Faith Healing Husband of Japanese Celeb Raises Eyebrows

Faith Healing Husband of Japanese Celeb Raises Eyebrows

Want more UJ? Get our FREE newsletter 

Need a preview? See our archives

A popular announcer in Japan and her husband, who lays claim to mystic healing powers, spark concern with their recent YouTube videos.

In Japan, as in the rest of the world, the connection between celebrity and cult is well established.

Here, we’re not speaking of the usual cult of personality that surrounds famous actors, musicians, and other major public figures; rather, we’re discussing the ties that bind celebrities to literal cults. Even those with only a passing knowledge of modern Hollywood are likely aware of the profusion of big-name actors associated with, for example, the Church of Scientology.

Tom Cruise is the poster child for this specific religious affectation. The famed actor has been described by European officials as “militant” in his advocacy of the controversial New Religion founded by iconoclastic SF author L. Ron Hubbard, with one Paris city councilman even sardonically labeling him a “sect symbol.” Cruise had a Scientology tent assembled on set for 2005’s War of the Worlds, dictated that unwilling Paramount executives attend meetings at the church’s Celebrity Center in LA, spoke out against psychiatry (a field regularly condemned by Scientology), and lobbied former French president Nicholas Sarkozy for the recognization of Scientology as a fully-fledged religion within the EU.

(Said lobbying failed. Scientology is officially considered a cult in France, and in 2009 the French courts convicted the organization of fraud, fining it the equivalent of $900,000.)

Cruise is just first among many Hollywood celebs who have been heavily involved in the controversial religion, known for its caustic treatment of critics and apostates. Other devotees, past and present, have included John Travolta, Elizabeth Moss (who was born into the religion), Cher and Sonny Bono, Beck, Michael Peña, Kirstie Alley (who refused to guest star on famed 90’s sitcom and Cheers spinoff Frasier because of the show’s focus of psychiatry) – the list goes on.

Cult Célèbre

However, Scientology is merely the best example of the connection between cult (or, perhaps more charitably, new religious movements) and celebrity. That specific organization has lent a monumental amount of funds and effort into courting the rich and famous. This started with Hubbard’s 1995 “Project Celebrity,” which attempted – and failed – to woo some of the biggest names of the era: Bob Hope, Orson Wells, Liberace.

Celebrities provide an invaluable recruitment tool for new religious movements, whose views and operating mannerisms are often intellectual anathema for the masses. New religious movements carry the stigma of extremism, occlusion, and danger for both devotees and the general public. Memories of deadly cults, like Heaven’s Gate, Jonestown, and the Manson Family in the US, or the dreaded Aum Shinrikyo of Japan (responsible for the horrific sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway of 1995) run deep. Celebrity endorsements can lend an air of credibility or mystique to cults, bringing in new converts who might overwise avoid such maligned organizations. This explains the quest for celebrity membership engaged in by orgs like Transcendental Meditation, the SYDA Foundation, the Kabbalah Centre (of which Madonna remains the most famous adherent), and, in Japan, the eccentrically named Happy Science (幸福の科学).

Advertisements

Celebrity endorsement, however, is a double-edged sword. It cuts cleanly for the benefiting cult. But it can prove extremely damaging to the reputation of the celebrity in question. New religions and faith healing are often regarded with suspicion, and depending on the degree of scrutiny any given organization is given, celebrity involvement can be viewed as benignly eccentric to downright dangerous. In Japan, Happy Science provides one such example of the way cult involvement can end a career.

The Joy of Sect

Okawa Ryuho, the founder of Happy Science

Happy Science, founded in the mid-’80s, is the brainchild of one Okawa Ryuho – born Nakagawa Takashi, and often called Master Okawa by his devotees. Master Okawa claims to be the reincarnated form of not only such luminaries as the Buddha, the Greek god Hermes, a king of the mythical lost continent of Mu, and more, but also to be the human form of the ultimate god of the nine dimensions, known as El Cantare. Okawa popularized his highly syncretic and idiosyncratic religion via a slew of self-authored books, in which he channels the spirits of the likes of Muhammad, Confucius, Jesus, John Lennon, and Freddy Mercury. (Other books even contain “spiritual conversations” with the living, such as Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin.)

Happy Science has amassed a real following, claiming as many as 11 million adherents (although more restrained estimates put the number closer to 300,000 to 1 million). The religion even has its own far-right political party, which has proclaimed that North Korea and China intend to drop nuclear bombs on Japan, and that Japan must increase its population to 300 million in order to maintain its geopolitical power.

Acting Religious

Actress Shimizu Fumika (清水 富美加) perhaps remains the most famous example of Happy Science derailing a promising career. By 2017, the then 22-year-old actress had appeared in numerous Kamen Rider films, had worked with Kitano Takeshi, and had major voice and acting roles in both anime and live-action manga adaptations. This all came to a grinding halt, however, when Shimizu held a press conference organized by Happy Science, in which she announced her retirement from the secular film world. She would now be devoting herself to her belief in Happy Science, which she claimed involvement in since her youth.

Fumika soon remerged into a noticeably smaller spotlight as Sengen Yoshiko, a religious named granted to her by the Happies. She now works exclusively on religious films made by the organization’s own media firm, ARI Production.

(Happy Science has famously produced some wonderfully bonkers religious anime – including one described by The Film Magazine author Jacob Davis as follows: “Imagine Ayn Rand wrote a sci-fi story during a DMT trip, or L. Ron Hubbard wrote the Divine Comedy, you’d have The Laws of Eternity.”

Theatre of the Absurd

Kunimitsu Akira claims that merely opening his YouTube videos can promote healing. Click To Tweet

Association with new religions and cults can cause celebrities to shrink from the public spotlight. In the case of Shimizu Fumika, the cult itself made the order. Other celebrities have seen their public image fade and work dry up when cultish ties come to light. Sometimes, however, it doesn’t even take direct association with a maligned organized religion. The profession of anything that feels “culty” can be enough in of itself.

Enter the recent tale of Kobayashi Maya and her husband, Kunimitsu Akira.

Maya, a successful so-called “freelance announcer (フリーアナウンサー)”, is sister to the late Kobayashi Mao. Said sister, also a news announcer of some renown, became the emotional focus of the nation in the last years of her life, during which time she kept up a widely-read blog in which she recorded her experiences battling cancer. Mao was also married to the illustrious kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizō XI (市川海老蔵), heir to the storied generational stage name (屋号, yagō) of the Ichikawa family, which goes back centuries. Following Mao’s passing in 2017, Maya did her best to help take care of her sister’s young children. She became a regular part of the Ichikawa children’s lives.

This, however, has recently come to an end. So too, it seems, has Maya’s career as a news announcer. The deciding factor was Maya’s marriage to spiritualist healer Kunimitsu Akira. Kunimitsu, echoing the language used by many a cult founder (including Master Okawa), claims to “have been chosen by God.” He also asserts he can “use energy from outer space in order to heal depression and broken bones.” Maya and her husband now run a YouTube channel, where they discuss all manner of spiritual topics. Kunimitsu claims that merely opening his YouTube videos can promote healing. In the COVID age, he insists his “distance healing” (遠隔施術) can offer salvation.

Self-Imposed Exile?

Reactions to Kunimitsu have been quite negative, with viewers perceiving the stench of the cultish about him. Commentators and former fans of Maya have called him “suspicious,” and wondered if he’s part of some “questionable religion.” When the pair uploaded a video of themselves meditating for 17 minutes, more comments followed. “Just who is this guy she’s married?” “Are these two alright?” “This is kinda scary…”

コバヤシテレビ局#12

コバヤシテレビ局をご覧いただき、ありがとうございます!!チャンネル登録ぜひ!お願いします❤️ こちらですhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3XuQ6a7EXUPOAaic_O5F2Q平日あさ6時!から生配信しています✨朝のひとときをご一緒させていただけたら嬉しいです☀️第一回配…

Maya’s brother-in-law, Ebizō, has distanced himself from her since she married Kunimitsu. In the staid world of the theater, any whiff of controversy can endanger even successful careers. Ebizō is no stranger to controversy himself. Not only was he temporarily sidelined from acting after a brawl with a gangster following a night out drinking – Ebizō has also been critiqued for his own spiritual choices. Some reports have implied that the Kabuki star may have urged his late wife to engage in alternative spiritual healing in lieu of standard radiological cancer treatment, worsening her prognosis.

Nonetheless, Maya’s involvement with her husband’s strange spiritual practices was deemed a bridge too far. Ebizō has prevented his children from seeing their aunt; and things have only gotten stranger, as Maya suddenly stepped down from her regular work on morning variety show “Gutto Luck!” and broke ties with her management team. Her world now seems to revolve around her husband’s spirituality, with some coworkers wondering if she’s been “brainwashed.” Meanwhile, Psychiatric professionals worry about her overreliance on her husband in her ever-shrinking social world. A mainstay of cults is an attempt to section the believer off from wider society, and to claim sole ability to offer healing and salvation; some observers worry that Kunimitsu is eliciting a similar effect on his wife.

A Cult Above the Rest

This seems an especially saddening development for someone who might otherwise be carrying on her sister's meaningful legacy. Instead, Maya has currently become the subject of pity, worry, and wariness. Click To Tweet

What draws people to cults, fringe religions, and obscure spiritual salvation has long been debated. Impetuses can range from a search for community, hidden knowledge, or spiritual escape. For celebrities in particular, essayist and critic Daniel Harris has suggested that cults represent a chance for those who already feel themselves superior to lay claim to additional secret knowledge beyond the ken of ordinary society. (In the case of groups like Scientology, the networking possibilities presented seem to perhaps mean more than mere transcendental revelation.)

The ongoing story of Kobayashi Maya, however, suggests that the search for secret knowledge still has its downsides. Some stars like Tom Cruise may be able to rise above the scrutiny which comes with an attachment to the cultish. Others, like Maya or Shimizu Fumika, seem to retreat from secular society. In Japan, as elsewhere, the meeting point between celebrity and spirituality outside of the mainstream remains fraught with controversy.

This seems an especially saddening development for someone who might otherwise be carrying on her sister’s meaningful legacy. Instead, Maya has currently become the subject of pity, worry, and wariness – emotions which have long been projected towards members of cults worldwide.

Sources

ニューズポストセブン。(November 25th, 2020.) 海老蔵が愛娘の「会いたい」を拒否 麻耶夫妻との断絶動画. Yahoo! Japan ニュース

女性セブン(2020年12月3日号.)小林麻耶は洗脳に近い状態 精神科医「危うい状況に見えた。」ニューズポストセブン。

Harris, Daniel. (2008.) Celebrity Spirituality. Salmagundi. Fall 2008-Winter 2009; 160/161; ProQuest. pp. 98

Goldman, Marlon S. (2006.) Cults, New Religions, and the Spiritual Landscape: A Review of Four Collections. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 45, No. 1. pp. 87-96 

Astley, Trevor. “The Transformation of a Recent Japanese New Religion: Ōkawa Ryūhō and Kōfuku No Kagaku.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, vol. 22, no. 3/4, 1995, pp. 343–380.

Want more UJ? Get our FREE newsletter 

Need a preview? See our archives

Noah Oskow

Serving as current UJ Editor-in-Chief, Noah Oskow is a professional Japanese translator and interpreter who holds a BA in East Asian Languages and Cultures. He has lived, studied, and worked in Japan for nearly seven years, including two years studying at Sophia University in Tokyo and four years teaching English on the JET Program in rural Fukushima Prefecture. His experiences with language learning and historical and cultural studies as well as his extensive experience in world travel have led to appearances at speaking events, popular podcasts, and in the mass media. Noah most recently completed his Master's Degree in Global Studies at the University of Vienna in Austria.

Japan in Translation

Subscribe to our free newsletter for a weekly digest of our best work across platforms (Web, Twitter, YouTube). Your support helps us spread the word about the Japan you don’t learn about in anime.

Want a preview? Read our archives

You’ll get one to two emails from us weekly. For more details, see our privacy policy