Great Construction

Divine Possession After Joining Oomoto

     After I became a member of the Oomoto religion, I tried as much as possible to increase my knowledge of faith and read Oomoto publications whenever I had the chance. In those days, the only sacred text available in the Oomoto faith were the prophetic writings of Oomoto’s founder, Nao Deguchi, so I, as well as the general membership diligently poured over these writings. These texts were produced by Nao during a period of approximately twenty-five years that began when the founding deity of Oomoto, Kunitokotachi no Mikoto, first possessed her at the age of fifty-five on New Year’s Day 1892 and lasted until she passed away. These writings are a form of spiritual phenomenon called automatic writing which Nao wrote on several pages of regular writing paper at a time.
     Overall, the writings consist of more than ten thousand bundles of compiled sheets, so the contents are quite voluminous. Nao’s actual writing was in the form of phonetic letters, and most people could only understand about half of the meaning, the rest of the text being in irregular letters that required deciphering. Nao was to all appearances, an illiterate old woman, but conversely value could be discovered in these mysterious letters. Selecting the most important sections of these writings and organizing them as texts was undertaken by Nao’s successor, Onisaburo Deguchi. It also was he who added the Chinese ideograms to make the text look more like normal Japanese. Nao Deguchi’s prophetic writings as we see them now are just like a foreign book that has been translated into Japanese. 
     Nao’s texts contain deep spiritual and common sense truths about the divine world in the past, present, and future, as well as prophecies about the future of the human world, morality, and how human beings should look at life, indeed, the prophecies concerned all aspects of human activities. The text itself was rather infantile, but it was a mysterious and profound document that in no way could be considered the production of one individual human being.
     The prophecies about the future in the human world were astonishingly accurate. It is fair to say that the predictions made between 1892 and 1902 about Japan’s war against the world, extreme food shortages, the fall of the privileged classes and the emperor, the ruin of the zaibatsu, the dissolution of feudalism, the democratization of Japan, and the realization of world peace were all on target. I do not mean to proselytize for Oomoto here, but these are indisputable facts. To be fair, if the Japanese authorities had paid attention to these prophecies at any early stage, perhaps they may have been able to avoid that reckless war we just fought. But these writings also contain flaws. The self-consciousness of the person Nao Deguchi is quite apparent in the text, and it is very self-righteous and nationalistic. Her nationalism comes to a climax with what is called in Shinto circles shinkoku thought, the ideology of Japan as a divine nation. Most of the prophecies, however, have been fulfilled and what remains to come to fruition is the birth of an ideal world with eternal peace.
     At this point, it is necessary to add a few words about Onisaburo Deguchi. Onisaburo did display some of the super-human aspects for which he is well-known, but unfortunately he was lacking in the qualities necessary for a man of religion. He was rather wild and unrestrained and devoted himself to growth at the expense of the moral dimension and so could not prevent the confusion that arose within the Oomoto organization. There was more. Because of the rather ardent national sentiment at the time, the most dangerous acts one could imagine were speech and behavior that impinged on the emperor. Such acts constituted the crime of lese majesty, and Onisaburo’s activities often invited deep suspicion of committing this crime, thus leading to the persecutions that resulted. At one time, I looked up to Deguchi and respected him, so I do not want to censure him, but if these words can in the future benefit in any way those involved in religion, I am sure that Master Deguchi up in the spiritual world would be satisfied.
     Leaving my critique of Oomoto at this extent, I return to my own story. On one unforgettable night in December of 1926, the last year of the reign of the Taisho Emperor which was also the first year of the reign of the Showa Emperor, around twelve o’clock, I felt an unusual sensation within my being, an experience I had never had before. It was an indescribably pleasant feeling, and at the same time I could not help speaking. The urge could not be stopped even if I had tried. The energy came rushing through my mouth. I gave up trying suppress the urge to speak and let the words come out. “Prepare paper and brush” was the first utterance. I had my wife do so, and then the words just flowed unceasingly from my mouth about subjects both unanticipated and unexpected.
     First of all were remarks that could be considered the history of the primitive times of Japan, an account of the creation of Japan more than five hundred thousand years ago. It chiefly described how human beings lived with ferocious beasts and serpents, how human beings fought day and night with these beasts, and how simply protecting themselves was an important task in their everyday life. These human beings were cave dwellers, continually burning fires to protect themselves from animal attack. The first weapon they were able to fashion was the bow and arrow. Of course, these were simple affairs, not much more than a string strung over a bamboo pole, and fighters practiced by shooting at the eyes of snakes. The Japanese word for “target,” literally, “the eye of the snake,” is a holdover from the memory of those times. Language started with simple hand gestures, and gradually the tongue came to be used for expressing words. The use of fire developed relatively early when sticks were rubbed or stones were knocked together to produce sparks. At first, there were fewer varieties of plants and grasses, and the soil was much softer than that of the present, so many areas were like swamps. At the beginning of rice cultivation, rice stalks produced only a few grains, but as time passed, the amount produced on each stalk increased until today, one rice stalk usually produces several hundred grains. This increase has been in proportion to the increase in population. The human beings of these times were huge, the average height being a little over ten feet, and the tallest were about eighteen feet high.
     As time advanced, the variety of foodstuffs increased, and human beings started to wear clothes which at first consisted of tree bark and leaves that were held together by various kinds of vines and tendrils, just enough to guard against the cold.
     Later, as the population grew, the potential harm from beasts and snakes decreased, and conflict among human beings began. Villages and hamlets arose here and there and clashes over the possession of land later were followed by fights over women. The technology of weapons developed accordingly, and the number of simple structures increased.
     There would be no limit if I continued to detail what was revealed at that time, but I will introduce several items of interest. The first I will mention is the great earthquake of Japan. At the time of this cataclysm, the population of Japan was just under a million persons, but this earthquake caused a great subsidence which decreased the population of Japan by one hundredths. This subsidence also formed the body of water now known as the Sea of Japan, and land on the Pacific Ocean side subsided as well. Since this great earthquake the total land area of Japan has continued to be one third of what it was previously. The divine being dictated through me the spectacle of the earthquake as seen from heaven, but it cannot adequately be described. Mount Fuji, for example, had been scores of thousands of feet high, but the subsidence reduced its height in one instant by a great percentage to its present size. The scale of the crust movement is beyond imagination. Approximately one hundred thousand years ago, this great earthquake caused Japan to lose all her meat and became just bones.
     Another interesting item revealed during those December nights relates to a period scores of thousands of years ago when India was in its glory, and a great army was sent to conquer Japan. The army landed at a point on Kyushu and gradually advanced until it had overcome half the area of western Japan along the coast of the Sea of Japan. What nowadays would be called a national mobilization of the population was undertaken and the Japanese fought with all their might and defeated the enemy. The enemy retreated to the sea. While returning home, they met with a great storm, and part of the group found refuge in Taiwan. The descendants of that army are the aboriginals of Taiwan today.
     Probably no one knows that Indians invaded Japan. The history that poured out of my mouth while divinely possessed continued to describe events that had occurred until seven thousand years ago, and then the account abruptly stopped. The experiences had continued for about three months, and the written transcriptions filled three to four hundred sheets of letter-sized paper. We took great care to preserve these sheets, but later, as persecution by the authorities worsened and house searches became more frequent, we buried the records in tin cans in the garden, but even this measure did not seem to be adequate, so we finally burned all the papers. We took these extreme precautions because these transcriptions contained much that related to the present Japanese imperial house, and at the time, matters relating to the emperor were considered sacrosanct. 
     In these accounts, there was much prophesied about the future, but disclosing this information, even at this stage in time, would cause problems. Not only did the Manchurian Incident, the Pacific War, and the present world situation come about as revealed, but how the world would develop from now was also shown. That this part of the revelation cannot be released is truly regrettable.
     Through these experiences I learned of the great mission I was born to undertake, and this understanding caused a great turnabout in my feelings. I could not stay idle. I prepared to devote myself body and soul to the great sacred task, and on February 4, 1928, on the day of the change from winter to spring, I turned my business over to my manager gratis and started out on the spiritual life.

Stories of Miracles, Jikan Library Series, Volume 15, October 5, 1949, page 3.
translated by cynndd