ARSR 20.

3 (2007): 317-333 ARSR (print) ISSN 1031-2943

doi: 10.1558/arsr.v20i3.317 ARSR (online) ISSN 1744-9014

Konkokyo (Golden Light Teachings) and Modernity:

A Test of the Faivre–Hanegraaff Six-Point Typology
of Western Esotericism*

Carole M. Cusack

University of Sydney

Abstract

Scholarly interest in Japanese new religions (shin shukyo) or newly arising

religions (shinko shukyo) appears to have peaked in the 1960s when a number
of book-length studies appeared (Schneider 1962; Thomsen 1963; Offner and
van Straelen 1963; McFarland 1967). In the early twenty-first century, such
movements have been marginal within the academic study of religion.1 This
may be due to three stereotypes that were promoted in the 1960s as to the
nature and function of Japanese new and ‘new new’ religions (shin shin
shukyo) which are still influential. Earhart has trenchantly criticized the reduc-
tionist tendency to characterize these movements as ‘crisis cults’ (1969: 246)
and the false logic that when social upheaval is followed by formation of new
religions there is a causal relationship between the two (1980: 179-80). The
similarly reductionist claim that the universalizing tendencies of the kami ven-
erated by Japanese new religions are the result of Christian influences (Holtom
1933; Kamstra 1994) has also been challenged (Schneider 1962: 55; Young
1995: 585). The third stereotype, that the new religions were founded by char-
latans, attract the gullible, and lack religious authenticity (Schiffer 1955: 13-
14; Watanabe 1957) has not been as effectively refuted, though some recent
research has offered a more positive assessment (Pfeiffer 2000; Pye 1994).2

* During the writing of this paper considerable work was done by my research assistant, Alex
Norman, for which I am grateful. My thanks are also due to Don Barrett for his sympathetic
interest in my researches and his patience in discussing issues and assisting me to clarify my
ideas prior to, and during, the writing process.
1. In the 1980s the publication of Helen Hardacre’s Kurozumikyo and the New Religions
of Japan (1986b) by Princeton University Press and H. Byron Earhart’s Gedatsu-Kai and
Religion in Contemporary Japan: Returning to the Center (1989) by Indiana University Press
brought new academic rigour to the study of Japanese new religions, but there has been little
serious research published since.
2. My interest in Konkokyo began through an e-mail correspondence with Reverend Shinji
Yamada of the Konkokyo International Center (KIC), which led to a meeting on 30 January

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318 ARSR 20.3 (2007)

This paper re-interprets Konkokyo (Golden Light Teachings), founded by

Konko Daijin (formerly Kawate Bunjiro) in 1859 and thus one of the older
‘new religions’, in the light of Antoine Faivre’s six-point typology of Western
Esotericism (Faivre 1994: 10-15), which has been extended by Hanegraaff
in his study of the New Age (Hanegraaff 1998). While Konkokyo is not a
Western Esoteric movement, the Faivre–Hanegraaff typology is a close fit,
suggesting that the type of religious movement it describes is less specifically
Western than may previously have been recognized. Campbell (1999) has
drawn attention to the ‘easternisation of the west’, a parallel process to the
‘westernisation of the east’ in the modern era. Howell (2006) argues that
Eastern and Western cultures have cross-fertilized in the modern era, result-
ing in this-worldly immanentist spiritualities in both contexts. It is here argued
that Konkokyo is an esoteric religion with distinctive hallmarks of modernity.
Konko Daijin’s teachings and the organization that developed after his death
reflect the ‘cultic milieu’ (Campbell 1972) of Japanese society. This milieu
differs in content from that of the West, but functions similarly as an alterna-
tive source of religio-spiritual ideas (Miller 1992: 407-408). This means that
the continuum between esotericism and the New Age movement that Faivre
and Hanegraaff have identified in the West also exists in Japan, and new
religions such as Konkokyo and Sukyo Mahikari represent respectively the
esoteric and New Age ends of the spectrum (Pfeiffer 2000: 161-65).

Introduction
There is a broad consensus that after 1800 there are three historical periods
when new religions were either founded or enthusiastically promoted in
Japan. These are ‘around the beginning of the Meiji era (1868)… the begin-
ning of the Showa era (1926), and…after the end of the Second World War
(1945)’ (van Straelen 1962: 229-30). In the nineteenth century a number of
new religions were founded, including Kurozumikyo (Teachings of Kuro-
zumi, founded by Kurozumi Munetada in 1814), Tenrikyo (Divine Wisdom
Teachings, founded by Nakayama Miki in 1838), Omotokyo (Great Origin
Teachings, founded by Deguchi Nao in 1892), and Konkokyo (Thomsen
1963). Initially, these early shin shukyo were severely restricted by the Meiji
government, which ‘compelled them, by direct and indirect intervention, to
make their teachings and rites conform to those of State Shinto’ (Hori et al.
1981: 27). The restoration of Shinto, the denigration of Buddhism, and
countering the growing influence of the West were three of the highest
priorities of the Meiji Restoration of imperial power (Holtom 1938: 53-58).

2006. Reverend Yamada has since become the Director of KIC, and I now correspond with his
deputy, Reverend Hisami Okamoto, on a regular basis. I receive Konkokyo’s quarterly newslet-
ter, Face to Faith, which the KIC kindly sends.

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 Cusack Konkokyo (Golden Light Teachings) and Modernity 319

From 1870 to 1844 the state sponsored the Great Promulgation Campaign
(taikyo senpu undo), which was ‘influential in creating awareness and
understanding of “Shinto” as an independent entity’ (Hardacre 1986a: 41).
During this period thirteen of the new religions, including Konkokyo, were
granted the status of ‘Sect Shinto’. This was despite the fact that they con-
tained new beliefs and practices that were radically different from traditional
Shinto. Thomsen has argued that new religions in Japan all manifest eight
characteristics. These are: a charismatic founder; a this-worldly orientation
(which promotes a healing ministry); optimism; simple teachings and easy
entry; the inseparability of religion from everyday life; individualism; the
affirmation that all religions are relative; and a large headquarters which is a
focal point for members (Thomsen 1963: 22-24). Some of these elements
are compatible with traditional Shinto, but most are modern innovations
and are not. Even the terminology is new: Hardacre has noted that shukyo,
the word usually rendered as ‘religion’, ‘was not used in ordinary discourse
before Meiji’ (Hardacre 1986a: 32). After Japan’s defeat in World War II,
the promulgation of the Religious Persons Law (1946) meant that the shin
shukyo gained ‘official recognition as independent religions’ (van Straelen
1962: 231). The post-war period saw the establishment of a myriad ‘new
new religions’ (shin shin shukyo), all manifesting strong continuities with the
earlier new religions.

Konko Daijin, the Founding of Konkokyo,

and Konkokyo Teachings
The founder of Konkokyo, Kawate Bunjiro (1814–1883), was a literate
peasant from Urami in Okayama Prefecture in south-west Honshu. His
original name was Kandori Genshichi (Konkokyo 1989: 143), but at the age
of twelve he was adopted by the Kawate family and moved to the nearby
farming village of Otani. Later he changed his name to Akazawa Kunitaro,
and was finally known by his religious name, Konko Daijin (Holtom 1933:
282). Bunjiro was deeply religious from childhood and melded a number of
types of piety in his personal praxis. Tendai Buddhism, pilgrimage to the
Great Shrine of Ise, village religious associations, and Shugendo ‘the cult of
sacred mountains’ all played a part in his religious development (Hardacre
1987: 365). Healing has a vital role in Konkokyo, and it was after a series of
misfortunes culminating in a near-fatal illness at the age of forty-two that
Bunjiro received revelations from the kami Konjin. Bunjiro had feared this
kami as hostile. However, Konjin’s revelation, spoken through Bunjiro’s
brother-in-law Jiro, a devotee of the kami Ishizuchi and a medium (Shima-
zono 1979: 393) reassured him that Konjin accepted his sincere piety. This
shamanistic healing set the scene for Bunjiro’s later ministry.

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Shimazono views the origins of Konkokyo as belonging firmly in the

context of folk religion, which is characterized by temples and shrines, vil-
lage associations, and ‘magico-religious leaders of the common people’
(Shimazono 1979: 391). Shimazono and Earhart both argue that new
religions develop from specifically religious conditions rather than political or
social conditions. In this view, Bunjiro’s experience of healing and his receipt
of revelations from Konjin are sufficient motivation for his later religious min-
istry (Earhart 1969: 238-39). In 1858 Bunjiro received further assurance that
God was one, that he was good, and that he was never separated from those
who sincerely trusted in him. [Bunjiro] called this new experience the mutuality
of god and man (shinjin kokan goitsu.) With this he attained unity in his spiri-
tual world and forthwith took a new name for the object of his supreme devo-
tion. He called this power Kane-no-Kami, ‘The God Who Combines Things’,
i.e., the spiritual power that gives unity to experience (Holtom 1933: 287).3

The deity of Konkokyo is often referred to as the Parent God (this is also the
case in Tenrikyo), and Konkokyo’s scriptures teach that fulfilment is the result
of the connection of humans with ‘the Principal Parent and all the kami’
(Clarke 2002: 754; see also Howes 1964: 173). The issue of whether such
doctrines are the result of Christian influence will be discussed later, but
suffice to say that Schneider, whose research was conducted while he was a
Lutheran missionary in Japan, recognized that Japanese assertions that
there was one god did not mean ‘ “[t]here is no other God but one”, for to
deny the plurality of the others would lead to the impoverishment of the
universe’ (Schneider 1962: 55).
Bunjiro was sought out by peasants seeking healing, and became an
independent spiritual healer. His natural brother Kandori Shigeemon also
‘began to be possessed by Konjin and in 1856 [Bunjiro] helped Shigeemon
financially to build a shrine to Konjin in his home’ (Stoesz 1986: 8). In 1859
Bunjiro ceased farming and began his religious ministry. The revelation he
received led him to preach a doctrine of the interdependence of all things
and to develop a method of communication between the divine and
humanity called toritsugi. This term is generally translated as ‘mediation’ or
‘intermediation’, and toritsugi involved Bunjiro sitting in the hiromae (hall of
divine presences) as a channel for the divine message. The purpose of
toritsugi was explained as follows in a revelation from Tenchi Kane-no-Kami
(Konjin’s true identity, the ‘Great Golden God of the Universe’):
[h]elp these people by performing toritsugi. This will help Kami and save
people. Man exists because of Kami and Kami exists because of man. Thus,

3. It is necessary to exercise caution with Holtom, although he was a fine scholar and the
Western authority on Shinto in the 1930s. He uncritically translates kami as ‘God’ with a capital
‘G’ and interprets Japanese religious concepts through the conceptual vocabulary of Christian-
ity without questioning the appropriateness of this practice.

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 Cusack Konkokyo (Golden Light Teachings) and Modernity 321

Kami supports man as Kami’s children, and man supports Kami as his parent.
There will be eternal prosperity through aiyo kakeyo (Konkokyo 1989: 63-64).4

‘Aiyo kakeyo’ signifies ‘mutual interdependence’ (Iwasaki 2006: 1) and is

one of the two key formulas of Konkokyo; the other is ‘Ujiko atteno Kami,
Kami atteno ujiko’, which is crucial to the above-quoted scripture and which
McFarland renders slightly differently as ‘[s]olely because of the devotee,
Kami is manifest; solely because of Kami, man has being’ (McFarland 1967:
101). This interdependence between human and divine is dramatically
intensified in the person of Bunjiro/Konko Daijin. In 1868 Bunjiro changed
his name to Konko Daijin and announced to his followers that he was
ikigami, a living kami (McFarland 1967: 106). Shimazono claims that Konko
Daijin began to be perceived as a ‘living kami’ because as his clients became
more numerous the more dramatic shamanistic states crucial to healing were
moderated. He argues that ‘independent shamanistic practitioners thus
came to be regarded as divine not merely when in a trance state but at all
times, in their entire persons’ (Shimazono 1979: 396).
The first Konko deyashiro (church) was founded in 1863, and at the time
of Konko Daijin’s death in 1883 ‘Konkokyo had grown into a well-known
religion with several hundred thousand followers’ (Thomsen 1963: 70).
Konko Daijin’s son, Hagio Konko, was Kyushu (spiritual leader) of Konkokyo
for ten years and in 1893 his grandson, Setsutane Konko, became leader of
the group. He led Konkokyo for seventy years until 1963, through a turbu-
lent period of Japanese history, leaving as his principal legacy the codifica-
tion and publication of key scriptures (Thomsen 1963: 72). Importantly,
after 1946 Konkokyo abandoned all connection to Shinto and was
recognized as a separate religion (McFarland 1967: 110). Setsutane Konko’s
successor was Kagamitaro Konko, and in 1991 the present leader and fifth-
generation Kyushu, Heiki Konko, was inaugurated (www.konkokyo.or.jp/
eng/index.html). The religion presently has approximately half a million
believers in Japan and a vigorous overseas outreach, the Konkokyo Interna-
tional Centre (KIC), with churches in the United States, Canada, Brazil,
Paraguay, and Korea. Gatherings are held in those countries that as yet do
not have a formal Konkokyo presence, such as Malaysia, Australia and a
number of European countries (www.konkokyo.or.jp/eng/index.html).

Possible Christian Influence

as an Explanation of Japanese New Religions
Early Western commentary on Konkokyo (and several other Japanese shin
shukyo, most notably Tenrikyo), were uncritically certain that these religions
were deeply influenced by Christianity, despite the tenuous evidence to

4. Japanese words are not italicized in Konkokyo’s published scriptures.

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support such a claim. Francis Xavier arrived in Japan in 1549 and estab-
lished a mission. Christianity won converts for approximately fifty years,
then after 1603 when Tokugawa Ieyasu assumed the shogunate Christianity
was gradually outlawed (Kamstra 1994). Groups of ‘secret Christians’
(kakure Kirishitan) numbering almost fifty thousand were discovered when
Japan opened up to foreign influences in 1865 (McFarland 1967: 32).
Thomsen confidently asserted that both Nakayama Miki and Konko Daijin
acquired their teachings ‘through contact with some of the Catholic kakure
Kirishitan’ because, in his opinion, toritsugi resembled the Catholic confes-
sional (Thomsen 1963: 75). Holtom claimed Konkokyo was a ‘monotheism’
and compared Konko Daijin to Jesus Christ, arguing that as ‘followers of
Konko Daijin have described this dual consciousness [ikigami] as the union
of complete man and complete God…[it] suggests the twofold nature
ascribed to Jesus Christ’ (Holtom 1933: 291). It was also argued that Japa-
nese new religions were in agreement that ‘the Heavenly Father of Chris-
tians…[was] substantially the same as their Supreme Being’ (Offner and van
Straelen 1963: 144).
Despite these enthusiastic affirmations of a connection between early shin
shukyo and kakure Kirishitan, no actual evidence to support this contention
has ever been uncovered. This fact was readily admitted by Thomsen and
other early scholars. However, in the 1990s Jeffrey Kamstra attempted to
‘analyse the impact of Christian theistic ideas on Japanese religion’ (Kamstra
1994: 104) and to build a probabilistic argument based on resemblances
rather than causality. He claimed that the principal Japanese new religions
were monotheistic (Tenrikyo, Kurozumikyo, Konkokyo, PL Kyodan, Seichi
no Ie, and Sukyo Mahikari are the groups he discussed). He argued that
Christian books were imported into Japan from China and that, as ‘all
foreign religions that had been accepted into Japan had undergone a centu-
ries-long incubation in China’ (1994: 108), this meant that Japanese intel-
lectuals were more receptive to monotheistic notions from Christian sources
translated into Chinese. Kamstra asserts that Christian influences can be
traced in the works of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Shinto reformers
such as Honda Toshiaki and Hirata Atsutane (1994: 111).
Kamstra termed the reduction to one god that occurred in Japan
‘pluriform monotheism’ and was confident that although direct causal links
between Shinto reformers like Hirata Atsutane, the hidden Christians, and
the Japanese new religions have not been definitely established, the resem-
blances were not accidental. He argued that Christianity’s influence in Japan
is far greater than has been acknowledged:
Japan’s monotheism, though differing from Christian monotheism, became
established in more than a third of Japan’s population, a figure forty times
larger than the total number of Christians in Japan (Kamstra 1994: 115).

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 Cusack Konkokyo (Golden Light Teachings) and Modernity 323

However, this hopeful conclusion did not win widespread scholarly support,
with Richard Young Fox criticizing the notion of ‘pluriform monotheism’
(which is somewhat contradictory), reiterating that the influence of Christi-
anity on ‘the concept of the godhead in Japanese religion’ remained
unproven, and finally, disputing that the ‘pluriform monotheism’ Kamstra
found so evident in the shin shukyo was able to be detected at all (Young
1995: 585).

Viewing Konkokyo through a Different Lens:

The Faivre-Hanegraaff Six-Point Typology
of Western Esotericism
The Faivre–Hanegraaff typology of Western esotericism was developed by
Antoine Faivre to resolve difficulties inherent in the study of esoteric religion.
Esotericism ‘conjures up chiefly the idea of something “secret”…of restricted
realms of knowledge’ (Faivre 1994: 5). Further, esotericism may refer to the
process of transcending methods specific to particular religions and achiev-
ing a higher knowledge that ‘is identical to all who achieve it; experience of
its attainment is the proof or guarantee of the “transcendent unity of relig-
ions” ’ (1994: 5). Hanegraaff (1998) identified New Age ideas as secularized
manifestations of the Western Esoteric tradition, and paved the way for the
typology to be used to classify movements that were no longer secret, elitist,
and lofty, but exoteric, publicly available, and incorporating ‘low’ or popular
culture.
The application of this typology to Konkokyo is fascinating, in that the
religion fits each of the six descriptors exactly. The first characteristic for
Faivre is that: ‘[s]ymbolic and real correspondences…are said to exist among
all parts of the universe, both seen and unseen (“As above so below”). We
find here again the ancient idea of microcosm and macrocosm or, if
preferred, the principle of universal interdependence’. Faivre notes that the
correspondences are there to be interpreted; the ‘universe is a huge theater
of mirrors, an ensemble of hieroglyphs to be decoded’ (Faivre 1994: 10).
Konkokyo teachings constantly stress the interdependence of all things; the
mantra aiyo kakeyo has been mentioned above, as has Tenchi Kane-no-
Kami’s powerful assertion of the mutual interdependence of kami and
humanity. Moreover, Konko Daijin’s disciple, Yamamoto Sadajiro, records
two teachings given to him that clearly express both the macrocosm–micro-
cosm relation and the necessity of interpreting correspondences. He states
that Konko Daijin gave him the following teachings on 9 February 1896:
Tenchi No Kami Sama protects the entire world by watching between Heaven
and Earth. We live in between two mirrors. When I close my eyes and pray, I
become able to see the surroundings of the person’s home. When I reveal

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what I see I am told that I’m not in the least bit wrong. Cast aside your physical
eyes and open and see through your mind’s eye… People are a microcosm.
Tenchi No Kami Sama protects your head at all times, thus you can use your
body at will (Konkokyo 1987: I, 151-52).

The second characteristic in Faivre’s typology is that Nature is alive: ‘Nature,

seen, known, and experienced as essentially alive in all its parts, often
inhabited and traversed by a light or a hidden fire circulating through it’
(Faivre 1994: 11). At this point it is necessary to note that Shinto, the indige-
nous tradition of Japan, has a profound appreciation of nature and natural-
ness, which permeates the whole of Japanese culture. Thomas Kasulis,
discussing the stunning natural settings of many major Shinto shrines, states
that in such places:
[t]he Japanese are not ‘getting away’ but ‘going back’. They are not there to
‘admire’ nature but to ‘commune’ with it. They are not ‘enjoying’ natural
beauty but allowing themselves to be ‘struck by it’. It is not a ‘leisure activity’
but a tranquil sense of ‘feeling at home’. These subtle shifts in diction describe
outwardly the same behaviour, but they communicate a very different affect…
awe-inspiring natural objects are just one of many kinds of kami (Kasulis
2004: 64-65).

Konkokyo shares this appreciation of nature and naturalness; the divinity in

nature is clearly expressed in scriptures and other publications from the
religion. The brief introductory text, Shine From Within, commences its dis-
cussion of kami with ‘[w]e believe that Kami is the universe—the spirit and
energy that flows through galaxies, planets, air, earth and life’ (Konkokyo,
n.d.: 11). Moreover, the Japanese appreciation of nature is associated with a
‘radically empirical trait’ (Kishimoto 1959: 34) that privileges mood and
experience over Western-style instrumental reasoning (McFarland 1967: 22).
Faivre’s third characteristic is ‘a form of imagination inclined to reveal
and use mediations of all kinds, such as rituals, symbolic images, mandalas,
intermediary spirits’ (Faivre 1994: 12). Konkokyo’s chief religious ritual is
toritsugi, where the ministers sit in the hiromae for long hours, consulting on
a one-to-one basis with the faithful to communicate (mediate) the divine
message to them. This is a prime example of Faivrean mediation, as is the
Konkokyo acceptance of the manifold kami as existing yet entirely contained
within the overarching oneness of Tenchi Kane-no-Kami. The grand rituals
at the group’s headquarters in the town of Konko and in Konkokyo Gather-
ings in the diaspora are also mediations. Konko Daijin was against the use of
amulets and Tsugawa Haruo recollected him saying ‘[t]here are no amulets.
People make amulets their object of worship, but amulets don’t give divine
blessings’ (Konkokyo 1987: II, 233). However, the intensely interior nature
of Konko piety utilizes images similar to visualizations. When Kondo Fujimori
indicated he wished to go into the mountains to practice asceticism, Konko
Daijin advised him as follows: ‘you need not trouble yourself by going to a

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mountain. Create a mountain in your heart and do religious training there’

(Konkokyo 1996: 65). This spiritual advice could be regarded as a form of
mediation. Finally, the visual representation of the ‘Divine Reminder’ (Tenchi
Kakitsuke) is a particularly effective mediation. This crucial text reads
‘Through Ikigami Konko Daijin to Tenchi Kane no Kami pray with a single
heart. The divine favor [sic] depends upon one’s own heart. On this very
day pray’ (Konkokyo, n.d.: 14) When written, the text encapsulates the aiyo
kakeyo relationship of kami and humanity that is central to Konkokyo.
Tenchi Kane no Kami’s name is written in larger characters in the centre;
Konko Daijin’s name (as mediator) appears on the left (as the mediating
minister sits on the left of the altar during toritsugi), and the community of
believers is represented on the right in the text commencing ‘Pray with a
single heart’ (see illustration). The vital importance of this textual icon and
mantra for contemplation is constantly asserted:
[t]he Divine Reminder was first written by the Founder in 1873. He wrote it
on pieces of paper and gave it to his followers. He said that it was a talisman
for one’s heart and a reminder to practice faith every day. He stipulated that it
be displayed in plain view. Today, a framed copy of the Divine Reminder is
the centerpiece of the altar in Konkokyo churches. It is also prominently dis-
played in Konkokyo facilities and in the homes of believers. A small copy can
also be carried in one’s pocket. When believers open their hearts to Tenchi
Kane No Kami or request help from Tenchi Kane No Kami, they recite this
Divine Reminder/Tenchi Kakitsuke message or look at it and read it in their
hearts. During services and ceremonies, the Divine Reminder is recited
(www.konkokyo.or.jp/eng/bri/beliefs/religious_beliefs.html).

The fourth element of the Faivre typology is ‘the experience of transmu-

tation…the passage from one plane to another…the modification of the
subject in its very nature’ (Faivre 1994: 13). At the heart of Konkokyo is the
notion that every human being can, like Konko Daijin, become ikigami, a
living kami. This is precisely the transmutation envisaged by Faivre, and it
constitutes one of the more radical teachings of Konkokyo. McFarland
(1967: 72) observed that normally living people were not referred to as
kami, although the boundary between human and divine was not sharply
differentiated. However, Konko Daijin very clearly proclaimed himself a
living kami, and scriptures insist that this is the right of all:
[t]hough people call Konko Daijin an ikigami, Konko Daijin is not the only
one. All people who come to the Hiraomae are kami’s children. To be an
ikigami is to have Kami born within you. Konko Daijin was the first to receive
divine blessings. Everyone can receive divine blessings in the same way
(Konkokyo 1996: 120).

Several early commentators on Japanese new religions noted the emphasis

on the importance of the individual, which was unusual in terms of Japa-
nese traditions. Thomsen observed that the new religions focused in the ‘I’

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and on making converts feel that they are ‘important’ and the ‘centre of
[their] own universe’ (Thomsen 1963: 27). Braden noted that leaders of new
religions were viewed as ‘divinely commissioned’ and that certain leaders
‘regarded themselves as Messiahs or forerunners of such’ (Braden 1953:
150). Through adherence to Konkokyo, an ordinary human may be trans-
muted into a living kami, and this constitutes one of the most powerful
attractants for the religion
The fifth element of Faivre’s classification system is the praxis of concor-
dance, which he defines as ‘a consistent tendency to try to establish common
denominators between two different traditions or even more, among all
traditions, in the hope of obtaining illumination, a gnosis, of superior quality’
(Faivre 1994: 14). Scholars have emphasized that the new religions of
Japan do not regard themselves as uniquely legitimate, but in general are
supportive of each other and act cooperatively. In 1952, to collectively
publicize ‘their doctrines, they founded the Shin-shukyo-remmei (League of
New Religions), which also publishes a bi-weekly newspaper, the Shin-
shukyo-shimbun’ (Schiffer 1955: 11). This feature is evidenced in Konkokyo
scriptures repeatedly:
Tenchi Kane No Kami does not discriminate between kamis and Buddhas.
Kamis protect Shintoists, as well as Buddhism. Shinto and Buddhism are both
within Tenchi. Don’t be so narrow as to discriminate against other religions or
by following one religion obsessively. Have a broad mind. You must think
broadly about the world (Konkokyo 1996: 4).

The sixth of Faivre’s characteristics is an ‘[e]mphasis on transmission [which]

implies that an esoteric teaching can or must be transmitted from master to
disciple following a preestablished channel, respecting a previously marked
path’ (Faivre 1994: 15). Within Konkokyo, as was explained above, only the
descendents of Konko Daijin have been kyushu (leader) of the faith. The
current kyushu, Heiki Konko, is the great-great-great grandson of the
Founder. This ensures that the tradition is held to with great reverence and
that Konko Daijin’s legacy is respected and preserved. The kyushu is ‘chosen
every five years among the Founder’s descendents who are ministers and
carry the surname “Konko” ’ (Anon 2006: 1).

Esoteric Religions, Konkokyo and Modernity

As Konkokyo is obviously not a Western Esoteric movement it is necessary
to seek explanations for why it conforms to the Faivrean typology so exactly.
The answer lies in the interaction of a number of significant factors. First,
there is the cross-fertilizing of Western and Eastern spirituality in the modern
era, and the liberation of what Campbell (1972) calls the ‘cultic milieu’ from
dominant religious institutions, which enables new religions to flourish.

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There is also the modern era’s transformation of the notion of the self in
Western and Eastern contexts, and the cultivation of that self being mani-
fested in consumer behaviour which foregrounds this-worldly fulfilment
(Campbell 1987). Helen Hardacre (1986b, 7) argues that there is a consis-
tent worldview underlying all the shin shukyo, which unifies all the charac-
teristics that are generally attributed to them. Moreover she argues that this
worldview is distinctively modern; it came into being towards the end of the
Tokugawa Shogunate, in the early nineteenth century, and ‘conceives of the
individual, society, nature, and the universe as an integrated system vitalized
by a single principle’ (1986b: 11). This is congruent with the doctrines of
Konkokyo outlined above. Further, the cultivation of the self is vital in the
new religions; this is frequently identified with the attainment of sincerity.
The new religions have a this-worldly orientation, with ‘society and human
relations provid[ing] the only vehicle by which genuine self-transformation
can take place’ (1986b: 17).
These attitudes are also typical of Western new religious movements,
which are radically de-traditionalized and thus human-centred and this-
worldly, where traditional Christianity was God-centred and other-worldly
(Lyon 2002 [2000]: 73-96). Self-transformation has become the primary
spiritual activity. Carl Jung called this process ‘individuation’ and spoke of
the pagan gods and Christ as archetypes existing within the self (Tacey 2001:
67-68, 126). The same notion is present in the shin shukyo in the doctrine
that regards leaders as ikigami and that this can be achieved by all the
faithful. Hardacre views the worldview of the Japanese new religions as
naïve and a retreat from the political:
[c]onceptualizing life’s problems this way, new religions took the position that
people are basically the same, face the same problems, and can solve them in
the same way. This meant that they glossed over society’s internal cleavages
of class and gender as if these were irrelevant to an understanding of the
human condition. Their focus upon affairs crossing class and gender lines
decreed a principle of equality among believers, weak status distinctions
between leaders and followers, and a de-emphasis of the pollution notions
which in the established religions barred women from full participation. As
believers they defined their situation in terms that would not question the
status order of society but which nevertheless tacitly recognized its blurring
boundaries and created an active role for elements kept passive in other
religious associations of the period (Hardacre 1986a: 55).

The cultivation of the self is linked to the pursuit of the good life, in the sense
of material prosperity and personal fulfilment. Campbell (1987) sees this as
being essentially a romantic impulse and McFarland (1967) thinks that the
new religions’ assertion that they will bring members happiness is notewor-
thy. Even shin shukyo that are often derided, such as PL Kyodan (Church of
Perfect Liberty, founded by Miki Tokuchika in 1946) (McFarland 1967:

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130), commonly called the gorofu shukyo (‘golf religion’) may be interpreted
seriously as democratic (golf is very expensive in Japan and advocating
access for all is revolutionary), this-worldly, and concerned with personal
happiness and fulfilment. Konkokyo scriptures state that believers ‘are
allowed to enjoy themselves in everything they do… Everyone between
Heaven and Earth is delightfully and gratefully receiving pleasures’
(Konkokyo 1996: 34).
As the same retreat from formal politics and the public transformation of
society to the private realm and the cultivation of the self that Hardacre
observed in Japan is apparent in modern Western society, it presumably has
greater significance than she is willing to admit. Shimazono has suggested
that the focus on self-transformation in Konkokyo and other shin shukyo
was politically subversive. Prior to the pronouncement by new religions that
ordinary people could emulate the founder and become ikigami, the only
acknowledged living kami in Japan were the imperial family, the descen-
dents of the sun goddess Amaterasu-o-mi-Kami. This doctrine was known as
‘Tennoism’ (from tenno, ‘emperor’). Shimazono notes that:
during the relatively free Taisho period (1912–1926) and following the elimi-
nation of Tennoist ideology after World War II, many founders made their
appearance and many New Religions advanced mutually exclusive claims side
by side. Information about these conflicting claims on behalf of persons held
up as superhuman beings, each of who was supposed to be the divine leader
for all the people of Japan, was disseminated through the public education
and the mass media (Shimazono 1979: 407-408).

Konko Daijin stated that ‘Izanami and Izanagi no Mikoto, and Tensho
Kotaijin were mortals…[t]herefore, the Emperor is a mortal’ (Konkokyo
1987: I, 38), dismissing the gods of Shinto and the imperial family jointly.
Belief in the uniqueness of the emperor was thus severely weakened as the
idea of self-transformation into a living kami as a spiritual ideal for all gained
popularity. This focus on the self was also profoundly important for the shin
shukyo, in that as people are all much the same and share life experiences,
their doctrines could be universalized (Stoesz 1986). A tendency to univer-
salize might also be interpreted as a distinctive marker of modernity,
paralleling the emergence of a global culture.
Despite this tendency to universalize, Japanese new religions have not
been notably successful in gaining converts among Westerners, with success
outside of Japan generally being in countries where there were considerable
Japanese diaspora populations (Clarke 1999). The exceptions are Soka
Gakkai, a modern form of Nichiren Buddhism (which will not be considered
here) and Sukyo Mahikari (True Light Teachings), which was founded by
Okada Yoshikazu after a vision in 1959 (Anderson 1995: 117). Mahikari
deserves attention because it also fits the Faivre–Hanegraaff typology, as a

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 Cusack Konkokyo (Golden Light Teachings) and Modernity 329

‘New Age’ phenomenon. Mahikari places emphasis on healing and self-

cultivation, like other new religions, but has a distinctive cosmology and
apocalyptic vision that merges aspects of many religions in an Eastern–
Western syncretism. Pfeiffer observes that Mahikari’s version of religious
history claims that ‘all the world’s great religions started in Japan. Shrine
records supposedly show that Moses, Mohammed, Confucius, Mencius,
Buddha and Jesus visited Japan for spiritual training before beginning work
in other parts of the globe’ (Pfeiffer 2000: 163). This worldview, along with
Mahikari’s rejection of science and focus on spiritual healing, render it the
most ‘New Age’ of Japanese new religions.
Konkokyo, by contrast, is esoteric specifically in the second sense of the
word suggested by Faivre, where esotericism refers to transcending methods
specific to particular religions and achieving a higher knowledge that ‘is
identical to all who achieve it; experience of its attainment is the proof or
guarantee of the “transcendent unity of religions” ’ (Faivre 1994: 5). This
advocacy of a single truth that may be accessed through a variety of
religious forms is clearly expressed throughout Konkokyo scriptures:
[s]ince every person is different, would it not be better to pave a path to Kami
that suits every person? Too many times we get caught up in what we believe
so thoroughly that we become blind and cannot see that what is right for us
may be wrong for another (Konkokyo, n.d.: 26).

Considering the range of Japanese new religions from Konkokyo (older,

more esoteric) through to Sukyo Mahikari (newer, more New Age, in the
sense of eclectic and popular culture focused), it can be demonstrated that
the continuum between esotericism and New Age religion demarcated by
Faivre and Hanegraaff in the West applies in the East also.

Conclusion
In the modern era the cultic milieu, comprising a reservoir of alternative
religious ideas that were never entirely extinguished by official religion, has
been liberated by the retreat from institutional religion and the rise of private
spiritualities (Campbell 1972). This phenomenon is not unique to the West,
but has occurred within Eastern new religious movements, as is here shown
through a study of Konkokyo. It is possible that Japan might be a unique
case of an Asian culture that has aggressively modernized and taken on
certain aspects of Western culture, so that the argument regarding the cultic
milieu, modernity, and the formation of new religions that are compatible
with the Faivre–Hanegraaff typology of Western Esotericism might not work
in other Asian countries. However, Campbell’s research indicates that the
monistic Eastern divine (Campbell 1999: 40-41) has penetrated the West
and Howell’s (2006) work on Indonesian kebatinan groups, including

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Pangestu (Pangujuban Ngesti Tunggal, ‘The Society for Meditation on

Oneness’) and Subud suggests that belief in an underlying and universal
spiritual reality which can be accessed through different religions, and
through the syncretic blending of Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism, is an
important manifestation of Indonesian modernity, with the associated self-
cultivation and universalizing tendencies being clearly apparent (particularly
in Subud) (Howell 2006: 25-26).
Therefore, it would seem that to interpret Konkokyo through the lens of
the Faivre–Hanegraaff typology of Western Esotericism is not simply a glib
exercise, where an alien methodology is applied to a Japanese new religion
and the results of such an investigation may be disregarded on account of
the lack of cultural fit between the particular religion and the particular
interpretive tool. Rather, it can be argued that Faivre and Hanegraaff, both
scholars of Western religion, failed to recognize that what they were catego-
rizing were movements that were less distinctively Western than they were
modern, the product of a number of factors (the retreat of institutional
religion, the cultivation of the self through spiritualities formerly part of the
‘cultic milieu’, the cross-fertilization between Eastern and Western religio-
spiritual doctrines and practices, and so on). Further evidence could be
adduced to support there being a real and historically founded relationship
between the East and the West, for example that the type of person most
likely to join a Japanese new religion is very similar to that characterized by
Western scholars of new religious movements. Whereas traditional religious
conversion involved a commitment to an institutional church that might last
a lifetime, spiritual seekers see the fulfilment of their quest, which may lead
them through several new religious movements (Campbell 1972). This pat-
tern presupposes a high degree of agency among these people, which is
congruent with sociological observations that new religions involve new
ideas, and converts to new religions tend to be experimental, innovative
people (Stark and Bainbridge 1985: 405). Miller (1992) has argued that
members of Japanese new religions are innovative and independent people,
who reject the mores of mainstream society. This self-directed spirituality is
distinctively modern, in that more emphasis is given to personal concerns
than to tradition or institutional authority.

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