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Bankyo Dokon

Oomoto
The Early Years
Oomoto is a small religion as mesured by the number of its followers, but since its founding in 1892 it has played a role far in excess of its size in influencing inter-religious dialogue in Japan and abroad.

The reasons are to be found in Oomoto's history. For Oomoto, inter-religious work is a central part of its divine mission. Joint worship and exchanges with other religions have not been merely a side business, something which a religion needs to do to keep up harmonious relations with others. According to the teachings of its founders, inter-religious work is what God created Oomoto to do.

The Founding of Oomoto

Oomoto's history begins on the night of the Lunar New Year in 1892, when the Foundress Nao Deguchi had the first of a series of divine revelations which form the basis of Oomoto. Nao, a 56-year old woman from the poverty-stricken farmland of Ayabe, northwest of Kyoto, at first could not fully understand her own automatic writings, which are known as the Ofudesaki "From the Tip of the Brush". However, in 1899, the young mystic Onisaburo joined her small band of believers. Onisaburo, possessed of strong spiritual powers, artistic creativity, and immense energy, was to become one of the most charismatic figures in Japanese religious and intellectual thought of the 20th century. In 1900, he married Nao's daughter Sumiko and over the next decades the basic outlines of Oomoto's teachings took shape under his guidance.

Ayabe and Kameoka
The Two Headquarters

In time Oomoto came to have two headquarters: One at Ayabe (77 kilometers northwest of Kyoto), home of the Foundress, and one at Kameoka (23 kilometers west of Kyoto), birthplace of Onisaburo. The Ayabe Headquarters, clustered around sacred Mt. Tsuruyama, is Oomoto's "Spiritual Center". The Kameoka Headquarters, built on the grounds of old Kameyama Castle, is Oomoto's "Center of Activities".

The Spiritual Leader

According to the Foundress' prophecies, the Spiritual Leader of Oomoto must always be a woman. Thus, after Nao's death, Sumiko became the Second Leader, later to be succeeded by her daughter Naohi, and her grand-daughter Kiyoko.

Oomoto's Mission

The first words of the Foundress' writings announce that a new age of brotherly love is about to dawn, "like plum blossoms at winter's end". The present society of materialism and separatism is to be "reconstructed". Mankind must return to Oneness and change forever its old ways of doing things or disaster will befall the world.

Shinto

In order to "reconstruct" the world, we need to return to our divine spiritual origins, hence the name of Oomoto, meaning "The Great Origin". In Japan, returning to the origin means a return to the roots of Shinto, the ancient animistic faith which preceded Buddhism and is the indigenous faith of Japan. Thus Oomoto takes its ritual and fundamental doctrine from Shinto and is known officially as a form of "Sectarian Shinto".

Arts and Internationalism

From Shinto, with its passion for poetry and court ritual, came the love for and dedication to traditional arts which has to come to typify Oomoto. At the same time, Onisaburo went beyond Shinto and brought teachings from Buddhism, Christianity, and other religions into Oomoto.

More seriously, Shinto as taught at Oomoto was a "return to the origins", going back in time to the pure spirituality of ancient ages, before the rise of political institutions such as the Imperial House. Shinto for Onisaburo transcended the Imperial system, and even Japan itself. Onisaburo saw Shinto as part of a universal religious revival destined to bring in the new age predicted by Nao.

The First Oomoto Incident

Onisaburo's new brand of Shinto, with its internationalist outlook, soon drew the disapproval of the authorities. In 1921, the government arrested the Oomoto leadership and destroyed the headquarters, in what came to be known as the First Oomoto Incident.

Bankyo Dokon

Rather than slowing him down, the First Incidente jolted Onisaburo into a new understanding of Oomoto's international role. In October of 1921, he began dictating his great work Reikai Monogatari (Tales from the Spirit World) which eventually grew to 81 volumes. Sparked by his meeting with a Bahai follower in 1922, Onisaburo became interested in the international language of Esperanto and began making friendships with other religions.

Bankyo Dokon is the title of the 23rd chapter of the Reikai Monogatari, dictated in January 1922. Bankyo Dokon means "All religions spring from the same root". It states the essence of Oomoto's belief, rooted in the "Oneness" of Nao's writings, that all religions are expressions of the same divine impulse.

In 1923, the principle of Bankyo Dokon took concrete shape, when Oomoto forged its first affiliation with another faith, the new Chinese Taoist religion known as Tao Yüan. Tao Yüan worshipped five prophets: Lao-tsu, Sakyamuni, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, and Confucius. For Oomoto, the bond with Tao Yüan was just the beginning.

The Mongolian Expedition

In February 1924, Onisaburo, while still under investigation by the police during the First Incident, secretly crossed over to the mainland with a small group of followers, bound on a mission to establish a religious utopia in Mongolia. Calling himself "Khan of Mongolia", "Sakyamuni", and "The Dalai Lama", he aimed to rally followers of all faiths to his quixotic vision. However, Onisaburo's activities drew the ire of Chang Tso-Lin, the warlord of Manchuria, who had him arrested and repatriated to Japan.

Despite its ill-fated ending, Onisaburo's Mongolian Expedition carried within it the seeds of Oomoto's ideal of world unity. Onisaburo's plan called for him to pass beyond Mongolia, through Central Asia, Iran, Turkey, and finally, to Jerusalem. The horse-drawn cart carrying Noh costumes destined for Jerusalem rumbling across the Manchurian plains is perhaps one of the most eloquent images for Onisaburo's world-embracing dreams.

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Last modified on December 17, 1999
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Marcelo Ghelman

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