Onisaburo Deguchi
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Onisaburo Deguchi (1871-1948) was one of the chief figures of the Oomoto religious movement in Japan.
He is remembered as a flamboyant, jovial patriarch of that school, and is best known to Westerners as a teacher and religious instructor of Morihei Ueshiba. Oomoto was founded by Nao Deguchi, who adopted Onisaburo into her inner circle of students. When he came to her, he was Kisaburo Ueda, and married Nao's daughter Sumi, quickly becoming an internal pillar of the Oomoto impetus. Where Nao had been a blunt, often eccentric presence, Onisaburo became a more pleasant, peaceful presence, and often served as a foil for Nao's straightforwardness.
A believer in the Oomoto maxim that it was humanity's duty to move forward together, bringing about a new age of existence on Earth, Onisaburo went to great lengths to promote the syncretic faith preached by Nao Deguchi. He wrote the impressive Reikai Monogatari (Tales of the Spirit World), an 81-volume work which covered his alleged travels into the spiritual planes of existence, as well as many other theologically permeated stories which expounded on numerous Oomoto spiritual ideals.
Throughout his life, Onisaburo was often quite flamboyant, taking delight in wearing richly textured costumes of his own design and posing as a wide variety of deities, mostly Buddhist or Shinto. He would also dress as a shaman, and often even took up the appearances of female divinities. His outlook on life tended to be eclectic, sometimes even to the point of being outrageous. At varying points of his lifetime, he claimed to be an incarnation of Miroku Butsu (Skt: Maitreya Buddha), and often referred to himself as a remodeller of the world in jest.
Like most Oomoto followers, Onisaburo was also anti-government, but had the ability to hide it. This again differentiated him from Nao Deguchi, who was too hard-nosed in her proclamations to prevent creating trouble with the authorities. Onisaburo on the other hand was quite talented in quieting the government officials while at the same time subverting their efforts that he found distasteful or amoral. He was not so talented that he kept trouble away forever, though. Twice the Omoto suffered raids on their compounds by the government, the second of which was an especially crushing blow to the movement as the entire compound was razed and almost all its members, despite acting non-violently, were imprisoned and/or tortured. Of those spared, Morihei Ueshiba was among them, spirited away by various friends in the police force and government. He did not however comply with the government order to renounce Onisaburo, and continued to be a supporter of the Omoto until his final days.
Onisaburo's legacy is largely concerned with art, including a wealth of calligraphic and poetic works. He also dabbled in cinema, sculpture, and pottery, leaving behind thousands of items which are now considered by many enthusiasts to be of great value.
