What is "makuya"

, also called and based at the Tokyo Bible Seminary, is a religious movement in Japan founded in 1948 by Ikurō Teshima. To grasp the inner truth of Biblical religion, or the "Love of the Holy Spirit" as Teshima puts it, and to extol this existential love by embodying it and living accordingly is the essence of the Makuyas' religious life. They are fervently identified with the cause of Israel, conceiving the establishment of the State of Israel and the unification of Jerusalem as essentially a fulfillment of biblical prophecies.

"Makuya" is the Japanese equivalent for the Hebrew word mishkan, which refers to the Holy Tabernacle, the portable shrine where God and man encounter (Exodus 29:42–43). This name aptly captures the basic religious orientation of the Makuyas, who emphasize the significance of the personal, ineffable encounter with the divine presence in everyday life. This experience, according to them, must not, and indeed cannot, be substituted by a dogmatic belief in creeds or a stabilization of a religious institution; hence, the idea of the "portable" shrine, the Holy Tabernacle.