TENSHO KOTAI JINGU-KYO

( (Japanese: Religion of the Shrine of the Heavenly Goddess), ) also called Odoru Shukyo (Dancing Religion), one of the new religions of Japan that have emerged in the post-World War II period. It was founded by Kitamura Sayo (190067), a peasant of Yamaguchi Prefecture, whose charismatic preaching took the form of rhythmic singing and dancing. She had a revelation in 1945 that she was possessed by a Shinto deity, Tensho-Kotaijin (another name for the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami). She traveled widely and won followers in Europe and the Americas. Her eccentric behaviour and forthright condemnation of organized institutions of religion and government, whom she characteristically referred to as maggot beggars, won her an enthusiastic following, estimated at about 300,000 a few years after her death.