Japan's New Religions

2. A Brief History
 The Mythological version of Japanese origins is recounted in the Shinto Myth.
 4th Century – the land was divided into independent tribes and clans who practices indigenous
religions.
 Yamato Clans – took a central role, claiming that their leader was a descendant of the sun
goddess
 5th Century – Chinese introduced writing, Confucianism and other new ideas.
 50 years later, Buddhism came into Japan from China and Korea and soon became the dominant
religion in Japan. However, the introduction of writing enabled the Japanese scholars to write
down the Shinto myths and legends circulating among the clans

3.  Taika Reform (646) – established a strong central government under the control of an
emperor, on the Chinese model
 858 – Fujiwara Family gained control and ruled over Japan for 300 years.
 Real power was in the hands of the lords of independent estates, who hired
warriors(samurai) to protect them.
 1192 – a military government with the central leader called a shogun began. It lasted
until 1867. Emperors continued, but they surrendered effective power to rule to the
shoguns.
 1281 – a Mongol fleet sent by Kublai Khan threatened Japan, but was destroyed by a
typhoon (kamikaze, divine wind). During this period several movements that
combined Shinto and Buddhist teachings developed.

4.  1543 – Christianity was brought in Japan by Francis Xavier
 1603 – Tokugawa family took control of the shogunate. During this period, ties
were cut in the outside world. Christianity was virtually eliminated, and a Shinto
revival movement gained momentum.
 After Japan was defeated in Word War II, a new constitution creating a
parliamentary democracy was drawn up. With the imposition of freedom of
religion in this constitution, the door opened for the development of a host of
new religions.

5. SHINTO (SHINTOISM)

6.  It is the traditional religion of Japan
 It played a critical role in the formation of Japanese culture and the Japanese
national identity.
 It comes from two Chinese words shen and dao, meaning the way of the spirits.
 The same Japanese characters pronounced shen dao can also be pronounced
kami-no-michi, “the way of the Kami”
 There are no Shinto scriptures, and there is no formally enunciated set of beliefs..
Its strength is in its survival in ritual and in attitudes.

7.  Shinto is often called the 'Japanese religion', and has been a big influence on Japanese culture and values for over
2000 years. But some writers think that Shinto is more than just a religion - it's no more or less than the Japanese
way of looking at the world.
 Because ritual rather than belief is at the heart of Shinto, Japanese people don't usually think of Shinto specifically
as a religion - it's simply an aspect of Japanese life. This has enabled Shinto to coexist happily with Buddhism for
centuries.
 Shinto is involved in every aspect of Japanese culture: It touches ethics, politics, family life and social structures,
artistic life (particularly drama and poetry) and sporting life (Sumo wrestling), as well as spiritual life.
 Many events that would be secular in the West involve a brief Shinto ritual in Japan - for example, the construction
of a new building would involve a Shinto ceremony.
 Although most Japanese follow many Shinto traditions throughout life, they actually regard themselves as being
devoted to their community's local shrine and kami, rather than to a countrywide religion.
 So many Japanese don't think that they are practising Shinto nor are followers of the Shinto religion, even though
what they do is what constitutes actual Shinto, rather than official or academic Shinto.

8. The Shinto Myth: Japan as the Land of the
Kami
 The Shinto Myth was first compiled in a written form in 712 CE, in a work
known as the Kojiki (Chronicle of Ancient Events) together with the Nihongi
(Chronicles of Japan).
 According to the Kojiki, the Japanese islands were created at the beginning of
time by two kami, the original male, Izanagi (male-who-invites) and female
Izanami (female-who-invites)
 According to the Shinto Myth, the emperor of Japan is a descendant of the
sun-goddess Amaterasu (shining in heaven), and is known as the manifest
kami.
 The Japanese islands were the center of creation, and the Japanese people are
all descended from the kami. Indeed, Japan is the land of the kami.
 Kami – a divine being to Shinto

9.  Various Shinto shrines
throughout Japan are
dedicated to Inari, the kami of
rice. Most famous is the
Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto.

10. Kurozumikyō
 The saintly Kurozumi Munetada (1780–1850)
founded this movement after a revelation in 1814.
Kurozumi believed himself possessed by the
Shintō sun goddess Amaterasu, whom he
identified as the infinite deity. This small but
influential movement emphasizes healthy living,
healing, the cultivation of joy, and worship of the
indwelling divine spirit.

11. Tenrikyō
 Tenrikyō (religion of heavenly wisdom) originated in 1838,
when a farmer's wife, Nakayama Miki (1798–1887), was
possessed during a shamanistic rite by a deity who
identified himself to her as the true and original God.
Subsequently, this deity, now known to followers as God the
Parent, imparted through Miki healing gifts and revealed
scripture. Tenrikyō features an account of the Creation and
the performance of a dance ritual that recalls it.

12. Konkōkyō
 In 1859 a peasant, Kawate Bunjirō (1868–1912), felt
himself called by the high god Tenchi Kane no
Kami to a ministry of mediation between the divine
and humankind. This he did through the
Konkōkyō(religion of golden light), a faith that
teaches that God is benevolent and that offers a
practice called toritsugi, in which supplicants
receive spiritual counsel from a priest.

13. The Ōmoto Group
 The prolific Ōmoto (great source) new religions, stemming from
the late-nineteenth-century Ōmoto faith itself, are characterized
by a monotheism combined with a rich vision of a complex
spiritual world from which souls descend into matter, a picture
somewhat reminiscent of Western Neoplatonism and Gnosticism.
They also have a strong affirmation of immediate and continuing
divine revelation and an eschatological bent emphasizing an
imminent paradisical new age. The influence of Western
Spiritualism, Swedenborgianism, and New Thought is apparent.

14. Ōmoto
 member of Konkōkyō who had experienced many personal troubles, began to deliver
divine oracles. Although the messages were initially from the Konkōkyō deity, Nao left that
faith in 1897 and soon thereafter met Ueda Kisaburō (1871–1948, later Deguchi
Onisaburō), a mystic and spiritualist whom she believed to be the great teacher her
revelations had predicted would be sent from God. Under him Ōmoto became a well-
organized and rapidly expanding religion that emphasized the oneness of God, the
existence of a formative spiritual world behind the material, the temporary descent of
souls from the spirit realm into the world of matter, the expression of the divine through
art, and the coming of a new age heralded by a great teacher. Onisaburō also devised
rites of healing, as had Nao in the early years of the movement. The increasingly
totalitarian government forced it to disband in 1935. Although it was reorganized in 1946,
it has never regained its former strength.

15. Seichō no Ie
 The founder of Seichō no Ie (literally, house of growth), Taniguchi
Masaharu (1893–1985), was an avid reader of Western and Eastern
philosophy as a young man and participated in Ōmoto for four
years. In 1928, by chance, he discovered a book by the American
New Thought teacher Fenwicke Holmes. This book helped him
crystallize a system of thought that was officially launched as
Seichō no Ie in 1930, when Taniguchi began publishing a magazine
of that name. Seichō no Ie affirms the perfection and spiritual nature
of all things and denies the reality of matter, suffering, or evil—one
may escape from them through the affirmative power of mind. It
teaches a distinctive form of meditation called shinsokanand certain
chants.

16. World Messianity
 The founder of World Messianity, Okada Mokichi (1882–1955),
was an active worker in the Ōmoto faith until 1934, when he felt
called to form his own organization. The present name was
adopted in 1950. Emphasizing the coming of a paradise on
earth through an accelerating inpouring of divine light, World
Messianity seeks to prepare the way through a practice
called jorei, channeling divine light through a cupped, upraised
hand to a body or other object to cleanse it of evil. World
Messianity also regards art and beauty, including gardens, as
precursors of the earthly paradise.

17. The Nichiren Group
 The medieval Buddhist prophet Nichiren (1222–1282)
started a movement from which most important
sectarian developments in Japanese Buddhism have
stemmed. Nichiren Buddhism's fundamental conviction
is that the Lotus Sūtra is the supreme and full doctrine; it
is worshiped in the form of a maṇḍala, the Gohonzon,
by means of a chant called the Daimoku. Nichiren
Buddhism claims to be the one true Buddhism. It
emphasizes the coming of a spiritual new age and the
power of the faith to bring benefits here and now.

18. Sōka Gakkai
 Sōka Gakkai was established in 1937 by Makiguchi Tsunesaburō (1871–1944), an educator
and convert to Nichiren Shōshū. He shared the belief of pragmatism that human benefit
is of greater importance than truth regarded as an abstract ideal, and he saw a
compatible view in Nichiren's emphasis on present attainment of the benefits of practice.
Sōka Gakkai was reconstructed after World War II under the dynamic leadership of Toda
Jōsei (1900–1958) and became a highly organized promotional arm of Nichiren Shōshū.
Whereas its tactics were often criticized, in this period it was hailed as the "fastest growing
religion in the world," claiming by 1960 some 750,000 households. After Toda's death,
leadership passed to Ikeda Daisaku (b. 1928). Emphasizing the movement's cultural and
social significance, Ikeda founded a related political party, the Kōmeitō (Clean
Government Party) and otherwise sought to advance the coming of the Third Civilization,
when true faith would spread over the world, ushering in an era of peace and plenty.

19. Reiyūkai
 The oldest major modern Nichiren sect, Reiyūkai (spiritual friends
association) was founded in 1925 by Kubo Kakutarō (1892–1944) and his
sister-in-law Kotani Kimi (1901–1971), both of humble backgrounds.
Essentially a lay organization, it depends on informal groups and volunteer
teachers. In addition to the usual Nichiren emphases, Reiyūkai stresses the
importance of ancestor worship, features quasi-shamanistic faith-healing
practices, and has developed an influential kind of group counseling
called hoza (dharma circle). Reiyūkai suffered many difficulties after World
War II, but by the 1970s the movement was again an established part of
Japanese spiritual life, inculcating conservative social values.

20. Risshō Kōseikai
 Many new Nichiren movements arose out of the decentralized,
charismatic matrix of Reiyūkai. By far the most successful was
Risshō Kōseikai (society establishing righteousness and
harmony), founded in 1938 by Niwano Nikkyō (b. 1906) and a
housewife, Naganuma Myōkō (1889–1957), both former
members of Reiyūkai. Risshō Kōseikai includes healing and
divination practices and hoza group counseling; it presents an
eclectic form of Nichiren Buddhism. After World War II, Niwano
attained international recognition for his activity in worldwide
peace and interreligious organizations.