Prophet Motive: Deguchi Onisaburō, Oomoto, and the Rise of New Religions in Imperial JapanFrom the 1910s to the mid-1930s, the flamboyant and gifted spiritualist Deguchi Onisaburô (1871–1948) transformed his mother-in-law’s small, rural religious following into a massive movement, eclectic in content and international in scope. Through a potent blend of traditional folk beliefs and practices like divination, exorcism, and millenarianism, an ambitious political agenda, and skillful use of new forms of visual and mass media, he attracted millions to Oomoto, his Shintoist new religion. Despite its condemnation as a heterodox sect by state authorities and the mainstream media, Oomoto quickly became the fastest-growing religion in Japan of the time. |
Contents
Early Life to Oomoto Leadership | 20 |
Oomoto Views on Mythology | 45 |
Taishò Spiritualism | 76 |
Visual Technologies | 108 |
Paradoxical Internationalism? Oomoto in the World | 142 |
A Patriotic Turn and the Second Suppression | 170 |
State Religion and Tradition | 191 |
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