Akademik

   Literally 'The religion of the grand shrine of Amaterasu' (Amaterasu can also be read tensho). A new religious movement founded by Kitamura, Sayo (1900-1967) in 1945. Kitamura endured marriage as the sixth bride of a weak man who on the orders of his stingy mother had divorced each previous wife after she had been used as cheap labour for a season. After an experience of kami-gakari she was possessed by a wise snake-deity who later revealed himself to be 'Tensho Kotai Jingu'. She also practised intensive Buddhist-style chanting and cold-water austerities (see Misogi). In 1945 Kitamura announced that she had been chosen by the deity to save the world, which was coming to an end. Dressed in public always as a man and fearlessly denouncing people including Japan's rulers as maggots and traitors, Kitamura was known to her followers as ' Ogami-sama 'great goddess' and was credited with numerous miracles and healings. She taught that passions and attachments were the cause of all suffering and that by self-less dancing (muga-no-mai) and chanting one could attain an ecstatic state of no-self. 'The dancing religion' as it is known is a good example of the way in which a new religious movement in the postwar period could successfully combine 'Shinto' and 'Buddhist' imagery and practice.