RELIGIOUS SECTS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 460, 30 June 1937, Page 2

RELIGIOUS SECTS

MUSHROOM GROWTH Japanese Police Active Tokio, June 2. Public attention again been focused on the mushroom growth of new religious seats in Japan by the recent indictment of. Mr. Tokuichi Mi.ki, sixty-eight-year-old founder of the Hito-no-michi sect, which was accompanied by a sweeping police raid on the headquarters, of the sect at Fuse, near Osaka. More than a score of arrests were made in this raid. A severe blow was realt to the Hi<to-no-michi (May of MGn) last year, when its founder arrested on the complaint of the father of one of the girls who had’ teen a devotee of ihe sect, and had been serving him is a mUid. Another Rasputin. Immoral conduct wes proved; and financial irregularities were also discovered in the organisation. The new drive against the sect is motivated by the assertion that" As doctrines and evangelical work contain points which are inconsistent with Shinto shrines, end deities. Hito-no-mlchi thus seems destined to share the fate of Omotokio, a sect which was finally suppressed last year, after having 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 find temperament.. Falling in with a deraged old woman, Naoko Deguchi, who had the habit of writing down incoherent sentences andi phrases on scraps of paper, Kanisiaburo married her

daughter and elevated her to the rank of a prophetess. On very slight evidence he extracted from hei disconnected writings an alleged prediction of the European War. Omotokio attracted into its ranks many National Extremists, and because objectionable to the authorities on political grounds. It was finally eliminated in 193 G, andi the magnificent temple which it had erected in Ayabe, a small town west of Kyo to, 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, is the leading Tokio newspaper, "Nichi Nichi." Children Murdered, This organisation was called Pyag-Pyag; and its leaders were apparently obsessed with homicidal nd sex manias. Ovsr sixty bodies of men, women and children who were murdered after being initiated! into rhe sect have been discovered. Burying alive was a favourite method of murder in this sect. Seventeen arrests of persons allegedly implicated in these outrages have Deen made. The founder, a certain Ryukai Kin, has disappeared, and it is believed he may have committed suicide. Three- traits are characteristic of practically all the new sects. They preach extreme nationalism, promise their devotees healing from physical pains, and rapidly enrich their founders.