Konkokyo - Konkokyo

A new religion based on syncretic Shinto. It was founded in 1859 (Ansei 6) by Konko Daijin (whose secular name was Akazawa Bunji), a farmer founder from Bitchu Province (Okayama Prefecture). Its doctrine is based on the vast and diverse tradition of folk beliefs known as syncretic Shinto, but this was sublimated, purified, and overcome by Konko's religious experience - the belief that Konjin, who was feared by the people as a god of curses, appeared as a "god of love and grace," or Tenchikane no Kami, through the "virtue of faith." He rejected as "disrespectful" to the gods the taboos, magical religious beliefs and rituals of Japanese society at the end of the Edo period, and the human way of life trapped in a human-centered civilization, including the day and direction of the Golden God, and brought about a new religious integration by inverting, individualizing and internalizing various values. He preached about "receiving" the "blessings" given by the Parent God, Tenchi Konnokami, who permeates heaven and earth, beyond the boundaries of national society, the sacred and the secular, this shore and the other shore, practicing based on the "principle of heaven and earth," and building a "place where people help other people," that is, a "divine country," and that all people are equally children of gods, and that they should realize the god within their hearts and become living gods.

At the end of the Edo period, the religion was oppressed by the Okayama Domain and mountain ascetics, and Saito Juemon (1823-1895) was imprisoned in the Tenryo Kasaoka (a land of the Tokugawa shogunate), and in the Meiji period, it was banned from preaching and placed under police surveillance. However, under these pressures, Konko was able to develop his own doctrine, centered on the Tenchi Shofu, and in 1874 (Meiji 7), he wrote his religious autobiography, Konko Daishin Gomemo (Memorandum of Konko Daishin), in which he describes himself as a being sent by God to save the world from its troubles. In the late Edo period and early Meiji period, the religion spread to Sanyo, Sanin, and Shikoku, mainly through lecture societies for farmers, merchants, and artisans, and in 1875 it spread to Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo. Konko continued to preach without official recognition, but after his death, Sato Norio (1856-1942) and others launched a movement to officially recognize it, and in 1885 it became an affiliated church of the Shinto Headquarters, and in 1900 (Meiji 33) it became an independent sect of sect Shinto, and preached in Korea, China, North America, and other places under the State Shinto system. After World War II, a reform movement to return to the founder occurred, and this has continued throughout the world. The current scriptures are based on the Konko Daishin Memorandum, the Notice Memorandum, and the Riki. The headquarters is in Asakuchi, Okayama Prefecture. There are 1,520 churches, 6 missionary stations, 3,781 teachers, and 430,026 believers (Religious Yearbook, 2014 edition).

[Michio Araki]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

習合神道系新宗教。1859年（安政6）備中(びっちゅう)国（岡山県）の農民教祖金光大神(こんこうだいじん)（俗名は赤沢文治(ぶんじ)）が創唱。その教義は、習合神道という広大・雑多な民間信仰の伝統を背景にしているが、それは金光の得た宗教体験――民間で祟(たた)りの神と恐れられていた金神(こんじん)が、「信心の徳」によって「愛の神、恵みの神」、すなわち天地金乃神(てんちかねのかみ)として立ち現れたという――によって昇華・純化され、乗り越えられた。金神の日柄・方位をはじめ、幕末維新の日本の社会のもろもろの禁忌（タブー）や呪術(じゅじゅつ)宗教的信仰儀礼、また人間中心主義の文明にとらわれた人間のあり方を、神への「無礼」として拒み、さまざまの価値を転倒し、個人化・内面化して新しい宗教的統合をもたらした。そして、国家社会を越え、聖と俗、此岸(しがん)と彼岸(ひがん)の境界を越え、天地に遍満する親神、天地金乃神が与える「おかげ」を「受ける」こと、「天地の道理」に基づく実践、「人が人を助ける所」すなわち「神国」の建設を説き、人がみな等しく神の子であり、心の内なる神を実現して生神になることを説いた。

　幕末には、岡山藩や山伏(やまぶし)の圧迫を受け、天領笠岡(かさおか)では斎藤重右衛門（1823―1895）が投獄され、明治には布教差止めや警察の監視下に置かれるなどした。しかし、金光はそのような緊張下に『天地書附』を中心とする独自の教義を結実させ、1874年（明治7）には、世界の難儀の救済のため神から差し向けられた存在としての宗教的自叙伝『金光大神御覚書(おぼえがき)』を執筆した。教勢は幕末・明治初年に農・商工民の講社を中心に山陽、山陰、四国に、1875年に大阪、さらに京都、東京に展開した。金光は非公認のまま布教を続けたが、その死後佐藤範雄（1856―1942）らは公認運動を展開、1885年に神道本局所属教会となり、1900年（明治33）には教派神道の一派として独立し、国家神道の体制下で朝鮮、中国、北米などに布教した。第二次世界大戦後は、教祖回帰の改革運動が起こり、全面的に改革運動が続けられている。現行の教典は『金光大神御覚書』『お知らせ事覚帳』ならびに『理解』によっている。本部は岡山県浅口(あさくち)市。教会数1520、布教所数6、教師数3781、信者数43万0026（『宗教年鑑』平成26年版）。

［荒木美智雄］

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