Miki Nakayama

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Miki Nakayama (中山みき Nakayama Miki), born Miki Maegawa (前川みき Maegawa Miki), (1798-1887) is a Japanese woman noted for founding Tenrikyo. Tenrikyo is, arguably, the largest current religion to have a woman founder. The official Tenrikyo biography states she was a holy woman born to a wealthy farming family in what is now Nara prefecture. She was said to be very devout and wished to become a Buddhist nun, but was forced into a difficult marriage to Nakayama Zembei which she bore with what followers of Tenrikyo regard as admirable patience and virtue. According to the Tenrikyo scriptures, in 1838, at the age of 40, she became a medium for God (the religion is essentially monotheistic) after taking part in a Buddhist exorcism ceremony. This being told her: "I am the general of Heaven. I am the true and original God. I have descended from Heaven to save all human beings, and I want Miki to be the shrine of God." She stated that its name was Tenri-O-no-Mikoto, "Divine King of Heavenly [Ten] Reason [Ri]", but she also referred to it as Tsuki-Hi (literally "Moon-Sun", suggesting cosmic unity) and, as Tenrikyo members still do, "God the Parent" (Oya)[1]. After the death of her husband she was claimed to have miraculous healing and prophetic powers, which served the mission that she and her daughter (Kokan) began. They chose a life of poverty, giving away what they could to the less fortunate and founding a new religion.

From 1866 to 1882 Nakayama Miki wrote what she deemed the revelations of "God the Parent", believing herself to be its mouthpiece and shrine. "God the Parent" was deemed to be "inside" her, but she was seen as separate from it. She encouraged a life of charity and designed various spiritual dances. She was repeatedly imprisoned on the initiative of the Buddhist sects, which she and her followers criticised as dispensing false teachings, and in later years Tenrikyo became more assimilated to State Shinto in its ceremonial and teaching, though some accounts say that Nakayama Miki herself opposed this assimilation. Tenrikyo teaches that she still resides at her former home in what is now Tenri City, believed to be the point of origin of humanity.

Some interpretations of her life and teaching suggest that, rather than having any divine inspiration, she took inspiration from an amalgam of Buddhism, Shinto and Japanese shamanism to create a religion that could satisfy the emotional needs of a 40-year-old Japanese woman in a troubled marriage. Hence she stated that God had the ungendered name "God the Parent", pronounced gender equality, and celebrated childbirth. It has been pointed out her lifestyle was like that of the Buddhist nun she had once wanted to become. Tenrikyo, however, insists that her teachings were totally original and her thinking uniquely inspired.