Complications in Defining the Presence of Tenrikyō in Europe While Discussing Its “Community”

What is it about?

This paper addresses a central issue linked to research conducted on an eclectic conglomeration of people connected in various ways to the principal European site of the Japanese new religion of Tenrikyō. Although the center itself is located in a Parisian suburb and the majority of its key actors are Japanese, the people connected to this center and its associated social world span beyond the Paris region and include various nationalities, countries of residence, and even religious identities. Moreover, the people connected to this center and the presence of the Tenrikyō religion in Europe are largely one and the same, but not entirely. Similar to other such regional Tenrikyō centers, its main purpose is to facilitate communication and interaction between numerous lineage-based sites within a specific geographic region, in this case that of Europe. Because of this, its social world and many of its “core members” span beyond the Paris region where the center is located to also include people living in various other European locations who come together primarily, though for many not exclusively, at TEC. A question commonly posed to the researcher by “outsiders” is how many Tenrikyō “members” there are in Paris, France, and/or Europe, and if they are Japanese or the nationality of the local country (French, German, etc.) The complexities of answering such questions are the focus of this discussion.

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