Second Ōmoto Incident

Record summary

The Second Ōmoto Incident was a documented state suppression of the Japanese new religion Ōmoto, whose teachings included revelations attributed to divine and spirit agencies. Police destroyed or confiscated buildings, images, publications, and organizational records, and leaders were prosecuted under public-order and lèse-majesté provisions. It matters for comparison because it shows how spirit-mediated religious authority could be recast by officials as subversive or pathological. The event itself is well established, but individual possession narratives and the movement’s theological language require careful separation from later occult interpretations.