Nancy Stalker

From the 1910s to the mid-1930s, the flamaboyant and gifted spiritualist Deguchi Onisaburo (1871-1948) transformed his mother-in-law's small, rural religious following into a massive movement, eclectic in content and international in scope. Through a potent blend of traditional folk beliefs and practices like divination, exorcism, and millenarianism, an ambitious political agenda, and skillful use of new forms of visual and mass media, he attracted milions to Oomoto, his Shintoist new religion. Despite its condemnation as a heterodox sect by state authorities and the mainstram media, Oomoto quickly became the fastest-growing religion in Japan of the time.

In telling the story of Onisaburo and Oomoto, Nancy Stalker not only gives us the first full account in English of the rise of a heterodox movement in imperial Japan but also provides new perspectives on the importance of 'charismatic entrepreneurship' in the success of new religions around the world. She makes the case that these religoins often respond to global developments and tensions (imperialsim, urbanization, consumerism, the diffusion of mass miedia) in similar ways. They require entrepreneurial marketing and management skills alongside their spiritual authority if their groups are to survive encroachments by the state and achieve national/international stature. Their drive to realize and extend their religious views of the world ideally stems from a 'prophet' rather than 'profit' motive, but their activity nevertheless relies on success in the modern capitalist, commercial world.

Unlike many studies of Japanese religion during this period, Prophet Motive workds to dispel the notion that prewar Shinto was monolithically supportive of state initiatives and ideology. It is a highly insightful and accessible contribution to the study of history and religion in modern Japan, new religious movements, anthropology, and visual culture.

Nancy K. Stalker is assistant professor in the departments of Asian studies and history at the University of Texas at Austin.

'Too often Japan's modern history is told as one of an emergent monolithic imperial sate, while religion, if at all considered, is relegated to a supporting role often characterized with pathos. In Stalker's resplendent and evocative telling, we are introduced to the colorful and moving history of the prominent and popular New Religion Omoto and its charismatic leader Deguchi Onisaburo. This is a history detailed with skilled research and unstinting critical acumen that deals seriously with religion, with politics, with historical dynamics, and deftly weaves these threads, manintaing the full complexity of their interactions. Stalker's discussions of spiritualism, proselytization, and internationalization, linked to debates over modernity, world expositions, and new media such as cinema, go on to break new ground in a tour de force of scholarship. This compelling work raises the bar for works on religion, history, and modernity and should be standard reading for years to come.'-James Ketclarr, University of Chicago

'Nancy Stalker's study of Deguchi Onisaburo and the Japanese new religion Oomoto sheds now light on issues of religious leadership, charisma, and entrepreneurship. In analysing how one seminal new religion expanded in early twentyiteh-century Japan, she focuses on what she terms Onisaburo's 'charismatic entrepreneurship' to demonstrate the close links between innovative leadership and the close and essential links between religion and economics. By widening her focus to the Japanese new religions in general, Stalker shows Onisaburo to be one of the most important figures in Japanese religious leaders. She demonstrates further the significance of Oomoto as one of the most seminal new religions of the twentieth century.'-Ian Reader, University of Manchester

'In this multi-faceted study of one of the most colorful characters in twentieth-century Japan, Nancy Stalker shows how a fledgling religious movement can grow through the media-savy skills of its charismatic leader. Deftly situating Onisaburo's flamboyant promotional efforts in both domestic and international contexts, stalker bridges common historiographical divides between religion and politics, state orthodoxy and populist opposition, Meiji history and Taisho culture. According to Stalker's analysis, Onisaburo practiced a 'charismatic entrepreneurship' found in successful evangelists worldwide while setting a course for subsequent new religions in Japan. A provocative, colorful study of one man's strategies for proselytizing in the global marketplace of religion, Prophet Motive highlights the fluid boundaries between 'tradition' and 'modernity' in Japan and throughout the world.'-Sara Thal, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Jacket art: Deguchi Onisaburo. Photo courtesy of Oomoto headquarters.

Jacket design by Santos Barbasa Jr.

Note: Exceptional bibliography

Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1 Deguchi Onisaburo: Early life to Oomoto leadership
Chapter 2 Neo-nativism: Oomoto vews on mythology, governance, and agrarianism
Chapter 3 Taisho spiritualism
Chapter 4 Exhibitionist tendencies: Visual technologies of proselytization
Chapter 5 Paradoxical internationalism? Oomoto in the world
Chapter 6 A patriotic turn and the second suppression
Conclusion: State, religion, and tradition in Imperial Japan
Notes
Selected biblliography
Index… (meer)