Fukada Chiyoko


Fukada Chiyoko was the Japanese founder of Ennōkyō, a Japanese new religion based in Tamba, Hyōgo Prefecture. She began her religious career after receiving a divine revelation on July 16, 1919. For the next five and a half years until her death at the age of 37, she carried out faith healing and teaching that attracted numerous followers.

Biography

Fukada was born in Ogawa Village, Hikami District, Hyōgo. On July 16, 1919, at the age of 33, she received a divine revelation. This date is commemorated by Ennōkyō as the religion's founding day.
From 1919 until her death in 1925, Fukada employed a distinctive set of esoteric devotional and healing practices known as shūhō. She gained many followers from the surrounding region due to her charisma and reports of healings.
She died on January 6, 1925 from valvular heart disease.

Legacy

In the Ennōkyō religion, Fukada is commemorated with the posthumous title Jishō-in Ennō Chikaku Daishi.
After Fukada Chiyoko's death, her children and disciples organized the Ennō Hōshūkai and a separate Ennō Hōonkai. Both groups were dissolved under the 1940 Religious Organizations Law during World War II. After War World II, Ennō Shūhōkai was revived in 1947, and Ennōkyō was organized in 1948 under the Religious Corporations Ordinance; it later merged with Ennō Hōonkai and, in 1952, gained recognition as an independent religious corporation under the Religious Corporations Law.
During the postwar years, leadership centered on the founder's eldest son Fukada Nagaharu as first head priest and Fukada Hiromitsu as second head priest. Fukada Nagaharu organized his mother's teachings and writings into a coherent doctrine, emphasizing teachings such as:
  • "common root of Heaven and Earth"
  • "unity of mind and matter"
  • "unity of all religions"
  • "life itself is religion"