Schisms in Tenrikyo

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There are various schisms that were inspired by the practices and doctrine of Tenrikyo that result in the creation of separate religious organizations.^{[n 1]}^[2]^[3] The Tenrikyo Church Headquarters treats these spiritual traditions as heresies that employ different interpretations of the teachings and practices formulated by Nakayama Miki, the founder of Tenrikyo. Schisms within Tenrikyo are known for experiencing lack of violence during irreconcilable schismatic disputes throughout its history.^[4]

Some religious organizations that were created as a result of schisms from Tenrikyo also experienced multiple schisms and the eventual creation of separate organizations. One prominent example among them is Honmichi that produced Tenri Sanrinkō and Tenri Kami no Kuchiake Basho.

Tenrikyo used to be one of the thirteen Sect Shinto groups and is officially designated not as a Sect Shinto religion starting from 1970.^[5] This indirectly shows the different religious classifications of current religious organizations that stemmed from Tenrikyo's schisms under the criteria by the Government of Japan and the governmental authorities in prefectures.^{[n 2]}

Most of these religious organizations either have their own sacred scriptures and typically have their own additional doctrinal texts. They reject the authority of the Tenrikyo Church Headquarters in Tenri. Some of them worship other deities other than Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto. For example, the central deity of Hachirakukai Kyōdan is the kami-fication of Himiko, the legendary ruler of Japan.^[7]

Criticism of schisms in Tenrikyo

A prominent example of a Tenrikyo theologian who organized the doctrinal criticism of such schisms is Ueda Yoshinaru (上田嘉成), the first child of Ueda Naraito, who released Criticism against heresy (異端に対する批判, Itan ni taisuru hihan) in 1950.^[8]^[9]

List of organizations created as a result of schisms in Tenrikyo

Below is a non-exhaustive list of current and defunct organizations that are derived from schisms in Tenrikyo.^[10]

Defunct organizations are marked with daggers (†).

†Tenrin-Ō Kyōkai (天輪王教会)^{[n 3]} in 1865, founded by Imai Shinjirō (今井新治郎).^{[n 4]}
Tenrin-Ō Meisei Kyōdan (天輪王明誠教団), founded by Oku Rokubē (奥六兵衛) in 1881.
Daidōkyō (大道教), founded by Iida Iwajirō (飯田岩治郎) in 1897 who also founded the Tenrikyō Heian Shikyōkai (天理教平安支教会) and claimed to have received divine revelations (tenkei) from 1894–1897.
Asahi Jinja (朝日神社) founded by Ide Kuniko in 1907.
Ibaragi Ippa (茨木一派),founded by Ibaragi Mototaka (茨木基敬).^{[n 5]}
Honmichi (ほんみち), founded by Ōnishi Aijirō in 1913.
Taidōkyō (太道教), founded by Nakamura Shige (中村シゲ) in 1940.
†Hikawakyō (日月教), founded by Maeda Toku (前田トク) in 1942.
Shizen Shindō (自然真道), founded by Maeshima Reiki (前島麗祈) in 1942.
Hachirakukai Kyōdan (八楽会教団), founded by Ogawa Kōichirō (小川耕一郎) in 1946.
†Meiseikyō (明聖教), founded by Watanabe Naoki (渡辺直己) in 1947.^{[n 6]}^[13]
Daehan Cheolligyo (대한천리교) in 1952.^{[n 7]}
Shinkōen (神光苑), founded by Matsuki Tesōn (松木草垣) in 1952.

Notes

[1]
Reiyūkai and Oomoto are also known for experiencing multiple schisms just like Tenrikyo.^[1]
[2]
According to the Part 3: List of Religious Organizations (第３部：宗教団体一覧, dai san bu: shūkyō dantai ichiran) in the 2024 edition of Religion Almanac^[6] by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, there are various ways to classify schismatic religious organizations based on Tenrikyo. Honmichi^{page 124} and Shinkōen^{page 165} are treated as other religions (諸教). Tenrin-Ō Meisei Kyōdan^{page 125} is treated as based on Shintō (神道系). Daidōkyō^{page 106} and Taidōkyō^{page 107} are treated as based on Sect Shintō (教派神道系). And Shizen Shindō^{page 108} is treated as based on New Sect Shintō (新教派系).
[3]
The first schism when the founder of Tenrikyo, Nakayama Miki, was still alive during the Sukezō Incident (助造事件).^[11]
[4]
His former name was Imai Sukezō (今井助造).^[12]
[5]
Also called Shindōkai (真道会) today, but did not materialize it into an organized religious movement. Today it is treated as an unorganized clandestine religious movement.
[6]
Meiseikyō is considered to be one of the most under-researched religious organizations that resulted from schisms in Tenrikyo.
[7]
An organization that was created in South Korea after the Surrender of Japan and experienced a schismatic incident due to the eventual Korean-ization.^[14] The South Korean Tenrikyo organization that later resisted the schismatic dispute is called Cheolligyo Hangukgyodan. Both Daehan Cheolligyo and Cheolligyo Hangukgyodan traditionally have the option to perform ceremonies in the Korean language.

References

[1]
Kisala, Robert (2009-10-24). "Schisms in Japanese new religious movements". In Lewis, James R.; Lewis, Sarah M. (eds.). Sacred Schisms: How Religions Divide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-0511581038. Three groups are identified as being especially fertile in the spawning of break-off groups: Tenrikyo, Omotokyo, and Reiyukai.
[2]
Forbes (page 1), "An inevitable result of Tenrikyo's 'success' was the emergence of a number of schismatic movements it helped initiate."
[3]
Inoue, Nobutaka (2017). Japanese New Religions in the Age of Mass Media (PDF). Tokyo: Institute for Japanese Culture and Classics. p. 62. Further, in an event of great significance in the context of the schisms that Tenrikyō would go on to experience, …
[4]
MacNair, Rachel (2015-07-07). Religions and Nonviolence: The Rise of Effective Advocacy for Peace. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 202. ISBN 978-1440835391. FORMS OF VIOLENCE: Blood sacrifice and slavery were nonissues throughout the times and places that Tenrikyo flourished; there is essentially no violence in their scriptures except reports of what was inflicted upon them, and while there have been schisms as with all religions, there are no reports of physical violence resulting from these.
[5]
Kato, Masato (2023). "From Shinto Sect to Religion: The De-Shintoization of Tenrikyo". Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 50 (2). Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture: 205–220. doi:10.18874/jjrs.50.2.2023.205-220. In accordance with the 1966 declaration, Tenrikyo eventually left the Sect Shinto Union on 30 April 1970 (Inoue 1991, xx). Tenrikyo would be listed as one of the "other religions" in Shūkyō nenkan from then on (Bunkachō 1971, 54).
[6]
宗敎年鑑（令和６年版） [Religion Almanac (2024 Ed.)] (PDF) (in Japanese). Tokyo: Agency for Cultural Affairs. 2024.
[7]
Yumiyama, Tatsuya [in Japanese]. "Hachirakukai Kyōdan". Kokugakuin Digital Museum. Tokyo. The movement venerates the spirit of queen Himiko, the legendary first ruler of the ancient Japanese state of Yamatai, as the ancestor of the nation of Japan, …
[8]
Forbes (page 2), "Each of the three cases are also explicitly mentioned in the only Tenrikyo treatise I have come across that specifically deals with heresy or itan (Itan ni taisuru hihan or 'Criticism against heresy/ by the late Tenrikyo theologian Ueda Yoshinaru)."
[9]
Forbes (page 193) "Ueda Yoshinaru. 1950. Itan ni taisuru hihan. Tanbaichi, Nara: Tenrikyō Kyomuchō."
[10]
"天理教団史と分派史". rendaico.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2025-05-10.
[11]
Forbes (page 26), "… the 'Sukezō jiken' (incident) that occurred during Nakayama Miki's lifetime. … The 'Sukezō jiken' is noteworthy since it is marks the first schism emerging from Miki's nascent religion, before any formal expression of doctrine through scriptures or the development of ritual (Tsutome)."
[12]
Forbes (page 61), "Imai Sukezō,⁴¹ … ⁴¹ Whose legal name was now Imai Shinjirō as a result of a 1870 decree that required commoners with given names containing the appellations suke, (y)emon, jō, and kami to change their names."
[13]
Murakami, Shigeyoshi [in Japanese] (1972). 近代民衆宗教史の研究 [Researching on the Popular Religions of the Early Modern Era] (in Japanese). Kyoto: Hōzōkan. 天理教から分立した教団には、…なお「モラロジー（道徳科学研究所）」　（広池千九郎、一九二七年）　「修養団捧誠会」　（出居清太郎、一九四一年）　「明聖教」　（渡辺直己、一九四七年）も同教系にかぞえることができる。 [Religious organizations separated from Tenrikyo include… In addition to them, "Dōtoku Kagaku Kenkyūjo (Moralogy)" (founded in 1927 by Hiroshike Chikurō), "Shūyōdan Hōseikai" (founded by Idei Seitarō in 1941), and "Meiseikyō" (founded by Watanabe Naoki in 1947) are also counted as the same kind of religion (Tenrikyo).]
[14]
Yamanishi, Hiroaki (2014). Japanese New Religions in Postcolonial South Korea and Taiwan: The Case of Tenrikyo (PDF) (Thesis). Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. p. 88. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-12-09. In South Korea, there … are separated in two headquarters. … In South Korea, headquarters belong to central headquarters in Japan, but the other one stresses that the relation of the central headquarters with the Korean headquarters should be equal, therefore independent from central headquarters.

Schisms in Tenrikyo

Criticism of schisms in Tenrikyo

List of organizations created as a result of schisms in Tenrikyo

Notes

Further reading

References

External links

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