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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
Among all the different religious movements in contemporary Japan one must acknowledge that from the point of view of the number of members, financial assets, physical facilities and activities, the most dominant are those that arose in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and are referred to collectively as ‘newly arisen religions’ (Shinkō Shūkyō). Various observers have offered their explanations for the success and popularity of these groups in religious, sociological, psychological and historical terms.1 Several of these groups fall into the category of millenarian and messianic movements and have been discussed by Professor Carmen Blacker in her essay, ‘Millenarian Aspects of the New Religions in Japan’.2 Why and how do millenarian and messianic movements remain popular and maintain their vitality even when the circumstances surrounding their founding change? How do they continue their dynamic growth after the messiah dies or when the millennium is delayed? What are the similarities and differences between these groups in Japan and those in other cultural areas?
page 539 note 1 See the following studies of the new Religions: McFarland, H. Neill, The Rush Hour of the Gods (New York: Macmillan, 1967Google Scholar); Offner, C. B. and Straelen, H. Van, Modern Japanese Religions (New York: Twayne, 1963Google Scholar) and Thomsen, Harry, The New Religions of Japan (Rutland, Vt: Tuttle, 1963Google Scholar). Earhart, H. Byron, The Religions of Japan (Tokyo: Sophia University, 1970Google Scholar) contains an exhaustive bibliography on the main New Religions including World Messianity (see page 68).
page 539 note 2 This essay is found in Shively, Donald H. (ed.), Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture (Princeton University Press, 1971), pp. 563–600Google Scholar (hereinafter referred to as Tradition and Modernization).
page 539 note 3 See Tradition and Modernization, pp. 580–1, 586–7.Google Scholar
page 539 note 4 Of Professor Turner's works the following are the most pertinent for his views on liminality and communitas: The Forest of Symbols (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1967), pp. 93–111Google Scholar (hereinafter referred to as Forest); The Ritual Process (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1969), pp. 94–165Google Scholar (hereinafter referred to as Ritual); and Dramas, Fields and Metaphors (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1974), pp. 231–99Google Scholar (hereinafter referred to as Dramas). For a helpful summary see Victor Turner and Turner, Edith, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978), pp. 243–55Google Scholar (hereinafter referred to as Image). Attention is also called to a recent study of a utopian community in Japan, Ittōen, in which Turner's concept of liminality is employed. Davis, Winston, ‘Ittōen: the myths and rituals of Liminality’, History of Religions, XIV (May 1975), 282–321CrossRefGoogle Scholar; xv (August 1975), 1–33.Google Scholar
page 540 note 1 Ritual, p. 94.Google Scholar
page 540 note 2 Forest, p. 94.Google Scholar
page 540 note 3 Ritual, p. 96.Google Scholar
page 540 note 4 Dramas, p. 250.Google Scholar
page 541 note 1 Image, p. 252.Google Scholar
page 541 note 2 Ibid.
page 541 note 3 Ritual, p. 107.Google Scholar
page 541 note 4 Ibid. p. 128.
page 541 note 5 Ibid.
page 542 note 1 See Ritual, pp. 106–7, 111–12.Google Scholar
page 542 note 2 My discussion of World Messianity is based primarily on personal visists to the centres in Atami in 1965 and to Atami, Hakone and Kyoto in 1978 and conversations with leaders there; also personal correspondence with a member of the Translastion Division in Los Angeles.
page 543 note 1 Teachings of Meishu-sama, vol. 2, p. 36Google Scholar (hereinafter referred to as Teachings).
page 544 note 1 Sounds of the Dawn, vol. 1, p. 168Google Scholar (hereinafter referred to as Sounds).
page 544 note 2 Teachings, vol. 1, pp. 37–8.Google Scholar In a letter dated 18 July 1974 the Rev. Kyōko Higuchi of the translations division of World Messianity in Los Angeles wrote the following response to my question concerning the events of 1881 referred to by Meishu-sama. ‘Meishu-sama did not tell us anything about the year 1881, beyond mentioning it in his article (vol. 1, p. 37), so we do not know if he referred to some specific event or simply to the beginning point of the changeover.’
page 545 note 1 Reminiscences about Meishu-sama, , vol. 1, pp. 26–7.Google Scholar ‘The Dawning of the new age’ does not mean that the old age has passed completely and that the new age has fully arrived. It means that the new age has started in this time and place but its completion lies in the future.
page 545 note 2 Sounds, vol. 1, p. 41. The ‘Celestial Rock Cave Gate’ refers to the story in book 1, chapter 17 of the Kojiki in which Amaterasu Ōmikami, the Sun Goddess, had hidden herself in a cave, thus depriving the world of sunlight. To remedy this crisis the other kami lured her out of the cave so that once again the world was warm and bright. Meishu-sama here suggests that in a similar way God is now sending his spiritual light into a world of cloudy darkness and inaugurating a new age of light.
page 545 note 3 Teachings, vol. 1, p. 36.
page 546 note 1 Sounds, p. 206.
page 546 note 2 Teachings, vol. 1, p. 5.
page 546 note 3 Sounds, vol. 1, p. 100.
page 547 note 1 Ibid. vol. 1, p. 43.
page 547 note 2 Teachings, vol. 1, p. 41.
page 548 note 1 Prayers and Gosanka, , p. 18.Google Scholar
page 548 note 2 A Guide to the Grounds, Sacred, p. 8.Google Scholar
page 548 note 3 Sounds, vol. 1, p. 222. Professor Blacker suggests that one of the ways Japanese millenarianism is different from that found in other cultures is that here paradise is identified with the ‘image’ of the modern world rather than with a transcendent utopia. It is ‘this-worldly’, not ‘other-worldly’, present-oriented rather than looking to either the distant past or future for fulfilment. She also notes that Japanese messianism tends to be active rather than passive. Believers are exhorted to work out their own salvation and to become actively involved in bringing in the ‘kingdom’ rather than passively awaiting the advent of the new age. The two characteristics certainly apply to World Messianity. See Traditions and Modernization, pp. 596–600.
page 548 note 4 World Messianity and What it Means, p. 8.
page 548 note 5 Teachings, vol. 1, p. 73.
page 549 note 1 Ibid. vol. 2, p. 54.
page 549 note 2 Teachings of Nidai-sama, , vol. 2, p. 54.Google Scholar
page 549 note 3 van der Leeuw, Gerardus, Sacred and Profane Beauty (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1963)Google Scholar also emphasizes the power of religious art. Other Japanese religions emphasize art, especially ómoto, Seichó no je, and PL Kyódan. I think that World Messianity's genius lies in its unique combination of God's light and power, Johrei, and artistic beauty. A splendid new art museum is now under construction on the summit of a mountain overlooking Atami. It is scheduled for a 1982 dedication and when completed will be one of the outstanding private museums in Japan.
page 550 note 1 Turner notes the intimate connection between property and structure. See Ritual, p. 146.
page 550 note 2 See Ritual, pp. 140–65 for Turner's account of St Francis and Caitanya.
page 551 note 1 Light from the East, p. 43.
page 552 note 1 See my article, ‘Tradition and Modernity in the New Religious Movements of Japan’, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, I (06–09 1974), 217–52.Google Scholar
page 552 note 2 The incidents prior to 1945 should be viewed in the light of the abnormally rigid condition of the government under the stress of preparation for and execution of the war led by a military clique. Perhaps in less pressured times the regulations would not have been so repressive.
page 552 note 3 Light from the East, p. 29.Google Scholar
