Tenri University

It was established in February 1925 as the coeducational Tenri Foreign Language School (天理外国語専門学校, Tenri Gaikokugo Senmon Gakkō), enrolling 104 students, and was reorganised as a university in April 1949.

[1] The Tenri Foreign Language College, the predecessor to Tenri University, was founded by the Tenrikyo Young Men's Association (a subdivision of Tenrikyo Church Headquarters) under the direction of the second Shinbashira, Nakayama Shozen.

The college was founded to educate Tenrikyo adherents who would engage in missionary work abroad.

[2] By the 1970s, the university had developed a strong reputation in Japan for foreign language study and judo.

[5] Tenri University is part of the oyasato-yakata complex, a square almost one kilometer in diameter that also houses a seminary, public schools, Tenrikyo lectures, and the Tenri Hospital.