Lay Buddhism in the Eyes of the Beholders: Public Images of Okano Kimiko and Kōdō Kyōdan

This paper examines the public images of Okano Kimiko, the female founder of Kōdō Kyōdan—a lay Buddhist organization established in 1936 that is also categorized as a New Religious Movement—to explore how it positioned itself within the postwar Japanese religious landscape. While mass media have largely portrayed New Religious Movements and their female founders in a negative light since their emergence, the postwar media representations of Okano Kimiko and Kōdō Kyōdan present an anomaly, as they received neutral and even positive recognition. Through historical analysis of national, regional, and organizational print media, this paper argues that Okano Kimiko’s increasingly respectable media presence was shaped by the Kōdō Kyōdan leadership’s strategic relationships with social, political, and religious actors, which facilitated the organization’s integration into the traditional Buddhist community. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the agency of New Religious Movements in shaping their public images.