Background
Miki Nakayama was born in 1798 in the province of Yamato. She was a daughter of a landowner.
Miki Nakayama was born in 1798 in the province of Yamato. She was a daughter of a landowner.
In 1867 she worked out the model for her Mikagura-uta, songs in counting-song form that gave expression to her religious teachings. During the period from 1869 to 1882, she composed her Ofudesaki, writings in the form of traditional style Japanese poems.
Her teachings are Salvationist and monotheistic in nature, centering upon the worship of the deity Tenrio-no-mikoto, and call upon all persons to live lives of joy based upon the principle of human equality. In spite of harsh suppression by the Meiji government, her teachings attracted a wide following, particularly among the middle and lower class farming population, and by 1880 had spread all over Japan. In 1888, the year after the founder’s death, the religion was given official recognition under the name Tenri Kyokai and attached to the Shinto office of the government. In 1908 it gained independent status as one of the sects of Neo- or Sectarian Shinto.
Around 1810 she married Nakayama Zembei, a landowner in the village of Shoyashiki (present-day Tenri City) south of Nara. She gave birth to one son and five daughters. The illness of her son and her own difficulties in childbirth caused her much suffering. In the tenth lunar month of 1839, she experienced a supernatural possession for a period of three days and three nights. After her husband’s death in 1853, she w'as forced to endure extreme poverty, but discovered she had the pow'er to cure illness and ease childbirth and soon attracted a following among her neighbors.
