大本教の創始The Birth of Omoto: A Key Chapter in Modern Shinto

In this article, I will discuss the founding of Omoto (大本), which is essential when talking about modern Shinto.

Since the introduction of Buddhism in the mid-6th century, Shinto has undergone a complex evolution, often intermingling with Buddhism and transforming under its overwhelming influence.

However, a major shift began in the late 18th century with the emergence of a new academic field known as kokugaku (National Learning). Over roughly two centuries, scholars of kokugaku sought to strip away foreign elements such as Buddhism and Confucianism that had mingled with Shinto, and to establish a pure Shinto.

By the early 19th century, Atsutane Hirata (1776–1843), a kokugaku scholar and an exceptionally talented Shinto thinker, brought it to completion. Hirata brought in Shinto with a highly spiritual element, significantly altering its character. It is important to recognize that Shinto before and after Hirata underwent a fundamental transformation.

This new form of Shinto later inspired the emergence of Shinto-based new religions such as Kurozumikyo, Tenrikyo, and Konkokyo in the 19th century, which in time led to the Meiji Restoration.

After the Meiji Restoration, the new government officially recognized these emerging religions, granting them permission for nationwide propagation. Due to ongoing social instability, many people sought guidance outside of established religious traditions, leading to a rapid increase in the number of believers.

Amidst this religious revival, a defining moment occurred in the late 19th century in a remote mountain village in Ayabe, Kyoto Prefecture. In 1892, a woman named Nao Deguchi (出口なお, 1837–1918) was possessed by a kami, and everything began there.

She proclaimed a divine revelation calling for the "Remaking and Renewal of the World" and began producing automatic writings known as “Fudesaki (筆先)”—messages dictated by the kami through her hand.

Over 26 years, until her death in 1918, Nao produced an immense volume of writings, reportedly filling 200,000 sheets of paper.

Like many people in village communities of the time, she had no chance to study and could neither read nor write, yet with the help of the kami she wrote an enormous volume. She recorded these messages in hiragana, without using kanji. Most of the Fudesaki are prophecies. She foresaw the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) in particular. Because of it she was received, even then, as bearing a vital warning from the kami.

Furthermore, Through Nao’s mysterious power, illnesses were healed and miracles followed one after another, and word of Nao Deguchi of Ayabe spread quickly to many places and drew a large following.

However, she never established a religious organization herself. Instead, the foundation of Omoto required the arrival of one crucial figure—Kisaburo Ueda (上田喜三郎, 1871–1948).

Kisaburo was born into a farming family in Kameoka, south of Ayabe in Kyoto Prefecture. Hot-blooded and a troublemaker, he was expelled from school, drifted from job to job in his youth, and started several businesses that all failed. Those were unhappy years. It was not until 1896, at the age of 26, that he found success in the dairy business. Up until that point, he had little interest in religion.

However, around that time, his father passed away, he became involved in constant fights, and even his grandmother abandoned him.

With so much happening at once, he resolved to make a clean break with the past and take his first step toward becoming a religious teacher. In 1898, he encountered a mysterious figure with spiritual powers and undertook a week-long retreat in Takakuma-yama, a sacred mountain in Kameoka. There, he experienced a profound mystical revelation that convinced him of his divine mission.

Recognizing himself as a messianic figure, Kisaburo decided to leave his business to his younger brother and embark on a journey across Japan, seeking spiritual wisdom. In the course of this, he came to know the new Shinto derived from Hirata Atsutane thoroughly, and began to teach on his own in Sonobe, near Kameoka.

The following year, guided by the kami, Kisaburo visited Nao Deguchi for the first time. He married one of her daughters, Sumi Deguchi, and devoted himself to the growth of Omoto.

Kisaburo Ueda took a new name, Onisaburo Deguchi (出口王仁三郎), and became a presence that exerted a powerful influence on prewar Japan.