Kodo Nishimura, Buddhist monk, Makeup Artist and LGBTQ Activist, Tokyo, Japan - 27 Jun 2022

Buddhist monk, makeup artist and LGBTQ advocate Kodo Nishimura does his makeup in a room at his temple in Tokyo, Japan, 27 June 2022 (issued 30 June 2022). Kodo Nishimura, a Japanese Buddhist monk, make-up artist and model, has become an icon of LGTBQ+ activism in Japan, where he preaches to promote inclusion and diversity from his religious and artistic background. 'I believe my mission in life is to free people from their limiting values and my tools are Buddhism and makeup,' says Nishimura in an interview with Efe in the midst of promoting her book 'This Monk Wears Heels: Be Who You Are,' published this year and to be released in five more languages in the coming months, including Spanish and French. The volume, autobiographical, is a longer adaptation of his first book in Japanese, 'Seisei Dodo' (2020), where he talks about the branch of Buddhism he professes, the Pure Land school, and how its teachings helped him to be at peace with himself, his sexuality and to develop his activism for LGTBQ+ rights.