Bunjirō Kawate was a religious leader of the late Edo and early Meiji periods and founder of Konko-kyo; he is also known as Akasawa Bunji and Konko Daijin.
Background
Bunjirō Kawate was born in 1814. . He was the son of a farm family of the district of Asaguchi in Bitchu Province. In 1825 lie became the adopted heir of the Kawate family, another farm family in the neighborhood. In 1854, when he fell critically ill, a relative speaking in a state of divine possession announced that the illness was due to a curse inflicted by Konjin, a deity originally associated with the Chinese yin-yang system of cosmology. By swearing absolute obedience to the deity, Kawate was able to recover from the illness.
Career
In 1857 his younger brother became possessed by Konjin, and around 1858 Kawate himself became capable of hearing the words of the deity. In 1859 he handed over the management of family affairs to his third son and went into retirement.
Religion
On the twenty-first day of the tenth lunar month of the same year, he received a divine command to give up farming and devote his full time to transmitting the words of the deity, an event known as Rikkyb Shinden, or the "Divine Message to Found a Religion.” Thereafter, Kawate entered upon the religious life.
Views
In his teachings, the deity Konjin, who had previously been feared as a wrathful deity, is transformed into a god of love. Kawate also placed emphasis upon a life of diligence and hard work and attempted to do away with superstition.
He attracted a wide following, mainly among the farm population of the Okayama area, where he was born, and by Meiji times his teachings had spread all over the country. In 1900, some years after Kawate’s death, his teachings, known as Konko-kyo, were recognized as a sect of Neo- or Sectarian Shinto. Kawate’s only written work is his autobiography entitled Konko daijin-kaku, which appeared in 1874.