The Future Past of a ‘Religious Town’: Tenri City and Tenrikyō in Japan

Introduction: Cities and religion in Japan

A visitor to Japan would immediately notice the omnipresence of religious buildings and statues of Buddhas and gods scattered around Japanese cities (Rüpke 2021). Temples and shrines are everywhere, from large complexes occupying extensive portions of land including forests to smaller local Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines supported by parishioners, to minuscule shrines and stones depicting deities dotting roadsides and footpaths, to protective shrines around markets and on the roof of major buildings (Reader 1991, 52). Unsurprisingly cities have appeared in the study of religion in Japan, but very few studies have focused explicitly on the relationship between urbanity and religion, especially regarding modern and contemporary Japan. In order to contribute to the discussion on religion and urbanity and its reciprocal formations, after a short overview of religion and urban centers in Japan, this paper will focus on a city located in Nara prefecture called Tenri and how its establishment relates to the narratives and visions of a religious group called Tenrikyō, established in mid-nineteenth century. In particular, it highlights how spatial concepts central to Tenrikyō’s cosmological vision interacted with the urban, mutually transforming and impacting each other. This paper argues that in Tenri city the urban and the religious views of Tenrikyō co-created a vision of the future based on the idea of both a prosperous new city and a prosperous joyous future for the religious organization. Therefore, by focusing on a specific case study and on a relatively short timeframe, this paper shows how both spatial and temporal aspects co-constitute the reciprocal formation of the religious and the urban. In other words, Tenrikyō and Tenri city grew (and declined) together both spatially, as Tenrikyō’s practices and presence impacted the formation of the city, and temporally, with Tenrikyō’s visions of past, present and future interlacing those of the city.

The arrival of Buddhism in the sixth century had a significant impact on the Japanese landscape it settled in and it radically transformed it. The ancient capital cities, such as Naniwa, Fujiwarekyō, Heijōkyō (later Nara), Nagaokakyō and Heiankyō (later Kyoto), were designed on the Chinese model and represented significant new developments to sustain a growing urban population.^[1] Markets were created, while large palaces and Buddhist temples displayed “power and wealth of theretofore unimaginable scope” (Breen and Teeuwen 2000, 69). Temple-shrines complexes, often surrounded by protected sacred forests, also transformed the ‘natural’ landscape of cities (Rots 2017).

In his work on urbanization and religious innovation, Michael Como points out how urbanization and social change in the eighth and ninth centuries Japan impacted religious life by stimulating new rituals and material culture. The establishment of new capitals resulted in shrines becoming more stable structures, and it also created new ritual forms to pacify spirits disrupted by the constructions. The reshaping and rebuilding of cities imply movements and the construction of roadways involved movements of people, illnesses and gods. New rituals required new religious specialists familiar with pacification rites and with the conception of yin and yang balance (Como 2012, 48). Urbanization therefore radically changed not only sites of religious practices but also their materiality, reshaping “the terrain in which Nara and Heian religion took place” (Como 2012, 46).

Studies on premodern Japan have also discussed how Japanese geomancy (onmyōdō) principles were used in establishing and structuring these cities. Temple complexes were often placed in the northeast direction, considered dangerous, as protection. For example, Heijōkyō (Nara) had a large Buddhist complex built in that direction (the Tōdaiji) while in the later capital, Heiankyō (now Kyoto) the role of protecting the city was fulfilled by a temple outside the city, the Enryakuji on Mount Hiei.

Until the fifteenth century monzenmachi or temple towns were a common form of the urban setting in Japan until castle towns developed in the sixteenth century. They represented the most established type of city and were also important commercial centres. Fujimoto (1970) extensively studied the history of monzenmachi and how hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops and entertainment facilities for pilgrims developed in the area surrounding the road leading to the main gate of the temple. Several factors impacted the developments of major temples, such as locations, the popularity of worshipped deities and government policies, that allowed entertainment facilities such as brothels and theatres to be developed in the area of monzenmachi. Other studies (such as Yoon 1997) included in the definition of monzenmachi also other facilities supporting religious activities, such as houses for temple employees.

During the Tokugawa period (1603 – 1867) Japan experienced a growth in urban population and it was in this period that the idea of ‘the city’ developed (Sorensen 2002). The three main urban centers were Edo (now Tokyo) that represented the political and administrative center; Kyoto, the center for traditional art and residence of the Emperor; and Osaka, which was the financial and commercial center. The urban development in Tokugawa was in the form of castle towns, around 200 of them were scattered around the country (Sorensen 2002). The space of these cities was divided between the area of commoners (machi chi), the area of samurai (buke chi) and the area of temple (jisha chi). Temples fulfilled both religious functions (such as funeral rituals), but they also became centers for entertainment, as they often hosted large festivals and public spaces, fulfilling the role of public parks (Sorensen 2002). Consequently, commercial districts started developing around temples. Temples also had an administrative function because in the early seventeenth century the new Tokugawa government mandated compulsory parish temple membership, in conjunction with issuing directives banning ‘heretical’ religions such as Christianity. This created strong ties between Buddhist sects and the government, the former needing a stable economic base and the second a way to have control over the population (Williams 2005, 13). In premodern Japan affiliation to a political leader guaranteed prosperity of religious organizations (Hur 2000) but also a specific collective popular culture developed around major temples. Hur discusses how a ‘Sensōji Buddhism’ and a ‘culture produced and consumed by Edo commoners’ (Hur 2000, 24) developed in Edo around the Sensōji temple, located in the north-eastern part of the city, through Tokugawa Ieyasu’s^[2] (the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868) patronage and his affiliation with the temple.

In the late Tokugawa period, new religious formations also started to emerge, and it is to this development that we will turn now.

New religions, landscapes

From late Tokugawa so-called new religions (shinshūkyō) – an umbrella term used to define groups established since the late nineteenth century and perceived as alternatives and in contrast to temple Buddhism and Shinto shrines^[3] – started being established in Japan and they built new religious centers, usually connected with the life of their founder.

Some studies have distinguished between ‘rural-based new religions’ emerging in the Meiji (1868 – 1912) period and ‘urban-based new religions’ emerging in the Taisho (1912 – 1926) and Showa (1926 – 1989) periods (Shimazono 2004) and highlighted the impact of processes of modernization and urbanization in the development of new religions and how they provided a sense of identity and community to people in rapidly urbanizing areas (Shimazono 2000; Davis 1980).^[4] However, rather than examining the role of urban spaces in shaping religious practices and new formations, studies have tended to focus on how these organizations made themselves visible in urban contexts.

The tendency of new religions to construct large and often grandiose centres has been widely commented on in studies of these groups. Early works in the postwar period (such as Thomsen 1963) suggested that such movements particularly appeal to the poorer, less educated in society and sought to associate the apparent splendor of such complexes with this orientation and to argue that an element in their success has been to have such grand centres that speak of success to actual or potential followers. The use of extravagant materials in the construction of such sites has also been commented upon; for example, Ōmura and Nishiyama (1988, 199) in their edited work on contemporary religious trends have a section detailing how some new religions have used gold to decorate parts of their sacred centres, as if to imply that new religions, in general, were similarly flashy. Breaking away from the traditional religions, which have developed their particular sacred centres – whether the head temples of Buddhist sects and prominent pilgrimage routes linking together Buddhist temples or in terms of major Shinto shrines such as at Ise which developed as a sacred town (Breen 2018) – new religions have produced an alternative series of geographical centres that are also posited as sacred, even mythological spaces. The development of new geographies, sacred centres (and related pilgrimage practices) indicates how new religions offer an alternative to the older traditions, while at the same time rearticulating modes of interaction between religion and spaces. The grandiose building constructed by new religions were often depicted with slightly negative nuances for being over the top and aimed at showing the group’s wealth and success in order to attract new members (Igarashi 2001). Little attention had been devoted, however, to the reciprocal formation of religion and the urban in modern and contemporary Japan.

The group discussed in this article, Tenrikyō, shared many characteristics with other religious organizations established in the same period; as mentioned above, many ‘new religions’ established sacred centers that have become the foci of worship and pilgrimage in their traditions. As we will discuss later, by establishing Tenri city, Tenrikyō established new sacred geographies, but also affirmed a return to a cosmologically significant past. While the main sanctuaries started to be built in the area after the death of the founder (as is common in other ‘new’ religions), the city was not established in the early period of formation of the religious organization, but at a crucial period of development in the postwar period, when the organization was redefining its own identity. The sacred center – the place where founder Nakayama Miki was born, where she founded her religion and where, in Tenrikyō cosmology, the human race first emerged and where the nectar of heaven falls to earth to sustain humanity – became the focus of pilgrimages by members – who were, in Tenrikyō visions, returning home (see further discussion below).

The city not only created a new vision of the world and a new place or locus of faith and pilgrimage connected to the mythological past but also materially represented the future visions of the organizations, a vision that, as will be discussed below, is unlikely to be achieved. Although understudied, the city of Tenri represents an interesting example to discuss mutual formation and co-creation between urbanity and religion. This co-creation is not only spatial, with the presence of religiously significant buildings shaping the city itself and its infrastructure, but also temporal, with ‘the eternal presence’ of the foundress made tangible in one of the sacred buildings and the vision of the joyous future materialized in the ambitious and imposing Oyasato Yakata project (see below). The leader’s religious vision became intrinsically embedded in the urban, projecting a joyous future for the organization and a prosperous future for the city, making the religion and the city indissolubly interconnected in both their expansion and, recently, their decline.

Before discussing the establishment of Tenri city it is important to understand the role that its specific location played in Tenrikyō’s texts and how it related to the foundress’s prophetic vision for the organization.

Tenrikyō and the jiba

This is the Jiba, the origin of this world.

Indeed a remarkable place has been revealed.

(Mikagura-uta V: 9)

Tenrikyō was established in 1838 by Nakayama Miki, who is known by followers as Oyasama (Beloved Parent) and Tsukihi no yashiro (the Shrine of God the Parent). In 1837 Nakayama’s son Shūji became ill and it is said that during a séance designed to cure him performed by a shugenja (a practitioner connected to mountain ascetic practices) in which Miki acted as a spirit medium, she claimed to become possessed by ‘God the Parent’ who took her as the ‘Shrine of God’ (kami no yashiro, Kato 2017). Despite the initial opposition by her family, eventually, her husband consented for her to be recognized as the Shrine of God, marking the beginning of her teaching. For the next three years, Miki lived secluded in a storehouse and gradually started giving away all her family possessions to the point of dismantling her house building (Kato 2017). In 1875 Miki identified a place named jiba, as the place of ‘original human conception’ (Kato 2017).

In Tenrikyō’s texts, the jiba is identified with the village where Nakayama Miki was born in 1798, where she lived and where she became the mouthpiece of God the Parent. For example, in the Mikagurauta the earliest of Tenrikyō’s sacred scriptures compiled between 1866 and 1875 by Nakayama, the jiba is identified with the founder’s home village, Shoyashiki (now Mishima chō in Tenri city):

At Shoyashiki in the homeland of the Sun,

The Jiba, the abode of God, is to be identified.

(Mikagura-uta XI: 1; Tenrikyō Church Headquarters 1996, 69)

Between 1869 and 1882 Nakayama compiled the Ofudesaki (The Tip of the Writing Brush), one of three sacred scriptures in Tenrikyō, consisting of 1711 verses in 17 manuscripts. In the Ofudesaki, the jiba is presented as the place of origin of all humanity:

As this place is the Jiba of Origin

There is nothing unknown about the beginning.

(Ofudesaki VII: 4; Tenrikyō Church Headquarters 1998)

Because of the Jiba of Origin and the causality of origin exist,

Tsukihi works freely and unlimitedly.

(Ofudesaki VIII: 47; Tenrikyō Church Headquarters 1998)

Followers use the term ‘home of the parent’ to refer to the jiba which is believed to be the place where God the Parent first conceived humanity and where the founder, Nakayama Miki is believed to live in perpetuity. This is also explained in the Ofudesaki:

God appeared in this world through Oyasama as the Shrine to open the path of single-hearted salvation at the Jiba, the place of origin. The Jiba is the place to which the divine name Tenri-O-no-Mikoto was given, and there, Oyasama remains alive forever, protecting all humankind. Of whatever salvation, you are assured, because your true Parent lives. (Ofudesaki VII: 101; Tenrikyō Church Headquarters 1998)

The pilgrimage performed by followers is called Ojibagaeri (return to the jiba) and it is an important practice for Tenrikyō followers to reaffirm their relationship with the founder (Huang 2017). The pilgrimage can be conducted at any time, but the preferred day is the twenty-six of each month. Important events in the history of Tenrikyō are believed to have happened on this day: its foundation (26 October 1838);^[5] the identification of the jiba (26 May 1875)^[6] and the founder's departure from this world (or, in Tenrikyō's terminology, her ‘withdrawal from physical life’), on January 26, 1887.^[7] Visitors arriving at Tenri will be greeted by signs saying, ‘Welcome home’ (okaerinasai) on billboards, signs, and banners at the train station and all over the city. The greetings emphasize the idea that followers are returning to the very center and emotionally construct the sense of home. Followers are coming back home, the place where humanity was created.

In 1864, on the initiative of followers, in particular, the carpenter Iburi Izō, who after Miki’s death will take up an important ritual role as the honseki (main seat), the construction of the place to perform the religious services (tsutome basho) started. The shinden, or main sanctuary,^[8] is where the kanrodai (The Stand for the Heavenly Dew), a hexagonal stand of thirteen stone blocks under which the jiba is believed to be located, has been set up.^[9] A wooden model of the kanrodai, made by Iburi, was placed at the jiba in 1875, while in 1881 the construction of the stone-made kanrodai started. Seen as the union point of the realms of the gods and humans, it is described as follows by Nakayama Shōzen, Tenrikyō’s second shinbashira, who, as we will see below, was instrumental in the creation of Tenri city:

What is the Kanrodai? It is a pillar that marks the Jiba, which is the core of the Service. This is one of the meanings of the Kanrodai. The name Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto was later given to the eternally unchanging Jiba. The place on earth where Tenri-Ō -no-Mikoto resides. In another sense, it is the pillar that serves as the core of the performance of the Service. Furthermore, it is a focal point for worship for those who have returned to the Home of the Parent, yearning for God the Parent. It is also a stand to receive the Sweet Dew, the elixir of life, which is to be bestowed into a flat vessel placed on this stand when our prayers are answered through the Service. These are the roles and meanings of the Kanrodai. (Nakayama Shōzen 1994)

The main sanctuary is devoted to God the Parent (Tenri Ō-no-mikoto) and it consists of a main inner sanctuary and four huge worships halls (North, South, East, and West worship halls) built between 1913 and 1984 surrounding it, with the jiba at the center. The roof has a hole through which the heavenly dew is supposed to fall from the sky. Next to the north worship hall is the Founder’s Sanctuary. The building consists of the Foundress’ residence, the Foundress’ Hall and the Connecting Hall which links the two buildings. Jiba is also yashiki (the residence) of oyasama. Nakayama is believed to reside there. Meals ad clothes are prepared for her daily and the sliding doors close at night when she retires. In the same area is also located the Ancestor Hall associated with illustrious figures in Tenrikyō. The larger area including the jiba, surrounding facilities, and dormitories, is called oyasato, Home of the Parent.

These constructions designed a unique space for Tenrikyō facilities (and for the city). Tenrikyō’s texts include instructions about how spaces should be managed and the group explicitly refer to these texts when building its facilities (Igarashi 1995). Furthermore, Tenrikyō’s doctrine contains various metaphors related to construction, such as the idea of shinbashira (central pillar) to indicate the leader of the organization, or yūboku ([useful] timber) to indicate initiated members who can administer the sazuke (the Divine Grant), an important healing ritual in Tenrikyō (Igarashi 2001, 28). Furthermore the act of building the group utopian vision or yōki gurashi (Joyous Life) is called ‘construction’ (fushin).

The jiba, according to Tenrikyō, is where humanity began, while the kanrōdai is the union point of the realm of the gods and of humans; it is where the divine nectar of the gods drips down to feed humanity. Tenrikyō thus has developed a set of potent symbols aligned with a series of physical constructions – such as the physical monument representing the kanrōdai, and the main shrine – that stand at the core of the religion and at its heart in terms of its physical presence (which continues nowadays). It is the place to which members look, and to where they are expected to ‘return’ (to be greeted as are all visitors, with the greeting okaerinasai, welcome back) and to undertake pilgrimages. Taking even a step further, in Tenrikyō’s doctrine, Tenri Ō-no-mikoto, Oyasama and the Jiba are conceived as ‘one in truth’ (Tenrikyō Church Headquarters 1985, 35). Pilgrimage to sacred place (seichi) connected to the life of the founder is a common feature in many religions. However, in the case of Tenrikyō, the presence of members living in the area and the identification of the jiba in the founder's prophecies led to the establishment of a city, Tenri.

The birth of a religious city: Tenri city

Tenri city is nowadays a small town in Nara prefecture in central Japan with a population of around 67,000. It was established on April 1^st, 1954 as part of the ‘Great merger of the Shōwa Era’ (shōwa no daigappei), a process of municipal mergers aimed at reducing the number of municipalities in Japan due to financial crises faced by administrations (Kramer 2017; 2022). Tenri city was created by merging three towns (Ichinomoto, Tanbaichi and Yanagimoto) and three villages (Asawa, Fukuzumi and Nikaido). While the decision for the merger was based on administrative decisions, the presence of Tenrikyō played an important role in its development and its naming, making Tenri city the only city in Japan named after a religious organization. As previously mentioned, the landscape of the city is dominated by the headquarters of Tenrikyō. The headquarters, including the main sanctuary, was located in the Mishima area of Tanbaichi town, the hometown of the foundress Nakayama Miki. Before the merger, the main activity in the area was agriculture, but the areas around Tenrikyō’s facilities in Tanbaichi enjoyed economic prosperity because of the religious practices associated with Tenrikyō.

A few articles have addressed the establishment of Tenri city and how the presence of the religious organization impacted the creation of the city and the establishment of what Nishida (1955, 79) described as a ‘religious city’.

As pointed out by Fujimaki (1994), religious activities in the area predated the establishment of Tenrikyō. Tenri city is situated in an area called Yamanobe. Yamanobe no Michi is a route connecting the cities of Nara and Sakurai. The northern half of Yamanobe no Michi is mentioned in the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan, 720), one of the earliest extant works in Japan providing a chronology of events, and together with other roads in the lower area such as Kamitsu Michi, Nakatsu Michi and Shimotsu Michi, were used by people, at the time mainly aristocrats, to visit shrines and temples such as the Ise Jingu and Kasuga Taisha (Fujimaki 1994). Therefore Tanbaichi, located on the eastern edge of the area, has long been a place where there was a market and places to stay for pilgrims (Nishida 1961). However, rather than on the co-constitution between the religious and the urban space, most of the publications addressing the establishment of Tenri city focus on the role played by the religious organization in both the development of the city infrastructures and the identity of the city itself.

When Tenrikyō was established at the end of the nineteenth century, not only religious activities in the area around its main religious facilities intensified but followers started to relocate to the area. For example, the number of residents in Mishima increased from 358 in 1882 to 2214 in 1913 (Nishida 1955, 81), while the population in the adjacent villages remained the same. Eventually, with the expansion of Tenrikyō, followers started relocating to surrounding villages as well.

As consequence, the process of Tenri becoming a religious town started in the decades before its official establishment. The expansion of the site where the foundress was born into a religious center was driven by the followers relocating into the area wanting to be near her spiritual power. Furthermore, the entire doctrine of Tenrikyō points to a specific geographical focus and the notion of a utopian sacred center built around the presence of the founder as a living deity. As discussed previously, at the center of Tenrikyō’s main sanctuary, marked by the Kanrodai, is located the jiba which, according to Tenrikyō doctrine, is the origin of humanity and the source of salvation. The practice of ‘returning to the jiba’ (ojibagaeri – often translated as Pilgrimage to the Jiba in English publications) is central to Tenrikyō practice and explained metaphorically as ‘return to the Home of the Parent (oyasato) of all humanity.’ For the followers, the religious city is not merely the sacred center, but it was built to construct a physical home for all humanity.

Pilgrims going to visit the main sanctuary, and also Isonomaki shrine, one of the oldest Shinto shrines in the country located in the area, had to go through Tanbaichi village. Therefore infrastructures started to be built to support pilgrims, including the train line connecting Nara and Sakurai that opened in 1902. Infrastructures (water supplies, roads, sewage, schools) continued to be improved in response to a steady increase in population and in the number of pilgrims visiting on the 26th of each month. As pointed out by Nishida (1961) the city population also notably changed according to the religious events, such as the birthday of Nakayama in January and large festivals in April and October. The jiba was established in 1876, ten years after the foundation of Tenrikyō and the increased number of visitors required the building of accommodations (Igarashi 1995). The accommodations for pilgrims or shinja tsumesho were built in 1896 and ever since they occupy the South-West-North areas of the city. Pilgrims tended to stay at Tenrikyō’s facilities and this is still the case nowadays, resulting in a very limited offer of hotels and accommodations not affiliated with Tenrikyō in the area. Tenrikyō buildings are characterized by a Japanese-style tiled roof and they are built next to each other, creating a particular landscape that characterized the city. At the same time, each tsumesho is named after one of the prefectures or international cities where it belongs (pilgrims from those areas will stay there), therefore the map of the city becomes a representation of Japan and the entire world (Igarashi 1995). In addition to the main sanctuary, other buildings related to Tenrikyō activities were erected in the early twentieth century, including the Foreign Language School to train teachers (1927) and the library (1930). In 1926, with the celebration of the 40^th anniversary and relocation of the headquarter, the area become what Nishida defined a “new religion town” (shinkō shukyo toshi).

After World War II, the area financially developed through festivals to commemorate the founder which happens once every 10 years. In the running up to the 70^th anniversary of the founder in 1956, a large number of pilgrims were expected, so new infrastructures started to be built in 1952, including road extension and maintenance.

When the merging process of towns and villages to form Tenri city started in the 1950s, Tenrikyō and its shinbashira Nakayama Shōzen played an important role in the discussion and in creating a “sense of belonging” (Kramer 2017) and feeling of identification in the residents. Eventually, the city was named Tenri because Tenrikyō was well known around the country (Tanbaichi was known as “Tenri city”, tenri no machi or “Religious city”, shūkyō no machi) and the relationship with the religious organization was an important unifying factor across the different municipalities involved. Although the number of Tenrikyō members resident in the six villages and towns is unclear, as there is no statistical data available, the increase of people relocating to the areas surrounding the headquarters and the increase of participants to religious events since 1873 seem to indicate a significant presence of members already living in the area. The high number of residents who were also Tenrikyō members and had a vested interest in the naming of the city seems to be confirmed also by the fact that opposition voices seem to have been a minority (and seldom recorded in news reporting the merge). With the naming of the city, the distinction between the members and the ‘outsiders’ disappears and the vision of Tenrikyō became the vision of the city of its community (Ishizaka 2016). The fusion of the vision of the city and the religious vision of Tenrikyō is clear in the shinbashira’s speech during the official ceremony for the establishment of the new city on April 1, 1954 in which Nakayama Shōzen explains how Tenri city is a place where people are full of joy and where the joyous life will be created.

Another group of studies focus on the impact of religious activities and developments of the religious organization on the local economy. The development of Tenrikyō facilities also resulted in the development of a monzenmachi around the area of the main sanctuary, which includes the headquarters of the organization and commercial activities (Nishida 1961; Ishizaka 2016). From the train station, a long shopping street with street vendors and souvenir shops takes pilgrims and visitors directly to the main sanctuary impacting the business activities in the city. The shopping street of Tenri city, called Tenri Hondori Shōtengai, stretches over one kilometer between Tenri Station and the headquarter of Tenrikyō. The shopping street originated on the Furu road which was used by pilgrims to visit the Ishigami shrine (Kado 2009). Tenri Hondori is similar to shopping centers commonly found in Japanese cities, with retail clothing stores, local or specialty food shops, restaurants and cafes. However, it also includes shops sending Tenrikyō related religious items and publications, where pilgrims would buy their souvenirs.

The financial contribution to the city comes also via donations. At the time of the merger, Tenrikyō financially assisted the new municipality and the construction of new buildings such as schools and the new station (Igarashi 1995). The financial assistance was aimed at the realization of the religious city based on Tenrikyō’s scriptures. Furthermore, the presence of Tenrikyō not only impacted on the conceptualization and development of the city and its economy. The members literally built it. One important aspect of Tenrikyō practices is hinokishin, that is a daily life practice that takes the form of social engagement or volunteerism, such as litter picking, disaster relief and so on. In 1956, for the 70^th-anniversary event, 5000 volunteers were mobilized and followers actively participated in the act of building the city.

As pointed out by Igarashi (1995) other religious organizations attempted to make their utopian or cosmological visions tangible by constructing buildings and occupying a portion of cities and villages (such as PL Kyōdan in Tondabayashi city in Osaka prefecture), but only Tenrikyō succeeded in merging the religion vision with urban development.

The structure and environment of Tenri city thus make statements about the nature of Tenrikyō as a religion. Symbols such as the jiba and kanrōdai represent a reshaping of the world, in which Tenri, once a small village in Japan, has become, for devotees, the center of the world as envisaged by the foundress’s teachings (Huang 2017). It is at Tenri that Tenrikyō’s teachers and missionaries study and then go out to spread their word across the world, and it is to Tenri that followers come to worship especially on special occasions such as the anniversary of Nakayama Miki’s death or spiritual ascent. The presence at Tenri of her successor – the physical symbol and living presence of her teaching, the ‘true pillar’ – further emphasizes the importance of the physical environment of Tenri, and it is to Tenri that the devout make pilgrimages to touch base with the core of their teaching, to revitalize their sense of belonging and community, and to ‘come back home.’

Tenrikyō therefore not only played an important role in the establishment of Tenri city but the landscape, infrastructure and temporal rhythms of Tenri city were redesigned and framed to facilitate and adapt to the needs and activities of the religious group. This interdependency and co-creation between the city and the religion not only refers to the past (the place where the foundress was born and where humanity began) and the present (the living presence of the leader and the return of members to the jiba) but also points at a joyous and brilliant future for both the city and the organization. Nakayama Shōzen’s vision for Tenrikyō involved an even more ambitious plan, the oyasato yakata, based on the foundress’s prophecy. Before making some concluding comments, an explanation of this plan and its implication for the future vision of the city and of Tenrikyō is necessary.

Landscape imaginary in Tenrikyō: Oyasato yakata

The divine Residence will become eight cho square.

(Anecdotes of Oyasama, no. 93)

In 1908 Tenrikyō obtained permission to become an independent religious organization and it was recognized as one of the thirteen groups designated as Sect Shinto (Nagaoka 2015, 75 – 77). This meant that the organization had to adapt its teaching and practices to government requirements (Nagaoka 2015) but it also enabled Tenrikyo to enjoy a period of stability that resulted in a rapid increase in membership in the 1920s (Kato 2017).

In the postwar period, the shinbashira Nakayama Shōzen announced the restoration of the original teachings (as taught by Nakayama Miki), restored rituals and scriptures and, in 1953, announced the construction of oyasato-yakata a complex of buildings that would surround the main sanctuary and represent the material realization of the ‘joyous life’.

Nakayama Shōzen had started planning the grand construction project already a few years earlier when more followers had started moving into the area and Tenrikyō was flourishing. In 1934 he commissioned Uchida Yoshikazu, a well-known architect and professor at the School of Architecture at the Imperial University of Tokyo, to plan a series of buildings around the foundress’s residence. The project would also integrate already existing buildings such as the Library and the International School. A middle school was built in 1937, but then the project was interrupted due to the war. Further plans for Oyasato yakata was developed in the postwar period by Tenrikyō chief of architecture Okumura Onzō who was initially commissioned to build a large lecture hall. The vision for Okumura’s plan was based on a prophecy by the founder regarding the future of the area:

Someday this neighborhood will be filled with houses. Houses will line the street for seven ri between Nara and Hase. One ri square will be filled with inns. The divine Residence will become eight cho. (Tenrikyō Church Headquarters, 1977, 78)

The construction of the first wing was announced at the time of the merger and by 1956 one corner of one of the interconnected wings shaped as a quadrangle around the Jiba was completed (costing 23 billion yen). An Oyasato Construction Young Men's Association Hinokishin Corps was established and members worked as volunteers in the construction. Updates about the progress were presented in Tenrikyō’s publications along with images showing large numbers of volunteers devoting their time to the realization of this grandiose plan.

References to the scripture were made to support the plan, in particular to passages of the Osashizu (Divine Directions), a text that according to Tenrikyō contains directions given by God the Parent and published for the first time between 1927 and 1931:

It will not do to think of small things. You do not understand that when the years accumulate step by step, this place will become eight cho square. (17 November 1894)

I have said, “It is necessary to go through many years, many years.” I said, “One ri square must become inns.” I said, “One ri square is still too narrow.” (6 February 1893).^[10]

The “joyous life” will therefore be realized by restoring Nakayama's original teaching and making her prophecies materialize via ambitious urban planning that will completely transform the landscape of the city with monumental buildings. As discussed previously, the presence of Tenrikyō in the area started with the construction of the main sanctuary as a house for “God the Parent”. This led to the construction of accommodations and infrastructures to welcome pilgrims that “returned home”. Eventually, with the establishment of Tenri city, the religious group's utopian view of “construction” (fushin) embedded in the idea of the realization of a “joyus life” (yōki gurashi) merged with the urban creating an “ideal city” (Ishizaka 2016) that will be realized in the grandiose oyasato yakata plan.

The imposing project, however, has never been fully achieved. To date, twenty-five wings have been completed, out of a total of sixty-eight interconnected wings planned. The completed buildings include facilities such as Tenri University, Inoi no Ie hospital, Tenri High School, dormitories, Tenri Seminary, Besseki Lecture hall, and the Shuyoka (Spiritual Development Course). These buildings represent about 40 % of the Oyasato Yakata project, but no new building has been constructed after 2005 and the plan has now stalled. In his study Ishizaka (2016) identifies some of the causes of this stagnation. One of the main reasons for this situation is financial, given the significant costs involved in the construction and the decrease in members’ donations. Further issues involved negotiations between Tenrikyō headquarters and private landowners about the land acquisition as not all lands surrounding the area belong to the organization.

More generally, the entire area seems to have entered a recession. Other studies (such as Kado 2009 and Machida and Mano 2020) also show a decline in the activities in the shopping street from 1977 to 2008, with increasing numbers of vacant shops and accommodations.

Conclusion

In one of the very few articles addressing the relationship between religion and cities in Japan, Ito and Umeda (1967) highlight how studies have tended to limit their focus on the role of religion in the creation of urban spaces (such as the creation of monzenmachi around temples and shrines). In their opinion, the analysis of “religious cities” should not be limited to this aspect, but it should also consider the impact of religion on various aspects of the city. In their analysis of Tenri city, they identify several ways in which the religious organization had impacted the urban space. First of all, the presence of Tenrikyō transformed the structure of the city, with the building of tsumesho to welcome visitors and the facilities of oyasato yakata; secondly, Tenrikyō impacted the population of the city, with an increasing number of members moving to the area. This resulted in a higher presence of permanent residents who are also Tenrikyō believers but also created the need to provide accommodation to visitors and for the hospitality business to adapt to a fluctuating population that will significantly increase during religious events. Furthermore, the presence of Tenrikyō created a concentration of retail business around the main sanctuary and headquarters. The visitors would walk through the shopping arcade leading to the main sanctuary with shops selling food, clothes, and Tenrikyō items. Consequently, this has a significant financial impact, with Tenrikyō making a significant contribution to the city's yearly income (about 30 % in 1963, according to Ito and Umeda 1967). Finally, Tenrikyō contributed to higher education and health provisions in the city, with the establishment of Tenri University and Tenri hospital.

However, the mutual formation of Tenrikyō and Tenri city went even further than these aspects. Religions tend to construct their own geographies and sacred centers based on their teachings, origins and orientation. Such constructions are important elements in their self-representation and the building of utopian visions in concrete forms. Teachings are made concrete and members feel part of shaping the landscape itself. Religious organizations also tend to build imposing buildings that create a sense of awe and wonder and are signifiers of a special or utopian realm. Tenri is therefore not simply a new center built around the presence of a new religious organization, but the very embodiment of the utopian vision at the hearth of Tenrikyō doctrine. It is both a physical space and a symbolic place at the same time, the material manifestation of Miki’s prophecy and Tenrikyō’s vision of the foundress as the mouthpiece of God the Parent.

Tenrikyō’s sacred center is conceived as the place where the nectar that sustains life flows to earth, where the founder and messenger to God the Parent was born and where she is believed to still be present and connected to this world. This vision, however, is not limited to the sacred center, but it developed in a way to include the entire city. Tenri city is the new center of the world, representing a new sacred geography. A group of marginal villages became the birthplace of humanity, the center of the world and the material realization of Nakayama Miki’s teaching. And the structure of Tenri city was adapted to welcome pilgrims, and make allowance for large gatherings of followers who can participate in mass rituals, learn about teaching, and socialize.

The temporalities of the urban and of religion are also merged. The rhythms of the city adapted to Tenrikyō rituals and events. The early morning service sounds resonate around the city and the population fluctuate according to religious events; the past is made present by the eternal presence of the foundress and the ritualized everyday actions performed for her. And finally, the future past of the oyasato yakata plan is based on a vision of the future inspired by the foundress’ old prophecies. However, due to a steady decline in memberships, and its financial impact on retails on the main street, Tenri city started considering city planning that will make it less dependent on the religious organization (Hori and Oka 2020). The imaginary grandiose future of oyasato yakata is very unlikely to happen and the optimistic vision of growth and happiness in the 1950s has now been transformed into a vision of decline and worries for the future of the city and the organization.