A new religion of syncretic Shinto organized in Ayabe, a small rural city near Kyoto in the 1890s, and which gathered strength between 1915 and 1935. As of 2001, it has headquarters in Ayabe and Kameoka, claiming a membership of 172,000.
The founders of Omoto are Deguchi Nao (1836-1918) and Deguchi Onizaburo (1871— 1948). Nao was the wife of a poor carpenter. As her husband was a heavy drinker who did not care for the family, Nao had to bring up seven children by trading rags and other jobs. In 1892, she began to claim that a god spoke to her and that she wrote down the god’s words (Ofudegaki), which later became the Omoto scripture Omoto Shinyu. Nao said that the god of the primordial ages was oppressed, and prophesied the god would reappear to rebuild and reform this world. The religious group formed around Nao was small, but in 1898, when Ueda Kisaburo (later Deguchi Onisaburo) joined her group, Nao welcomed him as her collaborator and had her daughter Sumi marry him.
Deguchi Onisaburo was born to a poor farming family in Anao in Kyoto prefecture. He had basic education in Japanese classic literature, and underwent an intensive religious training of syncretic Shinto. He introduced a training method Chinkon Kishin (repose of souls, coming closer to gods) to help individuals talk in trance about the spiritual beings related to themselves. He sympathized with the theory of the Soul of Words that all the entities in the universe consist of spiritual power of the phonemes of the Japanese language, and incorporated this theory into the doctrine.
In 1908, he began organizing Omoto as a religious body. Onisaburo incorporated the doctrines of State Shinto (Kodo) and named it Kodo Omoto (Omoto of Royal Way). He invited military leaders and intelligent people as members, purchased an influential daily newspaper the Taisho NichiNichi Shimbun, and the land of the Kameoka Castle ruins. He advocated the Taisho Restoration. While apparently hosting emperor worship, Omoto advocated to transfer the capital of Japan to Ayabe, and regarded Onisaburo as the Messiah. Because of this, the police arrested Onisaburo and other leaders in 1921 for the charge of lese majesty. This is called the 1st Omoto Incident.
After the incident, Onisaburo began writing Reikai Monogatari (Stories of the Spiritual World) through dictation as the second scripture after Ofudesaki, promoted the spread of Esperanto and religious cooperation, and built partnerships with political forces in Manchuria in response to the expansion of the Great Japan Empire onto the China continent. The trial for the 1st Omoto Incident was dismissed in 1927. Omoto organized Miroku (Maitreya) Festival in 1929, and Onisaburo claimed to be a personification of Maitreya Bodhisatva urging the followers to worship him as their Messiah.
However, Omoto emphasized emperor worship after this event, advocating the “Showa Restoration” to build a state centering on the emperor. It strengthened its tie with fascist groups. In 1934, he organized Showa Shinsei-kai with right-wing leaders, which was reportedly said to have 8 million members. In 1935, the government oppressed the Kodo Omoto and destroyed its facilities in Ayabe and Kameoka, and arrested about 300 leaders. Onisaburo was released on bail in 1942, and the organization remained inactive. After the war, Omoto rapidly recovered its strength and promoted a peace movement and a religious cooperation movement. After the 1990s, it placed emphases on the opposition to the manipulation of human life by medical treatment and life science.
The teachings of Omoto are to worship the supreme god, and to realize a life in which a follower can be united with god while being aware of god’s blessings. It considers that each person arrives at a certain place in the spiritual world after death depending on what he had done in this world. It teaches the followers to live a “Spirit First and Body Second” life and encourages them to resurrect in a higher position in the spiritual world. It also preaches that while living in this world, one should make every effort to realize heaven on earth. The Sekai Kyusei Kyo and Seicho-no-Ie are new religions created by leaders who departed from Omoto. The aggregate of Omotoline new religions can be a large force next to the Soka Gakkai and Reiyukailine organizations.
