In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

120 5 Jikōson and Jiu Battling with Celebrity Jikōson, who had struggled together with her followers during the prewar years to fulfill her millennial visions that conflicted with official state policy, established herself as the undisputed leader of Jiu by the beginning of the Occupation. Within a few years, she would become notorious for a brief period due to intense national media coverage. The group’s appeals for the emperor to change direction and realize the importance of Jikōson’s message were not unlike the attempts by other individuals in the immediate postwar period to reach out to the imperial family. Yet its methods stood out for their sheer audacity. Jiu’s spectacular plans of world renewal, which included trying to gain support from the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, General MacArthur, stood in stark contrast to the intense isolation and exclusive internal workings of the group. Part of Jiu’s appeal for the media was this isolation because the secretive nature of the group aroused curiosity and suspicion. But the most appealing aspect of Jiu for the media was the presence of a genuine superstar, Futabayama, who lent the group cultural capital that deteriorated almost immediately after his involvement was revealed. Crucial to the Occupation’s aim of democratization was eliminating any aspect of spiritual control of the people under the umbrella of statecentered Shinto and emperor worship. When the emperor issued an imperial rescript as part of a New Year’s statement on 1 January 1946 in what became popularly known among non-Japanese as his “declaration of humanity,” it was seen by Westerners as an effective repudiation of prewar emperor worship and ultranationalism. Dower argues, however, that in the original Japanese the declaration was far less the sweeping renunciation of divinity than they had wishfully imagined. In reality, however, for ordinary Japanese, questions of the imperial system and the national polity mainly ranged from “mild attachment, resignation, even indifference.”1 Although those who spoke out against the emperor during wartime risked being charged with lèse majesté, by the end of battling with celebrity | 121 the war and in the months that followed, the emperor became the butt of jokes and a source of rumors and conjecture.2 One revealing indication of the emperor’s changing position was the appearance of a dozen or so people who claimed to be the legitimate heir to the imperial throne or the direct descendant or incarnation of the sun goddess. Although the reporting of these various claimants was entertaining for the reading public, Occupation officials did not ignore them but rather treated them, at least initially, as serious cases within the study of a shattered society under the drastic circumstances of recovery. One prominent example was Kumazawa Hiromichi, a fiftysix -year-old shopkeeper from Nagano, whose claim to legitimacy based on historical grounds came to scap’s attention in September 1945. The case first appeared in the US military newspaper Stars and Stripes on 18 January 1946 and then received international attention in the 21 January issue of Life magazine. Over the next few years, Kumazawa became somewhat of a celebrity, gathered a small group of supporters, and continued to appear periodically in newspapers throughout the Occupation . Kumazawa made a number of public statements, including the following that was published in Life: “The reigning imperial household has aggressed on me and my rights and on the rest of the world.… I consider Hirohito a war criminal. MacArthur is heaven’s messenger to Japan.” In addition to publically challenging the emperor, this statement could also be read as a cynical ploy to curry favor with the Occupation through praising the supreme commander. “the sacred children of the KAMI” Although Kumazawa’s case is noteworthy, Jikōson’s is no less remarkable . She claimed a very different connection to the imperial line. Japan’s defeat in the war, the entry of Occupation troops into the country, and the subsequent changes in society appeared to have little effect on Jiu initially. In their minds, Jiu was “the true imperial palace in which the sacred children of the kami reside.”3 After presiding over the group in the difficult wartime years, Jikōson’s charismatic and spiritual authority remained unquestioned. The early stages of new religious movements are often characterized by rapid changes founded on the experiences, understandings, and visions of their leaders. As Ian Reader has pointed out with Aum Shinrikyō, these changes can also be the reason new...

Share