FANTASTIC SECTS IN JAPAN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 152, 15 July 1937, Page 5

FANTASTIC SECTS IN JAPAN

Action Taken by ihe Police TEMPLE DESTROYED LONDON, June 15. Public attention has again been. focussed on the mushroom growth of new religious sects in Japan by the recent indictment of Mr Tokuiehi Miki, sixty-eight-year'old founder of the Hito-no-michi sect, which was accompanied by a sweeping police raid on the headquartera of the sect at Fcse, near Osaka. More than a score of arrests.were made in connection with this raid. A severe blow was dealt to the Hito-no-miehi (Way of Man) last year when its founder was arrested on the complaint of the father of one of the girls who had been a devotee of the sect and had been. serving him as a maid. Another Rasputin. Immoral conduct was proved ; and financial irregularities were also discovgred in the organisation. The new drive against the sect is motivated by tiie assertion that its doctrines and evangelioal work contain points which are inconsistent with Shinto beliefs, encoura^ng disrespect for Shinto shrines and deities. Hito-no-michi, thus seems destined to share the fate of Omotokyo, a sect which was finally suppressed last year after baving been for .a long time an object of suspicion to the authorities, The founder of this organisation, which, at the height of its influence, is said to have numbered.its votaries in millions, was Wanisaburo Deguchi, who somewhat resembled Rasputin in character and temperament. Falling in with a deranged old woman, Naoko Deguchi, who had the habit of writing down incoherent sentences and pbrases on scraps of papers Wanasiburo married her daughter and elevated her to the rank of a prophetess. On very sligjbt evidence he extracted from her disconnected writings an alleged prediction of the European War, Omotokyo attracted into its ranks many Nfationalist Extremists, and became objectionable to the authorities on political grounds. It was finally eliminated in 1936, and the magnificent temple which it had erected in Ayabe, a small town west of Kyoto, was destroyed. A more sinister self-styled religious cult, allegedly responsible for several hundred murders, has just been discovered in Korea, according to a despatch from Seoul, capital of Korea, in the leading Tokyo newspaper, "Nichi Nichi.'-' Children Murdered. This organisation was called PyagPyag; and its leaders were apparently obsessed with homicidal and sex manias. Over sixty bodies of men, women, and children who were murdered after being initiated into the sect have been discovered. Burying alive waB a favourite method of murder in this sect. Seventeen arrests of persons allegedly implicated in these outrages have been made. The founder, a certain Ryukai Kin, . has diBappeared and it is believed he may have committed suicide. The political and social tension and unrest which have prevailed in Japan during recent years have been powerful factors in promoting the growth of new religious bodies^ which have been springing up in great numbers, although only a few achieved tho na-tion-wide influence of the Hito-no-michi and the Omotokyo. Three traits are character istie of practically all the new sects. They preach extreme nationalism., pronxise their devotees healing from physical ' pains, and rapidly enrich their Counders. There seems to be little spirit oi i martyi'dom amoug the Japanese ; v/hei the order goes forth for the suppression of a sect it is obeyed withoui any rioting or disturbance.