Encyclopedia of Shinto

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カテゴリー1： 8. Schools, Groups, and Personalities
カテゴリー2： Modern Sectarian Groups
Title
Tamamitsu Jinja
Text
A Shinto-derived new religion founded by the spirit medium Motoyama Kinue (1909-74). In 1932 Kinue attempted suicide out of depression, flinging herself off a precipice on the island of Shōdoshima. A sudden gust of wind, however, blew her back onto the cliff, and just then she heard the words of a kami who told her,
"I am the heavenly deity Tamamitsu ōkami. In five years, the heaven and earth will be turned upside down in a terrible war. I am the kami who has come down to redeem the world from this horror. In appreciation for your mother's faith and your filial conduct, I have saved your life, and shall now make you my representative on earth to have you save the world. In 1950 Japan shall return to its original peaceful state."
In response to divine instructions, Motoyama devoted herself to ongoing religious practices in the wilderness and prayers for world peace. In response to devotees' requests, she acted as a medium with the deity Tamamitsu ōkami and with ancestors and spirits, and transmitted divine instructions about ancestors, the karma of previous lives, and other issues regarding spiritual matters and everyday life.
In 1935 Motoyama met Yojima Seikō and his son Hiroshi, who thereafter cooperated with her in her religious activities. As a site to revere Tamamitsu ōkami, she established the Tamamitsu Church in 1937 along the boulevard Omotesandō leading to the major Tokyo shrine Meiji Jingū. Although she had submitted a request to build a shrine at this place, she abandoned the plan after receiving a revelation that told her, "This place will be burned down in war; the site to build your place of worship should be a beautiful place lined with trees, with a river flowing from west to east, and from which Mount Fuji can be seen." In 1949 she moved her facility to its current location in accordance with the revelation. In 1950 its current head priest (gūji) Hiroshi became her adopted son, and in 1952 the movement was registered under the Religious Corporations Law (Shūkyō Hōjinhō).
Motoyama Hiroshi (1925-) had practiced austerities with his natural and foster mothers from an early age, and after experiencing spiritual awakening while still very young, he attended Tokyo Bunri University (present-day Tsukuba University) to study philosophy and psychology. While in school he also practiced yoga and simultaneously studied the development of supranormal powers and parapsychology. In 1955 the shrine Tamamitsu Jinja was constructed, and Motoyama Hiroshi began to give classes in yoga and lectures on religion. In 1960 he established the Shūkyō Shinrigaku Kenkyūjo (Institute for the Psychology of Religion) beside the shrine. Through religious activities at its shrine and research and practice at its institute, the movement aims at the establishment of a new world religion concerned with the realization of a healthy body and mind.
Headquarters: Tokyo
Nominal membership: unknown

—Tsushiro Hirofumi

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