Yonosuke Nakano
Yonosuke Nakano was a Japanese religious leader and philanthropist. He founded the Ananaikyo religion in 1949, as well as the non-profit organization in 1961.
Life
Yonosuke Nakano was born on August 12, 1887 in Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture.In December 1929, Nakano joined the Oomoto religion. On August 25, 1931, he was appointed as an Oomoto missionary.
In 1935, Nakano was imprisoned in Kyoto as a result of the Second Oomoto Incident, during which the Japanese government imprisoned hundreds of Oomoto members in an attempt to completely eradicate Oomoto. Nevertheless, Nakano was soon released. Upon his release from prison, he went to study with Nagasawa Katsutate. Nakano commuted daily from his home in Yaizu to Nagasawa's residence in Shimizu to study with him from October 1938 until Nagasawa's death on October 10, 1940. On September 14, 1940, Nakano was initiated as the successor to the official lineage of Spirit Studies in a ceremony that lasted an entire week and was attended by four lawyers and two witnesses. Nakano learned much of Honda's philosophy from Nagasawa. Nagasawa died the next month on October 10, 1940.
Nakano diligently studied all of Nagasawa's teachings and practices, and was said to have learned everything that Nagasawa had learned for 50 years from his spiritual teacher, the Shinto priest and spirit medium Honda Chikaatsu. Nagasawa taught Nakano a type of meditation and spirit possession practice known as chinkon kishin, which he had also directly taught to Oomoto founder Onisaburo Deguchi and Shintō Tenkōkyo founder Tomokiyo Yoshisane.
On April 4, 1949, Nakano officially founded Ananaikyo as a religious corporation in Shimizu, Shizuoka. In October 1961, he founded. He also founded the International Foundation for Cultural Harmony.
Nakano died in Shizuoka Prefecture on June 24, 1974.