intro

I often think I'd like to share what I know about the Konko faith with others, but as a non-Japanese American, and one quite young in the faith as well, I worry about making statements which could be interpreted wrongly, or simply saying mistaken wrong things and giving a bad look to the Konko faith.

With that in mind, please read my writings with the caveat that I am not formally appointed or related to any Konkokyo organization, except as a lay worshipper. However, I do think that my experience and my understanding of Konkokyo has value and could potentially help those who have questions or just want to know more.

Similarly, I want to make clear that my intent is not to convert anybody or change anybody's mind regarding Konko faith, Shinto, religion as a whole, or anything else. This is simply how I see things, and that is why I presented this as a dialogue between two people, both of whom represent me in a way. If this answers a question you had, or gives you insight into a way of thinking you hadn't considered, then it's done everything I hoped for!

The following dialogue takes place in a comfortable setting; for imagination's sake, let's say it's in a little sunroom, over tea. Two women sit across from one another at a round and cosy table; one is barely twenty, the other nearly forty. We will call the older one Tora, and the younger one Sophie.

Sophie: So, I know you said you could tell me more about this Japanese religion. It's like Shinto, right?

Tora: Well, yes and no. It's called Konkokyo, or the Konko Faith, and it's considered a sect - like an offshoot - of Shinto. It is a religion with origins in Japan, and in Shinbutsu Shugo, which is what they call the mix of Shinto and Buddhism that was in wide practice before the Meiji era.

Sophie: Wow, okay, I'm lost already.

Tora: Sorry! To try and slow it down a little, Konkokyo is considered sort of a branch of Shinto, but it has some things in common, and some things not in common, with what you probably think of when you hear "Shinto": that is most likely Shrine Shinto you're thinking of, and there are a lot of faiths under and adjacent to it.

It's sort of the difference between being Catholic and being Baptist; there are a lot of things in common, and they're both Christian, but there are some very key differences.

Sophie: Oh, I get it. I always figured there was just one kind of Shinto, with the Torii gates and the festivals and the bow clap-clap bow.

Tora: (Laughs) It's something we don't hear as much about in the west. To make a long story short, the government organized and recognizes twelve different religions as Kyoha Shinto, or "Sect Shinto", meaning they have ties to Shinto historically or philosophically, but may have their own sacred texts and their own founder, their own special rituals and practices.

I feel Kyoha Shinto have a lot more specific beliefs than Shrine Shinto, which focuses a lot on orthopraxy and ritual. Anyway, you're asking me about Konkokyo, not for a treatise on the history of Japanese religions, right?

Sophie: Yeah, so - you mentioned a founder and texts. Does Konkokyo have those, then?

Tora: They do! The founder is Ikigami Konko Daijin - Konko Daijin-Sama for short, and in English sometimes Konko-Sama for really short.

He was a farmer in mid-late 1800s Japan, and lived through the beginning of the Meiji period, which brought a lot of changes to Japan as a whole, and religion in Japan especially. His life is really interesting, but I'd take us way off course talking about it. There's a whole book.

Most importantly, he worshipped a kami that at the time was feared by most people, and gradually as that kami revealed more information about themself, he began offering help and prayers to visitors and became known for his wisdom and the positive effects these prayers had on people who came to him.

Sophie: A kami is a god, or even capital G God, right?

Tora: Sometimes the word kami is used in translation to refer to 'gods' or 'God' from other religions, but the concept of what a kami is in Japanese, I feel is both broader and narrower than what 'god' implies to a western English speaker.

Not to get too deep into it, but when talking about kami-sama (plural) or Kami-sama (singular), I prefer to keep using the Japanese term just to be concise (and the honorific -sama to be polite). I think it's a good way to help not impose our ideas of what God or gods are onto the concept.

Sophie: But a kami is a divine being, at least?

Tora: Sometimes, yes. I think numinous is a better word than divine. Both work for our purposes here.

Sophie: So this Konko Daijin-Sama worshipped a scary kami, and other people started doing it too, because he was giving them good advice and his prayers had results, is that about right?

Tora: In a nutshell, yes. He was told by this Kami-Sama - who we now call Tenchi Kane No Kami - to sit in front of the altar and listen to the prayers of anybody who came by, to relay them to Kami-Sama, and then he would relay wisdom, or teachings, back from Kami-Sama.

This is still one of the major practices of Konkokyo today, called toritsugi or divine mediation. Ordained ministers take turns sitting in the church, usually to the right of the main altar, and listen to anybody who comes to talk, pray with them, and give them wisdom from Kami-sama if it is provided.

Sophie: Whoa, I just got whiplash. Did you say 'ordained ministers' in a 'church'? That sounds super Christian.

Tora: Yeah, some of the choices used to translate the original Japanese terms to English feel really churchy and Christian.

I suspect a lot of these translations were done as we approached World War II, when Japanese immigrants following the Konko faith wanted very much to blend in with the Christian overculture. It didn't help much, unfortunately; Japanese-American Konko ministers were some of the first taken to internment by the US government, as community leaders that they thought might have political sympathies to Imperial Japan.

Anyway, I get why those choices of translation feel a little weird, but try to just trundle over them for now.

Sophie: Okay, I can get over that. But let me go back a little bit. So the ministers listen to prayers and then speak for Kami-Sama? That sounds a little like confession. And actually, as a pagan, I have to look at anyone who speaks for a deity with a LOT of suspicion.

Tora: It's less like confession and more like a quick little therapy session, honestly. As for the second part, yeah, I get that. The ministers I've spoken to have never told me that "Kami-Sama wants me to tell you x y and z", though they have sometimes gently offered advice, usually based on the Kyoten (like scriptures, covered later).

I don't know if this is particular to the ministers I've had mediation with, or western ministers, or if this is also the usual practice in Japan. I would remind anyone to practice discernment, even talking to someone who is ordained! But, in a perfect world, these ministers are kind hearted people who are just there to listen to you, and not getting anything out of it except the hope that they made your life a little better on Kami-Sama's behalf. You don't even have to be part of a given church to get mediation - you can just show up, or if you're far away from any churches, you can contact one, and often mediation is offered long-distance by phone, video chat or even by text.

Sophie: So, if you have to get mediation, then you can't access this kami - Tenchi Kane No Kami - directly? You need an intermediary through toritsugi to have your prayers relayed?

Tora: Not at all! Mediation is helpful because it gives you someone knowledgable in the religion to lean on and pray with, but anybody can pray to Tenchi Kane No Kami any time, with no restrictions. The founder, Konko-Sama, encouraged his followers to pray anywhere and any time.

Altars to Tenchi Kane No Kami usually have a piece of writing in the place of honor, which is called the Tenchi Kakitsuke, or the Divine Mandate. A very terse summary of this mandate, which is also said as a prayer, is "Your own heart is where divine favor comes from, so pray sincerely any time, even right now, and you will receive blessings". So essentially, the idea that anybody has access to Tenchi Kane No Kami, and their blessings, is one of the core principles of the religion.

Sophie: Okay, so with that cleared up... Tell me about this Tenchi Kane No Kami? You keep saying 'they'? Is this one deity or several?

Tora: Some of the older translations use 'he' for Kami-Sama, but Kami don't really have a gender, not the way humans do. And Japanese doesn't really use gendered second or third-person pronouns, so there's no particular gender preference expressed there. So I prefer to use the gender-neutral 'they' when referring to Kami-Sama, and will continue to do so unless they correct me!

In addition, even though Tenchi Kane No Kami started being worshipped as Konjin, they also present themselves as two other beings called Nittenshi and Gattenshi; I think that's getting into Konkokyo 201 level material, though.

Sophie: Got it. So what is Tenchi Kane No Kami the kami of? Since Shinto is polytheistic, right?

Tora: Yeah, kind of ... I would consider Shinto more animistic, since it recognizes many kami of different kinds in nature, big and small, and acknowledges that same kind of being or energy can exist in anything. If that's true, then Tenchi Kane no Kami is a sort of Panentheistic god - they are both omnipresent in the universe and more than the universe, but also a deity that can have a very personal relationship with people.

I know, I said I preferred the word kami, and now I switched back. Take me to court about it.

Sophia: I will, but first - you still didn't tell me what they're the deity of.

Tora: Even polytheistic deities aren't really limited to a single domain, but if Kami-sama had to be defined this way, they'd be the deity of heaven and earth, a kami that resides in and represents all things.

Tenchi Kane No Kami means "Heaven and Earth Golden Kami". That makes them a very big kami-sama, and a lot of people (especially in the west) interpret that to be equivalent to the very big God of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam; I don't agree with this, personally, but there are plenty of monotheistic Konko adherents out there. I have also seen Kami-sama compared to the broader Shinto concept of Musubi, or equated to the kami Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-Mikoto, which, again, we're getting really out of the 101 level here.

Sophia: Wait, so there are monotheistic Konkokyo believers?

Tora: There are! One of the nice things about Konko faith is that it doesn't have a lot of hard theology that you have to accept. There is a lot of room for figuring out your beliefs about Kami-Sama and your relationship with them without going out of bounds, so to speak.

Sophia: But the founder, Konko-Sama, was originally Shinto, or Shinbutsu-Shugo, right? So he would have been, as you said, an animist. Did he become a monotheist, or did he believe Tenchi Kane no Kami was one of many kami?

Tora: Konko Daijin-Sama was exposed to different religions, or at least as many religions as he could have been exposed to, given his farmer upbringing in rural Japan right on the cusp of the 'modernization' of the Meiji era. He liked visiting different shrines and temples and expresses his respect for religions and those who serve the kami, buddhas and bodhisattvas.

So in short, yes, Ikigami Konko Daijin-Sama seems to have believed there were many divine beings in the world, as would have been the understanding of most Japanese people at that time; that was just How Things Were then, and he probably never encountered other options. He eventually came to feel that Tenchi Kane No Kami-Sama was the most important kami.

Monotheistic Konko believers point out that Konko Daijin-Sama had a constantly developing view and understanding of Kami-Sama throughout his lifetime, and they may feel that he was moving toward or even developed a monotheistic view of Tenchi Kane No Kami before his death. On the other hand, Konko-Sama makes common reference to other kami-sama, buddhas, and so forth. There is even an incident he relayed where he was called to by Amaterasu O-Mikami, and describes the interaction between her and Tenchi Kane No Kami.

This brings me to another important thing about Konkokyo as a religion - not only is it not very hard on the theology and allowing of personal interpretation, but it is very open about the fact that their scriptures - the Kyoten - are personal accounts, those of Konko Daijin himself and of those who knew and received teachings from him. Some of the teachings even contradict each other - they are simply seen as the teachings that that specific person needed at that specific time, and not necessarily mandates that apply to all people. So, generally, those in the Konko Faith see their scriptures as inspiration and wise advice, when applicable - and simply not applicable when it's not.

Sophia: Hold on, that was long, let me process that.

Tora: That's ok! It's a lot. It's a whole religion you're learning about from zero here. Feel free to ask more questions.

Sophia: I appreciate that. And, that's a good question - it sounds like Konkokyo would be pretty open to people asking questions and challenging ideas. Is it?

Tora: In my experience, so long as you do so respectfully, they're really happy to discuss just about anything. Adherents, too, but especially ministers. Sometimes the answer is just "We don't really know," or "Konko-Sama said this, but what do you think?", and actually, I like the honesty of it. I prefer when people don't pretend to have all the answers.

Sophia: It seems like a religion taking its cues from a pre-Meiji era Japanese teacher would still be pretty conservative and old fashioned, though.

Tora: You'd expect that, but - at least here in the US - I'd call Konkokyo very progressive. Even in his time, Konko-Sama was pretty progressive about a lot of things - declaring that taboos no longer needed to be followed to avoid the wrath of Kami-Sama, for example, and allowing women to become his followers and ministers. In Japan, there is also a group for LGBTQ* Konkokyo ministers! The religion is very open to the idea that different people, who have different lifestyles, different ideas, and different needs, are all loved by Kami-Sama.