Jotoku Kawahara is a prominent authority figure in the anime Amaenaide yo!! Katsu!!, serving as the Head Monk of the Saienji Temple. Her position grants her significant spiritual and administrative power, as she oversees the temple's operations and the six young nuns-in-training who reside there. In addition to her religious duties, she holds a secular leadership role as the Assistant Principal of East Tousen High School, the institution attended by the temple's young residents. Her authority extends beyond education and religious practice, as she is also responsible for protecting the local community from demonic disturbances.

Jotoku is perhaps best known for her strict and no-nonsense personality, particularly in her interactions with her grandson, Ikkou Satonaka. She believes Ikkou to be inherently lazy, spoiled, and lacking the necessary dedication to his monastic training. Consequently, she maintains an exceptionally rigorous relationship with him, often assigning him the most physically demanding chores and disciplining him with her staff for his failures or rule-breaking. Her disciplinary focus is disproportionately centered on Ikkou, driven by a firm conviction that her tough approach is essential to forge him into a competent and disciplined monk. While her methods are harsh, they originate from a place of tough love and a desire to see him overcome his perceived shortcomings.

Her role in the story is primarily to act as an authority figure who sets the plot in motion, sending the younger characters, including Ikkou and the nuns, on various missions and exorcisms. For example, she once dispatched Ikkou and Hinata to a specific temple to help Hinata overcome a powerful spiritual challenge. She also directly participates in overseeing the group's exorcism jobs, such as when she accompanied them to a movie studio to expel a ghost. Despite her stern exterior, glimpses into her past reveal that she was considered a great beauty in her youth, a fact she herself asserts and is corroborated by other older monks. Flashbacks depict her with long hair and a taller stature, indicating a significant physical transformation over the years. Her key relationships are defined by her guardianship over the temple's residents, but her most significant dynamic is with Ikkou, whom she relentlessly pushes toward self-improvement.