The Japanese scholar, Anesaki Masaharu (1873–1949), wrote about the rise of Popular Theism in Japan in which women played a prominent role as teachers and leaders and which combined “a strong theistic doctrine with prophetic utterances” (1930: 311). Prior to the rise of this “Popular Theism” there was an intellectual brand of theism in the air in the nineteenth century, which can be seen in the writings of some of the foremost campaigners for the purification of Shinto from Buddhist and Confucian influ- ences. The most prominent and passionate spokesperson of this resurgent Shinto move- ment was Hirata Atsutane (d. 1843) who was familiar with Jesuit missionary writings
in China and incorporated some of their ideas into his Shinto theological formulations, and hence his notion of a Heavenly Centre Lord (Ame-no-minakanushi) whom he placed above the Sun-goddess (Amaterasu-no-mikami) (Kitagawa 1987: 165).
Among the exponents of “Popular Theism” Anesaki (1930: 309ff.) singles out for special mention Kino (1756–1826), the first woman teacher of this form of theism. Kino was a peasant woman in Owari and her theism, when discovered by a scholar in 1927, was given the name of Nyorai, the Japanese equivalent of the Buddhist Tatha¯gata (one who has attained what is really so), or of Isson (Unique Reverend). While she used Bud- dhist terms Kino’s teaching seemingly had little or nothing to do with Buddhism, but might have been influenced by the Kirishitan or Hidden Christian Creed which used a compound term derived from Latin and Japanese, Deus-Nyorai, for God (Anesaki 1930: 312). The Hidden Christians (Kirishitan) were those Christians who remained loyal to their outlawed Catholic faith that had been brought by the missionary St Francis Xavier in the sixteenth century. God became known among Christians generally in Japan by the word Deusu until 1868, and this is still the preferred term of the Hidden Christians. The Hidden Christians themselves were greatly influenced by Buddhism and made use of Buddhist concepts and ritual forms to conceal their Christian faith and practice. It is possible, therefore,—and I am speculating here—that those who came into contact with these Christians did not understand that the worship they saw being practiced was anything other than an unusual form of Buddhism.
In Kino’s teachings the world is said to be created by an omnipotent God who was moved solely by love and whose purpose in creating the universe was the salvation of mankind. All Buddhas and deities were subordinate to this God and Kino’s divinely appointed task was to be the savior of the human race. While Anesaki accepted that Kino’s teachings were influenced by the Kirishitan, he also felt that there was an origi- nal element to Popular Theism in Japan as propounded by Kino and by the female founder of Tenrikyo¯, Nakayama Miki (1798–1887). He wrote of Kino’s teaching: “This borrowing of a Buddhist term (Nyorai) may suggest a certain amount of Buddhist herit- age, yet her teaching had almost nothing to do with Buddhism, but was entirely original, although it may be suspected of some contact with the Kirishitan creed” (Anesaki 1930: 311f.).
Called Oyasama (worthy parent) by her followers, Nakayama Miki reported having been possessed in 1838, a year after she founded Tenrikyo¯, by a god who called Himself “the Lord of Heaven” and who announced the arrival of the “important moment” (Shun kokugen) (Anesaki 1930: 313). In the Prologue of what is perhaps the most important of Tenrikyo¯’s sacred texts, the Mikagura Uta, there is a strong theistic emphasis. We find there passages such as: “Sweep away all evils and save us, oh God our parent (Oya- gami)! Listen to the word of God. Listen . . . In the manner of Earth and Heaven, I created man and wife, the dawn of human life” (Thomsen 1963: 41). God the Parent is said to have revealed Himself first as Kami, which has a variety of meanings including the Creator of the world and all human beings, or the Original, True God, and was later to reveal Himself as Tsuki-hi or Moon-sun God. Furthermore, in Tenrikyo¯ worship the deity is called the Lord of Divine Wisdom (Tenri-O−-no Mikoto) “who is conceived of as the sole deity of all, creator of all things, and the gracious sustainer of life” (Thomsen 1963: 49).
Further evidence of theism is to be found in chapter 8 of this NRM’s biography of its founder which states:
Human beings were created by God the Parent (Oya-gami) and live due to divine providence. Therefore, God and human kind are truly Parent and chil- dren, and all human beings are brothers and sisters. Because of this truth, God the Parent loves us children single-heartedly now, as in the past.
(Tenrikyo¯ Church Headquarters 1996: 121) Thus, Tenrikyo¯’s God, called variably Kami (God), Tsukihi (Moon-Sun) and Oya (the Parent), is a caring, intimate God constantly interacting with human beings and with Her/His creation.
This God is different from a kami, a spirit that protected, controlled and punished humans, and who was only vaguely worshipped. Thomsen believes that Tenrikyo¯’s monotheism owes more than Anesaki suggests to the influence of Hidden Christians and points to a good number of similarities between Tenrikyo¯ and Christianity, includ- ing similarities in words such as “sacrament,” “ascension” and “mediatrix,” in prayers and in accounts of creation—the Tenrikyo¯ creation myth uses the phrase “let us create man” reminiscent of Genesis (Thomsen 1963: 59).
Anesaki (1930), and later Thomsen (1963) and Kamstra (1994), point to the mono- theistic qualities found in other Japanese NRMs, among them Kurozumikyo¯, founded by a Shinto-priest Munetada Kurozumi (1780–1850). This movement regards the Sun- goddess, Amaterasu-o-mikami, as the Supreme Deity or Great August Deity. Kurozumi’s faith in the Great August Deity was, Anesaki writes, “so personal and intense that his religion verged on monotheism pure and simple” (1930: 315, my italics). The idea of a Supreme Deity is also present in Konkokyo¯, founded by Kawate Bunjiro (1814–83). This NRM worships Tenche kane no kami, the Great Golden God of the universe. A notion of God similar to that found in Konkokyo¯ is also present in the previously mentioned NRM O−moto established in 1892. In O−moto, God is known as the invisible Creator of the Universe or Great God of the Universe; and everything on earth is said to be the manifestation of this invisible Being. Some of the statements made by O−moto about God seem to point to a panentheistic, and others to a pantheistic, notion of God.
More recent Japanese NRMs, some of them closely linked through their founders with O−moto, among them Seicho¯ no Ie (House of Growth) (1930), Sekaikyusei kyo (Church of World Messianity) (1935), Mahikari (True Light) (1959), and several others, all have a similar concept of God to that found in O−moto. The last mentioned movement, Mahikari, worships the Su-god who occupies the highest tier of the divinities and whose essence is fire. This God bathes the world in a baptism of fire and is the source of True Light. What are referred to as the five major religions of the world (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Islam and Christianity) are united under the authority of this God who was spoken of and preached about by Moses and Jesus, both of whom were Japanese Jews (nikkeijin) who died in Japan.
In his search for the origins of monotheism in Japanese NRMs, Kamstra (1994) pays more attention than either Anesaki (1930) or Thomsen (1963) to the Christian lit- erature either written or translated in China by Jesuits and which found its way into Japan. Although the general edict of 1630, the so-called edict of Kan’ei issued by Sho- gun Iemitsu, forbade the importing into Japan of Christian books written by Jesuits in China, such literature was, nevertheless, regularly brought into the country by Chi- nese tradesmen and included books written by the Jesuits Matteo Ricci and others. Among the well-known Japanese scholars who read these and other “secret” works were Honda Toshiaki (1744–1821), Koga Toan (1788–1847), Sato Nobuhiro (1769–1850),
Mitsukuri Gempo (1799–1863) and the previously mentioned Hirata Atsutane (1776– 1843) who were, paradoxically, in Kamstra’s words “the last of the great men of restora- tion Shinto or fukko shinto” (Kamstra 1994: 107). Kamstra writes that Hirata Atsutane “turned Ame-no-minaka-nushi [i.e., one of the gods who came into existence when heaven and earth became separated] into a monotheistic god by ascribing to him the creative qualities which are peculiar to the Christian tenshu [i.e., Lord of Heaven]” (Kamstra 1994: 111). I turn now briefly to a context—that of Indonesia—in which being theistic is a sine qua non for recognition by the State as a religion.