is a Japanese

new religious movement A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or th ...

founded by Komatsu Shin'yō in 1976. Komatsu was born in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

in 1928; her mother was the successor to a hereditary line of

kannushi A , also called , is a person responsible for the maintenance of a as well as for leading worship of a given .* ''Kannushi'' (in Japanese), Iwanami Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version The characters for are sometimes also re ...

(

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

priests). In 1976, an acquaintance of Komatsu's made a prophecy that a

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

was about to descend to Earth. Shortly thereafter, Komatsu was visited in turn by a dragon god,

Kannon Guanyin () is a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. She is the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara ( sa, अवलोकितेश्वर) and has been adopted by other Eastern religions, including Chinese folk religion. She w ...

and Amaterasu, the sun goddess. From that time forward, Komatsu dedicated herself to passing on knowledge from Amaterasu.

Faith and practices

The Shinmei Aishinkai movement became an official religious organization in 1983. The focus of the movement's practices are

ritual purification Ritual purification is the ritual prescribed by a religion by which a person is considered to be free of ''uncleanliness'', especially prior to the worship of a deity, and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness. Ritual purification may ...

(''okiyome'' or ''osame'') meant to give ascension to the spirits or ''jaki'' of departed people which are still bound to the earth. By doing so, the group hopes to ensure peace and prosperity throughout the world. To that end, rituals have been held following such events as the

fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of eve ...

and the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

. The movement's main festival, ''Kamiyo Gyōretsu'' "Whole World Procession", is held in autumn at the main Tokyo shrine and includes a parade in which members dress in period clothing and proceed through the city. The five main gods worshipped by followers are Amaterasu,

Takemikazuchi is a deity in Japanese mythology, considered a god of thunder and a sword god. He also competed in what is considered the first sumo wrestling match recorded in history. He is otherwise known as "The ''kami'' of Kashima"" (Kashima-no-kami), th ...

, Ninigi-no-Mikoto,

Kannō , also sometimes romanized as Kan'ō, was a Japanese era name (年号, ''nengō'', lit. year name) of the Northern Court during the Era of Northern and Southern Courts after ''Jōwa'' and before '' Bunna''. This period spanned the years from Feb ...

, and Ame-no-tajikarao. However, others such as Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto are also regularly worshipped. The Shinmei movement, like many Shinto-derived new religious movements includes a strong emphasis on divination and

Wu Xing Wuxing may refer to: Places in China Counties and districts *Huzhou, formerly Wuxing County, Zhejiang, China *Wuxing District (吴兴区), central district of Huzhou Subdistricts (五星街道) *Wuxing Subdistrict, Mudanjiang, in Dong'an District ...

practices, known as ''kigaku''. This includes the study of ''kasō,'' the floor plan of one's house and the influences of energy drawn from various compass directions and shares some similarities with feng shui. The group also has strong ties to

Ise Grand Shrine The , located in Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Officially known simply as , Ise Jingū is a shrine complex composed of many Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, and . The Inner ...

(

Mie Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto Prefectur ...

), where the goddess Amaterasu is believed to reside. As of 2008, the group has approximately 50,000 members nationwide. Branch shrines have been established in

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The lar ...

, Kyushu, Nasu (

Tochigi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Tochigi Prefecture has a population of 1,943,886 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,408 km2 (2,474 sq mi). Tochigi Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the ...

), and Hyōgo Prefecture. The main shrine is located in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

References

"Female Founders and Shamanesses,"
''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' website.
"Shinmei Aishinkai,"
''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' website.

External links

* Japanese new religions 1976 establishments in Japan {{japan-reli-stub