Takamasa Anai winning the All-Japan Judo Championship (photo from Doyusha)

Some Tenri Judo related news:

Photo by Doyusha

It was Anai’s ninth appearance and first in two years. He scored an ippon in the second round and an awase-waza osae-komi (hold-down) in the third round.

In the semifinal, Anai faced last year’s semifinalist Ryuta Ishii. Anai advanced to the final with a tai-otoshi 14 seconds into the match.

In the final, Anai faced judo’s upcoming 20-year old sensation Hisayoshi Harasawa. Anai put up a tense offensive and defensive exchange with Harasawa, who was making his first appearance in the All-Japan Judo Championship. Anai won his first championship in four years after his opponent accumulated two shido.

Video by Doyusha:

Related articles

• Japan Times: Anai ends career with All Japan title
• 全日本柔道選手権大会　穴井選手4年ぶり2回目の優勝(4月29日) (Japanese)

Here is a translation of the narration:

Women’s Association Convention

On April 19, the 95th Tenrikyo Women’s Association Convention was held in the Inner Courtyard of Tenrikyo Church Headquarters with the Shinbashira Zenji Nakayama presiding. Roughly 42,000 association members across Japan and overseas came to Oyasato, the Parental Home to attend the event.

Women’s Association President Harue Nakayama spoke on how association members were expected to make strides toward the 130th Anniversary of Oyasama (January 26, 2016).

The Shinbashira then took the lectern to speak on the founding of the Women’s Association and expressed his expectations for members to enhance the substance of association activities.

Link to Japanese article

• 婦人会第95回総会(4月19日)

Here is the translation of the narration:

On April 29, Tenrikyo Hinokishin Day was held throughout Japan and across the globe under the slogan “Season of Salvation. Now let’s do hinokishin!”

The day was blessed with fine weather as Church Headquarters staff, students of Tenrikyo schools and Shuyoka participated. Roughly 4,000 participants in Oyasato split into 52 areas throughout Tenri City to engage in hinokishin activities such as weeding and cleaning.

Hinokishin is an activity in which we express our gratitude and joy for being kept alive each day. Participants devoted themselves to hinokishin with smiles on their faces.

Link to Japanese article

• 「全教一斉ひのきしんデー」各地で実施(4月29日)

Joyous Chorus (Image source: http://www.tenrikyo.or.jp/jpn/?p=6874)

Apologies for the delay in this translation. Hopefully, we will be able to put up more Doyusha video narration translations on a regular basis soon.

Oyasama Birth Celebration video
On April 18, the Oyasama Birth Celebration Service honoring the birthday of Tenrikyo Founder Miki Nakayama was held in the Main Sanctuary of Tenrikyo Church Headquarters with Shinbashira Zenji Nakayama presiding as chief officiant. Roughly 670,000 followers from Japan and overseas attended the Service.

The Service celebrated Oyasama’s 215th birthday. After the reading of the saibun or service prayer, the Kagura Service and Teodori were performed. Followers poured their hearts into singing the Mikagura-uta.

The Service was then followed by the Joyous Chorus in the Inner Courtyard. Songs celebrating Oyasama’s birthday were sung and performed, filling the Sanctuary precincts with a festive atmosphere.

Related Japanese article

• 教祖誕生祭 215回目のご誕生日寿ぐ(4月18日)

Photo from the Tenri Jiho Issue 4326, April 14, 2013.

On April 4, there was a ceremony in the Foundress’ Sanctuary marking Zenji and Harue Nakayama’s adoption of their nephew Daisuke Nakata as their heir.

At 9:45 a.m., the Shinbashira Zenji Nakayama, other Nakayama family members, and Nakata family members their offered prayers at the Main Sanctuary. They then went to the Foundress’ Sanctuary, where they were joined by Church Headquarters staff and ministers of directly supervised churches.

Those assembled then offered their prayers to Oyasama and this was followed by a ceremonial exchange of cups of sake between Zenji, Harue, former Shinbashira Zenye Nakayama, and Daisuke Nakata to complete his adoption into the Nakayama family.

They then returned to the Main Sanctuary to perform the seated service and paid respects at the Foundress’ Sanctuary and Memorial Hall.

What does this mean?

There has been rumors floating around, but it’s pretty clear now that Daisuke will inherit the role of the Shinbashira. We will now be seeing his face more often because his position as heir is official and will become a major representative of Tenrikyo from now on.

Daisuke Nakayama (Nakata). Say “hi” to him when you see him!

Daisuke Nakayama (Nakata), personal history

• January 23, 1991: Born as the second child and first son of Zensuke and Michiko Nakata
• January 11, 2009: Received the sacrament of the Sazuke
• February 2009: Graduated from the day course of Tenri High School
• March 2013: Graduated from the Department of Policy Studies of Kansai University

Source: Tenri jiho, No. 4326 (April 14, 2013), p.1.

Hey everybody! It’s that time of year again! Oyasama‘s birthday (April 18) is fast approaching, so let’s celebrate the occasion by wearing red on her birthday.

Please participate by posting a photo of you wearing red in the comments via Facebook  (Fb group).

Although some of you who have a Proof Amulet are essentially wearing red already, we hope you will participate by wearing red out in the open, just like Oyasama did. Wear a red shirt, a red tie, red socks, red hat… it’s up to you!

Why red?

Beginning on December 26, 1874, Oyasama began exclusively wearing red from her kimono, undergarments, down to her tabi socks. She took this unusual step, it is explained, to show people that she was the “Shrine of Tsukihi”. (It might be noted that some Shinto shrines are painted bright red.) She also began donning red not long after the authorities began scrutinizing her activities and those of her followers. Although a natural response to such outside pressure is to lie low, Oyasama did the exact opposite by wearing a color that would attract even more attention.

Let’s try to get some attention by wearing red on April 18!

So it has begun, our trek for our spiritual journey towards the 130th Anniversary of Oyasama has begun! Are you ready?! It’s January 26, the day when Oyasama hid her physical presence, so three years from today, is her 130th Anniversary! Ten years ago, I hardly thought about the 120th Anniversary. This day came and went like any other day. This time I want it to be different; I don’t want to let this go by and I really feel like a lot of people will have some regret that they didn’t put in the effort when they could have.

I hope within the period of “three years, one thousand days” I will accomplish something and maybe with this reminder, I hope you will too.

The Tenrikyo Resource has now completed 2 full years of sharing information to Tenrikyo followers online. Now that we have made 2 years, I was able to compare with the first year and show more data. We were able to find lots of information that can help us understand what kind of posts were popular and what we can build on for this year!

A lot of things happened in my life this year, so I couldn’t really focus on the blog as much as I wanted to, so there were significantly less articles than last year. However, we were getting a lot of attention to our Wiki, which has been getting a lot of hits through Google and Roy has been making significant contributions adding dozens of Tenrikyo-related articles.

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Now that we are well into the information age, having a website for any kind of entity is almost essential in order to conform with the modern society. In the case for Tenrikyo in general, I see that building websites for individuals or churches is a relatively new idea, but rapidly becoming a rather necessary one depending on church size, services provided, method of missionary work, etc. That said, I came up with a list of 5 reasons that may help convince interested Tenrikyo followers, churches, or other church entities to ride the wave of the digital age or even invest more into it.

If your church is small, you don’t need a full-blown website, there are other solutions that can suit your needs, which I may describe in a later article. This article is mainly for churches or people that engage in studying about the faith of Tenrikyo.

Without further ado, here are my 5 reasons:

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Would appreciate if you can share our site with your readers.

Thank you!
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