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- Leave the world of maggots!
- Sayo Kitamura
Tenshou Koutai Jingukyou (天照皇大神宮教), more commonly known as the dancing religion (踊る宗教 odoru shuukyou), is a famous new religious movement in Japan. Founded by a farmer's wife named Sayo Kitamura (北村サヨ) in August 1945, just days after the Hiroshima bombing, it grew at an alarming rate throughout the country before collapsing with the death of Kitamura in 1967. TKJ still exists as a shell of a religion with roughly 400,000 followers who listen to tapes of Kitamura as their religious practice, but it does not maintain a website and no longer evangelizes.
Kitamura was known for her fiery personality which shocked the conservative radio and television broadcast networks of the time. She would invite religious scholars to debate her, then yell over them and make blunt and vicious judgements. The principal religious practice taught by Kitamura was formless, ecstatic dancing, which led to her organization being dubbed the "dancing religion".
A supposed summary of her theology is available in English from Kokugakuin University, but her actual principal teachings were as follows:
- Japan's salarymen, military, priests, and government are all "maggots" and "beggars" who leech from the producers of real resources. The world today is a "world of maggots."
- Japan deserves more than these maggots. The gods allowed America to do air raids and bombings as punishment for their evil ways.
- God brought several people to Earth to point out their errors. Among these people were Buddha, Christ, and Kitamura.
- Kitamura was brought to Earth to establish a Heavenly Kingdom in Japan which can then destroy the maggots throughout the world with its spiritual power alone.
Kitamura was virulently opposed to all existing religion, even ancient, honored traditions such as ancestor worship. She told her followers to destroy any Shintou or Buddhist artifacts they owned, including throwing their ancestral shrines into rivers.