Doroumi Kōki

The Doroumi Kōki is the best known and most widely used Tenrikyo kōki (古記); there are also various other kōki texts that were composed from 1881 up until Nakayama Miki's death in 1887.{{Cite book |title=Honmichi fukei jiken: tennōsei o taiketsu shita minshū shūkyō ほんみち不敬事件 : 天皇制と対決した民衆宗教 |publisher=講談社 |year=1974 |author=Murakami, Shigeyoshi 村上重良 |language=ja |pages=268}} None of the kōki texts are part of the three basic scriptures (sangenten 三原典) of Tenrikyo, which consist of the Ofudesaki ("The Tip of the Writing Brush"), the Mikagura-uta ("The Songs for the Service"), and the Osashizu ("Divine Directions"). As a result, today it is rarely read by Tenrikyo followers. However, in Honmichi, a Tenrikyo splinter religion, the Doroumi Kōki is used as a canonical scripture. Honbushin, which split from Honmichi in 1961, uses the Doroumi Kōki in supporting its claim that its founder was the reincarnation of Nakayama Miki.

During the 1880s, Nakayama Miki asked some of her followers to write down her teachings. Various poetry texts were composed by her followers, but Nakayama Miki did not end up approving any of them as official scriptures. The Doroumi Kōki, composed by Yamazawa Ryōsuke (山沢良助), was among those texts.{{cite web |author=Watanabe, Yu 渡辺優 |date=2021 |url=https://researchmap.jp/yuwa/published_papers/33691016 |title=「泥海古記」の想像力}}

Since the Doroumi Kōki's creation myth conflicted with that of the official State Shinto version promulgated by the government, copies of the text were collected and burned, as the text implicitly challenged the emperor's divinity. The text was never given official status by the Tenrikyo Church Headquarters after World War II, and it remains obscure and relatively unknown today.

Verses in the Doroumi Kōki (泥海古記) were also consulted by Ōnishi Aijirō, the founder of the Honmichi religion, to prophesize the reincarnations of Nakayama Miki and her family members, as explained in Forbes (2005):{{cite thesis |ref=none |last= Forbes |first= Roy Tetsuo |date= 2005 |title= Schism, orthodoxy and heresy in the history of Tenrikyō : three case studies |url= https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/items/e66d96e2-112f-478f-a17b-e31174258fb7 |publisher= University of Hawai'i Department of Religion}}{{rp|131}}

{{blockquote|"Thirty years from this year Tama-hime will be [drawn back] to the primary residence" (Doroumi Kōki verse 30). Aijirō saw this verse as having two meanings. "This year" (kotoshi) could both be interpreted as 1881 (the year the verse was written) and 1887 (the year of Nakayama Miki's death). According to Aijirō this verse both foretold the rebirth of Kokan as Aiko in 1910, and Miki as Tama in 1916 at the 'primary residence' (moto no yashiki) or the family of the new 'source' (moto) of revelation, i.e., Ōnishi Aijirō (Umehara 1975, 119-121{{Cite book |title=Honmichi: minshū shūkyō no genshō ほんみち:民衆宗教の原像 |publisher=Shirakawa Shoin 白川書院 |year=1975 |author=Umehara, Masaki 梅原正紀 |language=ja}}).}}

The original text of Doroumi Kōki verse 30 is:

:ことしから三十年たちたなら / kotoshi kara sanjū nen tachitanara

:{{ruby-ja|名|な}}はたまひめのもとのやしきへ / na wa tama hime no moto no yashiki e

With additional kanji, it can be written as:

:今年から三十年たちたなら

:名は玉姫の元の屋敷へ

After World War II, content from the Doroumi Kōki was summarized and synthesized in Tenrikyo books about the creation such as {{nihongo|Moto no ri|元の理}} (English edition: The Truth of Origin)Fukaya, Tadamasa 深谷忠政 (1983). A Doctrinal Study: The Truth of Origin (Tenrikyo Overseas Mission Department, Trans.). Tenri, Japan. (Japanese title: 元の理) and {{nihongo|Moto hajimari no hanashi|元初まりの話}} (English edition: Insights into the Story of Creation).Ueda, Yoshinaru 上田嘉成 (1974). Insights into the Story of Creation (Tenrikyo Overseas Mission Department, Trans.). Tenri, Japan. (Japanese title: 元初まりの話) However, the books do not explicitly mention or cite the Doroumi Kōki, but rather the Ofudesaki.{{cite journal | last=Nagaoka | first=Takashi | title=Marginalized Myths and Modern Japan: The Interpretive History of Doroumi kōki and Reikai monogatari | journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies | volume=50 | issue=2 | date=2025-02-22 | doi=10.18874/jjrs.50.2.2023.127-152 | doi-access=free | pages=127–152}}

The Doroumi Kōki is not widely circulated today and has only been occasionally reprinted after World War II. The text has been reproduced in a 1957 study of the kōki by Nakayama ShōzenNakayama, Shōzen (1957). [https://doyusha.net/SHOP/4807300423.html Kōki no kenkyū / こふきの研究] [Study of the Kōki]. Tenri, Japan: Tenrikyo Doyusha. and in an appendix in Murakami (1974).{{Cite book |title=Honmichi fukei jiken: tennōsei o taiketsu shita minshū shūkyō ほんみち不敬事件 : 天皇制と対決した民衆宗教 |publisher=講談社 |year=1974 |author=Murakami, Shigeyoshi 村上重良 |language=ja |pages=260–7}} A reprint of a 1946 commentary on the Doroumi Kōki by Matsumura Kichitaro (松村吉太郎) was also published in 2016.Doroumi Kōki shishō / 泥海古記指掌. Hachiman shoten / 八幡書店. {{ISBN|9784893507389}}.

• Japanese creation myth
• Tenrikyo creation myth
• Kojiki
• Nihon Shoki

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category|泥海古記}}

• Doroumi Kōki (泥海古記) (1928) on Wikimedia Commons (The poem itself is on pp. 81–113 in the book under the section 日本の古記 (にほんこうき), or pp. 47–63 of the PDF file.)

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Category:Tenrikyo texts

Category:Creation myths

Category:1881 non-fiction books

Category:Waka (poetry)

Category:Japanese mythology