Japanese new religions in the context of "East Asian religions"

Tenrikyo (天理教, Tenrikyō) is a Japanese new religion which is neither strictly monotheistic nor pantheistic, originating from the teachings of a 19th-century woman named Nakayama Miki, known to her followers as "Oyasama". Followers of Tenrikyo believe that God of Origin, God in Truth, known by several names including "Tsukihi," "Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto" and "Oyagamisama" revealed divine intent through Miki Nakayama as the Shrine of God and to a lesser extent the roles of the Honseki Izo Iburi and other leaders. Tenrikyo's worldly aim is to teach and promote the Joyous Life, which is cultivated through acts of charity and mindfulness called hinokishin.

The primary operations of Tenrikyo today are located at Tenrikyo Church Headquarters, which supports 16,833 locally managed churches in Japan, the construction and maintenance of the oyasato-yakata and various community-focused organisations. It has 1.75 million followers in Japan and is estimated to have over 2 million worldwide.

Soka Gakkai (Japanese: 創価学会, Hepburn: Sōka Gakkai; "creating value study group") is a Japanese new religion founded in 1930 based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese Buddhist priest Nichiren.The Sōka Gakkai has been led by Minoru Harada since December 2023. The organization bases its teachings on Nichiren's interpretation of the Lotus Sutra and places chanting Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō at the center of devotional practice. The Soka Gakkai is a community-based Buddhist organization that promotes peace, culture, and education based on the respect for dignity of life.

The Soka Gakkai was founded by educators Makiguchi and Toda on 18 November 1930 as Soka Kyoiku Gakkai (Society for Value-Creating Education). It was later named the Soka Gakkai. It held its inaugural meeting in 1937. It was disbanded during the Second World War when much of the leadership was imprisoned for violations of the 1925 Peace Preservation Law and charges of lèse-majesté. In 1945, Toda began rebuilding the Soka Gakkai after his release from prison. Daisaku Ikeda was the third president of the Soka Gakkai and the founding president of the Soka Gakkai International. In Japan, Komeito is a political party that was founded in 1964 by Daisaku Ikeda to represent diverse public interests and fight corruption, as an alternative to political parties backed by labor unions and big corporations.

Daisaku Ikeda (池田 大作, Ikeda Daisaku; 2 January 1928 – 15 November 2023) was a philospher, peace-builder, SGI Buddhist leader, author, poet, educator and nuclear disarmament advocate. He served as the third president and then honorary president of the Soka Gakkai, which is considered among the largest of Japan's new religious movements. The Soka Gakkai Japanese membership exceeds 8.27 million households. Between 2.5 million and 4 million people - approximately two to three percent of the Japanese population - are active members of Soka Gakkai. Ikeda was the founding president of the Soka Gakkai International, which garnered worldwide membership.The organization has approximately 12 million practitioners in 192 countries and territories.more than 1.5 million of whom reside outside of Japan as of 2012.

Ikeda was the founder of a variety of educational and cultural institutions including Soka University, Soka University of America, Min-On Concert Association and Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. In Japan, he was also known for his international outreach to China.

Oomoto (大本, Ōmoto; lit. "Great Source" or "Great Origin"), also known as Oomoto-kyo (大本教, Ōmoto-kyō), is a religion founded in the 1890s by Deguchi Nao (1836–1918) and Deguchi Onisaburō (1871–1948). Oomoto is typically categorized as a Shinto-based Japanese new religion. The spiritual leaders of the movement have always been women within the Deguchi family, along with Onisaburō as its founding seishi (spiritual teacher). Since 2001, the movement has been guided by its fifth leader, Kurenai Deguchi.

Oomoto's administrative headquarters is in Kameoka, Kyoto (Onisaburo Deguchi's hometown), and its spiritual headquarters is in Ayabe, Kyoto (Nao Deguchi's hometown). Uniquely among Japanese religions, Oomoto makes extensive use of the constructed language Esperanto to promote itself as a world religion. Oomoto has historically engaged in extensive interfaith dialogue with religions such as the Baháʼí Faith, Christianity, and Islam, since a key tenet of Oomoto is that all religions come from the same source (in Japanese: bankyō dōkon (万教同根)).

Nakayama Miki (中山 みき; 18 April 1798 – 26 January 1887 by the Japanese calendar) was a nineteenth-century Japanese farmer and religious leader. She is the primary figure of the Japanese new religion Tenrikyo. Tenrikyo followers, who refer to her as Oyasama (おやさま or 親様), believe that she was settled in the Shrine of Tsukihi from the moment she experienced a divine revelation in 1838 until her death in 1887. In Tenrikyo, she is also referred to as the Foundress of Tenrikyo (天理教教祖).

Upon her divine revelation, she gave away most of her family's possessions and dismantled the family's house, thereby entering a state of poverty. She began to attract followers, who believed that she was a living goddess who could heal people and bless expectant mothers with safe childbirth. To leave a record of her teachings, she composed the Ofudesaki and taught the lyrics, choreography and music of the Service, which have become Tenrikyo's scripture and liturgy respectively. She identified what she claimed to be the place where God created human beings and instructed her followers to mark the place with a pillar and perform the liturgy around it, which she believed would advance humankind toward the salvific state of the Joyous Life. In the last several years of her life, she and her followers were arrested and detained a number of times by the Japanese authorities for forming a religious group without official authorization. A year after her death, Tenrikyo Church Headquarters received official authorization to be a church under the Shinto Main Bureau.