In generalizations about the healing practices of the new religions, Jōrei and Okiyome, the purification rituals of Sekai Kyūseikyō, Shinji Shumeikai, and Mahikari, have been mislabeled as forms of faith healing. Followers of Tenrikyo believe that God, known by several names including Tenri-O-no-Mikoto, expressed divine will through Nakayama's role as the Shrine of God, and to a lesser extent the roles of other leaders. [3], In Brazil Shinshūkyō, like Honmon Butsuryū-shū, were first introduced in the 1920s among the Japanese immigrant population. In 1892, a Japanese woman named Deguchi Nao became possessed by the folk deity Ushitora-no-Konjin. Kauffner 00:47, 31 May 2012 (UTC) That's an interesting idea. "New Religions" that prospered in the postwar period have hit a slump. … Celebrity Gods: New Religions, Media, and Authority in Occupied Japan, University of Hawaiʻi Press. But around the late 1960s the term ”new religious movement” (NRM) started to be used to describe a special subject of study within the scholarly community of North America and Western Europe. As social conflicts emerged in this last decade of the Edo period, known as the Bakumatsu period, some new religious movements appeared. Japanese New Religions: An Aspect of Modern Religious Consciousness Tsushima Michihito, Nishiyama Shigeru， Shimazono Susumu，and Shiramizu Hiroko This paper aims to clarify the structure of teachings presented by Japa­ nese New Religions through an analysis of their conception of salva­ tion. Religion does not play a big role in the everyday life of most Japanese people today. This book examines the nature and extent of this religious… While the membership in Japanese new religions has been rising since 1945, the ties between the people and their temples and traditional shrines are tending to weaken since 1945. ism are known as the New Religions or the New Religious Movements of Japan. “Since this month’s earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, other types of organized aid networks have…largely been neglected by the news media, including the Japanese news: those managed by […] According to the cosmologies, There are three books with the phrase "Japanese new religions" in the title, see here, here, and here. Japanese "new religions" (shinshūkyō) have used various media forms for training, communicating with members, presenting their messages, reinforcing or protecting the image of the leader, and, potentially, attracting converts. Major goals of Shinshūkyō include spiritual healing, individual prosperity, and social harmony. Losing the protection of the Japanese government which Buddhism had enjoyed for centuries, Buddhist monks faced radical difficulties in sustaining their institutions, but their activities also became less restrained by governmental policies and restrictions. ): Establishing the Revolutionary: An Introduction to New Religions in Japan. ", In the 1950's Kiriyama Seiyu had a religious revelation. Chinkon Kishin: Mediated Spirit Possession in Japanese New Religions Volume 7 of Bunka - Wenhua. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Tubinger Ostasiatische Forschungen. Christianity entered Japan first in the sixteenth century, when Catholicism was introduced in 1549. Namely, reports published in the popular media can be thought of as reflections or projections of the vague impressions and fears of ordinary Japanese citizens toward the new religions. ... Europe, and Japan… The first being Sekai Mahikari Bunmai Kyodan ("World Religious Organization of True Light"), which was founded by Okada Kotama who was trying to save the people from the end of the world. The thriving Japanese religious landscape is much more diverse than most outsiders realize, with many so-called new religious movements, in addition to Christian churches and Islamic centers. The social tension continued to grow during the Meiji period, affecting religious practices and institutions. image of the new religions, the opposite potential must also be considered. Tenrikyo's worldly aim is to teach and promote the Joyous Life, which is achieved through acts of charity and mindfulness (, Above is a picture of the Mahikari World Shrine. Among them were Tenrikyo, Kurozumikyo and Oomoto, sometimes called Nihon Sandai Shinkōshūkyō ("Japan's three large new religions"), which were directly influenced by Shinto (the state religion) and shamanism. 30 We may classify the new religions into three groups according to the dates they emerged. New religious movement (NRM), the generally accepted term for what is sometimes called, often with pejorative connotations, a “cult.”The term new religious movement has been applied to all new faiths that have arisen worldwide over the past several centuries.. NRMs are characterized by a number of shared traits. Wilson, Bryan R. and Karel Dobbelaere. He believed he had been saved by the Bodhisattva Kannon. The average person typically follows the religious rituals at ceremonies like birth, weddings and funerals, may visit a shrine or temple on New Year and participates at local festivals ( matsuri ), most of which have a religious … Under the new Constitution of Japan, the Diet had the supreme authority for decision making in state affairs and all its members were elected by the people. The story of a religious founder: Kiriyama Seiyu, turmoil, charisma and experience 3. New Year’s Day - Ganjitsu (元日) You might be confused by two different yet similar words, ganjitsu … In the 1960s it adopted Portuguese, rather than Japanese, as its language of instruction and communication. Numbers marked with this footnote are from other sources, https://web.archive.org/web/20140827014822/http://www.bunka.go.jp/shukyouhoujin/nenkan/pdf/h24nenkan.pdf, New Religions through the Eyes of Ōya Sōichi, ’Emperor’ of the Mass Media, SCAP’s Scapegoat? Japanese New Religions in the West, Japan Library/Curzon Press, Kent, UK. Japanese people clearly understand the meaning of the word and that is why when asked if they are “atheist” they say “no”, but when asked if they have no religious affiliation they say “yes”, as they pick and choose to believe maybe different things from many different religions at the same time. Most Japanese people identify as members of both faiths. The teach-ings and thought of Japan's New Religions have been translated into many languages and have been accepted by people of widely different The 19th and 20th centuries saw an explosion of new religious movements across the world, and in Japan, these movements helped shape the way many Japanese perceived "religiousness." GHQ invited many Christian missionaries from the United States to Japan, through Douglas MacArthur's famous call for 1,000 missionaries. In addition to the traditional religions of Shinto and Buddhism, Japan is also home to more than 600 “new religions” (shinko shukyo), which incorporate Buddhist, Shinto, and Christian elements.In this video series, Harvard University professors Theodore Bestor and Helen Hardacre discuss the impact of religious values and traditions on Japanese life. [1], Data for 2012 is from the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Staemmler, Birgit, Dehn, Ulrich (ed. The Authorities, New Religions, and a Postwar Taboo, INFORM (Information Network Focus on Religious Movements), Academic study of new religious movements, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Japanese_new_religions&oldid=1009175309, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2014, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Ōyama Nezunomikoto Shinji Kyōkai (大山ねずの命神示教会), God Light Association Sōgō Honbu (GLA総合本部), Extra-Sensory-Perception Kagaku Kenkyūjo (ESP科学研究所). In the 1950s and 1960s some started to become popular among the non-Japanese population as well. By contrast, temple Buddhism and shrine Shinto have been in decline since the end of the World War II. Although the Occupation Army (GHQ) practiced censorship of all types of organizations, specific suppression of Shinshūkyō ended. At present S6ka Gakkai and other groups have reached out to virtually every corner of the world through their missionary activity. Missionaries arrived not only from traditional churches, but also from some modern denominations, such as Jehovah's Witnesses. The second group being Sūkyō Mahikari ("True Light Supra-Religion"), which was founded after Okada's death. Dr. Barbara Ambros, associate professor of Religious Studies, contributed an opinion piece to CNN’s Belief Blog on the responses of Japanese new religions to the recent crises. Japanese Internet Suicide Clubs. New Religions to non-Japanese, so conspicuous from the 1960s on. The Japanese government was very suspicious towards these religious movements and periodically made attempts to suppress them. Tuebinge Volume 7 of Bunka - Wenhua. Major Shinshūkyō became one of the so-called "vote-gathering machines" in Japan, especially for the conservative parties which merged into the Liberal Democratic Party in 1955. Dormann, Benjamin (2012). Under the Meiji regime lèse majesté prohibited insults against the Emperor and his Imperial House, and also against some major Shinto shrines which were believed to be tied strongly to the Emperor. And many "New New Religions" are viewed with suspicion, as potential Aum Shinrikyos. I get 3,260 (458 deghosted) post-1990 English language GBook hits for "Japanese new religions", 264 (119 deghosted) for Shinko-shukyo OR Shinkoshukyo. Above is a picture of the Mahikari World Shrine , a major shrine for one of many new religions in Japan. In the 1950s, Japanese wives of American servicemen introduced the Soka Gakkai to the United States, which in the 1970s developed into the Soka Gakkai International (SGI). (1994). In Japan, Jehovah's Witnesses tend to be considered a Christianity-based Shinshūkyō, not only because they were founded in the 19th century (as were other major Shinshūkyō), but also because of their missionary practices, which involve door-to-door visiting and frequent meetings. Despite the influx of Christian missionaries, the majority of Shinshūkyō are Buddhist- or Shinto-related sects. ‎Since the 1960s virtually every part of the world has seen the arrival and establishment of Japanese new religious movements, a process that has followed quickly on the heels of the most active period of Japanese economic expansion overseas. Tubinger Ostasiatische Forschungen. Especially in the House of Councillors, one third of whose members were elected through nationwide vote, nationwide organizations found they could influence national policy by supporting certain candidates. View Academics in Japanese New Religions on Academia.edu. "Japan is becoming more and more secularized, and young people are interested in survival and earthly values. List of Figures Acknowledgements Note on Japanese names, terms and transliteration Introduction 1. 14 This is a noteworthy development, given the fact that the sects of established Japanese religions have generally taken little or no interest in missionary activities among non-Japanese people. It gained few followers at the time, and the Tokugawa family suppressed Christianity in the seventeenth century. Two other noteworthy components of the Japanese religious tradition are Christianity and the new religions. Japanese new religions are new religious movements established in Japan. The main religions in Japan are Buddhism (69.8%) and Shinto (70.4%). The other main religious denominations in Japan are Christianity (1.4%) and other (6.9%), which includes Islam, animism, Judaism, Hindu, and the Baha’i Faith. Our second focus is on other lay-centred religious groups that offer an alternative avenue of adherence and faith to the mainstream. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Some new religions, however, reach out to non-Japanese in their proselytization attempts, rather than to Japanese or people of Japanese origin.