The true title of our work is a single character: 来 (KURU), “to come.” The O is an honorific; written with 御, the title becomes 御来 (OKURU). What is coming? The Kingdom of God. Our work exists to make that coming known.

来 — What Comes Is the Kingdom of God

At the beginning of his preaching, Jesus announced: “The time is accomplished, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). And when he taught his disciples to pray, he gave them these words among the first: “Thy kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10).

For two thousand years the Church has prayed this every day. Our title, 来, is one word of that prayer. It is not a vague feeling that something might arrive; it is the promise that the Kingdom of God is coming. To make that promise known through stories, music and pictures is the reason our work exists.

Christmas is the night that promise first became visible. In the manger at Bethlehem, the One who is himself the Kingdom came as a child. That is why our work always stands with Christmas and with the Star of Bethlehem.

御 — The Honorific “O”

御 is the Japanese character of reverence. As in 御国 (“thy kingdom”), 御名 (“thy name”) and 御心 (“thy will”), it is placed before something precious, to speak of it humbly. 御来 (OKURU) is the title spoken with reverence for what is coming. The formal title remains…KURU); 御 is the honorific placed before it.

米 and 十 — Why We Love This Character

We love the character 来 itself, because within its shape are 米 and 十. 米 is rice, the food that nourishes and keeps people alive. In 十 one sees the Cross. The bread that gives life and the Cross, overlapping in one character that means “to come”: it may be a coincidence, but to us it looks like the very way the Kingdom of God comes.

We have also used 来 as a short sign for “Hebrew,” the language from which the name of Bethlehem and the first story of Christmas come to us.

Six Years of Self-Discipline

The title was not fixed from the beginning. In early 2020 there were plans for a story set in the Garden of Eden, and there was a time when we tried strange titles such as 御茶頼 and 御乃夢.

Over the six years that followed, the author kept asking, in work and in prayer, what should be drawn and why. Through that self-discipline, the title arrived at one character, 来. When everything decorative had been stripped away, what remained was a single point: the Kingdom of God is coming.

御来屋 — The House That Waits for the Kingdom

Okuruya (御来屋) means “the house of 御来”: the house that waits, with reverence, for what is coming. It waits for the Kingdom of God, makes works that announce it, and gives them freely. It is the home of IHS Bethlehem Church on the web, at ihs.okuruya.com.

Why “XmasFantasy”

The name XmasFantasy was given with this meaning: from fantasy, through the Mass, God comes forth and embodies love and hope.

The English word “Christmas” comes from Christ’s Mass — the Mass of the Nativity of the Lord. The “X” in “Xmas” is the Greek letter chi (Χ), the first letter of Christos (Χριστός), Christ. The name holds two things side by side: Xmas, the Mass of Christ, and Fantasy, the work of the imagination. Our stories begin in imagination; but we carry that imagination, like an offering, toward the altar, praying that through it God may show his love and hope.

We say plainly that our stories are works of imagination and not the Church’s teaching. The name does not claim that fantasy is revelation. It expresses a hope: that what begins in imagination may, through prayer and the Mass, point to the God who is love, and to the Kingdom that is coming.

The Names Together

• 来 (KURU): the true title of our work. What comes is the Kingdom of God.
• 御来 (OKURU): 来 with the honorific 御.
• OKURU — Star of Mary — ChristmasFantasy: the name of our world. Star of Mary comes from the old title of the Virgin as the Star of the Sea.
• KIBOJO (希望王女, “Princess of Hope”): our principal work, the story of Princess Santaria, who carries someone’s hope to the next place.
• IHS Bethlehem Church: the nonprofit church that makes these works, owns them and holds their rights; a media mission only to spread hope, peace and love.

Creation is hope. Hope is the monastic life. Therefore, creation is the monastic life.

Read next: The Star of Bethlehem · Christmas · KIBOJO and the Catholic Faith · IHS Bethlehem Church