Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto

Tenrikyo

Scriptures

Ofudesaki

Mikagura-uta

Osashizu

People

Miki Nakayama

Izo Iburi

Practices

Joyous Life

Hinokishin

Places

Tenrikyo Church Headquarters

Oyasato-yakata

Tenri University

Sankōkan Museum

Tenri Central Library

Tenri Hospital

Tenri, Nara

Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto (天理王命) is the name of the single God and creator of the entire universe in Tenrikyo religion. The first two characters in the Japanese Kanji for Tenri-O-no-Mikoto are 天理, where 天 refers to heaven or divinity, and 理 refers to reason or knowledge, thus "Tenri" (天理) refers to divine or heavenly knowledge, and in a sense adds a divine nature to truth itself whereas "天理" also means "natural law" or its pseudonym, "divine law."^[1] The English name most frequently used to refer to Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto outside of ritual is "God the Parent"; in Japanese, the equivalent common name is Oyagamisama. In Tenrikyo, God has no gender.

Tenrikyo followers vary in their understanding of this creator, from the early understanding of spirit (kami, god/deity) through the underlying natural causality (Tsukihi, moon-sun) and eventually to an understanding of a parental relationship between the creator and themselves (oya, parent). This progression of understanding is a key teaching of Tenrikyo, where it is accepted that everything must proceed "step by step" — by small stages of understanding instead of by great leaps of faith.

History

In 1880, in order to evade continuous persecution by the government, Tenrikyo placed itself under the administration of a Shugendo temple named Jifukuji. During this time Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto was officially called Tenrin-Ō-Nyorai and the kanji of various other deities were changed, but by 1890 Tenrikyo was given approval by the Meiji government and the original names were restored.^[2]

References