Dance as Aggressiveness
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis January 16, 2019 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.30674/scripta.67228 via DOAJ
Summary
Kitamura Sayo founded Tenho-kötai-jingii-kyö in Japan after announcing in July 1945 that the world was ending and she was chosen as savior by the deity Tensho Kotai Jingu. The group incorporated as a religious juridical person in January 1947. Kitamura taught that emotions like regret, desire, hatred, and love cause misfortune, urging followers to pray until they forget the self. Members perform a ritual dance and enter ecstatic states, giving the movement its name, the Dancing Religion.
Study at a glance
| Design | historical analysis |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Kitamura Sayo founded a Japanese religious movement in 1945, teaching that emotional antipathies cause misfortune and that ecstatic dance and prayer lead to self-forgetfulness. |
Abstract
The woman who founded Tenho-kötai-jingii-kyö, Kitamura Sayo (1900-1967), publicly announced in July 1945 that the world was coming to an end and that she had been chosen by the absolute deity Tensho Kotai Jingu to be the savior of the world. People began to gather to her banner, a religious organization was formed, and legal incorporation of the group as a religious juridical person took place in January 1947. Teaching that regret, desire, hatred, love and other emotional antipathies were the cause of all misfortune, the founder urged people to free themselves of such restraints by praying earnestly until they attained a state in which the self was completely forgotten. Since the members of the group perform a ritual dance and fall into an ecstatic condition at the group meetings, the movement is called the Dancing Religion.