Oomoto

Deguchi Onisaburo

Oomoto (大本, Ōmoto, Great Source, or Great Origin),^[1] also known as Oomoto-kyo (大本教, Ōmoto-kyō), is a sect founded in 1892 by Deguchi Nao (1836–1918), often categorised as a new Japanese religion originated from Shinto. The spiritual leaders of the movement have predominantly been women; however, Deguchi Onisaburō (1871–1948) has been considered an important figure in Omoto as a seishi (spiritual teacher). Since 2001, the movement has been guided by its fifth leader, Kurenai Deguchi.

History

Deguchi Nao, a housewife from the tiny town of Ayabe, Kyoto Prefecture, declared that she had a "spirit dream" at the Japanese New Year in 1892, becoming possessed (kamigakari) by Ushitora no Konjin and starting to transmit his words. According to the official Oomoto biography of Deguchi, she came from a family which had long been in poverty, and had pawned nearly all of her possessions to feed her children and invalid husband. Deguchi was certainly not an otherwise famous figure, and independent accounts of her do not exist. After 1895, and with a growing number of followers, she became a teacher of the Konkōkyō religion. In 1898 she met Ueda Kisaburō who had previous studies in kamigakari (spirit possession), and in 1899 they established the Kinmeikai, which became the Kinmei Reigakkai later in the same year. In 1900 Kisaburō married Nao’s fifth daughter Sumi and adopted the name Deguchi Onisaburō. Omoto was thus established based on Nao's automatic writings (Ofudesaki) and Onisaburō’s spiritual techniques.

Since 1908 the group has taken diverse names — Dai Nihon Shūseikai, Taihonkyō (1913) and Kōdō Ōmoto (1916). Later the movement changed from Kōdō Ōmoto ("great origin of the imperial way") to just Ōmoto ("great origin") and formed the Shōwa Seinenkai in 1929 and the Shōwa Shinseikai in 1934.

Asano Wasaburō, a teacher at Naval War College (海軍大学校, Kaigun Daigakkō), attracted various intellectuals and high-ranking military officials to the movement in 1916. By 1920 the group had their own newspaper, the Taishō nichinichi shinbun, and started to expand overseas. A great amount of its popularity derived from a method of inducing spirit possession called chinkon kishin, which was most widely practiced from 1919 to 1921. Following a police crackdown, Onisaburō banned chinkon kishin in 1923.^[2]

The first "Omoto incident" (Ōmoto jiken), in 1921, was a government intervention. This was followed in 1935 by the "Second Ōmoto Incident", which left its headquarters destroyed and its leaders in captivity. The promotion of kokutai and the Imperial Way resulted in the sect being condemned for worshipping figures other than Amaterasu, which detracted from the figure of the emperor.^[3]

After World War II, the organization reappeared as Aizen’en, a movement dedicated to achieve world peace, and with that purpose it was registered in 1946 under the Religious Corporations Ordinance.

In 1949 Ōmoto joined the World Federalist Movement and the world peace campaign. In 1952 the group returned to its older name, becoming the religious corporation Ōmoto under the Religious Corporations Law. At present time, the movement has its headquarters at Kyoto Prefecture and has a nominal membership of approximately 170,000. There is a temple for religious services in Ayabe, and a mission in a large park on the former site of Kameoka Castle that includes offices, schools, a publishing house, and shrines in Kameoka.

International activities

Since the time of Onisaburo Deguchi, the constructed language Esperanto has played a major role in the Oomoto religion. Starting in 1924, the religion has published books and magazines in Esperanto and this continues today. Almost all of the 45,000 active members of Oomoto have studied some Esperanto, and around 1,000 are fluent in the language.

From 1925 until 1933 Oomoto maintained a mission in Paris. From there, missionaries travelled throughout Europe, spreading the word that Onisaburo Deguchi was a Messiah or Maitreya, who would unify the world.

Doctrine

Omotokyo, was strongly influenced by Konkokyo, Ko-shinto (ancient Shinto) and folk spiritual and divination traditions; it also integrated Kokugaku (National Studies) teachings and modern ideas on world harmony and peace, creating a new doctrine. It shares with Konkokyo the belief in the benevolence of Konjin, who was previously considered an evil kami, and shares with other ancient Shinto schools the teachings that proclaim the achievement of personal virtue as a step to universal harmony.

Members of Oomoto believe in several kami. The most important are Ookunitokotachi, Ushitora Konjin and Hitsujisaru. Oomoto members also tend to recognize notable religious figures from other religions, or even notable non-religious figures, as kami – for example, the creator of Esperanto, L. L. Zamenhof is revered as a god. However, all of these kami are believed to be aspects of a single God concept.

The Oomoto affirmation of Zamenhof's godhood is stated, in Esperanto, as follows:

…[L]a spirito de Zamenhof eĉ nun daŭre agadas kiel misiisto de la anĝela regno; do, lia spirito estis apoteozita en la kapeleto Senrej-ŝa.^[4]

Translated into English, the foregoing reads:

…[T]he spirit of Zamenhof even now continues to act as a missionary of the angelic kingdom; therefore, his spirit was deified in the Senrei-sha shrine.

The belief that two kami, Kunitokodachi no Mikoto and Susano-o no Mikoto, were the original founders and rulers of Japan, who were driven away by Amaterasu Ōmikami, the divine ancestor of the imperial line, is what placed this religion in opposition to the government in pre-war Japan.

Known followers

• One of the more well-known followers of Oomoto was Morihei Ueshiba, a Japanese martial artist and the founder of Aikido. It is commonly thought that Ueshiba's increasing attachment to pacifism in later years and belief that Aikido should be an "art of peace" were inspired by his involvement with the sect. Oomoto priests oversee a ceremony in Ueshiba's honor every April 29 at the Aiki Shrine at Iwama.
• Yamantaka Eye – visual artist, DJ and member of avant musical group Boredoms
• Mokichi Okada, founder of the Church of World Messianity (aka Shinji Shumeikai), was a follower of Oomoto prior to founding his own religion.
• Masaharu Taniguchi, founder of the Seicho-no-ie, was also a follower of Oomoto prior to founding his own religion.

References

Further reading

• Nancy K. Stalker, "Prophet Motive: Deguchi Onisaburo, Oomoto and the Rise of New Religion in Imperial Japan," University Of Hawaii, 2008, ISBN 0-8248-3226-4
• Emily Groszos Ooms, Women and Millenarian Protest in Meiji Japan: Deguchi Nao and Omotokyo, Cornell Univ East Asia Program, 1993, ISBN 978-0-939657-61-2
• The Great Onisaburo Deguchi, by Kyotaro Deguchi, translated by Charles Rowe, ISBN 4-900586-54-4
• Iwao, Hino. The Outline of Oomoto. Kameoka, Japan, 1968.
• Murakami Shigeyoshi. Japanese Religion in the Modern Century. Translated by H. Byron Earhart. Tokyo, 1980. Originally published as Kindai hyakunen no shukyo. ISBN 978-0-86008-260-6
• Yasumaru Yoshio. Deguchi Nao Tokyo, 1977.

External links

• Bankyo Dokon – Seventy Years of Inter-Religious Activity at Oomoto, Oomoto Foundation, 1997
• Nao Deguchi – A Biography of the Foundress of Oomoto, Based on Kaiso-den by Sakae Ôishi, translated by Charles Rowe and Yasuko Matsudaira, Oomoto Foundation, 1982
• Nordenstorm, L. Ômotos mission på esperanto. En japansk ny religion i förändring från kiliastisk Maitreyaförväntan till religionsdialog. (The Ômoto-Mission in Esperanto. A Japanese new religion changing from chiliastic Ma-itreya-awaiting to religious dialogue.) Esperantoförlaget/Eldona Societo Esperanto. Stockholm, 2002. In Swedish with summaries in English and in Esperanto.
• Oomoto (Official site)
• Oomoto (at www.tryte.com.br)