Jun Murai

Jun Murai was an influential Japanese Pentecostal minister and the founder of the Spirit of Jesus Church, one of Japan’s major indigenous Pentecostal movements. Born into the family of Methodist minister Kisou Murai in Kagoshima on June 27, 1897, Murai was baptized in 1913 and entered the theological department of Aoyama Gakuin in Tokyo. In 1918, while suffering from severe depression, he visited his cousin Makoto Miyoshi, a Bible woman associated with British Pentecostal missionaries William and Mary Taylor. During this visit, Murai experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit on September 8, 1918.

In 1919, Murai met J. B. Thornton of the Japan Evangelistic Band and was deeply impressed by his ministry. He left Aoyama Gakuin and joined Thornton’s work with his older brother Hajime. That year he married Suwa Yokota, another Bible woman associated with the Taylors. After serving as a pastor in Okayama, Murai joined Thornton’s Japan Self-Help Bible School in Kaibara, Hyogo, as Dean of Evangelism. Following Thornton’s departure from Japan in 1926, Murai became an independent itinerant evangelist.

Murai’s relationship with the Assemblies of God developed when Carl F. Juergensen invited him to preach at Takinogawa Church in Tokyo in 1929. In 1932, he became pastor of Otsuka Church. A major spiritual revival occurred there on July 23, 1933, when several members experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Thereafter, Murai became widely known as a Holy Spirit evangelist, emphasizing speaking in tongues and divine healing. Through his evangelistic campaigns and his periodical Seirei (Holy Spirit), he introduced Pentecostal experiences to Christians beyond established Pentecostal congregations.

Murai also became increasingly important within the Japan Bible Church, an organization largely led by US Assemblies of God missionaries. In 1937, he became the first Japanese minister to be elevated to denominational leadership, and in June 1940 he was appointed its kantoku (bishop).

A decisive change occurred in 1941 when Murai and four other Japanese Pentecostal ministers visited the Japan True Jesus Church in Taiwan. Murai was deeply impressed by its strong spiritual fervor and its doctrine. He accepted baptism in the name of Jesus and was rebaptized in Taiwan. These new convictions led to serious disagreement within the Japan Bible Church and contributed to its dissolution.

On November 16, 1941, Murai and his followers established a new group, which was legally recognized in 1942 as the Toshima Spirit of Jesus Church. Murai identified seven marks of the true church: baptism in Jesus’ name, Spirit baptism evidenced by tongues, correct communion, foot washing, Sabbath observance, laying on of hands, and miracles demonstrating the Holy Spirit’s work. He also incorporated certain Japanese cultural practices, including Sosen Sai (Festival of Ancestors), and taught vicarious baptism for the dead.

After World War II, the Spirit of Jesus Church expanded rapidly as an indigenous Japanese Oneness Pentecostal movement. Murai briefly cooperated with other Oneness leaders, including Leonard W. Coote and Jun Nukida, but remained independent. Murai died in Tokyo on March 26, 1970. His family subsequently assumed leadership of the denomination, ensuring the continuation of the distinctive Pentecostal movement he had established.

This article is the author's abridged version of Masakazu Suzuki, "Murai, Jun," in Brill's Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism, ed. Michael Wilkinson et al. (Leiden: Brill, 2021).

For Further Reading:

Mullins, Mark R. “Japan Pentecostalism and the World of the Dead: A Study of Cultural Adaptation in Iesu no Mitama Kyokai.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 17, no. 4 (December 1990): 353-374.
Suzuki, Masakazu. “The Origins and the Development of the Japan Assemblies of God: The Foreign and Japanese Workers and Their Ministries (1907 to 1975).” Ph.D. diss., Bangor University, 2011.

Jun Murai (1897–1970)

Country of Origin

Countries/Regions of Ministry

Traditions

Ministries

For Further Reading: