Chinkon kishin: Mediated Spirit Possession in Japanese New Religions (review)

In her review of Nancy Stalker's Prophet Motive (University of Hawai'i Press, 2008), Birgit Staemmler criticized Stalker's work on Ōmotokyō's Deguchi Onisaburō for being of "a certain superficiality" (MN 64:1 [Spring 2009], p. 206). The charge may be indicative of Staemmler's aspirations for her own work. Indeed her monograph, Chinkon kishin: Mediated Spirit Possession in Japanese New Religions, could hardly be called superficial. The book is a tour de force on—as the title suggests—chinkon kishin. In one sweeping blow, Staemmler covers mediated spirit possession throughout Japanese history, though most of the book focuses on the practice in new religious movements, particularly those closely related to Ōmoto. Staemmler's tone is careful and restrained: she seems to resist assigning overarching meanings to the variety of practices she discusses.

Part 1 consists of a lengthy introduction. Staemmler covers background material beginning with definitions of spirit possession, ecstasy, trance, shamanism and mediumship in the Japanese context before providing a cursory historical survey of spirit possession in Japan—including examples found in early Japanese national chronicles, the medieval esoteric Buddhist practice of abishahō, yorigitō in early modern Shugendō, and oracles in modern Ontakekyō and at Mt. Hayama. The section ends with a summary of the emergence of new religious movements in Japan, spirit possession in the new religions, and the etymology of chinkon kishin and related terms.

Part 2 comprises the central chapters of the book. This section begins with the early precursors of Ōmoto's chinkon kishin, namely, Honda Chikaatsu (1822-1889) and; his preeminent student, Nagasawa Katsutate (1858-1940). Honda, an erstwhile Nativist who had studied with Aizawa Seishisai of the Mito School and fellow Nativist Hirata Atsutane, developed the concepts of chinkon and kishin through his study of ancient Japanese chronicles and through ethnographic exploration. Honda defined chinkon as a way of summoning a divine spirit into a human body or a material object. He traced its origins to the transmission of the divine jewels—one of the imperial regalia—from Izanagi to Amaterasu, the ancestress of the imperial line. According to Honda, kishin was a form of human union and communication with the divine, whether solicited or unsolicited. Solicited kishin required training and often involved supervision of the spirit medium (kannushi), who was often female, by a skilled mediator (saniwa), who was generally male. Nagasawa, a priest at the Miho shrine in Shimizu, followed in Honda's footsteps, but unlike Honda, Nagasawa preferred kamigakari, a more common term for divine possession, to chinkon and kishin. Nagasawa is notable for having had a multitude of students and for his connection with Deguchi Onisaburō, the founder of Ōmoto.

Staemmler then turns to the centerpiece of her monograph: chinkon kishin in Ōmoto and other new religious movements. Despite wariness of the practice on the part of foundress Deguchi Nao, Onisaburō combined Honda's chinkon and kishin into a single ritual. Ōmoto was able to spread chinkon kishin on a mass scale in the early twentieth century, but after the first suppression of the movement in 1921, replaced it with miteshiro otoritsugi, another healing ritual that was more easily controllable because it did not involve spirit possession and thus did not have the potential to undermine the religious authority of the leadership. Staemmler also discusses both chinkon- and kishin-related practices in other Ōmoto-derived movements—jōrei in Sekai Kyūseikyō, okiyome in Mahikari, seishin tōitsu in Asano Wasaburō's spiritualist organizations, chinkon kishin in Shindō Tenkōkyo, shinsōkan in Seichō no le, and chinkon kishin in Ananaikyō.

Part 3 synthesizes the material covered in part 2, taking up the relationship between chinkon, kishin, and chinkon kishin; different levels of possession and the role of trance in the ritual; various purposes of the ritual (oracles, healing, personal encounters with the divine and personal affirmation of Ōmoto's teachings and moral ideals); and its relationship with Ōmoto's millenarian beliefs (e.g., divine help in times...