Sukyo Mahikari

Sukyo Mahikari (崇教真光 "Sūkyō Mahikari") is a new religious movement (Shinshūkyō) that was established in Japan in 1978. The stated aim of the organisation is to create a spiritually heaven-like civilization on earth. [cite web
url=http://www.sukyo-mahikari.org
title=Sukyo Mahikari
publisher=Sukyo Mahikari North America
accessdate=2007-09-23] It uses the term "the art of True Light (Mahikari)" to practice giving what it considers is an energy given to its adherents, through a deity they consider as the creator God and call Mioya Motosu Mahikari Omikami (御親元主真光御み神, Original Parent, Lord, God of True Light) - or Su (Lord, 主) God for short.

History

Sukyo Mahikari is a breakaway from the Mahikari movement that was registered by Yoshikazu Okada as a religious corporation in 1963. Its cosmology, values, and rituals were borrowed by largely from another new Japanese religion, Sekai Kyūseikyõ. This in turn was strongly influenced by Oomoto, one of the oldest of the Japanese new religious movements, Shintoism (the emphasis on purity, reference to gods, and the veneration of the emperor), Buddhism (belief in karma and reincarnation), and Japanese folk religion (the divine status of the leader, miraculous healing, etc.). [harvnb|Cornille|1991|p=266]

After Yoshikazu Okada’s death in 1974, the movement went through a drawn-out succession dispute that eventually split it into two groups: Sekai Mahikari Bunmei Kyõdan (keeping the original name), headquartered in the town of Nakaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture, and Sukyo Mahikari, headquartered in the city of Takayama, Gifu Prefecture. [harvnb|Knecht|1995|p=322]

Sukyo Mahikari was established in June 1978 by Sachiko (Kouko) Okada, using the name Keishu, at the Harumi Trade Center in Tokyo, Sachiko Okadaannounced the "establishment of Sukyo Mahikari". [harvnb|Mahikari|1993|pp=228-229] [cite web
url=http://members.ozemail.com.au/~skyaxe/smreg.htm
title=Report of establishment
publisher=Mahikari Exposed website
accessdate=2007-09-23]

tatus

In the 1990s, a report of the French National Assembly Committee of Inquiry on Cults included Mahikari and Sukyo Mahikari in a list of cults. [ [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/workingpapers/cito/w10/annex2_en.htm European Parliament -"Cults in Europe" Directorate-General for Research ] ]

Notes

References

*Citation
url=http://www.mahikari.org/
title=World Divine Light Organization web site
format=webpage
pages=holy master-history
accessdate=2007-10-21

*Citation
title=Japanese New Religions in the West
first=Peter Bernard
last=Clarke
|year=1994
publisher=Routledge
isbn=1873410247
accessdate=2007-09-23

*Citation
url=http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/pdf/345.pdf
title=The Phoenix Flies West: The Dynamics of the Inculturation of Mahikari in Western Europe
last=Cornille
first=Catherine
format=pdf
journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies
year=1991
volume=18
issue=2-3
pages=265-285
accessdate=2007-09-23

*Citation
title=Daiseishu, Great and Holy Master
year=1993
first=Sukyo
last=Mahikari
publisher=L.H. Yoko Shuppan Co.Ltd

*Citation
title=Spirit, Selves and Subjectivity in a Japanese new Religion
first=Brian J.
last=McVeigh
isbn=0-7734-8430-2
year=1997

*Citation
title=Is the Future in Our Hands? My Experiences with Sukyo Mahikari
first=Andris K.
last=Tebecis
publisher=Sunrise Press
location=Canberra, Australia
year=2004
isbn=0959367748

*Citation
first=T
last=Yasaka
title=Hope for a Troubled Age
publisher=L H Yoko Publishers Tokyo
year=1999

Further reading

* [http://uk.geocities.com/peterbernardclarke Clarke, Peter B.] (ed.). "A Bibliography of Japanese New Religious Movements: With Annotations", Surrey, Japan Library, 1999 ISBN 1-873410-80-8
* [http://uk.geocities.com/peterbernardclarke Clarke, Peter B.] (ed.). "Japanese New Religions: In Global Perspective", Surrey, Curzon Press, 2000 ISBN 0-7007-1185-6
*Citation
title=Dojo: Magic and Exorcism in Modern Japan
first=Winston
last=Davis
|year=1982
publisher=Stanford University Press
isbn=0804711313
accessdate=2007-09-23
* Greenwood, Garry A [http://emperorsmen.bravehost.com/freecopy.htm] All The Emperor's Men: An Inside View Of The Imperial Cult - MAHIKARI. Revised Edition January 2005. ISBN 0 9585279 0 3
* Hexham, Irving & Karla Poewe. "New Religion...es.", Boulderstview Press, 1997.
* Hurbon, Laennec. "Mahikari in the Caribbean", Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 18/2-3: 1991, 243-64.
* Knecht, Peter. "Aspects of Shamanism: An Introduction", 2003.
* Citation
title=The Rush Hour of the Gods: A Study of the New Religious Movements in Japan
first=Horace Neill
last=McFarland
year=1967
publisher=Macmillan
isbn=002583200X
* Mc Veigh, Brian J. "The M...sm of Australia...hikas", ...17/2 (1992): 98-125.
* Murakami, Shigeyosu and Paul L. Swanson, "Religion and Society in Modern Japan:..", Asian Humanities Press, 1991, 239-256.
*Citation
url=http://www.fiu.edu/~asian/jsr/Table%20of%20Cont%202002.pdf
title=Transcultural Possessions in/of Mahikari: Religious Syncretism in Martinique
author=Weston, Erin Leigh
format=pdf
joournal=Japanese Studies Review
year=2002
volume=6
issue=1
pages=45-62
accessdate=2007-09-23

ee also

*Cult
*Religions of Japan