ŌMOTOKYŌ. Founded at Ayabe, Kyoto prefecture, in 1892, Ōmotokyō constitutes a typical Japanese new religion under the modern emperor system. Ōmotokyō, absorbing folk religious traditions, Kokugaku (National Studies) teachings, and ideas from various modern thoughts, created a distinctive syncretic Shintō doctrine.

The founder of Ōmotokyō, Deguchi Nao (1837–1918), was the widow of a poor carpenter. On the lunar New Year, 1892, at the age of fifty-six, she was by her own account possessed by the kami (deity) Konjin. In this early religious experience, Nao, influenced by the teachings of Konkōkyō (an earlier new religion), conceived a powerful faith in the benevolent nature of the kami Konjin, a belief that contrasted with established notions of that deity's malevolence. The following year, however, Nao was confined to a room as insane. There, under the command of the kami, she began writing her Ofudesaki (The...