Ikurō Teshima

Abraham Ikurō Teshima (手島アブラハム郁郎, Teshima Abraham Ikurō) (1910 – 24 December 1973) was the founder of the Makuya religious movement. A native of Kumamoto, Japan, he was baptized as a Protestant at the age of fifteen, and soon afterwards joined the Nonchurch Movement started by Uchimura Kanzō. Teshima was influenced by Uchimura's writings, studying under his disciple Tsukamoto Toraji and later joining the Nonchurch Movement. Other religious figures who made a great impact on Teshima's belief and religiosity include Toyohiko Kagawa, Sadhu Sundar Singh, and Martin Buber.

Teshima served as a civilian employee in Korea and China during World War II, and returned to Kumamoto in 1945. Two years later, a warrant was issued for his arrest after he opposed and obstructed the destruction of a local school building. He fled to Mount Aso in central Kyūshū, where he stayed in an inn for a long period, the place where he claims to have had a face-to-face encounter with God. Teshima returned home and discovered the warrant had been retracted. His experience at Mt. Aso compelled him to begin a life of ministry. He set up a Bible study group which quickly grew into a movement known as Genshi Fukuin Undo (lit., Original Gospel Movement), and then as Makuya. 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, living accordingly was the essence of his religious life. Teshima died on Christmas Dawn in 1973.