Main Tenet of Japanese Church: ‘Life Is Art’

“Do not envy those who belong to exclusive golf clubs! We will provide golf courses for you, the finest in the land. Relate the principles of golf to life. Live for the satisfaction of the artistic life.”

--Tokuchika Miki, founder of the Church of Perfect Liberty

Golf has become firmly, perhaps inextricably, linked with the name of the little-known Church of Perfect Liberty.

Called “the golf church,” even in its native Japan, the church does indeed have golf courses in several nations, including a 36-hole spread in Japan, and does involve golf in its religion. Some of the churches in Japan have driving ranges on the roof.

Ironically, the religion has nothing to do with golf itself and there is no intrinsic connection between the two.

Baseball fulfills the same function for many of its millions of Japanese adherents.

So, apparently, would almost any other activity or sport, from soccer to cabinetry. There is nothing in the church’s published beliefs--an outpouring of books, pamphlets and magazines--that sanctifies golf.

Leaders of the church, which has its North American headquarters at a small church in a residential neighborhood in Glendale, declined to be interviewed, but the sect’s history, beliefs and achievements are outlined in the group’s literature and in scholarly histories of Japanese religions.

According to them:

The church’s primary tenet is: “Life is art.”

Followers are encouraged to worship God by leading an artistic life.

“What that means,” said a woman who said she belonged to the church for several years, “is that you must bring to what you do--whatever it is--the dedication, the passion for excellence that a true artist brings to his work.”

“The person who mops out a cathedral is worshiping God just as greatly as the person who designed the cathedral, if he brings to his art the same dedication as the designer did, the same artistic commitment,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified.

“Golf is a favored sport because it requires such concentration on details, and because it can be played by almost anyone. The principles could be applied to any other sport or activity, but it would be difficult to recommend to many people that they take up, say, pole-vaulting.”

The idea was expressed by the Church of Perfect Liberty founder in its literature:

“There is nothing in human affairs that cannot become art. . . . A conscientious artist, when engaging in artistic creation, completely devotes himself to his work, does not think of position, honor or money, and makes extraordinary efforts, even at the risk of his life. In this process of creation he feels spiritual pleasure akin to religious exaltation.”

Chose English Name

The church was founded in 1946 by Tokuchika Miki, who said he deliberately gave it an English language name because he regarded English as the closest to a universal language and “a modern American name” was needed to help spread the religion around the world. Services at the church in Glendale are conducted in English and Japanese.

Although it is the most popular of what are called in Japan “the new religions,” which sprang up after the country’s defeat in World War II, the church has roots in the nation’s classic religions, Shintoism and Buddhism.

In 1912, a religion called Tokumitsu-kyo was founded by an itinerant Shinto priest named Tokomitsu Kanada.

His chief follower was Tokuharu Miki, a Buddhist priest. Miki said he followed Kanada’s instructions to plant a tree on the site of Kanada’s death in 1919 and pray to it for five years, to learn who Kanada’s successor was to be. Miki said he then learned that he himself was to be the successor, and he founded the Hito No Michi, or Way of Man, religion.

It was estimated to have a million followers by 1934, but in the late 1930s, with the growth of militarism in Japan, the government banned the religion and arrested its leaders as a threat to the official emperor worship.

Founder Dies in 1938

Miki died in 1938. His son, Tokochika, was able to re-establish the religion under the American occupation government. He gave it the “PL” name and is revered as “the second founder.”

When he died in 1983, he was succeeded as Oshieoyasama, or “holy father,” by his adopted son, Takahito Miki.

According to a quasi-governmental Japanese statistical agency, the church had 2.6 million followers in Japan in 1978.

It has a large headquarters, including a hospital, college, “PL Land” amusement park for children, 600-foot-tall modernistic “peace tower” sculpture and three golf courses in Tondabayashi, near Osaka. There are five other golf courses around Japan, owned through a private company. There is also a golf course in Brazil.

The church claims a membership of 20,000 families in eight congregations in the United States and Canada. Five of the churches, as pictured in the sect’s English-language magazine, are in private homes.

Area Membership Given

The Rev. Tatsumi Yano, secretary to the chief minister of the church in Glendale, said the membership in the Los Angeles area is about 1,000 families. At services at the Glendale church on three Sundays, attendance in each case was about a dozen worshipers, most of whom appeared to be of Asian descent.

Church headquarters in Japan said at the time the church bought the PL Malibu Golf Course land in 1972 that the Japanese church was not supplying the purchase funds.

Officials of the church in Glendale have declined to discuss the source of the money used to purchase the PL Malibu Golf Course, estimated to be worth more than $3 million when ownership was transferred to California Fuji International Corp., or anything else about the church’s business.