenrikyo account of how humans came into existence, there was also a "father" involved in the first conception who thereafter became absent from this story, leaving it unclear if the original father was henceforth irrelevant or if, as I heard relayed as a theory from a core member of TEC, that this original father (who is depicted as a fish in this story) was absorbed into the original mother, thereby interpretively rendering her somewhat dualgendered.

 324 During my research, I encountered some theorization regarding if Oyasama and God the Parent remain as two separate entities, or if in fact, when it was accepted for the foundress to serve as the "Shrine of God" at the age of forty-one and/or when she left her physical body (or, in nonreligious terms: died), if she and God the Parent became one. This is a complicated theological topic that is beyond the scope of my research focus.

As a reminder to the reader, although Tenrikyo is classified as a Japanese new religion, it came about in the end half of the 19th century, thus well before the Second World War.

In this instance, non-Japanese means people not born and raised in Japan. Most Tenrikyo followers in the US, including in the San Francisco Bay area, are of Japanese ancestry.

These people are nonetheless more closely affiliated with the religion than other previously mentioned members of the broader TEC community whose affiliation with TEC is mainly through "cultural" activities rather than markedly "religious" ones.

This was an inferential rule. If someone expressly voiced a desire to attend a mission station other than their habitual site, the response they receive would be dependent on numerous factors, such as the people and context involved.

The main reason she was singled out as someone I should meet was because similar to myself, Christine was a native English speaker.

I say "often" because not all of these families had been in the Paris area for multiple decades.

I put "follower" in single quotations to convey that this is how people who attend a mission station with regularity or semi-regularity are generally categorized in the Tenrikyo system, even if not all such people would describe themselves in this way.

More specifically, these "non-Japanese" followers were French and Congolese.

Older, and higher-ranking Tenrikyo individuals on both sides proposed the two individuals as being potentially a good marital match. Upon meeting, they quickly decided to follow this recommendation and marry, but this choice was not obligatory. Such marriages are rather common amongst Japanese Tenrikyo followers.

This mission station, in accordance with the Tenrikyo system of organization, also had the branch church at which these Sugimotos were raised positioned as its parent church.

The majority of participants in the English-based Shuyoka are Americans of Japanese heritage born into the religion.

As this family is highly implicated in the faith, the line between "family contexts" and "religious contexts" is often blurred, thus in saying that their visits to Japan were Tenrikyo related, it does not imply that they were not also family\social visits as they are, in fact, largely one and the same.

Regarding this, although I was open about my self-perceived status being of that an anthropologist conducting research, this did not negate my often being viewed as a newcomer to the religion.

The heads of the German missions, along with their families, use Japanese to communicate with TEC and with the greater sphere of Tenrikyo.

During my first year of participation when there were only French and English seminar groups, Mr. Tanaka helped with the instruction of the sacred musical instruments of the Service as this is one of his specialties and also as support staff. The following year when a German-language group was added to the seminar program for the first time, Mr. Tanaka additionally served as an instructor of the theological component of the seminar.

While I do not have access to the number of followers in many of these countries highlighted, the evidence I was exposed to suggests that some of them only have a small handful of Tenrikyo followers at most.

This "youth retreat" is for people aged 15-35 years old.

Citizens of most European countries are allowed to stay in Japan for a period of ninety days without the requirement of a visa. Citizens of Austria, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom are

As stated previously, these "European-born children" were often of exclusively Japanese nationality. I specifically reference their being born in Europe in this sentence to emphasize this feature of their lived experiences.

This could be a mission station, branch church, grand church, or even Tenrikyo Church Headquarters depending on the site of worship which serves as their "home site".

Historically, physical salvation from ailments through the Sazuke was the most common way new followers embraced Tenrikyo.

"Missionary" can refer to multiple precise positions within Tenrikyo. In this instance, I wish to refer to people whose homes host mission stations.

Though this man, who was originally from South America, did acquire the designation of "Yoboku" in Tenri City through attendance of the nine Besseki lectures there and came to both this mission station and TEC for at least several Monthly Services each year, it remained somewhat unclear in my observations if he regarded himself as a "member" of the religion or if his involvement in Tenrikyo was included in a broader realm of diverse spiritual and social pursuits he was involved in.

In talking with one follower who engaged in door-to-door missionary work in the UK, it was explained to me that in both the UK and Japan, such efforts only minimally result in new followers being drawn to the faith. In engaging in such efforts, even minimal gains of new followers to the faith (or people who are somehow touched by its teachings) are deemed worthy of such significant efforts on the part of those charged with spreading the fragrance of Tenrikyo. Furthermore, such missionary efforts are regarded as not only potentially beneficial for the recipient of the teachings, but as also beneficial for the person conducting the missionary work.

In the original French texts, the word used is "sectaire" for which a close equivalent in English is "cult-like," which is the word I employ in my translations in this and the next pages.

Original text : observe et analyse le phénomène sectaire, coordonne l'action préventive et répressive des pouvoirs publics à l'encontre des dérives sectaires, et informe le public sur les risques et les dangers auxquels il est exposé.

My inclusion of these groups is not to imply that these groups are, in fact, "cults," but to demonstrate that this 1995 French list of "sects" includes numerous groups that are commonly regarded as "religious movements" in many other countries.

French: "secte."

Missionary work is considered one way through which people conduct hinokishin.

Because in Tenrikyo cosmology, people's souls are in a constant state of being born into a body, leaving their body via death, and being reborn into another body, the potential positive benefits were not relegated exclusively to this lifetime, but also to future lives.

This group of friends also included young French men, though on this occasion, they were not included because the activity was a sleepover which was by default a single-sex activity as at TEC, men and women only stay in the same room when they are married.

In this instance, "younger" and "older" refers largely to their relative ages in relation to each other rather than their absolute chronological ages.

During the seminar, it was common for women who often wear makeup in other social contexts to forgo wearing it during the seminar, particularly as the program went on and social barriers between those present were increasingly removed.

I say "coming from" rather than "were from" because participants were similarly somewhat commonly immigrants in these countries, or otherwise from abroad for shorter periods for which the term "immigrant" does not fit.

The diversity of seminar participants was even more extensive the second year I took part in the program because that year, for the first time, a German-language cohort was additionally added to the program.

In Japan, this is most commonly the three-month spiritual development course of Shuyoka. In Korea, it is similarly a three-month course of a different name. In the Republic of the Congo, similar to at TEC, it is a threeweek course.

Or, in the case of participants in the seminar held at TEC coming from European countries other than France, their continent.

I discuss the followers' dormitories in Tenri City in further detail in chapter nine.

To a certain degree, this shared similarity was particularly pronounced in contexts composed largely of Japanese followers, as there was somewhat of a blur between Japanese and "Tenrikyo" culture, thereby encouraging Japanese Tenrikyo social actors to be particularly at the core of this way of being.

Because "kyō" is the standard Japanese suffix used in the names of religions which translates approximately to "the teachings of …," "Tenrikyo culture" and "Tenri bunka (culture)" present sometimes in Japanese texts contains the same meaning.

In Japan, shoes are generally removed before entering any dwelling. At TEC, although shoes are worn in almost all areas of the main building, shoes are removed before entering the sanctuary.

My use of the words "myth" and "mythology" are not meant to convey a judgement on the factuality of these religious teachings but to reference the religious "story" that is contained in them.

This performance was regarded as a simile of the TEC Monthly Service rather than a "real" Monthly Service.

This statement inferentially excludes the several participants who had since passed away.

The following year, I participated in the French cohort of the seminar. In this group, the subject of if this allocated time should really be referred to as "hinokishin" since this twice-daily scheduled block of time consisted of required chores rather than voluntary acts of service performed out of gratitude to God the Parent was raised. After some discussion on the matter, it was generally agreed that these allocated blocks of time were to practice the act of performing hinokishin rather than necessarily hinokishin itself.

During my first year of participation in the seminar, the children of two women participating in the French cohort stayed with them at TEC during the three week training, in one case a single child and in the other, four children.

As a reminder, the performance of the Service is taught as a means conveyed by the foundress to "sweep away" the "eight dusts" that have accumulated on our hearts over the span of many lifetimes, thereby hindering our physical, social, and emotional well-being.

This is an approximate estimate of the amount of time it took to walk to a bakery. In my experiences of participating in this hinokishin task, we went to two different bakeries because one was closed during part of the seminar for their annual summer vacation. The time between TEC and these two bakeries varied slightly.

This is excluding the ritual space at the front of the sanctuary because it was not possible to casually join this highly ritualized duty mid-way through its execution

I do not wish to imply that all Tenrikyo sites were in strong accordance with this social modality and manner of engaging in organized hinokishin activities as I did not observe all Tenrikyo sites or regions in which this religion was present to know how they existed in all contexts.

This accentuated look into Tenrikyo's existence in the US was mainly due to the sizeable presence of the religion there, the connectedness Tenrikyo in Europe and Tenrikyo in the US and my shared linguistic and cultural commonality with followers there that facilitated our exchanges.

This comment was made in reference to Reader's slightly earlier reference to the constant presence of followers polishing the wooden floors of the outer areas of the Main Sanctuary of Tenrikyo in Tenri City as hinokishin.

In a literal sense, it is the sacred point of the Jiba in Tenri City that is of central focus in the faith, but as the altars to God the Parent at TEC and other Tenrikyo sites are representative of this sacred point, and furthermore, are

This refers to TEC staff and other core members.

Miserliness (oshii), covetousness (hoshii), hatred (nikui), self-love (kawai) grudge-bearing (urami), anger (haradachi), greed (yoku), arrogance (koman).

In some more private settings, the offerings may be put out with slightly less strict adherence to the precisely specified movements, depending on the site and the people charged with overseeing them.

These baguettes are a special treat for residential staff who only have them on special occasions, such as when there are guests at TEC, in comparison to the industrially produced sliced white bread from a supermarket that they usually have.

It should be noted that two Japanese women who are core members of the TEC community, both of whom entered the religion through marrying men of the faith, who have mission-stations at their European homes were

As mentioned previously, several of the core women of the TEC community were Japanese women who came to follow the Tenrikyo faith later in life. In such cases, although they were not born and raised in the Tenrikyo religion, they were raised in Japanese culture with which Tenrikyo culture strongly intersects.

Futatsu-hitotso

In Tenrikyo, women are regarded as the foundation of the collective whole, whether that be a marital relationship, a family, a group of Tenrikyo followers, etc.

My personally gained knowledge of the content of similar Tenrikyo trainings held in other contexts is principally from conversations with followers from Korea, the United States, and the Republic of the Congo who have gone through and/or take part in putting on trainings similar to the European Tenrikyo Seminar in their respective countries.

The assemblage of these pages was published in their entirety in book form the following year, along with their translations through the joint efforts of multiple local young adult core members of the TEC community.

At TEC, as well as at other Tenrikyo sites of significant size, it was necessary to master these dances to perform in the Service. At smaller sites, such as the numerous lineage-based sites in Europe, there was a smaller number of people at Monthly Services, and thus a smaller number of potential performers for the Service, thereby rendering the criteria to serve as a performer in any number of ritual roles less stringent. Furthermore, at these lineage-based sites, emphasis was placed on guiding newcomers to the faith and shaping them into followers, thereby prompting the encouragement of their active participation in performing in the Service in any number of roles, even if they

The Service songs are in an old dialect of the Osaka region where the foundress lived and furthermore, are poetic and less than straightforward. Thus, a basic competency in modern Japanese would not render a person capable of understanding these sacred songs. Even for native speakers, they are not straightforward to understand.

As stated previously, the meanings contained in these songs are often viewed as being unclear or multilayered in which they can be better understood in association with their accompanying dance gestures.

Japan and France are included in an agreement between numerous countries which allows young adults below the age of thirty to live and work in a partner country for one year. (There are some exceptions to this general summary of the program.) It is common for Japanese people to come to France on these working holiday visas.

The Japanese word almost invariably used was "sugoi."

"Learning sessions" held at TEC most Sunday, excluding when the Monthly Service and other events are going on.

The English cohort during my initial year of participation in the seminar was based in the same room as that of the French-cohort during my second year of participation, thereby making my description of the space we used the same for both years.

The original Japanese words used to reference the Eight Dusts are identical in all contexts. The translated English versions are generally the same, though because some of these words are difficult to translate, there was the possibility of some variability in their translations.

Some people participated in the seminar as a student one year and helped with the seminar as staff other years. The second year I participated in the seminar, a young Japanese woman raised in the religion who was in Europe for a university exchange helped with the seminar as support staff during a portion of it, but also took part in attending certain classes as a student.

This performance was not considered an actual service performance, but rather a "practice" performance both because it was not performed on the second Sunday of the month, TEC's designated day for this ritual, and also because there were no specific requirements for performers as there were for the "real" Monthly Service of TEC.

In English (and French) Tenrikyo discourse, "sincere" and "sincerity" are commonly used terms which are most often a translation of the Japanese word used in the religion of "makoto" ("まこと,") which is generally written in Tenrikyo with syllabic hiragana characters as it was written by the foundress in the religious texts she composed rather than with kanji character.

I say "observable results" because, as mentioned previously, such efforts are positioned as not only potentially producing observable results at the present time, but also in the positive results which may be produced in more indirect ways and potentially in future lives. Thus, the lack of immediate results generated through one's actions is not necessarily indicative of a more global lack of effect.

Several years later, when meeting with one of the Yagishita brothers after my two-year period of concentrated fieldwork had ended, I asked if Stephanie still came to this mission station. I was told that she didn't, accompanied by the explanation that since Masae had been living in Tenri City for the past several years, where she initially completed the two-year graduate seminary program then worked as an English teacher at a Tenri high school, and Stephanie came to their mission station principally as Masae's friend, that she had not been coming in recent years since Masae was not there.

I use the hedge word "largely" because although he was only physically present at TEC for a short time, his memory, his photo prominently displayed at TEC in this year's seminar participant photo, and the continued connection maintained with members of the "TEC community," such as through shared moments in Tenri City, rendered his presence at TEC partially continued after he was no longer physically there.

Two of these referenced individuals had been raised at Tenrikyo lineage-based sites of worship with their parents in the role of head minister(one in Japan and one in Korea) while a Japanese young woman raised in a Tenrikyo family who was actively involved with their designated church and with the religion, though not as a head minister family, also participated in the seminar part-time while also helping with the program as support staff.

Kenta, like most TEC staff, was raised at a Tenrikyo church where his family was based and charged with an official position, which in the case of Kenta as with the majority of TEC staff, was by his father occupying the position of church head minister.

This statement is an overgeneralization and not reflective of numerous subtleties, including those connected with the fact that "national cultures" are not homogenous entities.

Kenta mentioned a similar impression common among Japanese people in Japan that the way of being displayed by young Japanese adults returning to Japan after having spent time living in the US, such as for studies, was often shocking, though rather than being perceived as arrogant or prideful it was their cutting directness, particularly in instances in which such as an approach was considered ill-advised and rude.

Yuta being raised by his father rather than by his Japanese mother is not typical. Usually, the children of Japanese women are raised predominantly by their mother, including in cases of divorce, and thus are generally more inculcated with their mother's "Japanese side" than Yuta was.

To the best of my knowledge, there were no other Korean followers in France. During one of the three-day annual youth retreats at TEC, I met a British-Korean teenager whose mother was an ardent follower of Tenrikyo in the UK who could approximately be described as a follower of the religion himself, though his knowledge of or level of integration into the religion was not very developed when I met him.

André referred to these people collectively as "they," though whom precisely "they" referenced was never precisely defined but was presumably the head minister's family and grand church officials.

I would like to note, I can neither affirm nor refute this due to my complete lack of knowledge on the matter.

Innen: Tenrikyo term which can be translated approximately to "causality" or to draw a comparative with other traditions, "karmic destiny".

This mission station, similar to all other mission stations in Europe, was home-based.

This Japanese expression is commonly used in casual contexts.

The meaning of these words is easily translatable, but the common use of them, including intonation, as they exist within their larger cultural context is not included in doing so, thus the culturally situated feeling associated with this phrase is only partially conveyed.

Guests, such as people studying judo under a Tenrikyo person, also stay at dormitories even though they're not followers.

As previously explained, Tenrikyo women who marry Tenrikyo men from a different lineage become part of the husband's household and lineage, thus Tenrikyo women are commonly part of two different church lineages during their lifetime.

All the mission stations in Paris, which is located approximately 110 kilometers from Nathalie's hometown, and thus the closest possible options to join, were all headed by Japanese people.

Mary was the only female instructor during the two years I participated in the program, which was in accordance with the tendency for women to serve in supportive roles and men to serve as instructors.

Additionally, during the second year of my participation, a German-speaking guest instructor from Japan who had studied in Germany was also brought to TEC to teach a portion of the German program that was held for the first time at TEC.

In reference to her brother taking over this position, which he had not actually initially wished to do and experienced significant difficulties in his initial years of taking on this responsibility, she noted that she had never been considered for the position (as a woman).

This is largely due to the influx of Japanese migrants to Hawaii around the turn of the 19th century beginning in the 1880s.

Mary came to TEC to serve as a visiting seminar instructor two years previously. Because there were no students in the English cohort the first year she came, and thus she did not have the opportunity to teach, she was invited again the year she was my instructor.

In the diagram, the interconnectedness between the North American and Hawaiian spheres is depicted with the openness between the two circles.

This LA-based Mission Headquarters was categorically similar to TEC, though different in both size and historical context, with the former founded in 1934 and the latter in 1970.

This was a conclusion I easily came to on my own from being aware of local food prices but was not something I ever heard any staff or core members of TEC mention.

This person assisted with the study of the Service instruments the first year and also with the book-based classes the second year of my participation in the seminar when there was a German-language cohort.

In this instance, I am referring to Yuta as "European" despite his mixed heritage and that he also spent multiple years living in Japan because he was raised primarily by his English father, had spent the majority of his life in the UK, and English was his primary native language.

In one-on-one interactions with this woman, she spoke as a wise and knowing authority, thereby suggesting that her deference to her husband was based on tradition and the assumption of social roles rather than a lack of knowledge or confidence.

This ambiguity between the foundress (i.e. Oyasama) and God the Parent (i.e. Oyagami) is something I heard discussed by numerous Tenrikyo followers throughout my research, including TEC officials. This lack of clarity is also

This is the date of the event that is included in Tenrikyo texts, trainings, and discourse.

I say "ideally shared" because, in reality, the internal intention of each follower could vary depending on both the particular individual and the moment.

All lineage-based Tenrikyo sites are located outside of Tenri City. Thus, visits to these lineage-based sites are also visits to other towns and in many cases, regions of this country.

Depending on the particular lineage structure to which one is rooted, these "parent" churches are the supervising branch church and/ or grand church of one's "home site".

As a reminder, the Miyamoto sisters are the daughters of a former TEC head couple born and raised at TEC where they continued to live during their young adult years discussed in chapter four.

This weekly distribution was organized by the Europe Young Men's Association but was open to anyone wishing to help.

Several such people, for example, still lived in France and remained part of the "core" TEC community.

Kanro: literally "sweet heavenly dew", though often this was understood in modern times in a more metaphorical, rather than material, sense.

Local Tenrikyo sites of worship are not required to have all three altars, which are expensive to purchase, and some do not. The local mission station I attended, for example, had altars for God the Parent and also for Oyasama, both of which were indicated to me to house a sacred object, but did not have one for the ancestors. Despite the

The facultative "s" is to include both God the Parent and the soul of the foundress as the original parents of all humanity.

I use the word "many" rather than "most" because I encountered some followers who did not ascribe to various Tenrikyo beliefs, including the literal significance of Tenri City being the exact physical location of where humanity originated and where God the Parent and Oyasama currently reside; as I am not knowledgeable on the inner-feelings\ thoughts of most followers, I choose to not make summarizing statement of the beliefs of Tenrikyo followers as a whole.

As explained on an official Tenrikyo website affiliated with Church Headquarters: "The expression "Kagura Service" (Jpn: Kagura-zutome かぐらづとめ) comes from the fact that wearing the masks are a vital part of this

Zutome and tsutome are the same word, but with slightly different phonetic pronunciations.

The Monthly Service performed at the Jiba on the 26th of each month is regarded as the real Monthly Service of Tenrikyo, all other Monthly Services are regarded as analogous renderings of it.

Even if these referenced Europeans were not brought up as Christians themselves, it is reasonable to think that they were aware of its central doctrine.

In addition to the brief presence of several Tenrikyo missionaries in London at the beginning on the 20th century, it is possible that there have been Tenrikyo followers in Europe not declared to the religious organization significantly before TEC's founding date of 1970. Overall, though, and even for some time after TEC's founding, there was not a notable presence of Tenrikyo in Europe.

Original text: Ces auberges n'offrent pas seulement le gite et le couvert aux pèlerins ; elles sont aussi l'occasion pour eux de faire l'expérience, pendant quelques jours, d'une intense vie communautaire (repas pris en commun, chambre collectives…)

These followers' dormitories offer the possibility to take meals in their designated dining areas during specified times.

At these followers' dormitories, those staying there bathe in single-sex communal bathing areas at specified times of the evening. This is reflective of the fact that single-sex bathing facilities are a normalized component of Japanese culture by means of clothing-free, single sex communal baths (which are often hot springs) being a common activity of relaxation for Japanese people.

Most often, followers stay in shared rooms.

Women usually become part of their husband's lineage upon marriage. As marriage is positioned as the ideal adult life model in Tenrikyo, most Tenrikyo adults are married.

This is particularly true for adult males. During my research, I encountered multiple American and Brazilian female followers who were married to men not born in the faith and thus remained rooted in their "home site" of birth.

Mr. Sugimoto's other brother lived in the Los Angeles area where he headed a lineage-based site and was also highly involved in the L.A., Californian, and North American Tenrikyo scenes.

I heard very little about Mr. Sugimoto's married sister, who if married to a Tenrikyo follower, normally would no longer belong to the Sugimoto household nor to their church lineage.

This includes, for example, staying at the followers' dormitory of her new lineage when in Tenri City and attendance of the Monthly Service at the grand church of her new lineage.

Sometimes some social connections may be already present through time spent together in other locations, most commonly Tenri City, and through social connections via others with which they are linked.

I would like to note that the distinction between these two categories was not absolute and depending on the particular scene taking place and the particular social actors involved, there was sometimes a lack of absolute adherence to this two-tiered social model.

The Sazuke is a centrally important component of Tenrikyo. Initiated members, known as "Yoboku" (literally: useful timber,) administer a ritualized healing prayer to people with physical ailments. During interviews, I often heard that the Yoboku is not the one healing the person from their physical ailment, but rather that they simply serve as a conduit through which the foundress or God the Parent travels through them to work on the inner heart of the recipient, which can thereby heal their external physical ailment.

As a reminder, this text is used as part of the curriculum in the European Seminar and similarly in numerous other Tenrikyo trainings.

The second Shinbashira was often credited with having explained that all religious teachings and scientific advances were conveyed to humanity by God the Parent.

Speed dating events are not a common Tenrikyo practice; this event was somewhat of a novelty organized by the wife of an American-based minister.

In talking with followers and posing questions relating to gendered spaces and tasks, I often received reflections on how much of that comes from specifically Tenrikyo and how much is actually derived from Japanese culture which over time became mixed with Tenrikyo practices.

The other two main countries outside of Europe with which TEC was linked was Japan and the Republic of the Congo.

Kenta did not attend the Evening Service in the Main Sanctuary that particular evening, which dispelled my notion that it was positioned as almost obligatory for all "serious" followers to do when in Tenri City and thus able to do so.

This is because in common usage, "Tenri City" and "Jiba" are used interchangeably to refer to the pilgrimage town as it is chiefly to the sacred point of the Jiba located therein to which one is making a pilgrimage when travelling to this town.

Kawaii is a Japanese word meaning "cute" which is now recognized internationally somewhat due to the predominance of this word in Japanese pop culture.

In Japan, participating in an extracurricular school activity is a standard part of the high school student experience.

My saying that the "community" feature of this collection of social actors was "obvious" is, as most anthropological assessments are, an informed interpretation on the part of the author (myself).

This consistency excluded the first part of the Monthly Service performed around the Jiba on the 26th of each month.

"Visually non-Japanese performers" refers to followers not of Asian ancestry.

I heard that sacred objects are also placed in altars dedicated to Oyasama, but for my discussion, I will focus on those inside the alters dedicated to God the Parent.

In my observations, there was a lack of absolute clarity regarding if the foundress also dwells at the Jiba or in her adjacent sanctuary.

I observed the young French woman, Nathalie, who participated in the European Seminar with me do this.

This class was during my second year of participation in this training for which I took part in the French-language cohort and was focused on the theoretical study of the Service dances.

This refers to people who were routinely around Japanese people in the Paris area, such as through their regular participation in French-Japanese language exchange meetups and other ways that rendered them familiar with notable changes that Japanese people commonly traverse when increasingly "adapting" to France.

I sometimes heard reference of the frequently bilingual nature of Tenrikyo sites in the US at which both English and Japanese were in use, but at TEC, there were more languages in use.

This was excluding the one French core member fluent in Japanese.

This statement excludes the two Frenchmen who were also core members of the "TEC community."

As stated numerous time previously, core members of TEC were also aware that I was conducting research, which did not negate my position as a person new to, learning about, and participating in the religion.

Ici, j'utilise le terme « nationalité » pour désigner le pays où les personnes sont nées et ont été élevées, quelle(s)

Une sous-section suivante de cette introduction est consacrée à la catégorie de « religion » au Japon et aux raisons pour lesquelles Tenrikyo appartient à cette catégorie.

L'Association culturelle franco-japonaise de TENRI (ACFJT), associée au TEC et à Tenrikyo, et située dans le centre de Paris.

Je n'ai jamais rencontré officiellement les autres membres du personnel pour discuter de la possibilité de mener des recherches sur ce groupe. Mais ils étaient au courant de mon travail, comme l'étaient la plupart des personnes avec lesquelles j'ai passé du temps tout au long de mon travail sur le terrain.

Même si je n'étais pasdu moins selon ma propre perceptionun « membre » de Tenrikyo, je faisais partie de la « communauté TEC ».

Comme je l'expliquerai plus loin dans ce texte, bien qu'ayant vécu à Paris pendant cette longue période, je ne puis être considérée comme une « Parisienne de souche », puisque étant née et ayant grandi en Alaska.

Occasionnellement, la limite à l'intérieur de laquelle je pouvais maintenir mon statut d'anthropologue non-Tenrikyo (plutôt que d'adhérent ou de praticien de la foi) était floue, comme cela peut arriver aux chercheurs très impliqués dans de tels contextes.

Les personnes dont je parle et qui, indirectement, n'ont pas donné de réponse positive à mes demandes d'entretien étaient japonaises et, de plus, n'occupaient pas de postes hiérarchiquement élevés dans la religion Tenrikyo ou à la CET, ce qui a pu contribuer à leur appréhension de servir de sources d'autorité orale sur la TEC et la foi Tenrikyo, bien que mes demandes d'entretien ne le visaient pas.

Je voudrais répéter que j'ai essayé d'être délibérément franche avec les personnes, en leur expliquant que je menais des recherches anthropologiques pour ma thèse. Ainsi, la possibilité de l'inclusion de ces discussions informelles dans mes conclusions de recherche était ouvertement exprimée.

Innen : bien que ce mot existe dans la langue japonaise de manière générale, son utilisation dans Tenrikyo est quelque peu différente, reflétant le sens que j'explique dans le corps de ce texte.

おつとめ Bien que ce soit le nom principal du rituel du Service, il existe d'autres noms que je développerai plus tard.

Comme je l'expliquais dans le premier chapitre, j'ai été connecté au TEC principalement par le biais d'études dans son centre culturel affilié pendant près de deux ans, avant que ma thèse ne se concentre sur ce sujet. J'ai également continué à être quelque peu connecté à ce monde social après avoir décidé de mettre fin à cette période de deux ans de travail de terrain concentré.

La deuxième partie de cette section introductive traite de la religion Tenrikyo et de l'histoire de son développement, ainsi que de l'histoire de la présence initiale de cette religion en Europe, et de la fondation du TEC

Cette distribution était officiellement une activité de l'Association européenne des jeunes hommes, mais elle était ouverte à toute personne souhaitant y participer. J'ai régulièrement participé à cette distribution pendant deux saisons d'hiver. Environ la moitié des personnes qui participaient à cette activité du dimanche soir étaient de jeunes adultes non-Tenrikyo (comme ceux mentionnés ci-dessus). Lors de ces sorties, au cours desquelles nous nous sommes le plus souvent répartis en deux groupes d'environ quatre à huit personnes, nous circulions le long de routes déterminées à la recherche de personnes à qui proposer notre nourriture et notre boisson. L'atmosphère était amicale, emprunte d'un sentiment de camaraderie, et les conversations nombreuses. En plus de l'effort altruiste, ces moments de sociabilité se sont indubitablement avérés être agréables pour ceux qui y participaient.

Il est possible, bien que nettement moins fréquent, que des femmes occupent le poste de ministre en chef. Mais ce n'est le cas pour aucun des résidents du TEC avec lesquels je me suis entretenue ou dont j'ai entendu parler.

La « culture TEC » et la « culture Tenrikyo » sont largement, mais pas complètement, synonymes.

Ces rôles genrés sont les plus couramment suivis, mais il existe aussi une variété d'autres modèles. Les femmes assument parfois le rôle de leader dans un lieu de culte de Tenrikyo. De même, en dehors de la question de savoir qui occupe ces postes de direction religieuse, la manière dont les rôles du mari et de la femme sont plus largement compris et mis en oeuvre diffère, et reflète de nombreux facteurs qui dépassent cette perspective religieuse, tels que leur personnalité individuelle, leurs antécédents familiaux et culturels, et leur milieu social actuel.

C'est le terme que quelqu'un connaissant bien cette communauté a utilisé pour la décrire lorsque je lui ai demandé s'il y avait quelque chose dont je devrais être conscient si je faisais ma recherche de thèse sur ce groupe alors que j'envisageais cette possibilité.

Au cours de mon travail sur le terrain, le 50e anniversaire de l'église du Congo Brazzaville (le principal site de Tenrikyo dans le pays) a été célébré.

La plupart des personnes qui ne portaient pas de vêtements spécifiques à Tenrikyo semblaient porter ce qu'elles porteraient autrement dans leur vie quotidienne, plutôt que quelque chose de plus beau ou de plus formel pour l'occasion.

Ces catégories ne s'excluent pas mutuellement. Tous les « membres principaux » de la communauté TEC n'étaient pas japonais et tous les Japonais de ce groupe n'étaient pas des membres principaux.

Bien que généralement à Tenrikyo, il faut avoir atteint le statut de Yoboku pour être interprète dans les sites importants de Tenrikyo, ce qui est le cas de TEC, j'ai vu, au cours de mon travail sur le terrain, deux exemples de

Dans la foi Tenrikyo, tous les adeptes sont théoriquement des missionnaires de la religion. Dans mon utilisation de ce terme, je souhaite me référer plus spécifiquement aux personnes qui jouent ce rôle, comme les familles des stations missionnaires et les personnes envoyées au TEC par le siège de l'église de Tenrikyo pour travailler au TEC ou à son centre culturel affilié.

Sauf si l'église en question est une « grande église », auquel cas elle est directement supervisée par le siège de l'églisede Tenrikyo.

Bien que la « communauté TEC » ait plusieurs niveaux et comprenne un « noyau » très soudé, les nouveaux venus et les personnes moins impliquées dans le groupe ont été accueillis avec détermination, souvent en faisant des efforts pour les inclure dans le groupe. Cela s'explique en grande partie par l'accent mis par la religion sur la fraternité humaine et sur l'importance d'une collaboration et d'une amitié harmonieuses, ainsi que par l'importance accordée au travail missionnaire pour amener davantage de personnes sur le chemin de Tenrikyo et les y ancrer solidement. Malgré ces efforts, il y avait souvent dans la pratique une démarcation observable entre le « noyau » et les membres plus périphériques du groupe.

Je dis « venant de » plutôt que « étaient de » parce que les participants étaient de la même manière assez communément des immigrants dans ces pays, ou bien des étrangers pour des périodes plus courtes pour lesquelles le terme « immigrant » ne convient pas.

La diversité des participants aux séminaires était encore plus grande la deuxième année où j'ai participé au programme, car cette année-là, pour la première fois, un enseignement en allemand a été ajouté au programme.

Au Japon, c'est le plus souvent le cours de développement spirituel de trois mois de Shuyoka. En Corée, il s'agit également d'un cours de trois mois portant un nom différent. En République du Congo, comme au TEC, c'est un cours de trois semaines.

Dans une certaine mesure, cette similitude était particulièrement prononcée dans les contextes composés en grande partie d'adeptes japonais, car il y avait un certain flou entre la culture japonaise et la culture « Tenrikyo », ce qui encourageait les acteurs sociaux japonais des Tenrikyo à être particulièrement au coeur de cette façon d'être.

Les adeptes venant de l'étranger sont autorisés à assister à ces conférences consécutivement dans un laps de temps plus court en raison d'une allocation faite en considération de la difficulté potentielle pour les adeptes de venir à la ville de Tenri depuis l'étranger neuf fois séparément.

Selon mes observations, il y avait un manque de clarté absolu quant à savoir si la fondatrice habitait également au Jiba ou dans son sanctuaire adjacent.

Je dis « généralement tout le monde » parce qu'il y avait des occasions où des personnes qui ne suivaient pas le service du matin et/ou du soir dans le sanctuaire, comme le jour de la vente de charité annuelle du centre, ont choisi de s'abstenir de prendre part à cette performance rituelle.

Discussion que le chef a eu lors d'une classe de deuxième année donnée au Séminaire européen, axée sur l'étude théorique des danses du Serviceet à laquelle j'avais participé dans la cohorte francophone.

Comme indiqué à plusieurs reprises, les membres du TEC étaient également conscients du fait que je menais des recherches, ce qui n'enlève rien à ma position en tant que personne novice, connaissant la religion et y participant.

Embodying Tenrikyo through the vocalization of the Songs for the Service

The Seated Service songs, along with the thirteen other songs of the Mikagura-uta, were performed at TEC in the same manner as they were at other Tenrikyo sites throughout the world 279 , thereby encouraging a non-site-specific commonality between dispersed Tenrikyo sites of worship. As previously explained, six men would play the percussion "men's instruments" on the left of the stage, accompanied for the Seated Service portion of this ritual (see image hereafter) by one man charged with counting 280 the number of repetitions of each of the three Japanese missionaries charged with making efforts to spread the faith in this land. The specifics of this were often partially based on individual interpretations rather than established legal and/or social guidelines, thereby rendering different approaches to be taken by different followers and mission station families.

Generally, in France, one was not permitted to approach others to talk to them about one's religion in public spaces unless specific authorization had been granted to the group to do so. This stipulation was equally observable in the missionary efforts of other religious groups, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, who in France could often be seen stationed in front of easily transportable religious displays with textual materials to distribute to anyone who wished to stop and talk with them. In contrast to how they engage in this activity in numerous other countries, in France, they did not take the initiative to approach people.

Despite the dispersal of the Tenrikyo faith in France being subject to more restraints than in many other countries, I would like to specify that the French governmental organization "Miviludes 388 " dedicated to "observing and analyzing 'cult-like 389 ' phenomenon, coordinating preventative and repressive action of public powers against cult-like misdirection and to inform the public about the risks and dangers to which they are exposed 390 " does not indicate that missionary pursuits commonly engaged in the Tenrikyo religion in Japan (and other countries) such as going to doorto-door, public displays of religiosity, or other overt demonstrations to be included in this French governmental organization's definition of "sectarian misdirection." According to the explanation given on the organization's official website under the question, "What is a sectarian misdirection?" it is explained that:

388 "Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les derives sectaires" Although one definition of the French word "secte" is equivalent to the commonly neutral English word of (religious) sect, its most common usage contains the same underlying connotations as the English word of "cult."

Propagating a transnationally shared "Tenrikyo culture" in a localized context One shared component that linked the seminar that took place at TEC to this broader "Tenrikyo culture" was the similarity it shared with other Tenrikyo trainings. Most prominent was its close resemblance to the three-month spiritual development course of Shuyoka held in Tenri City that served as an important formative experience in the lives of many followers, including many of the core members of the "TEC community." This resemblance was commented on by multiple people included in my research population familiar with both programs. The European Seminar and Shuyoka were discussed as being similar to other religious training programs held in both Tenri City and also at non-lineage based centers in the United States, Korea, Brazil, and the Republic of the Congo according to discussions I had with followers over the course of my fieldwork who had firsthand familiarity with them. Given this evoked similitude, participating in the seminar at TEC meant also partially taking part in the non-place specific pedagogy and experience of similar religious training programs held elsewhere.

When discussing the role of such Tenrikyo trainings in the transmission of a religious base and model of spiritual development, Shuyoka merits specific attention due to the prominent role it held in the formative experiences of many core members of the "TEC community," and those of Tenrikyo followers based in other geographic locations. It was positioned as the principal spiritual formation program in the religion, rendering it a familiar frame of reference for the content it conveyed and also for its structure and role in cultivating a deepened relationship to the faith. Followers born into the religion, particularly those in Japan, typically (though not always) attended Shuyoka as young adults, thus encouraging its teachings and its experience to significantly contribute to who they were as adult members of the religion.

The most common language of delivery for this program was Japanese, but Shuyoka programs in other languages were also held in an effort to render the program accessible to a wider range of followers. As of April 2016, approximately 662,000 people had completed the Shuyoka program since it was established in 1941 (Tenrikyo online 2016b). In addition to their Japanese language sessions which started a new cohort every month, Shuyoka trainings in English were held every year along with sessions in other languages such as Thai, Chinese, Nepali, Portuguese, French, and Spanish with varying levels of frequency. In thinking about TEC gatherings and the people who were habitually a part of them, numerous sub-spheres of this group that formed a broader "community" are viewable. Similar to other subspheres of this broader social collectivity, the sphere of these dispersed European followers that was created and recreated at TEC was largely continuous over time, though not constantly present at the center. Furthermore, this sub-sphere was partially, though not entirely, connected to other sub-spheres of the broader group which also existed at and were linked to TEC, such as the TEC Monthly Services and the non-markedly religious events held at (or associated with) the center which semi-regularly brought together locally living followers and non-followers, such as those previously discussed who were connected to TEC via ACFJT.

For most core members of the "TEC community," when coming to TEC for communal activities, they were coming to a warmly regarded social and physical world that they had known for significant periods of time. Furthermore, for these core members, such events served as social reunions which could be rightly likened to "family reunions" due to the longevity and nature of the relationships between many members of this inner group. In any given year, far more people participated in the program as staff (a category which included both instructors and support staff) individual situations were commonly not talked about during the seemingly harmonious collective scenes that came about at TEC in which the principal focus was on being together and taking part in whatever activity was being engaged in, rather than on the precisely defined positions and conceptualizations of each person. I contend that rather than this multiplicity of ideas being a hindrance to the fabric of the "TEC community," it was, in fact, a facilitator of it.

What was of central importance to the construction and existence of this group was not uniformity of thought but rather lived togetherness and connections.

In discussing the less than clear perspective regarding the possibility of Stephanie becoming a Tenrikyo follower expressed by this Yagishita sibling, I use the word "optimistically" because attracting new followers to this mission station was an ongoing ambition of both this individual and his family who together constituted this lineage-based site. As extensively discussed, acquiring new followers was also a goal of the broader religious sphere of Tenrikyo that was circulated throughout its official and unofficial discourse, followers, and sites, including TEC. In the evangelical model put forth, followers were encouraged to make efforts to spread the path to others, even when their efforts did not seem likely to bear fruit. Accompanying this aim were recounted instances in which the "sincere 466 " efforts of people working to spread the faith produced observable results 467 , often through a person or people eventually coming to embrace it in concert with the physical, spiritual, emotional, and/or social benefits experienced by that person, which in the cosmological model of Tenrikyo are all interrelated. Commonly unstated but implied in this discourse was the additional desirable result that the religion, and most often the site of worship and connected lineage of the person who made such "sincere efforts," gained an additional follower.

The three participants present for the first week had all undergone the necessary rites in Tenri City to become Yoboku. Nathalie, who was the newest member of this group to the faith, was planning to do so several months later, which she then did.

My description of Ji-young is slightly longer than those of the other French-cohort participants for several reasons. Firstly, as the only Paris-based member of this cohort, she was more regularly present at TEC than the other individuals and thus was a more involved and present member of the "TEC community." Furthermore, she was representative of the diasporic Tenrikyo presence outside of Japan and Europe. Additionally included in my reasoning for dedicating a slightly longer discussion to Ji-young than those of the other cohort participants discussed in this chapter is that André, Nathalie, and Baptiste were all members of Bordeaux Kyokai, thereby rendering them all representative of the smaller community of this French branch church.

Ji-young: a connector to another diasporic Tenrikyo sphere

Ji-young came to France from Korea approximately ten years prior to the time of my fieldwork for graduate studies and thereafter secured employment in a French company. She was the only Korean Tenrikyo follower in France 484 during my fieldwork and thus was not representative of a large presence of Korean followers in my research population. She was representative, though, of TEC's connectedness to the wider Tenrikyo diaspora and also of the significant presence in the TEC religious community of individuals who were neither French nor Japanese. Furthermore, since Korea was one of the main countries outside of Japan to have a presence of Tenrikyo, Jiyoung also served as a representative of this other prominent diasporic sphere of the religion. country and had also already attended the nine identical Besseki lectures which also covered the basic tenets of the faith. The culturally and linguistically associated reasons she cited for wanting to participate in the European Seminar were in accordance with the explanations offered by other followers who had already taken part in a similar training in their home country but chose to participate in the European Seminar.

Like other followers at TEC, Ji-young's affiliation with the religion and with its "members" was not only through TEC but also, and principally, through her "home site," which in her case was in Korea. Included below is a diagram of her connection to both TEC and to her church in Korea, which was in turn organizationally linked with its supervising "parent" grand church in Japan.

Through both TEC and her "home site," she was connected ultimately to Tenrikyo Church Headquarters (i.e. the central organizing and spiritual central point of the religion). In this diagram, we can see the transnational nature of Ji-young's connections to Tenrikyo and her addition to the transnational nature of the "TEC community" through her connection to Tenrikyo's presence in Korea. She was, though, accustomed to functioning in the role of an instructor because she worked at a community college in Hawaii where she taught early childhood education classes after having first taught preschool for a significant number of years. Mary's chief Tenrikyo affiliation was to her "home site" in Hawaii, where her father and then later her brother served as its head minister 502 . Her secondary Tenrikyo affiliation was to the greater Hawaiian Tenrikyo community, where there were numerous Tenrikyo churches 503 and also an inter-lineage site similar to TEC which brought together followers living in various parts of this island state together and was categorized by the Tenrikyo Overseas Department as a different organizational sphere than that of the continental US. Each of Mary's two visits to TEC 504 as a visiting seminar instructor, both of which lasted a little over three weeks, connected her to TEC and numerous people associated with this center. Similar to many others who passed through this European center and came to know members of its community, she maintained a connection with this center and with members of its community thereafter. Thus, although Mary never lived in Europe, she, too, was included in TEC's interconnected web of social relations and likewise, in its social story. I include hereafter a diagram which illustrates Mary's connectedness to her "home site" in Hawaii, the grand church in Japan that was the official "parent" church of Mary's "home site" (though in practice, Mary was not very connected with this overseeing church), the greater Hawaiian and North American Tenrikyo spheres which were each grouped together by an overseeing regional center but in my observations maintained a certain level of social interconnectedness 505 , TEC (and the "TEC community,") and Tenrikyo Church Headquarters and the Overseas Department of which it was a part, that was the overseeing organizational body of the family, most often the father, serving as its head or their family serving in a supportive role to the church. For such individuals, and among married individuals, particularly males, returning to the church at which they were raised often meant returning to their natal home.

For others, a visit to church(es) of their lineage in Japan was a journey to site(s) that people with whom they were closely connected were also closely connected. Most often for more exteriorly positioned members of the "TEC community" who had partially or fully embraced the Tenrikyo faith via a lineage-based site in Europe, a visit to Japan for the purpose of going to Tenri City often included a visit to the parent branch church and/or grand church of the lineage-based site to which they were rooted in Europe. Usually in doing this, they were visiting a site that the head family of their European-based mission station 567 was closely rooted to in a manner analogous to going to the home of the close friends and/or family members of the connecting individual, meaning the mission station family based in Europe. The third category of visit to churches of one's lineage in Japan was the case of followers who were born and raised in the Tenrikyo faith, though not in a church family, in which their visit to lineage-based site(s) in Japan were to site(s) that they had been connected to throughout their entire lives, though in a less connected manner than the first category of people whose families were based at Tenrikyo churches.

To discuss the component of visits to lineage-based site(s) in Japan as a part of the broader experience of "returning" to Tenri City from outside Japan, I will primarily use my own experience of visiting multiple lineage-based sites that was included in my one and a half months of fieldwork in Japan. My own experience of these visits was representative of that of overseas followers going to Tenri City that, in like manner, included additional lineage-based sites outside of this pilgrimage town. I spent the majority of my time in Tenri City but also visited the parent branch church of the Sugimotos' Paris-area mission station for approximately a week, the parent grand church of that church for approximately three days, and the familial home and branch church where Yuko was raised for approximately a week, though it should be noted that she is no longer classified as a member of this household nor of this lineage.

Although my visits to these three sites were motivated by my research, the inclusion of visiting the parent branch church and/or grand church of the lineage-based site to which one is rooted was 567 Or in the case of Bordeaux Kyokai, "church. "

of the foundress' passing every ten years. These ten year anniversaries comprised not only a single celebratory event held in Tenri City on the day itself, but were also significant events for Tenrikyo followers around the world both in the time leading up to the anniversary and on the day itself. In the time leading up to this commemorative event, followers were encouraged to start making additional efforts for the path of Tenrikyo 1,000 days 595 prior to this day 596 , through which, as is explained in official discourse, both the spiritual maturity of the person making the efforts and the path of Tenrikyo can grow.

For the important commemorative ceremony held in the Main Sanctuary on the 130th anniversary of this pivotal event that occurred on January 26, 1887, thirty-six people from Europe "returned" to Tenri City to participate in its celebration. In the bi-monthly TEC newsletter, published in French, Japanese, and English 597 (Bulletin "infoTEC" March-April 2016, n. 307, Feb. 26, 2016), that included discussion of this commemorative event, it is stated that, "36 Europeans from France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Germany made a pilgrimage to Ojiba 598 out of their love for the everliving Oyasama." Most of these "Europeans 599 " were, in fact, Japanese Tenrikyo followers who engaged in structured efforts to spread the faith in Europe, such as TEC staff and mission station families. This is reflective of a general theme I observed of depicting the "European" presence at TEC and in contexts connected to this center in a way that suggested that the presence of "European" followers was greater than it actually was if defined by country of birth, nationality, or familial cultural background.

595 Or three years, as I heard commonly said during the first part of my research.

596 At TEC, for example, the goal of administering the Sazuke a set number of times during this period was put forth by the center's head. The progress of this goal was reported in the bi-monthly TEC newsletters during this period in which along with the current number of times the Sazuke was tallied to have been administered by TEC followers, followers were encouraged to continue their efforts to administer this healing gift and to report the number of times to TEC so that their attempts could be added to the tally. 597 Somewhat after this edition of the newsletter, I heard from the acting secretary of TEC (a young man from Japan who, similar to visiting ACFJT missionary teachers, was staying at TEC on a several year assignment) that the (non-Tenrikyo) person who had been helping translate the newsletters into English would not be doing this anymore. I offered to do the translations into English if it would be helpful, which he accepted. I thus helped with them during my fieldwork and occasionally thereafter when asked. 598 The "o" at the beginning of "Ojiba" is a Japanese honorific prefix. 599 I put quotes around "European" to reflect that most of these people were, in fact, Japanese people living in Europe.

Image 13: The European group performing in the festival parade. Photo courtesy of Masato Fujiwara.

entity despite its lack of being unified in a single place or at a single time was largely inspired by Clifford's (1997, 1990, 1981) exploration of the concurrent development of surrealism and ethnography that took place in Paris between the two world wars. Although much of the surrealist movement occurred in Paris, its participants were to a large extent not statically or exclusively based in the city. In like manner, it was not necessary for the collection of individuals connected to and part of the "TEC community" to be at TEC at the same time or included in the same sphere of this social world to be included in its interconnected greater whole. Often, its members "traveled" between different spheres of the broader group, both physically and contextually, thereby interlinking them.

Extendedly, Clifford (1997) also posed the question of in whose terms "local" is defined and asserted that a common predicament in anthropological fieldwork is "local" informants who turn out to be travelled individuals. In the context of my research, this is a highly pertinent question and insight. Even though a significant portion of the "TEC community" was, over time, transitional, the continual flow of people going to and coming from TEC was a constant feature of this site. Some people included in this "community," such as its "core members" living elsewhere in Europe, were coming to TEC and actively included in its social world over prolonged spans of time, possibly even for life 625 . Others were actively part of this "community" for shorter periods of time, for example in the case of the young adult missionaries who came to live at TEC, most often for several years while working at ACFJT. Commonly for such individuals, their belonging in this group was concentrated during a certain segment of their life, then significantly diminished thereafter, though not necessarily ended as the social bonds formed at TEC were frequently continued after the implicated individuals were no longer at this European center.

Through this, we can see that the "TEC community" included not only those at TEC at any given moment or those presently coming with some regularity. It also included people who were previously part of this partially place-based social world, through which they acquired a familiarity with TEC and its "community" that they held in common with others who shared this 625 As TEC has only existed since 1970 and many of the core members of its community are younger or came to Europe after this time, it is not possible to say that their connection is "lifelong," although for those born into core families of this group, it is likely to be the case.

the TEC sanctuary were somehow recreating the experience of being in a Tenrikyo sanctuary in Japan through their posture, this experiential recreation was only partial.

Another difference at TEC was displayed through who in attendance was and was not enacting the Service hand dance gestures. In contrast to the daily Morning and Evening Services performed in the sanctuary which generally everyone seated in the audience area 633 took part in through the execution of its hand dance gestures, for the Monthly Service, the ritual dance movements were "supposed to be" performed only by the Service's designated performers in the ritual space directly in front of the three altars and not by those in the audience section. In practice, though, at TEC, there were usually a small number of people in attendance who joined along with performing the hand dances, most commonly during the introductory Seated Service portion of the ritual, while most reverently observed the performance on stage in accordance with their prescribed non-performative role.

Most often, the individuals who actively took part in these ritual gestures from the audience area were not born in the faith and furthermore, none were Japanese. Thus, their slightly different approach to their participation in the religion was partially reflective of not having been brought up in Tenrikyo culture, rendering its behavioral codes less innately part of them. Their bodily participation in this ritual was usually enacted through a reduced form of the gestures, commonly with only their hands or simply their fingers, rather than with their entire arms, as was done by the ritual actors on stage. This was permitted, though not actively encouraged, by Mr. Kawakubo, the acting head of TEC, who was charged with using his own discretion regarding to what extent Tenrikyo rules and traditions must be strictly adhered to versus how much digression from these rules and traditions should be allowed.

In Mr. Kawakubo's discussion of the injunction against audience members enacting the Service dances during a Monthly Service that I heard him relate in a class of the European Seminar 634 , he told us that although people in the audience section were not supposed to do this during the 633 I say "generally everyone" because there were occasions that non-followers were in the sanctuary for the Morning and/or Evening Service, such on the day of the center's annual charity rummage sale, who chose to abstain from taking part in this ritual performance.

This multilingual feature was also included in its written materials circulated beyond the walls of this center. TEC's website (www.tenrikyo.fr), which was its main online representation, was available in four languages: French, English, Spanish, and Japanese. Similarly, its bi-monthly newsletters were published in French, Japanese, and English, with the latter being not only for people in the UK but also for a broader European audience beyond those at ease in reading Japanese or French. They expanded a potential inclusion into the happenings of TEC and Tenrikyo beyond both the country in which this center was based, and also beyond the prominent culture and language of the majority of the center's core members (Japanese) to include others throughout the continent and beyond. Through this, TEC's bimonthly publication served as a textual linkage to this center and its broader European sphere that was available to a wide-ranging group of people.

In thinking about the multiple languages in use at and by TEC, it is linguistically demonstrated that this center was simultaneously linked to a Japanese base, a local French context, and a broader European (and international) context. It is important to underline that the pragmatic, everyday realm of language was reflective of and contributed to the multiplicity present at TEC that was a key feature of this center and its connected eclectic and multifarious social world.

Although the majority of the "members" of the "TEC community" were Japanese and the center of TEC was itself based in France, its social world was neither fully French nor fully Japanese.

Instead, it belonged to a fluid inclusivity in which the differentiating frontier between what it was to be included in this "community" and what it was to be outside of it was unclear. One could simultaneously be inside and outside of it, depending on which layer of this social world one was focused upon as this European center's specificity was partially derived from its multiplicity.

Binding vocabulary and action amidst diversity: the example of multiple ways of talking about, conceptualizing, and engaging in "hinokishin"

While the multilingual feature of TEC promoted a sense of multi-layered inclusivity and diversity, the existence of Tenrikyo-specific vocabulary provided an underlying consistency for "religious insiders" in which, regardless of where one was in the world or to which church lineage one was rooted, the active use of Tenrikyo-specific vocabulary was a prominent feature of being in a Tenrikyo context that served as a binding feature between followers. This is not to

Définir et discuter d'une population de recherche à plusieurs niveaux

Le monde social interconnecté et à plusieurs niveaux de TEC (que j'appelle collectivement la « communauté TEC » et que je désigne comme étant ma population de recherche) est difficile à présenter de manière synthétique, car non réductible à un seul contexte. Pourtant, après plusieurs années de participation dans le monde social de TEC, il est devenu évident que les nombreuses En outre, la majorité d'entre eux était activement chargée de promouvoir cette religion en Europe en tant que « missionnaires ». Ces engagements missionnaires étaient de deux ordres. Soit pour une période définie dans le temps (généralement quelques années) durant laquelle les missionnaires étaient envoyés du Japon dans ce but précis, période pendant laquelle ils enseignaient le plus souvent le japonais à l'Association franco-japonaise de TENRI (ACFJT). Soit en tant que résidents à long terme en Europe, où ils dirigeaient des lieux de culte Tenrikyo dans que soit(-ent) leur(s) nationalité(s) actuelle(s).

644 La différenciation catégorielle entre les Japonais et les non-Japonais est une juxtaposition couramment présente, faite par les Japonais communément désignés par le mot « gaijin » (外人, dont les deux caractères kanji signifient littéralement « dehors » et « personne ») pour parler de la large catégorie des non-Japonais, ou par sa variante plus polie « gaikokujin » (外国人 dont les trois caractères kanji signifient littéralement « dehors », « pays », « personne »).

Toutes les formations spirituelles de Tenrikyo similaires au Séminaire européen ont utilisé les mêmes principaux supports textuels comme composante principale de la partie théorique de la formation, qui dans chaque cas a duré environ la moitié de la journée. Ceci était combiné avec une formation structurée sur les composantes rituelles de la religion et des activités de hinokishin organisées pour l'autre partie structurée de la journée. Une autre caractéristique commune qui a renforcé l'expérience globale des formations était les repas communs et les logements partagés, qui ont rendu l'expérience de la participation à la formation totalement immersive. Lors de ces formations intensives, les participants ont non seulement appris le matériel théorique et pratique Lorsque je l'ai entendue mentionnée dans les groupes, son existence a été généralement approuvée par les personnes présentes.

Cette culture Tenrikyo plus largement partagée a été un facteur clé de la facilité avec laquelle les adeptes de Tenrikyo venus d'ailleurs ont été intégrés dans les scènes qui se sont déroulées au TEC réunions avec des personnes que j'avais déjà connues au TEC et qui vivaient ailleurs, et j'ai également passé du temps avec de nombreux membres de la « communauté TEC » que j'ai revus peu après au TEC. L'interconnexion entre ces deux lieux a ainsi été mise en évidence, ce qui souligne l'importance de réfléchir à l'interaction entre ces deux contextes en relation avec le monde social sur lequel je concentre ma recherche de thèse.

Ainsi, la référence de Harbottle (2004) travail sur le terrain, j'ai appris progressivement la grande occurence de ces expériences parmi de nombreux membres de la « communauté TEC ». Cela a favorisé l'émergence d'un point commun expérientiel et d'un lien avec le monde social de Tenrikyo plus large. J'analyse également plusieurs événements spécifiques qui se sont tenus dans la ville de Tenri pendant la durée de mon travail de terrain, auxquels ont participé de nombreux membres de ma population de recherche et qui ont plus généralement servi de rassemblement de divers segments de la présence internationale de Tenrikyo. Je fais référence au 130 ème anniversaire du « retrait de la vie physique » de la fondatrice, auquel j'ai participé à distance avec d'autres membres du TEC, tandis qu'une trentaine de membres de la « communauté TEC », que je considère presque tous comme des « membres principaux », ont assisté à l'événement en personne. J'inclus également deux rassemblements internationaux qui ont eu lieu dans la ville de Tenri lors de mon séjour.

L'un était le Corps Hinokishin de l'Association des Jeunes Hommes (auquel je n'ai pas pu participer, étant une femme). L'autre était un symposium de deux jours pour les adeptes anglophones (ou à l'aise en anglais) de la diaspora de Tenrikyo (auquel j'ai participé, étant anglophone -on m'avait même encouragé à y participer).

Je me penche de façon plus approfondie sur le festival appelé le « Pèlerinage des enfants au Jiba » (kodomo ojiba gaeri), auquel j'ai participé avec une quarantaine de membres de la communauté TEC en tant que groupe. Outre le fait que la participation à ce festival faisait partie du lexique expérientiel partagé qui encourageait les liens sociaux par le biais de points communs perçus, il s'agissait également d'un mécanisme permanent important de construction de la communauté sur lequel ma recherche était basée. Chaque année, un groupe d'enfants venus d'Europe et leurs parents (pour la plupart japonais, les mères étant nettement plus présentes à ce festival que les pères), ainsi que quelques adultes sans enfants, participaient au festival. Pour de nombreux adeptes de Tenrikyo qui ont grandi au Japon, lorsqu'ils étaient enfants, « rentrer » à la ville de Tenri pour ce festival était souvent le point culminant de leurs vacances d'été, et l'occasion principale de l'année où ils rentraient à la ville de Tenri. Pour les jeunes adeptes qui vivent en dehors du Japon, ce festival était aussi souvent la raison principale pour « rentrer » à la ville de Tenri. Le festival a donc été conçu pour promouvoir la familiarisation des enfants dès leur plus jeune âge avec ce lieu sacré et, dans la plupart des cas, à en retirer des souvenirs et des associations positifs. Tous les membres principaux de la « communauté TEC » ont participé à

Conclusion : Réflexions -Déplacements, adaptations et liens sociaux : plusieurs niveaux de construction et de solidification du groupe

Comment se construit une communauté à partir de différentes sphères sociales imbriquées ?

Bien que mon travail de terrain ait été centré sur le TEC, tout comme ma population de recherche, aucun des deux n'était exclusif à ce lieu physique précis, mais comprenait plutôt de multiples autres sites reliés de diverses manières au TEC, et qui constituaient également des parties importantes de l'histoire continue de la « communauté TEC » éclectique. Cela est devenu une caractéristique évidente de mon contexte de recherche au fil du temps, en passant plusieurs années avec l'ensemble d'acteurs sociaux divers qui existaient dans de multiples réseaux de connexion au TEC. Les liens entre ces acteurs sociaux s'étendaient au-delà de moments précis, de lieux uniques, et même au-delà de la compréhension par ces acteurs de la religion Tenrikyo, pour constituer un ensemble social interconnecté plus important 699 .

La question centrale autour de laquelle la problématique de ma thèse s'est articulée était la suivante : Comment cet ensemble d'individus se sont rassemblés pour former une « communauté », malgré leur diversité et leurs multiples façons d'être connectés au TEC et au monde social qui lui est associé ? L'appartenance de certaines personnes à cette « communauté » était clairement évidente, à savoir celles que je qualifie de membres « principaux » de ce groupe.

Pour d'autres, la question de savoir s'ils devaient être positionnés comme « membres » du groupe était plus complexe. Dans une large mesure, c'est l'existence de « membres principaux » dans de multiples sphères de cette communauté qui a servi de lien de base important au groupe plus large dans lequel des personnes positionnées de manière plus périphérique ont ensuite été incluses. En étant connecté à cette base sociale, on était connecté au groupe plus large. En cela, il n'était pas nécessaire qu'un individu soit impliqué dans toutes les « sphères » de cette collectivité sociale pour faire partie de son ensemble plus large, car « l'appartenance » n'était pas fixe mais définie ouvertement. Au contraire, l'implication d'une personne faisait qu'elle devenait partie intégrante 699 Mon affirmation selon laquelle la caractéristique « communautaire » de cette collection d'acteurs sociaux était « évidente » est, comme la plupart des évaluations anthropologiques, une interprétation éclairée de la part de l'auteur (moi-même).

Pour continuer à explorer le lien entre le Service au TEC et la sphère plus large de Tenrikyo via le physique, j'aimerais évoquer brièvement l'ouverture, au début de chaque Service mensuel, du portail de l'autel dédié à Dieu le Parent. Cet acte plutôt bref était en fait un élément clé du rituel.

Bien que la signification de cet acte ritualisé ait rarement été discutée, il s'agit d'un élément intéressant du Service mensuel par rapport au concept de lien social qui est au centre de ma thèse. 706 J'ai entendu dire que des objets sacrés sont également placés dans les autels dédiés à Oyasama, mais pour ma discussion, je vais me concentrer sur ceux qui se trouvent à l'intérieur des autels dédiés à Dieu le Parent. compris ses rituels). Ceci serait contre-productif pour l'un des principaux objectifs du centre : répandre « l'essence 712 » de la foi auprès des autres.

Un autre exemple de l'approche moins stricte de la manière dont sont menés les Services mensuels au TEC par rapport à celle typique des contextes Tenrikyo au Japon concerne la question de la ponctualité. Au TEC, il y avait généralement un petit nombre de personnes qui se faufilaient lentement dans le sanctuaire après l'heure officielle de début du Service mensuel, à savoir 10h30. À l'exception de quelques personnes habillées en tant qu'exécutants du rituel, qui se trouvaient ailleurs au TEC à l'heure de début du Service et qui entraient discrètement peu après le début du rituel, ces retardataires n'étaient généralement pas des « membres du noyau » du groupe. Tenrikyo telle qu'elle existait au Japon. J'ai entendu de nombreux « membres principaux » du TEC commenter cette caractéristique multilingue comme un aspect spécifique à ce centre, reflétant le fait qu'il est le site régional de Tenrikyo pour de nombreux pays européens avec leurs langues respectives, en concert avec ses « membres principaux » qui sont principalement japonais. Souvent, l'existence concomitante de plusieurs langues, qui était une caractéristique constante de l'organisation et des communications du TEC, a été évoquée comme un défi, mais aussi comme une caractéristique positive et intéressante de ce centre 713 . En réfléchissant sur la question des langues au TEC, nous pouvons avoir un aperçu des multiples couches qui ont été simultanément incluses dans ce site « sur le terrain » et dans son monde social connecté.

La langue japonaise était la langue de la vie quotidienne au centre, reflétant le fait que ses résidents et autres « membres principaux » étaient japonais 714 , tout comme le « noyau » de son monde social connecté qui liait son ensemble malgré le fait que le centre du TEC lui-même se trouvait en France. Le fait que de nombreuses personnes non japonaises venant dans ce centre avaient au moins quelques compétences linguistiques en japonais ajoutait encore à l'importance de la langue japonaise au TEC. Souvent, pour ces personnes, le fait que le TEC fournisse un contexte dans lequel elles peuvent pratiquer la langue japonaise était un aspect attrayant de leur venue, comme c'était le cas pour la plupart des jeunes adultes non-Tenrikyo/non japonais connectés au TEC via l'ACFJT, ce qui démontre une fois de plus la contribution de cette langue aux liens sociaux.

Dans les contextes locaux qui s'étendaient au-delà des membres du centre et des autres participants japonais, le français était la principale langue employée au centre, et était également la seconde langue principale des membres du groupe basé en France 715 . Bien que le TEC ait été le site d'une (nouvelle) religion japonaise, il était situé en France, et donc, d'une certaine manière, un centre français de Tenrikyo. De manière générale, que l'on soit français ou non, le fait d'être 713 J'ai parfois entendu parler de la nature souvent bilingue des sites Tenrikyo aux États-Unis, où l'anglais et le japonais étaient utilisés, mais au TEC, il y avait davantage de langues en usage.

714 Cela excluait le seul membre français du noyau dur qui parlait couramment le japonais. 715 Cette déclaration exclut les deux Français qui étaient également membres de la « communauté TEC ». malgré le fait que le changement du terme de référence de l'activité a eu pour conséquence que la signification attribuée à ce terme catégoriquement « spirituel », qui serait idéalement inculquée et renforcée aux personnes participant à l'activité, a été largement éclipsée. Néanmoins, leur participation a imprimé l'action, et la manière dont elle a été menée par les autres membres du groupe qui y ont pris part, sur les acteurs sociaux moins impliqués religieusement qui ont également participé aux efforts collectifs.

Même si l'on ne connaissait pas le terme « hinokishin » et la signification théologique qui lui est associée, la participation a néanmoins servi à imprimer par l'expérience deux caractéristiques mises en oeuvre : celle de faire des efforts pour le bénéfice des autres, et celle de travailler ensemble en collaboration avec d'autres via un modèle particulier de coopération symbiotique joyeusement engagée. Ces éléments étaient aussi communément inclus dans les activités de Tenrikyo liées aux principes clés de la foi sur d'autres sites. Par les actions dans lesquelles ils se sont engagés, plutôt que par le discours environnant, ces participants non Tenrikyo incarnaient des composantes importantes de la foi. En cela, la modalité comportementale de la religion devenait une partie d'eux, non pas par une croyance énoncée dans la religion ou nécessairement même par une connaissance approfondie de sa théologie, mais par sa pratique. Cela montre comment l'accueil des personnes au TEC et dans d'autres contextes Tenrikyo était un moyen proactif de mener un travail missionnaire, non seulement par le résultat potentiel d'une augmentation du nombre de « membres » de Tenrikyo, mais aussi en facilitant l'incarnation de sa pratique, qui était un moyen de « diffuser l'essence » de la foi par soi-même.

On peut y voir la double interaction du recadrage de ces activités avec ou sans l'application de termes spécifiques à Tenrikyo. Leur emploi leur attribuait une signification spirituelle spécifique à Tenrikyo, qui servait à relier de nombreuses personnes aux composantes quotidiennes et promulguées de la religion. Parfois, cependant, c'est le non-recours à la terminologie spécifique à Tenrikyo qui a permis de relier les gens à des aspects de l'expérience plus large de la religion et de promouvoir leur inclusion dans la « communauté TEC ». Bien que le fait d'être un adepte de Tenrikyo soit partiellement basé sur l'utilisation de ce langage spécifique à la religion, le fait d'être inclus dans le monde social plus large du TEC a été largement construit à travers des expériences vécues, tout comme l'était, en fait, le fait d'être un « membre » de Tenrikyo.

En participant à des activités communes, appelés le « hinokishin », et reliées au TEC, grâce auxquelles des moments de convivialité partagés ont pu se produire, chacun a, dans une certaine mesure, été ou est rapidement devenu un membre actif de cette « communauté ». Pour certaines personnes, leur appartenance à cette communauté était en grande partie temporaire et leur appartenance momentanée à ce groupe pendant ces moments ne se traduisait pas par une affiliation prolongée ou profonde à celui-ci. Cependant, ces moments de collaboration partagée ont souvent servi à renforcer le lien entre les acteurs sociaux concernés et à relier ces personnes à la « communauté TEC » plus large. Mon propre travail sur le terrain a été une entrée et une présence concentrées dans ce monde social pendant deux ans, après avoir été précédemment inclus dans sa périphérie, principalement via l'ACFJT (cf. chapitre 3). Puis, après que ce « travail de terrain concentré » ait été terminé, je suis restée connectée à cette « communauté » de façon moins prononcée, et d'une manière différente qu'auparavant. Bien que ma propre histoire d'inclusion dans cette « communauté » ne soit pas la même que celle des autres, elle a été une contribution, parmi d'autres, à l'ensemble de cette communauté.