Shinshu-kyo

   Kami-practice-sect. A Meiji period Shinto new religious movement founded by Yoshimura, Masamochi (1839—1915), a member of the Shinto Onakatomi family. It received formal government recognition (see Kyoha Shinto) in 1880. As first head priest of the Shinshu-kyo Yoshimura taught his own form of Shinto which emphasised the uniting of the unseen world of the kami (yu) and the manifest world of human beings (gen). In the wake of shinbutsu bunri Yoshimura stressed that his teaching was cleansed of all Buddhist influences. In focusing attention on the national rites, devotion to the emperor and the prosperity of the country Shinshu-kyo conformed closely with the aims of the taikyo undo. Today members undergo ascetic rituals of chinka-shiki, kugatachi-shiki, misogi and other forms of abstinence and meditation as methods of purification in the attempt to achieve the union of yu and gen.