Nao Deguchi (January 22, 1837 – November 16, 1918) founded the religion
Oomoto-kyo after being possessed by a spirit called Ushitora no Konjin. Even though she was illiterate, she wrote 200,000 pages of prophesies while possessed.
Biography
Deguchi was born in
Fukuchiyama
250px, Fukuchiyama Castle
250px, Fukuchiyama city center
is a city in northern Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 76,037 in 36412 households and a population density of 140 persons per km². The total area of t ...
,
Tanba province
was a province of Japan in the area of central Kyoto and east-central Hyōgo Prefectures. Tanba bordered on Harima, Ōmi, Settsu, Tajima, Wakasa, and Yamashiro Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō sys ...
(present day
Kyoto prefecture) on January 22, 1837. She was the third child and the first daughter. She was born in the middle of a
famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, Demographic trap, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. Th ...
, so her parents considered abandoning her, but chose not to after Deguchi's grandmother scolded them. Her father, Gorosaburo Kirimura, died of
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
when she was 9, leaving Deguchi to work to support the family.
When she was 16 she was adopted into the Deguchi family. The Deguchis had no children, and adopted her so that she could marry their adopted son, a carpenter named Masagoro Deguchi, and continue the family name. They had 8 children, but because of Masagoro's
alcoholism
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...
and financial mismanagement, the family lived in poverty. After falling off a house and breaking his pelvis, Masagoro died on March 1, 1887.
In 1892, Deguchi was possessed by a spirit called Ushitora no Konjin, who prophesied that the world would soon end and that a savior would come and create heaven on earth. She was arrested in the suspected arson attack because of her prophecies. After she had been freed because a true criminal had been found, she was caged to prevent violence. When she begged Ushitora no konjin to stop making her yell in the cage, he started to make her write scripts with an old nail there. This was the beginning of the writing. Though she was illiterate, whenever the spirit would speak to her, she would write down the prophesies through
automatic writing
Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spiri ...
. She wrote over 200,000 pages of prophesies. She called these writings ''Fudesaki'' . She initially acted as a branch of
Konkōkyō
, or just Konkō, is a Shintō sect, being a part of the ''Kyoha Shintō Rengokai'' (Association of Sectarian Shinto), and an independent faith with origins in Shinbutsu-shūgō beliefs.
Konkokyo worships the spirit and energy that flows throug ...
, then broke off and founded her own religion.
Deguchi met
Onisaburo Deguchi, in 1899, and he married her daughter, Sumiko, in 1900. He organized her writings into
Oomoto-kyo's scripture, and codified the religion. Together, they started the Dai Nihon Shūseikai. In 1913 its named changed to the Taihonkyō, and in 1916 the name changed again to the Kōdō Ōmoto. Despite their work together, they sometimes had different interpretations of the writings that Deguchi had created. Deguchi died on November 6, 1918.
Selected bibliography
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Further reading
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References
1837 births
1918 deaths
Oomoto
Japanese religious leaders
Founders of new religious movements
19th-century Japanese women
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deguchi, Nao