An Account of One of Japan's Popular Faiths

This account of Ōmoto-kyō was published in 1920 by The Japan Chronicle of Kobe, Japan, as the first number of its Chronicle Reprints series. The author is identified only as "A Japanese Scholar" — a Western-educated Japanese writer whose identity has not been established. The text draws on reports from the Asahi, Chugai, Yomiuri, and Yorodzu newspapers, as well as direct acquaintance with the movement's publications and leadership.

The document is a portrait of Ōmoto-kyō at the precise moment of its first national prominence — written when the religion had just exploded into public consciousness and before the government had acted decisively against it. The First Ōmoto Incident would come the following year (1921); the catastrophic Second Incident, which dynamited the compounds at Kameoka and Ayabe, would not come until 1935. The reader holds a witness account from before the storm.

The text includes freely translated passages from Deguchi Nao's Ofudesaki (the "Honourable Writings"), the full ten-article Credo of Omoto-kyo, and an eyewitness description of the chinkon-kishin possession practice. The author's tone is that of an educated skeptic — ironic, occasionally condescending, but genuinely engaged with the religion as a sociological and spiritual phenomenon. His judgment that Omoto-kyo illustrates "the way in which a religion is made" remains pertinent a century later.

This text is reproduced from the Internet Archive (archive.org/details/omoto-kyo), where it is held under Public Domain Mark 1.0. It is the first text archived in the Living Traditions section of the Good Work Library.

The Religion and Its Moment

This curious combination of Shintoism, chauvinism, megalomania and mesmerism, founded by an illiterate half-crazy woman and consolidated and propagated by the combined efforts of a shrewd man of the world and a scholar of English literature and translator of Shakespeare and Washington Irving, has been dealt with more than once in the Japan Chronicle. In view, however, of the great deal of public and official attention which it is now attracting, it may be interesting to tell the story again at the risk of some inevitable repetition and trace the origin and growth of this religion in the light of fresh material supplied by Press and popular works written on the subject.

When the religion was first described in the Chronicle (Dec. 14th, 1916), it may be safely said that out of a hundred educated men in Tokyo ninety-nine were not aware of its existence, much less of its tenets. After an interval of less than four years, the religion is in the mouth of everybody either in terms of admiration or derision. It has assumed such importance in the eyes of the public that two respectable Tokyo journals—Asahi and Chugai—thought fit to send a special reporter to Ayabe, the Mecca of Omoto-kyo, and to publish lengthy reports of their investigations. Indeed hardly a day now passes without some paragraph appearing in the Press about the virtues or danger of the religion.

The authorities are particularly struck by its danger, for the religion is sedulously encroaching upon the homes of educated men and causing much trouble there, and turning, it is said, useful producers into raving dreamers. Even teachers and students throw down their books in order to place themselves under the influence of the leaders of Omoto-kyo. The particular danger of the religion—at least in the eyes of the authorities—lies in the great energy and virility with which it is propagated, as is the case with many other new religions. In order to influence honest and simple-minded folks in the country, the authorities believe that the managers of the religion are making use of retired military and naval officers, public functionaries, and even journalists on so extensive a scale that it is calculated that over 10,000 of these propagators must be in active operation throughout the country. The educational authorities and some eminent Buddhists are also alarmed, the educational authorities hinting the desirability of school directors giving warnings to their students against Omoto-kyo, with special reference to the coming summer vacation, while the Buddhists are going to start a movement in September against superstitious beliefs—that is, against Omoto-kyo.

Mr. Nakamura Kyoto, a well-known specialist in the study of abnormal mentality, has been in Ayabe in order to make minute investigation into all phases of the religion and is going to launch a vigorous scientific campaign against what he conceives to be a tissue of superstitions. In the meantime, the Ayabe press is busy turning out books and magazines and its efforts are being reinforced by popular writers. For instance, the book entitled "A Criticism of Omoto-kyo," by Mr. Goto Shidzuo, which appeared in May, has already run through six editions, and is no criticism at all but is mainly made up of lengthy extracts of Omoto literature. According to the Yomiuri, nearly 200 students of Keio College have been converted to the faith, and many students in that institution are going to pay a visit to Ayabe during the summer holidays. The Yorodzu publishes the report that Mrs. Nakano, the wife of Mr. Nakano, a bachelor of law and the head of a well-known family in Tokyo, is so much under the spell of Omoto-kyo that she has gone to live at Ayabe despite the earnest dissuasions of her relations and threats of divorce.

The Founders

The Foundress's Origin and Life

After giving some idea of the present importance of Omoto-kyo, let us now go some years back and trace the obscure source of the great stream. Deguchi Nao (née Kirimura) the foundress of Omoto-kyo, was born in Fukuchiyama, Tamba Province, in 1836. She was entirely uneducated, it being as much as she could manage to do to write the Japanese syllabary. In her 20th year, she was married to Deguchi Masagoro, a carpenter of Ayabe town in the same province, who was an inveterate drunkard and died after having begotten eight children, swallowed his whole patrimony, and suffered from palsy for three long years, leaving his widow and offspring in utter poverty.

Poor Nao's efforts for the maintenance of her many children were indescribable. She reared silkworms, she reeled, she turned ragwoman, going from house to house in Ayabe for waste-paper. In the meantime, her three elder daughters ran wild and two sons disappeared, leaving her with only the two youngest daughters. All this while she made ceremonial ablutions morning and evening and prayed to the gods with the greatest devotion.

It was on the first night of 1892 that she was suddenly at one with the gods. She declared herself to be Ushitora no Konjin, whom she claims to be identical with Kunitokodachi-no-Mikoto (one of the Shinto gods). She cried that she wanted to build a world temple in Ayabe, the Takamagahara (abode of gods) on earth, and demanded that the townspeople should go away with their houses and all. Otherwise, she said that she would set the houses on fire. In this wise, she raved and shouted night and day to the mortification of her neighbours.

Fires then occurred in the town in rapid succession. The madwoman, for such was the light in which she was regarded by her neighbours, was detained in prison on a charge of arson for two months and a half as an unconvicted prisoner, at the end of which she was found insane and set free, but only to be shut up under guard in a small room in her house for seventy-five days. It was here that she began her scribblings—called O Fudesaki (Honourable Writings) by the believers—scribblings in a hand quite unintelligible to the uninitiated, and she continued this work to her death in 1918, to the number, it is affirmed, of 10,000 volumes!

Prolific Authorship

Mr. Goto, the author of the Criticism of Omoto-kyo, calculates that, reading one volume a day, it will take about thirty years to go through the whole set, and dwells with admiration on the great energy and perseverance of the foundress of Omoto-kyo, who is said to have written the volumes during twenty-seven years, always in a state of ecstasy. He adds that all these volumes are preserved at Ayabe and are in exactly the same handwriting. According to investigations made by the Kyoto police as quoted by the Chugai, however, the volumes in existence at Ayabe are not so numerous. There are only 4,802 dated volumes, said to have been written between 1896 and 1917. Of these, 2,901 are said to be originals and 1,901 copies. There are 125 undated volumes which are claimed to have been written between 1892 and 1895, but these are in an exceedingly different handwriting from that in recent volumes. Anyhow each volume is made up of hanshi sheets, each containing 10 lines from 8 to 10 words each—that is, the contents of one volume is 2,000 words at most.

The Asahi writer points out that it requires more than human effort to construe and interpret these scribblings of an illiterate woman in a state of intense excitement, and extract from them teachings and prophecies with which to constitute the foundations of a new religion. This laborious task devolved upon the present directors of the religion, Mr. Deguchi Wanisaburo and Mr. Asano Wasaburo. Before proceeding to examine the contents of the Honourable Writings, let us call a short halt to see what these people are like.

Life of the Chief Apostle

Son of a poor farmer at Anabuto in Tamba Province, born in 1871, Mr. Deguchi (originally Ueda Kisaburo) was not able to go through even the elementary school course. Bound apprentice to a rich farmer in a neighbouring village, and then assisting his father in farm work, and finally working as a carter, he underwent all manner of hardships. In his 23rd year he became a student-servant to a certain veterinary surgeon with the object of studying veterinary science, but nothing came of it. In 1895, when he was in his 25th year, he was again back at his native village of Anabuto, where, in the following year, we find him working as a dairyman, tending a few cows. On the death of his father in 1897, the duty of maintaining the family devolved upon himself alone—a duty which he found very hard to fulfil. Such was the commonplace record of the first half of his life, so far as his outward doings were concerned.

Spiritually, however, he was steadily preparing for the position he now occupies. He was given to meditation from his boyhood up, paying nightly visits to various Shinto temples. After his father's death, his spiritual activities were greater than ever. In August 1897, he again kept vigil for three weeks in the village shrine, on the last day of which he found himself under a divine spell such as he had never before experienced. He was in a dream and yet not in a dream: he felt a spirit within himself and controlling his entire being.

In the summer of the following year (1898), we find him making a religious tour of the north of Tamba Province, where, in a teahouse by the roadside, he is asked by the landlady whether he is a Shinto priest. In answer, he says he is a Saniha—a judge of gods. The woman then asks him to go to Ayabe and see her mother there, Deguchi Nao by name, and judge whether she is really possessed by a god, as she herself claims to be since 1892, writing things under the alleged dictation of Ushitora no Konjin or Kunitokodachi-no-Mikoto. Mr. Ueda (for he was not yet a Deguchi) agrees to do so, and proceeds to Ayabe in the course of the same month. A judge of gods approves of a woman possessed by a god. They agree to co-operate.

An Apostle Who Uses Chrysostom's Weapon of Deceit

It was thus that the foundations were laid of Omoto-kyo by their united effort on the 1st July, 1899. Wanisaburo subsequently married Nao's youngest daughter and is now father of five children. In spite of the veneration with which he is looked up to by the believers, however, there is nothing divine in his appearance. Unkempt and unshaved, with teeth which seem to have never known the brush, he is a rustic clown in appearance. But notwithstanding his artlessly honest or even dull and stupid looks, the Asahi puts him down as a consummate man of the world, who knows well what is what.

When he wanted to purchase the lot of ground on which the principal temple of his religion now stands, the greedy landowners gradually raised the price to ¥50,000 for the land for which they had originally asked only ¥2,000. It was at this juncture that he was summoned before the Kyoto police. On his leaving Ayabe, he said that it was now time for them to buy the land, and left a sum of ¥6,000 to be paid as bargain money on the transaction, which he desired to be completed in his absence. In Kyoto, where he was interviewed by reporters, he gave out that Omoto-kyo was about to perish. His strategy succeeded, and the panic-stricken landowners hurried to part with the land for ¥25,000. Since that episode he had the frankness to own to the representative of the Asahi that it was thanks to the newspapers that he was now master of the hill on which the temple stands. It is not merely by far-fetched prophecies and spiritual wonders that Omoto-kyo has attained to its present greatness. Human sagacity often tells more than divine power in this world, says the Asahi writer.

Mr. Deguchi has also written O Fudesaki. There are about 500 volumes of these at present. They are of a less energetic and more commonplace type than his mother-in-law's writings. He himself has confessed to the police that the writings were not written in a state of ecstasy, though the believers say that they were inspired by Toyokumo-no-Mikoto, another Shinto god.

The St. Paul of Omoto-Kyo

In spite of Mr. Deguchi's great worldly wisdom, Omoto-kyo would never have become such a great and sweeping influence as it is at present among the educated classes, if it had not been for the conversion and efforts of Mr. Asano Wasaburo. Mr. Asano graduated from the English Literature Course in the Tokyo Imperial University in 1899 and was a teacher of English literature at the Naval Engineering College at Yokosuka until 1916, when he embraced Omoto-kyo and removed to Ayabe in order to take charge of its literary and propaganda operations—a task which he has performed and is performing so admirably and effectively that it is generally believed it is largely owing to his efforts that so many converts have been made by Omoto-kyo among the educated class. If a scholar of English literature and a translator of some of Shakespeare's plays and Irving's "Sketch Book" has examined the views and writings of Deguchi Nao and come to the conclusion that they are worth propagating all over the world, throwing up a more or less lucrative, though comparatively obscure, public post in order to undertake the mission of enlightenment, it is no wonder that people should think that there must be something in those views and writings.

The Process of Conversion

In the summer of 1915, Mr. Asano's child had an unknown fever for several months which would not go in spite of all medical efforts. The alarmed mother then visited (unknown to her husband) a female religionist noted for her wonderful spiritual powers living in the town in order to make inquiries. The woman said that it was an affection of the bronchi and that it would be cured within two weeks without fail. Sure enough, the child was quite itself again by the appointed time. Mrs. Asano then told her husband of her secret visit to the old woman. Out of curiosity he himself went to see her and was struck by her great appetite! She ate three big bowls of rice and fried fish (a ration for three men) "for the honourable dog residing within her," and one more bowl for herself. Subsequent calls, however, showed her to be the possessor of a wonderful power in the way of telling or foretelling events in one's past or future, locating lost articles and so on.

Mr. Asano's Conversion

It was at one of these visits to the woman that Mr. Asano met with Commander Iimori, with whom he had been formerly acquainted. It was from this man that he heard for the first time Omoto-kyo as a world religion, Ayabe as the future capital of the world, the reconstruction and overhauling of the universe, and so on, for Commander Iimori was already a convert and earnest proselytiser of Omoto-kyo. All this, however, appeared to Mr. Asano to be the nonsensical jargon of a megalomaniac. But when he went to Ayabe on the occasion of a visit to Osaka on official business, and saw the foundress of Omoto-kyo early in April in 1916, he was captivated by her inspiring presence, with her silvery hair, her white and transparent skin, her inviolable dignity, and the spiritual power radiating from her. The talk of Mrs. Deguchi on the meaning and aims of life delivered in the peculiar Tamba dialect made him ashamed, says Mr. Asano, of the petty desires with which he had so far been actuated. He was not yet fully acquainted with things divine, but he was convinced that he would be living a life worth living by exerting himself to the best of his ability under a person like the foundress of Omoto-kyo, who was absolutely sincere and serious in promoting the interest of people and country and faithfully served the gods in utter disregard of self.

On his return to Yokosuka, Mr. Asano sent his wife to Ayabe and invited Mr. Deguchi Wanisaburo to his house in Yokosuka so that he might learn the methods in the divine world and practise the art of "repressing a bad spirit and restoring a godly one." Later, he underwent the practice and training of a Saniha (judge of gods) for sixty days by himself. His faith waxed apace, and in the height of his enthusiasm he even went without food and sleep for a week. It was then that a firm resolution was formed in his breast. In August of the same year he was again in Ayabe, this time for investigating the divine instructions given through Nao and Deguchi's writings and practising as a Saniha upon the believers. As a result of all this, a final resolution was taken. He made up his mind to devote himself to the great task of propagating this unique and matchless religion. On the 10th of December, 1916, he and his family settled down at Ayabe. Since that day to this, his life has been a strenuous one, preaching Omoto-kyo up and down the country and writing books and magazine articles on the same subject with much success. Richly does he deserve the name of the St. Paul of Omoto-kyo—a name of which he must be proud if pride has any room in the mind of a man so devoted to the cause of gods and men.

Other Disciples

It is hardly necessary to add that Mr. Asano is not the only worker in the intellectual field of Omoto-kyo. He is supported by many educated men, including Vice-Admiral Asano, uncle of Mr. Asano (the well-known shipowner and businessman), Colonel Komaki, Mr. Takagi Idzuo, a bachelor of law and advocate, and Mr. Yugawa Kwanichi, ex-teacher of a certain commercial school who made his name by publishing a poem in celebration of the coronation of the present Emperor. Dr. Nishihara of Tokyo and Mr. Kurihara Shichizo, former director of the Jitsugyo no Nihon office, publishers of the well-known Tokyo magazine, have also cast in their lot with Omoto-kyo. There are many other educated workers—ex-managers of companies, doctors, advocates, retired military and naval officers, and so on. This being so, there ought to be no difficulty, an Asahi writer facetiously remarks, in organising an Omoto Cabinet in the possible event of Ayabe becoming the holy capital of the world.

The Honourable Writings

The writings of Deguchi Nao as presented to the world in readable language under the name of O Fudesaki or Omote no Shinyu ("Face Divine Instructions"), in contradistinction to Ura no Shinyu ("Back Divine Instructions"), which is the name given to Mr. Deguchi's inspired writings, are quaint, bold and passionate in style, with some traces of the Tamba dialect cunningly left in, but on the whole fairly intelligible. Below are a few examples freely translated.

Foreign Countries under the Reign of Brutes

"The plum-blossoms have opened at once in three thousand worlds and Ushitora no Konjin now reigns supreme. The world has passed under the sway of the Country of the Gods, which is as fine as the plum-blossoms and whose rule is strong as the pine-tree. Japan must be governed by Shinto, for it is a country which cannot do without the help of gods. Foreign countries are under the reign of brutes; they are countries where the strong have the upper hand and devils abound. Japan has also come under the sway of brutes. But as this will not do, the god has appeared on the surface in order to re-build three thousand worlds. This world is going to be turned into a new one. Three thousand worlds are to be subjected to a great washing and a great cleansing, so that the Country of the Gods may hold rule in the world in peace and for ever."

Wickedness in High Places

"The minds of men are now perverted. This is the reason why good appears evil, and evil good in their eyes. The world is now turned entirely topsy turvy. Those who are above (the governing class) in this world are doing nothing really good. Now that Ushitora no Konjin appears on the surface and washes out the world completely, the wickedness of those above will be exposed in due time. People who are below are now toiling and moiling year in and year out, always carrying earth up to the heights. Protected by evil demons, those who are above have presumed on their strength and have had everything their own way. But henceforth things will be entirely changed and the world will be governed in a new way, so that those who have so far been above will have a fairly bad time of it."

Deceived by Bad Foreign Gods

"The world is now under the rule of four-legged beasts. Good rice, vegetables and fishes of sea and river have been granted by heaven as food for men, and yet people are fond of eating four-legged beasts which are calculated to pollute the body and putrefy the blood, and this is said to be the doing of a civilised people, those who do not eat beef being denounced as barbarians. Labouring under this huge mistake, people have polluted this country, the clean abode of gods, from corner to corner, reducing it to a den of brutes. The true gods have, therefore, all gone up to heaven, and the world has been turned into a habitation of demons, serpents and four-legged beasts and nothing else. The world being no longer inhabited by gods, it can only degenerate lower and lower. Hence great wars in the world, consuming money without end. Men in their prime all go forth for slaughter and are killed themselves without number, leaving behind them only blind, deaf, crippled and aged, as well as women and children. And yet they must keep marching on their downward course until the human race is exterminated. People are deceived by the bad gods of foreign countries and are acting in a most reckless and thoughtless manner. Unable to look on any longer, the gods of this country are compelled to have recourse to their last resort in order to rescue the world."

Japan Above All Other Countries

"Japan is the country which was made first by the gods. Being senior, the duty of safeguarding the world falls upon her. As the Country of the Gods she will not have performed her duty well unless she rescues the world from distress. Ushitora no Konjin is daily apologising to the great god of heaven and asking for a delay in the reconstruction of the world and toiling without surcease so that as many men as possible may be converted to Yamato-damashii [Spirit of Japan] in the meantime, for the gods and people of Japan will not have performed their function so long as they do not first bend the Japanese people towards the divine spirit and then turn every foreigner towards that spirit also. If you are Japanese, you ought to sympathise a little with the gods and cleanse your souls in order to be of some use to the world.

"When the world becomes a divine world of crystal, everything will turn out according to one's desire. The gods will examine crystal souls and use them for their own purposes. They will judge souls and put their own bonds on them. When the gods put their rope on souls, they will not let them go. This Japan is the land of fine gods. Our souls are derived from the direct descendants of the gods. They are therefore one or two degrees better than souls abroad. It is the same with the language. At present, Japan is as clouded as foreign countries. The country is the country of the gods only in name. This is lamentable to the gods, our ancestors. Henceforth, all the world shall be turned into a land of the gods, and all the gods, Buddhas and peoples shall live in good cheer. Those who are strong in faith shall be saved. The faithless must come again, I am sorry to say. The gods exercise care upon care. As the world is going to be thoroughly washed once more and fundamentally rebuilt, the world will shake all at once. There will be an invasion of Tokyo. But things will be better afterwards. Ayabe shall then be the capital. Temples shall be built in Ayabe for the gods of heaven and earth to guard three thousand worlds. Omoto of Ayabe is the bridge of the world. Unless you cross this great bridge things will not be known. Ayabe is the great bridge of the world, and if you do not cross this great bridge things will not be known."

The Millennium

"People are confident and full of hope in the belief that everything will be settled by this war [with Russia] and a lasting peace will be secured two or three years hence. But the world cannot be reconstructed so easily. Pressure will be brought to bear harder and harder upon the world until there is left no elbow-room. Unless you are prepared for this now, you will be completely taken aback afterwards. That I can foresee as if I saw it now. The world will be busy rebuilding for ten years of which the 55th year of Meiji (1922) will be the middle. The gods are now in a hurry to execute their plan and there will be no further postponement.

"Fine and true teachings are given, but there is no one who listens to them. So the god must now make a stop to his warnings. The great rebuilding of three thousand worlds is near at hand. There is no telling where and how explosion may occur. The gods have put off the event as long as possible. But as you are puffed up with self-sufficiency, paying no heed to what I say, the inevitable must happen."

"Harmonisation" of Gods and Buddhas

"The forthcoming rebuilding of the world is a scheme which no gods, guardian angels and men have been able to guess at. No god other than the ancestor of heaven and earth knew of it. But as it was necessary to make known to the world the advent of the original living god in the world, Honourable Tenri-wo, Honourable Munetada, Honourable Konkwo and the Myorei Kyokwai have all been sent in advance for the purpose. Finally Ushitora no Konjin comes forth in the shape of Kunitokodachi-no-Mikoto in order to give the coup de grace to the world, sweeping a levelling roller all over the world, making high even with low and turning this world into a divine one where there will no longer be any distinction between fortunate and unfortunate. As to the forthcoming rebuilding, not only the gods but the Buddhas of all sorts are anxious about it. Therefore, people who stick to the distinction between Gods and Buddhas on trivial grounds will incur the displeasure of the God. Gods and Buddhas are all originally of the same stock."

The Foundress's Claim to Inspiration

It is interesting to note that instead of treating Tenri-kyo and other modern forms of Shinto as rivals, the foundress of Taihon-kyo, or Omoto-kyo, quietly puts them down as forerunners smoothing the way of the god Ushitora-no-Konjin, with whom she identifies herself.

As for her own title to be the foundress of a world-conquering religion, Deguchi Nao says:

"The spirit of Ushitora-no-Konjin or Kunitokodachi-no-Mikoto has appeared at Takamagahara at Ryugukwan (Ayabe) to write plans for the reconstruction of the world. In order that she may be of use in the reconstruction of three thousand worlds, Deguchi Nao, a man in the disguise of a woman, has been made to undergo trials and hardships. For twenty-seven years after she came into the world on the 16th day of the 12th month, the 2nd year of Tempo, the day being the same as that on which Amaterasu Omikami (the Sun Goddess) was born, she was enabled to live comfortably enough, though not comfortably in the usual sense of the word, for in many ways her body was subjected to experiences different from other people. For thirty years from the winter of the year when she was in her 27th to the year when she was in her 57th year, she had to undergo such difficulties and hardships as it is impossible for ordinary mortals to bear, so that she might be divested of her worldly clothes and be of use to the gods. On the first day of the first month of the year in which she was in her 57th year Ushitora-no-Konjin entered her body, and for twenty-seven years from that day to this she has been made to set down writings telling of the coming reconstruction according to the divine arrangement. [Written in December, 1918.]

"Deguchi Nao's is a body which is kept alive by the spirit of Ushitora-no-Konjin.

"Of the writings which Deguchi Nao was caused to write, the real author is Kunitokodachi-no-Mikoto, who entered her body and caused her to write them."

The Succession to the Foundress

Like Mrs. Eddy and the founders of many other houses aiming at world domination, the foundress of Omoto-kyo was also mindful of the important question of succession to the headship of her religion. She laid it down as an inviolable rule that the head of Omoto-kyo at Ayabe should be a woman in body from generation to generation. So the present head of the institution is not Mr. Deguchi, but his wife and the youngest daughter of the foundress, Mrs. Deguchi Sumi, who is said to have been a maidservant at one of the Ayabe inns in her obscurer days. After her decease, the sceptre of Ayabe will pass to her eldest daughter, who is described by her celebrated grandmother as a descendant of original crystal (perhaps a more poetic way of saying a chip of the old block).

The Credo of Omoto-Kyo

When Deguchi Nao wrote in a state of ecstasy, or at least under a sort of inspiration, she could never have thought that her writings would some day be boiled down and systematised into a set of neat and presentable articles of faith. There is, however, no religion in these days without its articles of faith. The credo of Omoto-kyo is composed of ten articles which may be summarised as follows:

(1) "We believe that Ama-no-minaka-nushi-no-Mikoto is the creator of the universe without limit and without end and that he is a complete, unique, original great god.

(2) "We believe that Amaterasu Omikami embodies the greatest virtues of the complete and unique original great god and reigns over the universe at the head of eight million gods.

(3) "We believe that his Imperial Majesty is a descendant in the holy line of Amaterasu Omikami and reigns over the world with his divinely endowed three virtues of Master, Teacher and Parent.

(4) "We believe that Japan is a holy land peerless in the world and especially that Hongu at Ayabe, Tamba Province, is the Takamagahara on earth where the gods of heaven and earth assemble in order to discuss and decide the divine law and establish a perfect and unblemished Imperial rule.

(5) "We believe that Kunitokodachi-no-Mikoto, the founder of the country, is a great guardian god who effects a reconstruction of the world and establishes peace and order in the world agreeably to the august intention of Amaterasu Omikami.

(6) "We believe that Toyokumo-no-Mikoto is a great god in the first rank who assists the founder of the country and takes the lead in exhibiting the entire virtue of benevolence and love.

(7) "We believe that the foundress of Omoto is the only great religious teacher in the world and that by her body Kunitokodachi-no-Mikoto, the founder of the country, has granted the purest and noblest divine instruction in Omoto to show the landmarks of Imperial rule.

(8) "We believe that our spirits are all spirits derived from God, that the body is the vessel of God and that it is our duty to further the maturity of divine administration by constantly acting on the divine principle of the Spirit being principal and the body accessory.

(9) "We believe that by the protection of local guardian gods manifest in various places and of the guardian god within ourselves, we may keep our mind and body sound and accomplish the object of our prayers; and

(10) "We believe that by keeping our mind and body aright, we may enjoy divine help and grace, but that if we are not right in our mind and body we shall be strictly dealt with according to the divine law both in this and the other world."

It may be added here that the religion which is popularly known as Omoto-kyo is not so called by the believers themselves. They choose to call it Kodo Omoto or simply Omoto, which may perhaps be rendered "Great Fountain-head of Imperial Rule" and "Great Fountain-head" respectively.

Possession En Masse

We now come to the dangerous aspect of Omoto-kyo—a feature which has perhaps played a more important part than the writings of the foundress in making the religion such a success. We refer to the process of "repressing a bad spirit and restoring a godly one" (chinkon kishin). This process was not invented by Deguchi Nao, but seems to have been superadded to Omoto-kyo by Mr. Deguchi, who is said to have learned it from a certain Honda Shintoku, the latter having re-discovered it as a result of twenty-eight years' investigations in the early years of Meiji. We say re-discovered, because it is alleged that the process was known in the Imperial Court in ancient times, when resort was had to it on occasion of great national emergency.

Exorcising the Spirits

Though the spirit of each person is derived from the great spirit of Ama-no-Minakanushi-no-Mikoto, the first Cause of all things, the human spirit is usually so tarnished with dirt that the good guardian god falls into the background and gives place to a bad spirit or bad spirits. In Omoto phraseology, the principal guardian god is superseded by the accessory guardian god. Mr. Asano, who has roused into motion the guardian gods of many thousand people for examination in his capacity as Saniha, a judge of gods, says that not in one case out of ten has the principal guardian god come into motion from the beginning. He is astonished to note how badly the spiritual mirror of the Japanese is tarnished, for they are mostly guarded by goblins, foxes, badgers, serpents or corrupt ghosts. It is the object of the process of chinkon-kishin to lay the evil spirit and bring the good spirit back to its own.

The process is, or at least was until recently, practised in the Miroku-den, an extensive hall of 570 mats (nearly a quarter of an acre) built at Ayabe last year, from forty to sixty people taking part at a time. These are made to sit in rows at some distance from each other. Those who are operated upon (whom we shall hereafter call subjects) are told to hold both hands together back to back, interlock the fingers so that the left small finger comes under the right small finger, and then turn the hands round and join them folded except the index fingers, which are left straight but touching each other, and hold the hands so postured before the breast at a distance of about one inch, while they are to sit à la japonaise with the left big toe under the right big toe. They must keep their eyes closed until the séance is declared at an end, and let their minds be free all the time. Operators, that is saniha, whose number varies according to that of the subjects, also sit in the same posture in front of the subjects. One of the saniha sits on a raised dais in front and solemnly pronounces one, two, three, etc. in the archaic fashion. Then he utters thrice such a yell as if his whole intestines came forth with it, one being directed towards the centre of the front row and a second towards the right and a third towards the left. This is done in order to send the spirit from the operator to the subjects. This is followed by a long-drawn sound produced by a stone flute, which, says Mr. Goto, the author of the "Criticism of Omoto-kyo," was miraculously granted by the gods. Apparently there are several of these flutes and they are of various sizes.

Subjects under Possession

Five or ten minutes after the beginning of the ceremony, some of the subjects begin to fall into a state of possession, some shaking their hands up and down or right and left, others bending down with their heads upon the mats. The saniha who are not on the dais now go round among the subjects and question those who are in a dazed state, the object being to ascertain by dint of cross-examination by what they are possessed, after giving another yell for each person. When the time allotted to the séance (about thirty or forty minutes) is half over, the pronouncing of numbers followed by yells and flute-playing is repeated exactly as at the beginning. The remaining half of the appointed time over, there is another telling of numbers followed only by yells and the sitting is closed by the announcement "The End."

The Uses of Japanese

The colloquies which take place between the saniha and subjects under their spell are of great variety, but, as already mentioned, goblins, foxes, badgers, etc. play a prominent part. Consequently, the practice, instead of serving the laudable purpose of reclaiming people from the pernicious influence of foxes and badgers, has often the result of leading people to identify themselves with such animals, or, in plain language, making them mad in the eyes of ordinary people. For this reason, the practice has been definitively forbidden by the authorities in Formosa, where, strangely enough, it took a great hold. Even in Ayabe, it is no longer continued publicly, we understand.

Another embellishment of Omoto-kyo, also added by Mr. Deguchi, is what is called Genreigaku, which seems to be a science relating to the wonderful spirit underlying the Japanese language. When this science is mastered, it is said that one can easily command wind and rain, thunder and lightning and they obey. But as a competent knowledge of the Japanese language and exceptional spiritual endowments appear to be conditions precedent to a mastery of this wonderful science, we will not waste our space by entering into the details of the subject.

The Headquarters of Omoto-Kyo

If the reader is not already bored to death by this long account of an alien religion, we shall be happy to accompany him or her to Ayabe, which is, according to Omoto believers, destined to become the capital of the world. According to an ill-natured linguist, Ayabe means a dark (aya) village (be). But as etymology is a flexible science, the leaders of Omoto-kyo need have no difficulty in giving it a more auspicious meaning. About 2½ hours from Kyoto station by the San-in line, you reach Ayabe station, where you can easily find your way to the Omoto temple, which you can see and easily identify from the train. The town is called Santo (Capital of Silkworms) by the townspeople themselves, says the Asahi. It is a rather neat town amidst the Tamba hills, but the manners of the people are as vulgar as in other sericultural centres. You can hear geisha yelling out their songs here and there even in the morning.

There is nothing in the town that suggests it to be the headquarters of a religion, except perhaps a book-shop dealing in Omoto literature and a tuck-shop manufacturing buns called Omoto Manju, both run by believers, and some believers with long hair going about on horseback. The strange part of the matter is that the townspeople are antagonistic to that religion which has made the name of Ayabe famous in Japan and may yet make it equally famous throughout the world. A man (or a woman) is not a prophet in his own country.

But when you once enter the grounds of the temple, which is at the further end of the town, you feel that you are indeed in a religious atmosphere. There you find the Nihon Shusai-kai, the headquarters of Omoto propaganda, whose president is Mr. Asano and Vice-president Colonel Komaki, a number of boarding houses and offices, the Omoto press, etc., besides fifteen temple buildings big and small. In the street, you meet a number of unkempt and unwashed mountaineer-like men with a sort of hakama on and muttering something between their teeth, and long-haired students on high clogs, also moving their mouths in a mysterious way. Everything that meets your sight and hearing is unprepossessing, not to say odious. This feeling is enhanced by the fact that all the people you see there have a skin of a dull colour and their look is such that they seem to be in pursuit of something. In short, they suggest rather ill-fed or jaundiced people. You feel yourself oppressed and menaced.

This is particularly the case in the evening, when the street is lighted but remains comparatively dark, the use of electric lamps being tabooed. Amidst the semi-darkness pervading the precinct, you see long-haired people going the round of the temples by twos or threes muttering Takamagahara and clapping their hands, while from a distant temple you hear a dreary voice slowly recounting that the world is inhabited by nothing but demons, serpents and four-legged brutes, and the gods of Japan are compelled to take refuge in their last resort. You feel as if you were no longer in a human world.

Wageless Workers

The greater part of believers at Ayabe are not natives, but people who have been attracted thither from distant parts of the country by the fame of Omoto-kyo. There are five two-storied boarding-houses for them. During their stay at Ayabe, their time is, of course, entirely taken up with religious matters, and when they go home they become so many earnest proselytisers. Besides these believers there are labourers there who work for love of their religion, receiving nothing but simple board and lodging for their daily toil in connection with the temple. That this is not limited to mere labourers but equally applies to fairly educated workers is shown by the fact that the two fine magazines—Omoto Times and The Spiritual World—published by the Dai Nihon Shusaikai, already mentioned, are turned out by wageless compositors and printers. The same is the case with Mr. Asano and the rest of the workers of higher grades. Whatever unavowed motives they may have had for joining Omoto, it seems certain that love of lucre was not among them.

A Religion for Militarists

From what has been described, some of our readers may perhaps think that Omoto-kyo must be an invention of the Japanese Imperialists and militarists to serve them as a spiritual aid in the accomplishment of their aggressive ambitions. Certainly there are many points of resemblance between them, and the fact that there happen to be many retired military and naval officers among its workers may seem to countenance such surmise. Perhaps the resemblance is not merely accidental, seeing that Deguchi Nao's ministrations began two years before the war with China and ended nearly simultaneously with the war in Europe. A woman of Deguchi's sensitiveness must have been strongly influenced by the militarist spirit which ran high all the time.

But it has not been in order to point out Omoto-kyo as a possible weapon of the militarists that I have given a lengthy account of that religion. My chief object has been to illustrate the way in which a religion is made, how a new religion is formed on the basis of an old one, and how a small beginning may lead to a great result.

Colophon

This text is reproduced from Ōmoto-Kyo: An Account of one of Japan's Popular Faiths, published by The Japan Chronicle, Kobe, Japan, 1920, as Chronicle Reprints No. 1. The author is identified only as "A Japanese Scholar." The text is held in the Internet Archive (archive.org/details/omoto-kyo) under Public Domain Mark 1.0.

The document is a contemporaneous observer's account of Ōmoto-kyō at a pivotal moment — written in 1920, when the movement had just exploded into national prominence and before either of the two government suppressions (1921 and 1935) that would reshape the movement. The account is based on Japanese newspaper reporting from the Asahi, Chugai, Yomiuri, and Yorodzu, as well as popular books and direct acquaintance with Omoto publications. The translations from Deguchi Nao's Ofudesaki and the ten-article Credo are the author's own free renderings from Japanese.

This text is presented here as a historical primary source document. The author's characterizations of Deguchi Nao ("illiterate half-crazy woman") and the community at Ayabe reflect the skeptical distance of a Western-educated Japanese journalist of the Meiji and Taisho periods; they are preserved without modification as part of the historical record. The community described in 1920 would survive two state-sponsored suppressions — including the dynamiting of the Kameoka compound in 1935 — and rebuild twice. It continues to the present day. The reader is encouraged to consult the ethnographic profile of Ōmoto in this section for the movement's subsequent history.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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