Jotoku Kawahara serves as the Head Monk of Saienji Temple, overseeing six novice nuns and her grandson, Ikkou Satonaka, while also holding the position of Assistant Principal at East Tousen High School, which the temple residents attend. Her leadership extends to protecting the surrounding community from demonic disturbances.

Believing Ikkou inherently lazy, spoiled, and insufficiently dedicated to his monastic training, she maintains an exceptionally strict relationship with him. This leads her to assign him more physically demanding tasks than others, influenced by gender-based expectations about labor suitability. She frequently disciplines him physically with her staff, often punishing failures to control his spiritual awakenings or violations of temple policies. Though she occasionally overlooked minor infractions early in the series, she later adopted a more rigorous stance, concluding she had been too lenient before.

While firm with all temple residents, her disciplinary focus remains disproportionately centered on Ikkou, driven by her goal to forge him into a competent and disciplined monk, viewing this as essential to overcoming his perceived shortcomings.

References to her past suggest she was regarded as a beauty in her youth, a point she personally asserts and which older monks corroborate. Flashbacks depict her with long hair and a taller stature, presented partially with visual exaggeration.