The Quiet Opening—Imaoka Shin’ichirō’s Free-Religion (draft, clean English only text, Aug. 2026)

 The Quiet Opening—Imaoka Shin’ichirō’s Free-Religion (draft, clean English only text, August 2026)

As regular readers of this blog will know, for the past three and a half years I have been working on translating a selection of essays by the prominent Japanese Unitarian, educator, interfaith pioneer and free-religionist, Imaoka Shin’ichirō (1881–1988). However, it has also become clear that, for general readers, in addition to an introductory essay about his free-religious thinking, there is a need for a shorter selection of his key essays on free-religion. Crucially, to help the general reader, these need to omit the many Japanese characters I previously left in the text. I have also included in the draft of this book an appendix designed to help people start their own local free-religious groups, which Imaoka-sensei called Kiitsu Kyōkai (Returning-to-One Gatherings).

To this end, I am in the midst of preparing just such a volume, and I have included a link in this post to a draft Google Docs version of it for your pleasure (see above and at the end). You will see from the picture of the cover that the translations are by myself and Kento Suzuki, a young Japanese scholar and Shugendō practitioner who has just returned to Japan after graduating from Brown University’s Contemplative Studies Course. So far, Kento-san has only carefully worked with me through Imaoka-sensei’s ‘Principles of Living’, but we are hopeful that, from October onwards, we’ll be working together through the remainder of the essays in this volume. Keep your eyes peeled for those revisions… But, until then, please remember that I am entirely responsible for the translation of the remaining essays! So, if you spot any mistakes in this draft (whether in translation, typography, or anything else), or if you have any other thoughts or suggestions, please let me know, either in the comments or via the contact form on this blog.

The reason for publishing them right now, in an easy-to-read English-only draft form, is that I have just been asked to write a piece introducing Imaoka-sensei’s basic understanding of free-religion for a forthcoming edition of the Sea of Faith magazine, Sofia. To assist me in writing that piece, and for the benefit of any eventual readers, it is highly useful to have these foundational essays easily accessible. So, here they are. I hope you find them as inspiring as I have, and continue to do. Enjoy!

The Quiet Opening—Imaoka Shin’ichirō’s Free-Religion (draft, clean English only text, August 2026)