p. 135 "Asano Wasaburo ... joined Omoto in 1916 ... as the main author and editor of Omoto’s magazine Shinreikai".

p. 136 Tomokiyo Yoshisane joined Omoto in "1918 ... and in 1921 he founded a small new religion called Shindo Tenkokyo".

p. 136 "Masaharu joined Omoto in 1918 and, like Asano and Tomokiyo, contributed many articles to the Shinreikai ... . In 1930 he founded Seicho no Ie".

"Nakano Yonosuke ... joined Omoto in 1929 ... and finally founded his own new religion named Ananaikyo".

"Whereas Asano and

Tomokiya continued to practice spirit possession in their new organisations --

in rituals called seishin toitsu and

chinkon kishin respectively --

Taniguchi and Nakano abolished the practice of spirit possession".

"The spiritual guide (naobi ...) is the imperishable fraction of the supreme deity every human being receives before birth (Reikon hyakushu : 41-50 ...). The four essences are

the rough essence (aramitama ...),

the harmonious essence (nigimitama ...),

the wondrous essence (kushimitama) and

the prosperous essence (sakimitama ...).

They evoke courage,

intimacy,

wisdom and

love respectively, and

are therefore responsible for effects such as progress,

peace,

skills and

profit (Shinto montai : 36-44 ...; Reikon hyakushu : 51-90 ...)."

p.

in the section (of the Nihon s^oki) __

it saith that __

153

wherein Onamoc^i hideth himself "in the world of the dead"

"he "invested him with the pure Yasaka jewels"

when Empress Jingu goeth to Korea

she invited the rough essence [aramitama ...]

"there is certainly a divine method through which a soul [reikon ...] takes possession of some material body [buttai ...]. The Izumo no fudoki announces that Susanoo is not likely to have attached his soul to plants and trees [fn. 56 : "Susanoo would not have allowed leaves to drop to the ground if he had attached his soul to them."]; and the

154

kan’yogoto [fn. 57 : oath by the governor of Izumo (in the 8^th volume of the Engi s^iki)] says that [the deity Onamoc^i] "instilled his own benign spirit into a many-spanned mirror"."

p. 160

[361f.] "In the beginning the woman’s body will shake and in the end she will not remember anything as if she was asleep. At this point you may reverently ask for the deity’s name."

p. 161

"Men, such as Soejima Taneomi ..., ... served as Honda’s mediums alongside women, particularly, Honda’s daughter Kaoruko in 1887".

[360] "It is good that women recite "ma-na-ka-ta-ra" morning and night. When menstruating, ... they should abstain from spirit possession."

p. 163

"Whereas chinkon was an active practice, during which the performing subject caused his, her or another soul to take possession of some object or human,

kishin was chinkon’s passive form, with the performing subject receiving a deity into himself or herself".

pp. 163-4

pp. 163-4 "the spirits’ movements could be learned through practicing chinkon (Reigakusho ... : 372)."

p. 164 "Practitioners had to be aware of the different levels of divine worlds to know ... methods of kishin".

p. 170

"eight-foot [long] curved jewels and mirror that had allured

p. 171

[the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity from the Rock-Dwelling,] and also the Herb-Quelling-Great-Sword"."

p. 172

and inviting a separated and roaming heavenly guided spirit".

p. 172

[quoted from Kojiki kami rikai III:332f.] Inbe no Hironari’s "Kogo shui stating that the ritual of chinkon was a relic from Ame no Uzume" (Kogo-s^ui XXV:11a);

p. 173

"the Kujiki ... of the Mononabe clan’s ... recorded that the ceremony of chinkon originated when their founding ancestor, the deity Nigihayahi, received it from heaven".

p. 177

are among the eight deities at the centre of chinkonsai ...;

p. 178

and the Ame no kazuuta, too, was part of the court ritual as well as of Honda’s chinkon (cf. Haguenauer 1930:323-327 and 339f.).

Consequently, Honda explicitly connected chinkonsai and chinkon. He did this by employing the Ryo no gige’s explanation of the chinkonsai as the core explanation for his chinkon."

p. 181

"Nagasawa Katsutate (... 1858-1940) ... continued research on Honda’s Spirit Studies and had many student himself, among whom were Deguchi Onisaburo, Tomokiyo Yoshisane and Nakano Yonosuke. ...

The second primary source is Kannagara (... "Deities") ... . ...

p. 183

Nagasawa’s statement included numerous quotations from ancient Japanese, Chinese and Greek sources ... . ...

The third primary source is Omoto jiken ni taisuru iken (... "Opinion on the Omoto incident"), a 130-page shorthand record taken during ... 15^th and 16^th September 1940. ... Nagasawa ... described how Onisaburo had studied spirit possession as well as Hirata’s teachings with him, Nagasawa, and defended Omoto’s doctrine".

p. 184

"Nagasawa Katsutate was born on the 8^th day of the 8^th month of Ansei 5 (14^th September 1858) in Fujimimura Shimizu ..., a hamlet in Shizuoka prefecture’s Abe ... district, which today is part of the town

p. 185

Shimizu ... . ... He was later also introduced to Western philosophy by Hattori Tadaoki ... . Parallel to serving at the Miho shrine [fn. 139 : "The Miho shrine is locted ... at the Pacific coast of the Miho peninsula ... . The shrine ... rever[e]s Onamuchi and Mihotsuhime ... as its main deities".] Nagasawa was appointed head priest of the small Yamanashi shrine ..., alternatively called Mikasa Inari shrine ..., in the direct vicinity of his family’s home".

"In ... spring 1888 ... – Honda performed a session of spirit possession at a small shrine on the Hayama ..., a hill on the premises of the Sengen shrine. ... Honda’s wife Chikako acted as saniwa and their teenage daughter kaoruko as kannushi. Nagasawa had prepared ten difficult questions from the Kokiji and the Nihon shoki and another twenty questions on Western philosophy for the occasion. Kaoruko – or the possessing deity Konohana Sakuya Hime ... – answered all questions satisfactorily". {The daughter may have been coached by her parents beforehand, as to the answers to the quaestions.}

p. 186

"Nagasawa became head priest of the Miho shrine ... in 1898 ... . ... In 1891 he received permission to found a religious confraternity, the Inari Kosha ..., at the Yamanashi shrine on the grounds that it was the oldest shrine revering Ame no Uzume, the deity of spirit possession. ... Nagasawa’s disciple Nakajima Atsuo ... wrote in his obituary that Nagasawa reiterated the importance of knowledge and

p. 187

Nagasawa died on 10^th October 1940 ... and was buried in the Baiinji ..., ... within easy walking distance of the Yamanashi shrine".

(Kannagara : 1) "In instances vital to the state the emperor himself performed spirit possession [kamigakari ...], learned about divine thoughts and then decided."

(Kannagara : 2) "the ancient spirit possession recorded in the Nihon shoki had an accurate method. a strictly correct form, possessing deities of high [rank] and revelations which were certainly true."

p. 188

"For centuries, he wrote, worthwhile instances of spirit possession had occurred when high-ranking deities had considered it inevitable to warn humans about impending calamities."

After a long period of decline, Nagasawa explained, Hirata Atsutane had initiated the study of spirits and deities, but only Honda Chikaatsu had developed a practical method of communicating with the divine world at will. ... About his teacher Honda and the method of spirit possession he developed, Nagasawa wrote : ... .

spirit possession is secret and not easily taught to people. Because only those who are well-informed, ... and proficient in profound truths can grasp its mysterious depth, there are only a few people who can understand it."

p. 189

"Similar to Spiritualism, whose "psychical research" he was well aware of, Nagasawa advocated that spirit possession should not only be experienced, but also studied theoretically. He appreciated Honda for not only ... believing in the deities’ existence, but also for conducting research into ... the universe’s origin".

but otherwise his writings focus on the one topic of spirit possession. Concerning spirit possession Nagasawa supplied additional information on Honda’s oral teachings ... as, for instance, in Kannagara :

[Kannagara : 2] In formless spirit possession the phenomenon of possessing does not manifest itself outwardly.

p. 190

(56) "If one does not practise and master the divine art, there is no way to

p. 191

(4) "If one does study and master the divine art, one will come to know even where the souls go in the world to come."

"in order to fully understand the matters of the world beyond[,] one must practise and master spirit possession [kamigakari ...]. Only after one has practised and mastered spirit possession, and has grasped the real existence of the divine world, one will understand the mysterious meaning of the divine classics and the reasons behind the current appearance of the universe. And through this, one will in due time naturally come to understand the supreme metaphysics".

p. 196

Honda ... spread the methods of divination with tortoises in the world."

p. 197

"Sato Akihito (... 1913-1986) ... wrote several books on chinkon, kishin and Honda’s Spirit Studies, such as Kohoshiki chinkonho ... (... "The divine method of chinkon ...") ..., in 1964; Kohoshiki yusai kirokusen (... "Selected records of the imperceptible ceremony following the old rules"), a three-volume collection of records taken during session of kishin between 1964 and 1967 with Sato acting as mediator ...; and Kenshin Honda ... (... "The canon of Spirit Studies from Honda ...")".

p. 198

"The Kenshin Honkai ... was founded and registered as a religious confraternity of Nagasawa’s Yamanashi’s shrine, although its headquarters were in Inagawa ... in Shizuoka. Its express purpose was ... to testify to the existence of spirits and deities ... – the programme was written in 1936 ... . ... The Kenshin Honkai ... practised chinkon and kishin. ... Because chinkon and kishin were practised in shrines, questions to the deities often related to specific theological issues."

"Besides Inaba and Sato of the Kenshin Honkai, Nagasawa Katsutate had ... disciples such as Miyagijima Kinsaku ... who frequently acted as his spirit medium ... . Another disciple often acting as Nagasawa’s spirit medium was Take Eidayu ..., a priest of the Oyama shrine ... at the foot of Mount Afuriyama .., Kanagawa prefecture, who registered as disciple in 1922 and became very well trained in spirit possession."