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
Renshindō Kyōdan
Text
A Shinto-derived new religion founded by Tanaka Jigohei (1886-1973). In 1905 Tanaka entered a special course at Jingū Kōgakkan, the Shinto university at Ise, and after graduating went to Tokyo where he studied Buddhism at Tōyō University's Indian Studies Department. While still at the university, however, he had begun working as an assistant religious teacher for the new religion Shinshūkyō, and after graduating from Tōyō University, he turned his attention again to the study of Shinto. In 1912 he published his first book, Shintō tetsugaku jindai no shisō ("Shinto Philosophy and Thought in the Divine Age"), representing the results of his research to that point. Soon after he left Shinshūkyō and in 1915 established the Kokkyō Gakkan (National Faith Academy), whose aim was to train shrine priests and Shinto religious teachers. He later added the Kokkyō Hon'in (Central Institute for the National Faith) as an annex in charge of Shinto proselytization.
Tanaka devoted himself to the study of "ancient Shinto" (Ko Shintō) and methods of chinkonhō (lit., "spirit sublimation," a form of mediated spirit possession), and he trained followers in these arts throughout the country, while lecturing on Shinto at Tōyō University from 1928. In 1942 he established Renshin Middle School in its present location, and he added a high school in1948, but the schools were forced to close due to management problems.
In 1946 the movement was registered under the Religious Corporations Ordinance (Shūkyō Hōjinrei) and in 1953 under the Religious Corporations Law (Shūkyō Hōjinhō). Tanaka was awarded a doctorate of letters from Tōyō University in 1967 for his studies of Amaterasu ōmikami. He died in 1973, and his third son Masamichi (1930-) succeeded him as a religious teacher and spiritual guide to his devotees.
Headquarters: Tokyo
Nominal membership: approximately 3,200 (M)

— Yumiyama Tatsuya

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