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edatsukai

One Life History and Its Significance forInterpreting Japanese New Religions

H. Byron EARHART

INTRODUCTION

Purpose and method For about f if teen years, off and on,have been collecting materials on the Japanese new religions

with th e inten tion of writing a general boo k on the subject.But the movements are so numerous, and the materials tobe covered so extensive, that it s difficult for one persont o tell th e whole story. '

A further diff iculty is the problem of interpretat ion:w heth er and how to use the social change theories th athave expounded at length on the human motives for form-

Research for this paper was supported by a grant f rom the Japan Society forthe Promotion of Science in a joint study conducted in Japan with ProfessorMiyake Hitoshi of KeiB University from September 1979 through January 1980.

I should also like to acknowledge the assistance of the Faculty Research Fundof Western Michigan University for supplementary support; of Mr. Miyasaka K 6jirB, Chief of the International Division of Rissh6 KBseikai, for housing; and ofthree anthropologists who advised me in planning the life-history approach toGedatsukai: Alan H. Jacobs of Western Michigan University, David W. Plathof the University of Illinois, and Robert J. Smith of Cornell University.

Without the kind cooperation of t he headquarters and members of Gedatsu-kai, this research would not have been possible.

This paper was first presented on 17 April 1980 at the University of Pitts-burgh as part of a year-long colloquium sponsored by the Department of ReligiousStudies on the theme Persistence and Change: Focus on Religion. Its titleas of the time of its first presentation was 'Traditional upbringing, Christianconversion, and joining Gedatsu-kai: One life history and its significance forinterpreting Japanese new religions. The version presented here is slightly re-vised.1. See my The new religions of Japan: A bibliography of Western language mu

rerials (1970), a second edition of which is soon to be published by C K.Hall and Co.

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ing new re l ig ions-but wi thou t docu m ent in g th is mot iva t ionconcre te ly.

For my sabbat ica l research , therefore , I decided on amo re d i rec t appro ach t o th is subjec t and i t s in terpre ta t ionb y : (1 ) l imi t ing the scope of my s tud y t o in tens ive exami-nat ion of one new rel igion, and (2) ut i l iz ing the interviewo r l ife-history appro ach (along with his tor ical and s truc-tura l approaches) in order t o app roxim ate an inside v iew.T h e purpose of th is a rt ic le , even more l im i ted , is t o repor tand comment on the l i f e -h i s to ry o o n e m e m b e r o f t h i sr e l i g i ~ n . ~

Backg round informut ion . T h e new rel ig ion se lec ted , Gedatsu -kai, was chosen partly because it is historically related tothe shugendd (organizat ions that pract ice magico-rel igiousaus ter i t ies per ta in ing to sacred mounta ins) tha tI had s tudiedearlier.

T o give a comple te in t roduc t ion t o Geda t suka i is no t

possible he re s3 Bey ond the fact th at it was official ly found-ed in 19 29 by O ka no Eizd (pos thumou sly know n as Geda t suKo ngb), a l l we need in ord er to proceed w ith th e li fe-his toryis a reminder as to a few o f i t s basic emp hases : venerat ionof ancestors , especial ly with sweet tea memorial servicesa t branch meet ings and in indiv idual home s; respect fortradi t jo nal Sh int o a nd Buddhist divini ties , especially th etutelary divini ty o r ujigami; th e ancestrally or iented hd 'onkansha o r grateful rep ay m en t fo r blessings received tosociety an d to t he universe; an d , of par ticu lar impor tance

2. In view of this limited purpose, footnotes w ll be kept to a minimum . Morecomplete documentation will be reserved for the larger work now in prepara-tion.

3. For Western-language materials o n Gedatsukai, see items 4 0 7 4 1 3 in Earhart(1 97 0). The forthcoming edition will contain about ten additional items.

The most complete account in English by a Gedatsukai representativeis Kishida s The character and doctrine o edatsu K ongo 1 969) .

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here, indirect com mu nicat ion with ance stors an d spir itsthro ugh a ri tual calledgohd shugq~d.

LIFE HISTORY

T h e l ife his tory t ha t fol lows is tha t of a 68-year-old manI shall call Mr. Na kajib a. My interview with Mr. Nakajibatook p lace in a To ky o suburb on 23 O c t o b e r 1 9 7 9 a t t h e

I branch of Gedatsukai .T h e branch leader had jus t explained the purpose of the

interview as on e of learning ab ou t the mem bers ' experi-ence -in Jap ane se, taiken, a term widely used t o describeme mb ers ' personal religious experiences, of ten related d ur-ing regular meetings as testimonials. T h e interview followedimmedia te ly on the heels of the monthly meet ing forgohdshugyb. (Th is ri tua l i s cons idered qu i te impor ta nt , and t opar ticip ate in i t a privilege. O ne speaks , ther efo re, n ot merelyof practicing the ritual bu t also of receiving it .) Th einterview begins, the n, with a qu est ion ab ou tgohb ~ h t i g y d . ~

Mr. Nakajiba s first contact with CedatsukaiQ Have yo u received th egohd shugyb?A. My wife and chi ldren have, but I haven' t very much.

Being a Chris t ian, I didn ' t en ter into Ged atsuka i pract icemu ch my self. But m y wife was very active. Ingohbshugyb she was f requent ly to ld tha t her ances tors hadmade mis takes , and tha t she should perform memoria l

services for th em and apologize on their behalf .Q An d did yo u receivegoho shugyb yourself?A. Yes, thre e or fo ur t imes. Bu t i t wasn't very clear t o

me-just a lot a bo u t ance stors an d apologizing andme morial services. T h a t was all .

4 . This interview has been edited to some extent to smoothe out false startsand reduce repetition but in substance t is presented as it took place-ex-cept for the language.

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Q When d id y ou f i rs t receive go hd sh ugyfi?A . T w o o r th ree year s ago .Q When d id y ou r wife f i rs t receive i t?A T en years ago-m aybe longer.Q When you f i rs t received go hd shztgyb tw o or thr ee years

ago, were you going through any par t icu lar t rouble?A . What p rom pte d me was il lness in th e family. My family

members , re la t ives , and acquain tances to ld me to prac t icei t with al l my strength. 1 r ea l ly was no t tha t devou t ,but s ince ano ther person s ta r ted doing go hd shugy bf o r m e , I f e lt t ha t I h ad t o d o it t o o .

Q W ho was th is o th er person?A A fr iend. A t f i rs t just couldn t pu t mu ch trust in th e

go hd shu gy6 , bu t I was to ld to t ry it an d see . Tha t sw h y I did i t a t f i r s t . And th ings came up tha t I hadn texpected a t a ll -for exam ple , ab ou t my wife s m other sconcern w i th mo ney m at ters . Because th is was inex-cu sab le, was told t o a p o l o g i ~ e . ~h r o u g h g o h 6 s h u gy bI was taug ht things l ike this th at had n o idea of before-

h a n d .Th is is a d i fferent m at ter, bu t ano the r person received

g o h d s h u g j G f o r t h e s ak e o f s o m e o n e in m y f am i ly w h owas s ick- they were praying for the s ick one . S o whenI was asked by the person w h o had do ne th is for us ,

i t s e em e d o n l y n a t u r a l [ t o receive t h e g o h o s hu g yd a n d ,a s a d vi se d ,] t o g o t o a s h ri ne t o a p o lo g iz e t om y wife sm ~ t h e r . ~

S h i n t o s h r in e a n d B u d d h i s t t e m p l eQ A shrine-your ujigami?

5 . What is imp lied here is that Mr. Nakajiba should have given money to hisfinancially troubled mother-in-law. Since he did no t he should now apolo-gize.

6 Th e act of apologizing to a living person or to the spirit o f a dead person isat the same time an act of repentance.

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; e i l ~ t ~ ~ ~ ~ l < ; t ~ .hit 1 1 t c I11s1t ry

Yes. I ve been going t o the shrine s ince ten o r f i f teen ,maybe more , yea r s ago . My wife s bro th er d ied , so a t

th e f ir st of every m on th she would go t o th e u jigami,o r th e memor ia l s tone , o r the pa rish t emple . Th a t washer cus tom. Bu t , a s I said, because I was a ChristianI thought i t just as well not t o go t o such p laces . T ha twas what I fe lt then . Later changed my mind.Was tha t before or a f te r yo ur wife s jo in ing Ge datsukai?After.When was that?

Tha t would be f i f teen o r s ix teen yea rs ago . F r om abou tt en yea r s ago , we w en t t o the pa ri sh t emple o r memo-ria l s ton e a t th e beginning of every mo nt h .At tha t t ime had y ou en te red Geda tsuka i?No , I d idn t have any thing to pray f or a t tha t t ime. I twas just tha t th is was m y uj igami and m y ances tors,and I had been under the care of th is u j igami , so goingthere was an express ion of thanks . T h e memoria l s tonesand the parish temp le were th e same: I had rece ivedthei r pro tec t ion , and going to these p laces was a formof thanks .Y ou r family parish tem ple is w hat sect?J b d o Shinshb. Higashi Honganji . An d th e family inwhich m y m oth er was born was a temple fami ly.

Christian churchQ Were yo u a Christ ian f rom you r yout h?A. I became a Chris t ian at age 18 I was baptized at age

20Q What church?A. Nihon Kir isu to Ky bda n [Uni ted Church of Chris t in Ja-

p a n ] . There aren t very man y o f these churches . Th eyare very scholarly in the ir teaching. had gone t o Sap-poro . Most of th e people in th is church were qui teknowledgeable. Th ere were m an y intel lectuals . Hok-

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kaido Universi ty is there, and there were many univer-s i ty s tud ents in the ch urch .

Q Yo u were born in Hokka ido?A Yes. At tha t t ime, so tha t I could go to school , I wasliving w ith a family th at happ ened to be Chris t ian.Until tha t t ime I had been just an ordina ry, t radi tionalJapanese- though f rom y ou th u p I d idn 't have any par-t icular fa i th . Bu t when I go t u p in th e morning, mym oth er would say, Go pay you r respects before the[Shinto] household shr ine and the Buddhis t a l ta r.If I didn ' t , I wouldn' t get an yth ing to eat . Th at wasthe way i t was. My fa ther and mo the r were both peopleof de ep fai th. A ny wa y, because this was the way itwas, it seemed natural [ t o u s ] . I t was a [fam ily] cus-tom fo r us to go to the househo ld sh r ine and Buddhis ta l ta r, then to w ash o ur hands [an d ea t breakfas t1

Bu t when I moved in to th is o th er house , there wasn o househ old shr ine and n o Buddhis t a l ta r, so I thoughtit a s t range house . Tw o or three days la ter ment ionedsomething [about the absence of t radi t ional a l ta rs ] tothe family, and they said i t was because they wereChristian. F ro m a child's perspective it app ear ed as ifthere were n o kami there a t a ll . What a s t range house ,

though t .I didn ' t know much about Chris t iani ty, and didn ' t

understand why, with all the fine religions in Japan,th ey would acce pt a foreign religion. In their house

the y had a Bible, and they urged me to read i t. I didso earnestly. T h e head of th e fami ly was an e lder inthis church, so every week missionaries and ministerswou ld visit the house. I didn't really understand w hy ,bu t there was som e kind of rebell ion within m e.

I was reading th e Bible diligently. If asked them[the fami ly members] or the minis ter about the Bible ,they would say, You haven't read the Bible [e no ug h] .

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I t is good . Ju st read it ." T he y w ouldn ' t argue with me.Real ly, when I was you ng, d idn 't th ink tha t there

was on ly one t rue kami . That ' s how I fel t when I beganreading the Bible. An d was encouraged t o read i t .Th ere must have b een som e rebel lion in me a t tha t t ime.

Q. How old were you when you moved in to tha t house?A. Age 16.Q. S o y ou lived there unt i l you were 20?A. No , I moved to an oth er house . T ha t was a Chr is t ian

house , too . Bu t th a t house be longed to the Hol iness

t radit ion-Kiyome Church . T he head of tha t houseand I wen t to d i ff eren t churches.

I was 20 when received bapt is m, so m y parentscouldn ' t objec t . When was 24 w a s o n m y o w n a n dopened a business . Th i s was r igh t nex t to my mothe r ' shouse. A t tha t t ime, every day for ab ou t hal f a year,my m o t h x u rged m e t o conver t [ f ro m Chr is t ian ity backto Bu ddh i sm ] . Sh e was born in a t emple f amily, sonatura l ly a l l of our ances tors were connected wi th Bud-dhist temples. S he told me no t to pract ice a foreignreligion. "Return t o Buddhism [she sa id .

B u t b y t h a t t i m e I was ra ther devout . t t he t imeI converted t o Chr ist iani ty, i t [ th e chur ch] was in thecoun try-of course it is no w a ci ty, bu t then it was acou nt ry church . We gathered together fr iends w hoshared the same ideas, and once a month we had a minis-te r com e. We had a num ber of people of the same mindgather, and w e ta lked; even w hen the minis ter d idn 'tcom e, we s tudied the Bible o n ou r ow n. That 's the k indof ch urc h i t was.

was in business, so I became an off icer of tha t church .The minis ter asked me to be an elder and lead the Biblestu dy . I t was just as was doing this in the churc h th atm y m oth er asked me to change m y rel igion. I was read-ing the Bible, but d idn ' t want t o men t ion i t , so jus t

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said Yes, yes to he r so a s no t t o get in to an a rgument .Bu t every day , every day sh e would com e. I was devoted-

ly read ing th e Bible, because I believed in i t . A fte r all ,the kami I worshiped was no t a smal l kami o r Bud dha,bu t a kami of the ent i re w or ld , th e ent i re universe . Also ,I be lieved tha t was man 's du ty t o d o th is , so I couldn 'tchange my fa i th . When I to ld th is to m y mo the r, shewas qu i t e anno yed .

Af ter some t ime had passed , one day I finally said,Well , our thinking is different , but I d o n ' t w a n t t o

disagree with yo u. If yo u dis like Chris t iani ty th atmuch, then 111 give it up.

Sh e breath ed a sigh of relief.Bur, I said, th ere is on e con dit io n. will never

en ter ano the r rel ig ion .Th en the express ion on m y mother 's face changed

again. At last she said that if I bel ieved that s t rongly,should keep m y fa i th an d she would prac t ice Bud-

dh ism . She said that if giving u p Chris t iani ty me antlosing all fa i th , t ha t would be bad . A f ter th a t shedidn ' t say anyth ing .

Af te rwards I had my own house , and s ince the re wasno church , we would m ee t in m y house . The n a f t e rth e war [World War 111, I ran th e Sun day S cho ol .c losed m y business [o n Sunday s ] t o d o th is .

At the t ime I m ar ri ed, my wife wasBudd h i s t . [La te r ]she was bapt ized an d did pract ice Chris t iani ty for a

while.

Wifeand wife's mo ther en ter edutsukaiBo th my wife an d he r m oth er were devou t , [especial lys ince] f i f teen or s ix teen years ago when they got veryinteres ted in religion. T h ey looked in to various religions,such as Tenr iky6 and Se icho n o Ie , bu t wi th n o e ffec t .Th en they foun d Geda t suka i and dec ided tha t th i s was

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genu ine religion.I remained a Chris tian al l tha t t ime . F ina l ly m y moth -

er-in-law said, There ar e all ki nd s of religions, but itwou ld be to o bad no t t o p rac ti ce Geda t suka i . Th i s Ge-datsukai 's teaching is the easiest t o understa nd, andth is is th e genu ine religion, a convincing religion. Well,tha t was twe nt y years-twenty years ago, th is en teringin to Gedatsukai .

Q Yo ur wife?A. My wife 's m othe r. And r ight a f t e r tha t , m y wife entered

Geda t suka i . kep t i t [m y in te res t ] to myse lf , bu t s t a r tedasking a bo ut G edatsukai . S o i t's f i f teen or s ix teen yearss ince my fami ly entered Gedatsukai. Longer tha n tha t -i t must be twenty years . I was involved too, but kept i tt o myse lf .

Son joins edatsukaiT he n my son-I have several sons-he wa nted to go t oTo k y o , s o a t a g e 3 my son le f t ou r house t o go in tobusiness. I se t h im up , bu t my wi fe and I were [ rea l ly]opposed t o th is, because he was s ti ll to o young. Buthe insis ted, so he did leave the family, and i t didn ' t gowell for h im. He gave i t up af te r a year. He was to ofar in debt an d couldn 't cont in ue. His business ende din failure.

A nd then a le t te r cam e t o us . Real ly, fa ther,I failed.As you sa id , fa ther, I am rea l ly too young and ignorant

of the wor ld . I didn ' t s tudy mat ters wel l enough, andI held a lot of mista ken ideas. The refore I would liketo t ake up sp i r i tua l t r a in ing fo r two o r th ree months .

know that you wil l probably be against this , fa ther,but please let me take part in this spiri tual training.S o h e w e n t ' t o t h e G e d a t su k a i h ea d q u ar t er s .

Q. Headquar ters? T h e T o k y o Prac t ice Hall?A . No , T okyo- I mean th e p rac t ice hal l a t t he Sacred

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Land7 in Saitama Prefecture [ jus t outs ide T o k y o ] . T w oor three m on th s passed, and again a let ter came. I t said

that the or ig inal agreement was for tw o o r three months ,bu t that he was a s low learner; he was sorry, bu t hopedhe could continue with this spir i tual t raining for a while .So ab o u t tw o years passed. T h at was th e first case of1on e of my sons ' entering Gedatsukai .

S o was th e very last on e. As I to ld you, I thoughtthat Christianity was right. [I t had a long his tory, but ]this G eda tsuk ai wasn't very old. I t s t a r t ed abou t the

beginning of the Sh6wa period [ 1926-1

S o 1 justcould n't bring myself t o trus t this religion. I s tubbornlystuck t o C hristiani ty.

Illness and the sear ch for ancestorsBut as I said be fore, there was sickness in th e family,an d ot he r people were trying t o help us. When wewondered about the reason, my wife and relat ives said

that it w as so m e offense against th e ancestors o r thekam i. Bu t was sure tha t I hadn 't offended them , soI didn't wa nt to join G edatsukai .

Then in 1964 mo ther-my wife 's mo the r, [o u r fami-ly's] grand ma -unex pectedly said t o m e, Your ancestorsare in Fukui Ci ty, so there ought to be a memoria l s tone[ t h e r e ] . G o and pay yo ur respects at yo ur ancestors 'memorial stone.

Well, I was a li t t le resistant and said that since themain house of the family was stil l there and many elderlyfamily mem bers too , - th e re was n o need for me- to-pay

v i s i t . y eel ing was that i t was enough to pay myrespects at the memorial services for my mother, father,

7 The Sacred Land or Goreichi at Kitamoto Saitama Prefecture is the birth-place of the founder Okano. He developed it into a sacred center for pil-grimage religious practice and ritual celebration. I

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and grandparents [ in Ho kk aid o] . I fe lt tha t there wasn o need for o the r v is its .

But she said, You have ab an do ne d yo ur ancestors .It was 1964 whe n she said this.T he same yea r my wi fe , he r mother, and I- the th ree

of us-went t o Sappo ro because my son had sent ust ickets for the Olympics [so we were on our way toT o k y o ] . A t tha t t ime mother-my wife's mother-sa id ,

Why don ' t you go o n to Fuku i C i ty and pay you r r e-spec t s a t you r ancestor s' memor ia l s tone? G o on toFuk ui Ci ty. [F uk ui Ci ty is loca ted on the Japa n Seac o a st , a l m o st d u e n o r t h o f K y o t o . ]

Wel l , a t tha t t ime my mother and fa the r were longdead, and re la t ives who would have known about thesethings had died too. I knew about Fukui Ci ty in ageneral way, a nd { in Ho kka ido] we had an Associa tionof People f rom Fuk u i P re fec tu re (F uk u i Ken jinka i) .My father had been an off icer in the associat ion. Ivisited all th e off icers o f tha t associat ion, bu t the ycould n' t te ll m e the address of my family in Fu ku i City.These people were ra ther o ld , and the i r memory waspoor-but even the o ld wom en f rom Fu ku i Prefec turewere saying tha t should go back.

S o when these o ld people to ld m e to go ,I just couldn'tobject and say I wo uld n't . I just said th at I wasn 't sureye t , we didn ' t have a ny address at a l l, ma yb e m y relat iveswere n o longer there

But m y wife insisted, There ce rtainly re relativesthere. I f y ou go, yo u will see. She received goh d shug ydat th at t ime, an d that's wha t she was told : If yo u go,you will see.

Q Dur ing goh 6 shug yd?A . Yes. ~ h e ' s a i dha t because we had been told if yo u go,

yo u will see, we should go. S o I agreed. I still didn'tunders tand, but anyw ay we went t o Fuk ui Ci ty.

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I really began t o think th at this goh shugy mustbe something miraculous. We went to Fukui City andbegan searching from district to district, since neithermy wife no r knew the city. But the y had said it wouldbe alright, because if we went, we would see.

We w ent t o th e C ity O ffice t o search for the Naka-jiba name, but it was a Sunday so there was nothingwe could do. We got in to a taxi-there was no ot he rway to m ake inquiries arou nd the city-and when thedriver asked us where he should take us, I said, "Itdoesn't mak e any difference. Straight ahead " So offwe w ent, com pletely in the dark [as t o where we weregoing]. O n the way we asked people if they knew ofany Nakajibas, but no one did, so we just went farther.Finally we got out of the taxi.

Th e next t ime we asked, we were directed to the houseof a Nakajiba family, [and of course we wanted] tosee if the y were relatives. Th is person was very kin d,but said there were lots of Nakajibas in Fukui City andhe didn't know where my ancestors might be from . [S owe thank ed him and left . ]

We didn't kn ow wh at to do an d just walked arou ndqu ite a while. Finally we decided that any thing wouldbe better than this, so we had someone direct us to anold, a very old , Budd hist temple . We wan dered in tothat temple a nd asked [at the o ffice] if there was aNakajiba mem orial ston e there. Th ey said they didn't

know a bo ut a ny ancient memorial s tone for the Naka-jiba family, but we checked the temple death registerall the way back. Th e family nam e was no t in it, bu tthere was [a name with] the character [ read ] JC orshige-and there was such a nam e in my main family.( I am a second son.) In the [H ok kaid o] familyI wasborn in, there is a memorial tablet for a person whodied a t t h e beginning of th e Meiji period 1868-1 9121.

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; c c l ; ~ ~ . u l , : ~ ~ nc, I i l c l ~ s l ~ ~ r .

[Th e nam e on i t is] the p osth um ous Buddhist name.I had copied this Buddhist name and brought it with

me. What I noticed was this same cha racter,shigeT he priest wasn t the re, b ut we talked to his wifeand tried to find out if the Nakajiba family was in thede at h register. All I had writ ten down was the Buddhistname, and the Meiji year, m on th , and day [of de at h] .Looking a t the temple record , [ found the same name,b u t] the re was on e mo nth s difference. Th e priest s wifesaid, though, that the old calendar and the new differed

by a mon th . So I f igured that this shige might be oneof m y relatives.Was tha t a J bd o Shinshu temple?Yes. I didn t kno w for sure [ t h a t this person wasa re-lative ], but said tha t if they didn t m ind , would takesome of the soi l from around that memorial s tone backt o my family s m emorial s tone in S apporo .

We were just ab ou t t o leave, when the son of the Naka-jiba fam ily we had talked to earlier-a big lum ber dealer-came rushing in. He said that his fathe r had return edho m e [late r] and told him that the Nakajibas who hadgone t o Hokk aido were from his family, and that hebelonged t o th e main fam ily. T he fath er has died since,but there i s no dou bt tha t we are of the same family.Later I learned that this family holds an official positionin th e tem ple we visited.

[Abo ut that t ime ] th e temple pr iest came in , too ,and since we had traveled all the way from Hokkaidoto locate our ancestors, they ordered in food and gaveus a nice meal. [T he y urged us t o stay longer and visitthe memorial s tone,] but we had already made arrange-m ents to s tay in Ky oto , so we had t o go on.

Taking care o f t h e familyTha t was th e first t ime [we went to Fukui C i ty ] . T he

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next t ime was when we learned through go ho shugy o-that is , my wife was told-tha t n o o n e was taking care

of the memor ial s tone .Q When was th is golzfi s h u g ~ ~ c?eceived?A . WellQ T h e f ir st was in 1964 ?A. Yes, 19 64 . It was af te r th at I m no t really sure.Q T h e nex t yea r?A. Yes, [ ab ou t ] the n ext year-qui te a while a f te r th e f ir st .

[ A n y w a y ] w e h ad a m a in fa m il y t h e r e [ i n F u k u i C i t y ] ,and they had a very n ice Buddhis t a l ta r. T h at f ir st t im ewe didn t go to the memoria l s tone because i t got la te[ a n d w e h ad t o go t o K y o t o ] . 1 had tho ugh t tha t th emem orial s to ne would be take n care of s ince the mainfami ly had such a f ine Buddhis t a l ta r, but i ng o hb shkgy 6we w ere told. that the mem orial s ton e was no t beingtaken care of tho ugh t this was pecul iar.

Then about three years ago we suddenly rece iveda phone cal l f rom the house we had vis i ted in FukuiCi ty. Th ey said tha t they had found the memor ia l s toneof our f amily, and they asked us to come . Th i s wasjust before the t ime of Buddhist memorial services forances tor s [ in the l a t e sum m er ] .

My fa ther ha dn t said to o m uc h abo ut h is ances tors .There had been a second marr iage in the fami ly fourgenerat ions ago, an d th e family was spl it . Th is ma ybe a shameful th ing t o ta lk ab ou t , bu t tha t s the way

it was.But the present Nakaj iba family in Fu ku i City , the

main family, put u p a very n ice memoria l s tone . Th ereare many Nakaj iba memorial s tones, but they are al ld i fferent . My fami ly s memoria l s to ne would probab lybe someth ing l ike a mu enbo toke s tone [ t h e s tone o fa dead pe r son o r pe r sons wi thou t descendan t s o r whosedescend ants d o not observe the regular r i tua ls ] .

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Then came th i s phone ca l l f rom the house in Fuku iCi ty-not the head of the house , h e had d ied , but the

son of th e former head , or ra ther h is wife . She saidtha t t hey had remem bered this vis it o f a relat ive fro mHo kkaid o som e eight years ago-he mu st be a f ine per-son to come a l l tha t way to look for h is ances tors -andtha t [ th ey had learned th a t ] there was a fami ly tak ingcare of the memoria l s tone , but i t was not a Nakaj ibafamily. Th is family had been looking af ter ance storsfor a hundred years or so , bu t they were ab ou t t o giveit up . In tha t case the memorial s to ne would beco mea muenbotokr [ s t o n e ] .

Wel l , we wen t to Fuku i C i ty, [ and i t t u rned ou t tobe ] the same main fami ly a s our s . T h e name wr i t t enin the dea th regis te r was no t the [p os thu m ou s] Bud-dhis t name ; it was . the fami ly nam e. T h e family nameand the [Budd h i s t ] nam e on the memor ial s tone d idnot agree , but I t hough t they were [p robab ly ] the same .We discussed it wi th the temp le pr iest , and [h e to othough t tha t ] th is seemed to be our f amily s tone . Hesa id tha t we had be t te r take care of i t .

I t hough t [ i t wou ld be good] t o have a new memor ials tone pu t up [ in Hokka id o] and have th e sp ir it s t rans -fer red there . Th en the former memoria l s tone couldbe t r ea ted a s a muenbotoke But when win te r comest o Fuk ui , the re are t imes when you jus t can t movememor ia l s tones [ t o the spec ia l muenbotoke s i t e ] . A n d

also would have services in Ho kkaid o. In the endto ld h im tha t I would assume respons ib i l ity for i t , andthen re tu rned home .

A b o u t a y e a r l at er w e w a n t ed t o g o t o th a t m e m or ia ls to ne in F uku i Ci ty [an d see to ou r responsib i li t ies ] .We talked about i t , but what with business and al l , wecou ldn t work i t ou t . We wan ted to go a t the t imeof the Buddhist m em orial services fo r ancestors , but

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couldn' t . S o we decided th at even if we couldn' t gothe n, we would go later.

At that t ime my wife received goh6 shugyo again.She was to ld , "Go to Fuk ui City "

Q From Sapporo?A. N o , by th is t ime we had moved to To kyo . Bu t why

were we supposed to go to Fu ku i C i ty? [T he answerwas th e same as before.] "If yo u go, yo u will see."

couldn' t unde rstand this a t all.Well, we couldn't go the y ear before last o r last year

e i ther, so we w ent th is year. B ut the o ld mem oria ls tone th a t we had thou ght was be ing take n care of bythe temple ac tual ly was no t be ing looked af ter. Th enwe unders tood. T h e memorial s ton e was n o t be ingt rea ted a s a mue nbo toke [ s ton e] . Th i s was when wef irst unders tood wh at the m at te r was.

[Bu t be fore go ing any fu r the r, ] we wan ted t o checkwith th e main family [ in Ho kka ido] to see whetherthis m emorial s ton e was really on e fo r o u r ancestors ,because i f you make mistakes with memorial s tones,people say that bad things will happen.

[We went back to Hokkaido and checked, but themain fami ly to o ] wond ered w hat the c i rcumstanceswere. Finally I sa id tha t we [a l l] ough t to go t o Fuku iCity, so the main family said the y would go with usto th e memorial s tone . This t ime my e lder s i ster an dher son-my nephew-all of us went t o Fu ku i Ci ty.

Finally we got the mem oria l s tone taken care of . Thiswas [m y wife's and m y ] th i rd t r ip , and l i t tle by l it tlewe came to unders tand the s i tua tion of o ur ances tors .

So this is the real ly important thing that we learned[ throu gh go h6 shug yol-s om ething we hadn 't an tici -pa ted a t a l l : the fac t tha t th e memoria l s tone had notbeen taken care of , had n ot been offered memorial ser-vices.

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u l services nd the link o f k rmYou requested mem orial services at that J i d o Shinshfi

temple?Yes, three times.You ve had mem orial services perform ed in Ge dat suk ai,too?Yes. We still d o .In Geda tsuk ai y ou have m emo rial services for individuals?Yes.T ha t is a mirac ulous tale, isn t i t .Yes, it really is miraculous. [ M y exper ience] may bea small thing, bu t a fte r all, it is no t a lie. An d therereally is such a thing as the link of kar ma . Of courseI was study ing Christianity all the w hile, so wasn tpaying visi ts to shrines and temples, or performing [actso f] repen tance an d . thanksgiving. Tha t s t he way i t was,bu t Geda t suka i go t me to s tudy ing [ t o o ] , and p ract ic inggra tefu l repa ym ent . Tha nks an d repentance was rea llynot thoroughgoing in Christianity.

Because I was a devout Christian, I was self-confident.I tho ug ht that didn t need a household shrine becauseChristianity was a religion of faith . Even with regardt o the m emorial s to ne and my business-I had a watchan d jewelry business-I th ou gh t could take care ofthings myself . did pay m y respects to the kami an dancestors , but from the viewpoint of the kami, I wasa bad person. From the viewpoint of th e average perso n,

of course, was a vir tuous person. seemed t o be pros-perou s and serving the kami.

But when came to s tudy i t- for example , the l inkof karm a-I really did n ot have a feeling of gra titud efor this l ink of karma, for m y mon ey, and so on . Bu taf te r all , the ancestors-well, we are in th e sam e bloodline, of the same blood, a ndKarma link?

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A Yes, we have a karma l ink, and Gedatsukai teaches usto be thankfu l for th is. And if we d o som ething wrong,

we are supposed t o apologize t o the ances tors.Well, had kn ow n abo ut these things in a general sortof w ay, but t o real ize tha t they are ac tua lly so As th ebran ch leader said [in a talk we all heard earlier thatd a y ] , t here may o r may no t be r epen tance in Chri st i-an i ty, bu t i f you ' re n ot [ s incere ly] repe ntan t yourse lf ,it is nothin g. G eda tsu kai tau gh t me this.

Even if yo u think yo u a re do ing th e right thing, it 'sno t a lways the case [ tha t you a re ] . T h e s am e [ a ct o f ]repenta nce-yo u m ay n ot even not ice i t yourself if yo uare just [mechanical ly] saying an d doing things-is no th-ing. Whether you go ahead and d o it or no t , you th inkthings are alright. But recent ly have co m e t o see tha tthis is no t the .case; have com e t o examine myself moreclosely.

Mr Na kajiba joins GedatsukaiQ You m ention ed repentance-have yo u vis ited the Sacred

Land?A . Yes, we go there of ten .Q At the Sacred L and, d o you prac tice repentance a n d

o h y a k u d o [ a for m of re penta nce tha t involves walkingback and fo r th b e tween t w o s ton e p il la rs a hundredt imes]

A. Yes, o h y a k u d o t o o .

Q. Was tha t f rom tw o o r th ree year s ago?A . No-well, i t wasn't t o o m an y time s, but did i t while

sti l l in Hokkaido.Q. When was it t ha t y ou moved t o To kyo ?A . I t 's been ten years now.Q. And th e t ime you jo inedA. Geda t suka i?Q . Yes. T ha t w as in S app oro as fa r as yo ur wife i s concerned?

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A. Yes, in he r case it was in Sa pp or o.Q . And i t was a f t e r the move to To ky o tha t you yourse lf

entered Gedatsukai?A . Yes, I really-G edatsu Well, m y wife was atten din g,

and a t t ended too fo r a whi le , bu t I was in Christianity-still a me mb er of a ch urc h. I 'm [st il l ] a me mb er ofthe church . So [ a t f i r s t] I couldn ' t agree to enteringGedatsukai . I thou ght tha t if I were t o join here, theproper th ing would be for m e t o cut m y Chr is tian t iesand then e nter Gedatsukai . Th at was my idea , but I

dec ided to consu l t [o th e r s ] abo u t i t .[ I t is t rue , though , th a t ] thanks to my s tudy o f Chr is-t iani ty when young, I was able to lead an honest l i fe .And the n there was my family 's f inances, an d my familyitself-since had received Ch ristian ity's pr ote cti on inthese ma tters

Q . This was the Uni ted C hurch of Chr is t in Japa n?A . Yes. In August-no, Septe mb er, th e f irs t of last m on th-

went to H okk aido, and it becam e a big problem. Ihad received th e help of the church, an dI was thankful ,so why sh ould have to cut m y t ies with Chris t iani ty?Anyway, I wen t to Sapporo and consu l t ed wi th [ theminister of ] the church there .

But the minister had changed since my associationwi th Gedatsukai . Before, I had told the former pastort h a t I was looking into Gedatsukai and that we had hadthis message in goh shug yb, and h e had sa id jus t towai t . But now I believed in the go hb shug yb. So th is[n ew ] minis ter said, If yo u have gone th is far, yo umay as well go ahead an d pract ice Gedatsukai .

Did y ou know tha t Reverend Kashima, a leader ofGedatsukai, is Christian?

Q . Really?A. Yes. [a n yw ay ] he was formerly a Chris t ian. I have me t

him m any times, an d he told me. Nakajiba, i t's alright

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fo r you to be a Christian.He said tha t I had surely been blessed as a Christian.

Well, I don 't really und ersta nd th e blessing of Christi-anity.Q Th at blessing of Christianity-wh at wou ld th at be?A. Well, I don't know e xa ctly , bu t as he said, You surely

were blessed. My wife an d children told me th at Chris-tianity was probab ly good for me. Even if yo u ente rGe datsu kai, tha t won't change, the y said. If yo u prac-tice Christianity, there is no such thing as not beingblessed. Th ere is n o Christian w ho has no t been blessed.

So I decided that it was alright to go ahead [and enterG ed atsu ka i] An d even now , receiving gohb shugyo[ I am sure th at ] gohb shugyb is n o t false.

Spirit communica~ions

Q. Ho w m any times have you receivedgohb shugyb?A. Three.Q During those gohb shugyb did you receive any special

messages?A . Ju st small things. Nothing special. My wife's m oth er-

her t rouble wi th money, and the t ime my brother d ied[a n d I was told to perf orm ] mem orial services.

Q. Mem orial services for yo u r bro ther?A . Yes, we still ho ld them .

[Then there was the message about] Bat6 Kannon, too.It wasn't all th a t clear, bu t Bat6 K an no n has also been

of help to youv-this came ou t ingohi shugyi . [Ba t6Kan non is a popular Bud dhist deity featuring a horse'shead ; it is identified in Sanskrit a s Hayagriva.]

Both my wife and I denied this, but when we wentto Hokkaido-my father had already died, bu t [wh enalive], even though poor, he would pay visits to shrines;he and my elder bro ther too-I wondered why myfa-ther had visited his ujigami so frequen tly. The re was

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another small shrine he also vis i ted, and when 1 asked.sure enou gh, it was a shr ine for Bat6 Kan non .

Another t ime when our son was s ick , my wife re-ceived go hb shug yb. [She was to ld tha t the s ickness]was rela ted t o Ba t6 Ka nno n , and tha t we shou ld go t oBat6 K ann on and g ive thanks . So we paid v is it s [ t oBa t6 K ann on] fo r tha t purpose fo r abo u t twen ty days .Even these days-what day o f th e m on th is it? -we of tenpay a visit to express gra titud e whe n we can.

So , you see , we though t tha t we had no connec tion

wi th Ba t6 Kan non , bu t m y fa the r had p rayed t o Ba t6Ka nn on . I t m ay seem a small thing, but we receivedthis message in go hd shug yb, and when we checked,it t u rned o u t t o be r igh t.

Q. What ab ou t th e rest of yo ur family? Yo ur daughters?A . Well, that 's a family m atte r. So m e family mem bers

do , and som e don ' t. My daughter, no w, goes to theSa pp or o pract ice hal l. My oldest son, second son , an doldest daug hter-m y fo ur th chi ld-they were all te ll ingme t o go t o Geda t suka i. Th ey d id so because o f the irow n exper ience . Th ey had undergone go hb shugyciand received mu ch help . Th ere was only on e of mychi ldren wh o didn 't urge me t o prac tice [G edats ukai ] .

Q . Well, tha t is an interesting story .A. At f i rs t, of course , was oppo sed to this . Later, for

a long while , I just tho ug ht 1 would keep th is [ fa i th]to mysel f.

Gedatsukai an d Chr ist iani tyBut a s 1 said-this overlaps with wh at I said earlier-Gedatsukai teaches th e same th ing [as Chr is tianity ] .b u t it teaches us in a fashion much more easily under-s to o d . ~ t 'irst disliked thi s kind of faith in ans we rt o prayers, bu t af ter all, i t teache s us clearly thingswe [o therw ise] don ' t unde rs tand.

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was practicing Christianity. and maybe it was be-cause didn ' t have [e no ug hj fai th , but I didn 't experi-enc e such things in Christia nity.

Q Is th er e faith in ans w er t prayers in Chris t iani ty to o,s o n ~ e t i m e s ?

A. Well, anyt hin g, af te r all-i t is th e sam e in Christianity .Things occ ur because you have fai th . Th is is th e samein Christianity.

For example , my chi ldren were in a car acc ident ,but weren't injured. Surely this was faith in answ erto prayers . Yo u f ind this in Chris t iani ty too .

But Gedatsukai teaches concretely, concretely. Sincemy chi ldren were safe in the accident , they gave thanksfor th is pro tec t ion . Geda tsukai teaches us concretelyabo u t th i s p ro tec tion .

A mrrlets and altarsDo you have a Cedatsukai t ra ff ic safe ty amule t in yourfamily?

Yes, my son has, 1 th ink . I do n' t dr ive myself .An d a body p rotecto ru-w e all keep a body pro-

t ecto r nex t to ou r sk in .An y o the r amulet s?In addi t ion [ th ere is a household shr ine] in o ur hom efor the u jigami-not a formal a l ta r, but on e of the k indfoun d in any ord inary house . For exam ple , Ged atsu-kai's Ten jin Chigi-what in Chris tianity the y call th e

kami of heaven and e art h.And then we have a Buddhist a l tar. I t was only af t er

we moved to Tokyo tha t we f i r s t got a Buddhis t a l ta r.O ur ch i ld ren bough t i t fo i us .Yo ur chi ldren?Yes. had been a Christ ian an d fel t didn ' t need on e.But then bui lt a new house in T ok yo and had to th inkabo ut a Buddhis t a l tar. Th ey wanted on e very muc h,

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so thoug ht would buy one-and then they said theyhad a lr eady bough t on e , so cou ldn ' t ob jec t . A t any

ra t e , t hey b rough t it hom e and sa id , "Fa the r, f a the r,yo u are a Chr is t ian , so don ' t wo rry-yo u can even puta cross in i t (L aug hte r)

But we don ' t have any mem or ia l tab l e t s fo r [p a r t i cu la r ]an ces tors of o u r fam ily. T h e al tar is just I'or th e genera-t ions of ances tor s [ in genera l ]

Q . Th ere a re n o mem or ia l t ab le t s a t a ll?A . No , no one in m y fanl ily has died. All the me mo rial

tab le t s a re wi th t he main fa rni ly.

hr f mily s reun i ted w i t h t h e n c e s t o r s

A. And a t your hom e you pe r fo rm th e swee t tea memor ia lservice?

A . Yes, every da y. As said before , it is best for t h e ent i refamily to worsh ip the same way. In Chr i s ti an ity, t oo ,

though t t he same way. My wi fe fe l t t h is way, t oo .In C hristian wo rshi p services that 's ho w it is, along

wi th prayers before s leeping . A f te r a l l, if yo u take th eview tha t there is som eth ing ho ly, kam i exis ts , so weshould pray t o th e kam i. haven' t real ly given u p Chris-t i an i ty.

Q This goes back to your ear l ie r re ference to your fami ly.but yo u were born In H okka ido , an d m uch earl ie r yo urfamily had co m e f rom Fuku i C i ty?

A . Yes , fou r genera t ions ear l ie r-about a hund red years ago .Bu t now the re a ren 't m any peop le wh o know abo u tthose th ings- -about ances tors and the l ike . And I fe ltsor ry for th e ances tors .

A N A LY S I S AN I N T t R P R t T A T I O N

In m an y wa ys Mr. Nakaj iba 's li fe his tory is a good exa m pleof th e social and religious processes crucial to th e l'orrnationan d dy nam ics of Japan ese new religions. In fact one could

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comment a t length on the na ture of the new re l ig ions onth e basis of this on e l ife-history. I t contains m uc h m ore

inform ation tha n can be t re ated in a brief discussion. Bu tsubstant iat ion of such a far-reaching claim must await t reat-ment in b roader con tex t . For the m ome nt i t is best to focuson what can be learned d i rec tly f ro m th is one member 'sexperience.

Because space is l imited, I wou ld first like t o give a quick ,overall analysis of Mr. Na kajib a7s life-history, dividing itin to three per iods . I the n propose to use th is analys is t ointerpret the significance of Mr. Nakajiba's l ife story forunderstan ding t h e Japane se new religions.

Th ere seem t o be thre e major periods in his l ife:( 1 ) a traditional per iod , f rom bi r th to age 16 o r 18 , when

h e participa ted in ra ther traditional practices in his fami-ly h o m e ;

( 2 ) a non traditional per iod , f rom age 16 o r 18 throughmiddle age, character ized by his reject ion of t radi t ionalreligion in favor of the foreign religion of Christianity;

a n d3 ) a neotraditional per iod , f rom middle age to the present ,

during w hich he returne d t o explici tly t radi t iona l re-l igious conceptions, but as expressed through transformedrel igious r i tes within the framework of the voluntaryassociation of a ne w religion.

Traditional period. The first period of Mr. Nakajiba's life

is th e mo st clearly dis t inguished, being set apar t by th e t imehe lived in his family of birth. Durin g this t im e, Mr. Naka-j iba sees himself as growing u p in a t radi t ional h om e andreligious setting. In his ow n word s, he was just an ordi-nary, t radi t ional Japanese...

We can confirm th e traditional charac ter of his upbring-ing by the existence of both a household shr ine and a Bud-dhist a l tar in the home, and by his at testat ion of regular

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daily devo tions before them. T o his s tatem ent of being'Ijust a n ord inar y, trad ition al Japane se Mr. Nakajiba ad ds

the qual if ica t ion tha t f rom yo ut h u p d idn' t have anypar ticular fa ith . By th is he means tha t h e was no t devotedt o an y part icular cul t . We can see from his later act ions,however, that during his early l ife he did absorb traditionalnot ion s cus tomary in Japa n. With in the to ta l exper ienceof individuals and families there was an implicit world viewthat found concrete expression in such dai ly pract ices ashonoring the local ujigami at the household shrine an d re-vering. the fanl i ly ancestors at the household Buddhistal tar.

As any student of Japanese rel igion and folk customsknows, this unwritten world view was spelled out in suchpatterns as the calendrical cycle of annual r i tuals and thehu ma n cycle of r i tes o f passage. I t included unstated prin-ciples tha t everyo ne knew by virtue of th e socializationprocess, such as that of the unbroken t ie between familyances tors and descendants.

Th ere is n o space t o elaborate o n this t radi tional worldview here.8 T h e point is th at during th e f irs t period of Mr.Nakajiba's life, he assimilated this traditional world view-even though he was no t aware of it th en , and may no t befully awa re of it tod ay . F o r all these reasons, th e firstpe rio d is labeled tradition al.

Non traditional period. The second period of Mr. Naka-

jiba's l ife begins w ith th e tim e he left his family of birthand tradi t ional rel igious set t ing to l ive with another familyin orde r to go to high school . Th is second period can beseen as beginning either at age 16, when he le f t home, ora t age 18, wh en he gave u p the traditional world view an d

8 . For one interpretation of the traditional world view see m y Japatwse reli-g i o t ~ :Unity ar ~d ivrrsit} I 974 , esp. pp. 5-8.

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tu rn ed t o Chr is t ian i ty. T h e p rec ise p inpo in t ing o f t h e open-ing of this per iod is less important , however, than the process

of moving f ro m a t rad it ional t o a non- t rad i t iona l world v iew.Genera l ly speaking, Japane se fami ly s t ru c tur e and t rad i-

t ional va lues in the past c e ~ i t u r yhave o f t en become com-pl icated du e t o the rapid changes of industr ia l izat ion.urb an iza tion , and social m ob ili ty . In Mr. Nakajiba's case,the break with the t radi t ional social an d rel igious pa t te rnis first indicated y the move f rom his family of b i r th t oa ho m e tha t ha ppened to be Chr is tian . I t is wo r th noth ing

that the basic motive tbr this move, quickly passed overin the l ife his tor y. is edu cat io n-an d, indirect ly, ec on om icmobi l i ty. In oth er word s , changing ed uca t iona l and eco-nom ic pa t t e rns p layed an im por t an t ro le in th e d is rup t iono f t rad i t iona l social and religious pat te rns .

But educa t iona l and economic reasons a lone a re insuf -f ic ient t o explain Mr. Nakajiba's changed religious affi l iat ion.Many o th er a l te rna t ives were o pen t o h im , such as leavingth e Chr is ti an hom e fo r a more t r ad i ti ona l h om e , o r reac tingagainst Chris tian overtures and becom ing archconservat ivein his social an d rel igious out lo ok .

O ne point th at s tands ou t in Mr. Nakaj iba's rem iniscence( a f ac to r o f t en ove r looked by Wes te rn in t e rp re t e r s o f t henew rel igions) is that here he exercised a personal choice.He was clearly inipressed b y Christ iani ty 's not io n o f kam i(C od ) and consc io i~s ly dec ided to fol low th is f a i th . In hiswo rds, After all , the kami worshiped was not a smallkami o r Buddha , bu t a kani i o f t h e en t i r e wor ld , t he en t i r euniverse . T h e mo tivat ion fo r Mr. Nakaj iba 's change ofmind is com pl ica ted , t o say the leas t, and ca nno t be reducedt o a s ingle causa tive fa c tor such as soc ia l change o r anom ie .

Also imp or tan t is the na tu re of th i s change of m ind-an d ac t ion- -dur ing the non- t rad i t iona l per iod . In dec id ingto worsh ip onlj the Chris t ian kami, Mr. Nakaj iha decidedt z o t o cont in ue the varie ty of prac t ices assoc ia ted wi th th e

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t radi t ional world view. As he told his mo ther when shewanted him t o convert to B uddhism, i t was ei ther Chris-

t ian i ty or no fa i th a t a l l . Even when he marr ied, he hadno hous ehold shrine or Buddhist a l tar in his hom e. I t ap-pears tha t he did go along with som e formali t ies suchas venerat ion of the spir i ts of his paren ts , but his heart wasno t in these pract ices .

Mr. Nakaj iba 's ini tial solut ion t o the problem o f the dis-rupt ion of t radi t ional values was to accept a non-tradi t ionalal ternat ive-Chris t iani ty O f course this is an except ionalst ep ; i t should n ot necessari ly be regarded a s typical of t henew rel igions general ly. I t is t o be no ted , however, thatfirst-generation m em be rs of new religions of te n seem t ohave experienced a break with t radi t ional rel igion, and tohave tried various alternatives-including indifferen ce t oreligion. In Mr. Nakajiba's case we kn o w tha t in spite ofhis public renunciation of traditional religion. he subcon-sciously harbored an appreciat ion of t radi t ional rel igiousvalues. Bu t in ter m s of his for m al decision an d actions ,this second period of his l i fe can best be character ized asnon-traditional.

I t is difficult t o give a term inal da te for this period be-cause in middle age Mr. Nakajiba became increasinglyuneasy ab ou t his ab an do nm en t of t radi t ional rel igion. Hebecame in teres ted in Ge dats uka iLb ut c lung to Chr is tian i ty.No t unt i l h e was in his sixties did he formally ent er Gedatsu-kai.

Neorraditional period The third period, covering Mr. Naka-j iba 's la te middle age (when he was about 60 a n d o n t othe present , i s marked by the readopt ion of t rad i t ional con-cept ions , but in a t ransformed pat te rn . Th oug h no t qui teaware of i t 'h im se lf , Mr. Nakaj iba seem s t o have grownincreasingly restless a nd dissatisfied w ith Christianity an dm ore inc lined tow ard t radit ional not ions . But h e was a lso

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strongly o pposed to new religions and t o prayers seekingim m edia te, tangible results. He did no t experience a sud-

den change of mind and eagerly join Ge datsu kai as a result .He was drawn into it gradually, especially by his wife, moth-er-in-law, and a friend.

In y ou th Mr. Nakajiba had been impressed by th e uni-versality of t he C hristian notio n of kami o r G od , but inmiddle age he becam e impressed with Ge datsu kai's abilityto speak directly to hum an problems. If we rephrase thisin psychological term s, Ge datsu kai was able t o discover

o r diagnose unconscious o r semiconscious feelings of guiltthrough the gohd shugyd ritual, an d t o resolve thi s guiltthrough individual and corp orate ritual actio n. Of coursean abru pt psychological explanation such as th e foregoingdoes violence to the gradual, dramatic unfolding of Mr.Nakajiba's own religious. awareness. A t first he tho ug httha t t he gohb shugyd was false, a lie. Bu t thro ugh hisown experience, he gradually became convinced of itsauth ent ici ty . No one, however, was mo re surprised thanhe at his growing trust ingohd shugyd. . This a t t i tude comeso u t clearly when he says, Things came u p tha t I hadn'texp ecte d at all-for exam ple, ab ou t my wife's mothe r 'sconcern with mo ney ma tters Throu gh goh6 shugydwas taught things like this that I had no idea of beforehand.

The subt le ty of the gohd shugyd ritual is seen in thatit can uncover the unconscious guilt of a third party. Inthis case both m oth er and daughter helped uncover thelaten t ancestral conce rns of the son-in-lawlhusband.

T h e gohc sk t lgyi process is much too complicated tobe exhausted by this thumb nail sketch. It is enough t oremark here tha t it served as a mean s f o r Mr. Nakajiba'srediscovery of traditional relieious notions.

The content of these reaccepted (or newly awakened)traditional religious notio ns can only be touc hed on . Per-haps most important is Mr. Nakajiba's reestablishment of

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t ies with his family 's an cestors in F uk ui City. This was th etest th at clinched his inclination t o join Ge dat suk ai. Also,

h e renew ed his faith an d practice in tutel ary divinities. Hish o m e n o w has both a household shrine and a Buddhist a l tar.He himself' resorted to go hb shugyij t o discover th e spiri tualcause of an il lness in th e family. An d generally Ge dats uka iprovides protect ion for him and his family both by meansof body protec tors an d t raff ic safety amule ts , and a lsoby me ans of general counselling.

T his third period has been called neotraditiona l be-cause it is a renewal of traditional no tion s. But l ike an y

6 neo- mo vem ent, it t ransfor ms wh at i t renews. Ge datsu-kai 's pattern of ancestral ri tes, for example, is a remarkablemo dific atio n of traditional practices. A person's t ie withfamily an ces tors is on e of the mo st vital social an d reli-gious bo nd s in th e Japanese t radi t ion. Trad i t ional pract icefocused on the pa t ria rchal fami ly sys tem a nd the heredi taryrelat ionship betwe en a family an d i ts parish temple. Butin Gedatsukai a family venerates both the husband's andthe wife's ance stors (a s well as ot he r spir its of the de ad ).And while preserving the older parish temple and house-hold Buddhis t a l ta r sys tem, Gedatsukai has both supple-me nted it (b y recomm ending a Buddhist a l ta r for eachhouse, n ot just for th e main family) an d superseded it (b ymaking Gedatsukai , a voluntary associat ion, the primarymeans of venerating ance stors) .

Several other aspects of this neotradi t ional t ransforma-

t ion ma y be no ted quick ly. Mr. Nakajiba has renewed hisspiritual affinity to the tutelary divinity (ujiganzi), but ina rema rkably new sense. In trad ition al Japane se religion,the ujigami is a geographically l imited, local tutelary deity.But th e Gedatsukai uj igami, known by the ancient nameTen jin C'higi, is inter prete d by M r. Nak ajiba as what inChrist iani ty they cal l the kami of heaven and earth. 9 Ten -jin Chigi is a universal de ity figure, a n d this is a chara cter-

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is t ic important to more than one new rel igion of Japan.This k ind of kami represents , moreover, a cont inui ty wi th

his youthful a t t rac t io n t o a universa l de i ty.There is a double i rony in Mr. Nakajiba 's neotradi t ion-alism-a kind of dou ble inversion. O n th e on e ha nd , be-cause he accepted a foreign rel igion while young, hereje tedt radi tional Japanese prac tices . On th e o t he r hand, thoughhe once m ore acc epts t radi t iona l religious not ions in mid-dle age, he does ot reje t th e foreign religion o f Christianity.O ne might expe ct h im t o d o so , bu t in h is ins is tence onretaining his affil iation with Christianity even as he formallyen te r s Geda t suka i, he is being very J a p a n e ~ e . '~

I want to close this all-too-brief interpretation of Mr.Nakaj iba 's life-his tory o n th is note of do uble i rony or do ubleinversion, fo r i t show s th at if th e exp erience of a singleperson is th is com pl ica ted , ho w m uc h mo re compl ica tedt o t ry t o d iscuss an ent i re new re ligion , or th e vast subjec tof th e new religions as a whole.

CONCLUSION

This is just on e exam ple from th e material have gatheredon G eda t suka i and am now fo rmula ting as a monograph .in this brief gl impse of Ge datsuk ai throug h t h e life-Illstoryof one mem ber, hope to have demons t rated a t least tw omajor po ints. T h e first is th e fruitfulness of th e life-history

9. In order to obviate the possible misunderstanding that this Tenjin Chigiconcept is due to Christian influence, it is worth mentioning that Buddhistinfluence, particularly the concept of Dainichi Nyorai (the so-called SunBuddha), is much more important. Furthermore, this comparison of TenjinChigi with the Christian kami may be idiosyncratic with Mr. Nakajiba.

10. David W. Plath, on 'he basis of his wider familiarity with life histories, pro-vided the following comment on the fist draft of this paper: Mr. Nakajiba'sstory is a good example of a general life-course set of phases (not at all pe-culiar to Japan) with rather passive acceptance of tradition in the earlyyears, then the rebel phaqe of rejection as a young adult, and in later adult-hood a kind of rediscovery of tradition.

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; ed ;~ t suk i~ i h e Life H i s t o r y

approach for the study of contemporary religious move-ments. This approach enables us to obtain vicariously an

inside view of the new religions without undue speculativetheorizing. The second is the general validity of the thesisthat the new religions contain ancient, persistent themesof Japanese religion, but transform their content as practicedin the context of voluntary associations.

References

E A R H A R T H. Byron1 9 7 0 The new re ligions of Japan : A b ibl iog raphy o fWestern-language materials . To ky o: Sophia Uni -versity Press.

1 9 7 4 Japanese re l ig ion: Un i ty an d d ive rs i ty 2 n d e d .Enc ino and Be lmont , Ca l i fo rn ia: Dickenson Pub-lishing Co.

ISHIDA Eizan1 9 6 9 T h e c h a r ac te r a n d d o c tr i n e o f G e d a t su K o n g o

Louis K . [TO, t ransl . San Franc i sco : Geda t su

Chu rch o f Amer ica .

11. For more theoretical comments on Gedatsukai and the development ofJapanese new religions generally, see my 'Tow ard a theory of the forma-tion of the Japanese new religions: A c se study of Gedatsu-kai, Historyof religions (forthcoming).