Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to revisit academic discourses surrounding the boundary negotiation between religious and national identities amongst early new religions through an analysis of Tenrikyō in postwar decades so as to nuance the arguments surrounding new religions' universalism and nationalism.

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims to revisit academic discourses surrounding the boundary negotiation between religious and national identities amongst early new religions through an analysis of Tenrikyō in postwar decades. Extant literature on new religions have often identified as one of the salient characteristics of new religions the concurrent existence of universalistic and nationalistic elements in doctrinal discourses, rituals, and other institutional practices including their political engagement. These studies have shed light on these contrastive and at times antithetical elements in doctrinal discourses, their mutual legitimation in ritual contexts, and their relevance in new religions' political engagement within Japan. Notwithstanding its insights, there has been little discussion about the identity negotiation during the postwar decades of early new religions such as Tenrikyō and Konkōkyō, which are seen to have restored their 'original' identity in the aftermath of the end of WWII and thus have been left out in the relevant discussion. To bring light to this relatively neglected aspect of the continuous identity negotiation of early new religions, this paper will focus on Tenrikyō during the postwar decades to explore the manners and the extent to which it has dissociated and re-associated at the discursive and material levels with the discourses and representations relating to the state, nation, and Japanese cultures. Recent critical historical works have demonstrated that Tenrikyō has maintained an ambiguous relationship with its pre-war past in the immediate aftermath of the defeat in WWII by abstracting the nationalistic doctrinal discourse it had developed during the pre-war period whilst keeping intact the underlying structure of such discourses and related practices. By building on the insights derived from these works, this paper will demonstrate how Tenrikyō has negotiated its identity during the postwar decades in terms of its institutional affiliation as a Sect Shintō sect as well as its place in the wider Japanese society. By delineating the dynamic process of interpretation at various levels, this paper will call for the need to explore layers of historical development of discourses surrounding universalism and nationalism amongst the early new religions and beyond.