Omoto -kyo

   'Great Origin'. A religious movement founded by Deguchi, Nao (1836-1918), a peasant woman who suffered many hardships before in 1892 receiving the first of a sequence of divine revelations from a previously little-known deity Ushitora no konjin (konjin of the north-east; the direction of danger). This deity, regarded as the sole god or omoto-no-kami came to be identified also with Susa-no-o and Kuni-toko-tachi. The movement was only semirecognised as a form of kyoha shinto under the wing of Fuso-kyo and experienced many difficulties with the authorities. Nao's revelations urged the 'reconstruction of the world' and the transformation of society by the people. Her daughter Sumi and adopted son-in-law Kisaburo worked with the foundress to develop the religion. Kisaburo, who was a prolific teacher and inscribed some 600,000 poems, became the de facto leader of the movement. He developed a belief that he should take over the leadership of Japan and changed his name to Onisaburo (see Deguchi, Onisaburo), a name which included characters normally reserved for emperors. As a result of criticisms of the government Omoto-kyo was persecuted between 1921-27 and again from 1935 when the organisation and its buildings were ruthlessly destroyed and Onisaburo imprisoned. After the war the movement re-emerged. Adopting a universalist approach, it accepts figures from other world religions as kami. The teachings of Omoto have strongly influenced Ananaikyo and other groups including Sekai Kyusei-kyo (Sekai meshiya-kyo) and Seicho-no-Ie whose respective leaders Okada, Mokichi and Taniguchi, Masaharu were both originally followers of Omoto.