m i IIIX *!OA 17 5 6 l 〇入:MO 丄 (•q聊 3 - q -qd c.CT八,S) x i3 p m s m A X j t o h X g xNawaAOH saoionan la ^ a ^ o i xsow s^vdvf w o a s u 3 NIAIQ JO N toionan 3 HX SuPI3d[ JO ^ tsjsatuq DTIOIIJB3 3qx XSo|ouijja ^bju3jjo jo uinasnjv Xq p3i[8Tiqnd Xpsxiijoj; oX^ox m a m p su j 只 训 撕 过 *a*A*s 冲 ム i P3Hsnqnd CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................ .............................. 1 First Impressions ....... ........................................................................... 7 Life of the Foundress ...... .....................................................................14 History of Tenrikyo ........................................................................... 43 Doctrine of Tenrikyo ............................................................................ 57 Way of Salvation ............................................... .................................... 90 Tenrikyo^ Devotional Life ..................................................................103 The Religion of Divine Wisdom in Action ........... ............................114 Tenriky6，s Dogmatic Anthology ......................................................... 130 A Christian Looks at Tenrikyo ........................................................149 Bibliography .......... ............................................................................ .161 First Published in August, 1954 Copyright by the Publisher Printed in Japan 日本印 By the Ktnkyusha Printing Company, Tokyo, 1954 INTRODUCTION When we try to make a study of present-day Japanese religious life, we have by no means covered the subject when we have made some re­ search into what has always constituted the three principle religions of Japan: Buddhism, Shintoism and Christianity. Many other movements have sprung up which cannot be brought under these three main divisions. When one travels through the length and breadth of the gorgeous Japanese isles, one is struck by the great number of temples which at a superficial glance one would probably classify immediately as being Shinto through and through. However, after having studied its doctrine thoroughly, we come to the conclusion that we cannot classify these temples as Shintoism, for what is taught there differs in many aspects from the Way of the Gods. Far the biggest of these modern religious movements which already boasts of a history of more than one hundred years and which covers all the Japanese isles with thousands of temples, is the Tenrzkjd 天 理 敎 : the Religion of Heavenly Wisdom (or Divme Reason), founded in 1838. With a rather un-Japanese noisy audacity they proclaim loudly to everyone who wants to listen, or perhaps better to those who are brought to listen, their gospel of joy and bright living in terms such as: “ Everyone has a longing for peace and happiness. It is the most natural human desire. Why then, is our life full of varied strifes and con­ flicts, our happy home life disturbed, and our peaceful social life destroyed ? Moreover, they say, the world is divided into two parts, and has waged a struggle within itself instead of settling its problems in a give-and-take spirit. Why should we set out to fight one another ? Truly this is one of the grave problems confronting all men in the world. We are all human beings. Why could we not look upon things from that point of view? If we had mutual love among ourselves, this world of ours would be converted into a brighter and happier world. The cause of all our troubles is our shortcomings in the love of humanity. Human beings today are driving themselves into a trap. Today we must love mankind as never before. 2 THE RELIGION OF DIVINE WISDOM This is our reason for introducing to the people of the world, the teaching of Nakayama Miki 中山み含，the Foundress of Tenrikyo the Religion of Heavenly Wisdom, in order that the true happy life and the real peace of the world may be realized and that we may all become brothers and sisters.，⑴ With tms exalted program in mind, a new and vigorous religious move­ ment spread all over Japan, dashes out into the world in order to preach a gospel of deliverance, of healing and happiness to all mankind. And they do this methodically and with youthful enthusiasm. They differ from the way other great religions generally work in the East. They certainly do not display much Oriental poise, reserve or refinement. On the contrary the young Tenrikyo teachers are encouraged to show off, to try their paces, to throw their weight around, to learn by doing even though it makes their voice later on a little over-strident and unsure. It is considered to be a virtue for the Tenrikyo propagandists to enter (I would nearly venture to say to break into) the houses of sick people, even when they are not welcome, in order to propagate their doctrine. They are encouraged to go out among the people and if they have not poured out the Tenrikyo perfume over at least one person a day,2) that particular day must be considered a loss，and on that day the young Tenrikyo preachers are in several parishes not even entitled to their usual portion of rice. One must acknowledge that they have great results. In a short time they are known all over the Japanese isles. They have a few million believ­ ers,3) 14,200 churches with 80,000 preachers and at the present moment they 1 ) Taken from one of the numerous speeches of the present Shimbashira f t 柱 ，Patriarch of Tenrikyo, Nakayama Shozen 中山正 善 . These addresses have been published at Doyu-aha 造 友 社 in Nara Prefecture. The above mentioned sermon has also been published as a separate pamphlet. In present-day TenriKyo publications we find many variations on this same theme, and it is a subject extremely dear to them. 2) Nioi-gake 匂ひ力？け，a Tenrikyo's technical term which one constantly finds in all their publications. It means the pouring out of the perfume of the Tenrikyo faith over the people. Vide, Tenrikyo Kyoten Koa^a 天 理 敎 敎 典 _ 話 ，by Tashiro Takuji 田代 澤 治 ，pp. 104-8. 3) It is not possible to give the number of Tenrikyo adherents with any amount of accuracy. Those who have been a long time in Japan and who have studied this country seriously know only too well that you cannot make religious statistics in the East, just as one does in Europe or in the Americas. There are no baptismal registers, there is no accurate counting; even the information from the Religious Department of the Ministry of Education is not very enlightening. In their religious outlook, the people of the East tend strongly toward eclecticism. This is not only the case with the Japanese, but this holds true for China just as well. The Chinese tend to be INTRODUCTION 3 are constantly expanding. I think this is sufficient reason for the publication of this study. Tenrikyo has been called—certainly not without some reason~the Christian Science of modern Japan. There are, indeed, a few similarities between them. In both movements faith-healing plays a prominent role and both movements profess to displace a negative evil, manifested in the form of the maladjustments of sickness and wrong，by establishing a normal relationship with the great health-giving stream that flows from the Great Source of all life, although this source is interpreted in totally different ways. Both have the rather astonishing belief that there is no such thing as suffering. There is no evil, no sickness, no pain and even no death. Mary Baker Eddy Confucianists while they are successful and to become Buddhists or to practice Buddhism when they are confronted by tragedy and death. One can, therefore, only smile if one reads : In Japan there are so many million Buddhists and so many million Shintoists. Due to the process of amal­ gamation of Buddhism and Shintoism that has gone on in Japan for more than 1,000 years these two religions remain together in the hearts of the Japanese people. No revival of pure Shinto or pure Buddhism has ever succeeded to separate them in the hearts of the taithful. The most severe Government interference has been powerless in this respect. Even in spite of the forceful separation of Shintoism from Buddhism made in the Meiji era, the people in general do not give their allegiance exclusively to one or the other, but regard themselves as being Shintoists and Buddhists at one and the same time. To the question which is stronger, Buddhism or Shintoism, one can only answer with Reischauer : “ The resultant of the union between Buddhism and Shintoism is strongly Buddhis­ tic on the philosophical side, on its popular religious side it often seems more Shintoistic.” (From Reischauer^ STUDIES IN JAPANESE BUDDHISM, pp. 230-231). Therefore once again, it is impossible to give the number of Tenrikyo adherents with any amount of accuracy. They do not know it themselves. Speaking about numbers I heard alternately: 2，3，5 and 7 million adherents. The number of the faithful seems to fluctuate very much. However, far better than trying to fix the number of adherents, is to listen to the heartbeat of the Japanese nation as a whole, to feel the pulse of the Japanese spiritual life, to watch Tenrikyo in action. This done, one must acknowledge that their power is great, their influence widespread. If any greater catastrophe occurs in Japan, Tenrikyo steps forward and helps in the rehabilitation of the damaged country. Before the last war they were the most zealous in Kinrohdshi 勤 勞 奉 仕 ，in the voluntary labour in front of the Imperial Palace and elsewhere. When the war broke out Tenrikyo organized Hinokisbin- tai ひ の き し ん 隊 ，a Sacred Labour Regiment which was placed at the disposal of the State. As the Japanese Empire sprawled out over the Asiatic continent, peaceful Tenrikyo missions followed in its wake and for example in Manchuria preachers busied themselves with immigration move­ ments.