Great Construction

My Time As a Member of Omoto

     For several years after I joined the Omoto religion, it was truly narrow-minded (shojo), straight-laced, and extremely abstinent. For clothing and such, goods fabricated from silk would not do. It was made known to all that nothing could be worn unless it was made of cotton. According to the principles of the spirit of the language, silk clothing, or kinumono in Japanese meant kinu mono [different ideograms that mean “do not wear”]. That is, cotton clothing, or momen in Japanese, meant ki ga momen [different ideograms for “do not be troubled”] and kazoku ga momen, or “family will not be troubled,” so it was all rather absurd. For this reason, at times such as when I went to attend members meetings and the like, I wore cotton clothing that I had had specifically made to wear for these occasions. It was an unavoidable falsehood that I had to live out as I usually wore silk goods. Naturally, the same prohibitions were applied to food, and the eating of meat was forbidden. According to the Omoto teaching emphasized at that time, to eat anything made from four-legged animals would make the blood impure. In the midst of such circumstances Omoto held an important event once a year. There are two small islands, Kanmurijima and Kutsujima, which are located right off the Takasago coast in the Province of Tango. Because these islands were said to be the place where the deity Kunitokotachi no Mikoto, who is fundamental to Omoto, is said to have undergone training, annually many followers would board boats to go there and worship, but at that time bags and suitcases made from the hides of animals were prohibited. It was said that four-legged animal hide would anger the gods of the sea and that the sea would become rough.
     However, I had my doubts that all these prohibitions just did not stand to reason. That is because, if eating meat and using goods made from leather were prohibited, did not that mean that foreigners could not be saved? The whole idea contradicted Omoto’s ostensible goal of saving all of humanity. With no change from the period before I joined Omoto, I continued to eat meat and, particularly when I went to Omoto events, wore Western clothing. At the time, of all the many Omoto members, I was the only one who wore Western clothing. For that, I became well-known as the one who was called “Western Clothes Okada.” Also, when going to worship at Omoto headquarters, I would travel with a group on the train, and when we went to the dining car, I always ate a sandwich. Those with me were surprised and warned me at different times in various ways, but I only laughed. After some years had passed, however, Omoto members gradually started to change, and by the time I had left Omoto, members were eating meat and wearing Western clothing in the same way as members of the general public.
     To explain the reasons behind the behavior described above, it was because the founder of Omoto, Nao Deguchi represented the vertical teaching and was strict and narrow-minded (shojo) in comparison to the co-founder, Onisaburo Deguchi who was open-minded (daijo) and expressed the horizontal teaching. Onisaburo, however, went too far to the horizontal, did not pay enough attention to the vertical, and thus ran into the religions persecution that he did.

Assorted Reflections, Jikan Library, Volume 5, page 74, August 30, 1949
    translated by cynndd