The Ten-Year Plan: “The Year of Uttate, a New Beginning” (Feb.2026)
The Ten-Year Plan: “The Year of Uttate, a New Beginning”
Kurozumi Munemichi, the Seventh Chief Patriarch
February 2026
The Guidelines for Faith (formerly called Training Goals), which I announce every two years, are based on the five principles of sincerity for living better. For this year and the next, the focus is on Sincerity in Prayer: “Let us share life by mediating for one another, through daily prayer beginning with the morning worship.”
I sincerely ask that you practice and promote this—first for yourself, then together with your family, and with your fellow companions on the Way)—striving to deepen and refine your sincerity through mutual effort.
Building on this, I would like to call upon everyone with renewed spirit: “Let us devote ourselves together with sincerity over the next ten years!” To express this, I use the Okayama dialect word uttate うったて, meaning “to begin something with full determination and vigor.”
Some of you may recall seeing uttate before in Michigokoro. Indeed, in the November 2018 issue of this column, I wrote an article entitled “Looking Back on My Year of Uttate as Chief Patriarch”, summing up my first twelve months as the Seventh Chief Patriarch. At that time, I also mentioned how deeply moved I was when the Fifth Chief Patriarch, Munekazu, used the word uttate in January 1972, as plans steadily advanced toward the relocation to Shintōzan and the construction of Daikyōden 大教殿 (the Main Shrine), beginning with the groundbreaking ceremony on November 11 of that year.
For me, this present “Year of Uttate” carries profound divine significance, as it marks 180 years since the founding of Kurozumikyō, 170 years since the bestowal of the title Daimyōjin, and 150 years since our independence as a separate denomination.
Unlike the four “celebratory years” we observed until last year, we will not hold large-scale festivities. Instead, I hope each of you will study deeply the meaning of these anniversaries, and as fellow companions on the Way (omichizure) of Kurozumikyō, feel strongly—together with joy—your awareness and pride in belonging to this faith.
One hundred and eighty years ago, in the fourth month of 1846—the year of Hinoe-uma, the same as this year—six articles known as the Goteisho were issued under the names of nine disciples, called gyōji (administrators), of Munetada-sama. A community of believers had arisen spontaneously out of reverence for Munetada-sama’s virtue, and as it grew into a large body, basic rules were established. The promulgation of these articles is regarded as the founding of the Kurozumikyō organization.
The first article declared, “Faith above all else.” The content of each article is important, but equally striking is the composition of the nine disciples. It is, if I may say, profoundly “of the Way,” for it clearly reflects the spirit that “all people are children of the gods, receiving a portion of the heart of Amaterasu Ōmikami, without superiority or inferiority.” The nine were: two Okayama domain samurai, two merchants, two farmers, one dyer, one tile-maker, and one fisherman. For a document established in the Edo period, a society of rigid class distinctions, this is truly remarkable.
Led by these disciples, in November of the same year, the construction of what can be called the first Daikyōden —the present Founder’s Memorial Hall—was proposed, completed two years later, and then, in February 1850, the Divine Founder Munetada suddenly shed his mortal form and ascended to the divine.
The three years following the Divine Founder ’s ascension are remembered as the “Great Missionary Effort of the Seven High Disciples.” Centered on High Disciple Akagi Tadaharu, who went to Kyoto, the capital, this effort unfolded into the “Petition Movement for the Title of Daimyōjin 大明神.”
No matter how virtuous and divinely united Divine Munetada was, to petition for the highest divine rank—the title of Daimyōjin , which at that time could only be bestowed officially—was an audacious act. Naturally, the request was at first flatly rejected. Yet, undaunted, the disciples continued their petition with fervent devotion. Their zeal moved the authorities, and from the Yoshida family, which oversaw Shintō affairs, came tacit permission for missionary work in Kyoto.
Finally, in 1856, only six years after Munetada-sama’s ascension, Emperor Kōmei bestowed upon him the title of Daimyōjin. This year marks the 170th anniversary of that event. It was also the beginning of a new step forward: the call to establish a shrine worthy of the Daimyōjin title.
Because Munetada-sama had been granted the title of Daimyōjin and because Kaguraoka Munetada Shrine was established as the sole imperial petitionary shrine designated by Emperor Kōmei, Kurozumikyō was not swallowed up by the extreme religious policy of the Meiji government, which sought to make Shintō the national religion. Instead, Kurozumikyō was able to achieve independence as a separate denomination, becoming a pioneer among Denominational Shintō traditions. That was exactly one hundred and fifty years ago.
As I mentioned in Michigokoro two months ago, when we look back over a long history it may feel as though “every year is an anniversary year.” Yet the immediate goal before us—the year 2030 (Reiwa 12), marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Divine Founder—and the five years leading up to 2035 (Reiwa 17), which will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the enshrinement of Ōmoto Munetada Shrine—form the opening stage of a “ten-year plan.” Seen in the perspective of our history, this first year carries great significance as a turning point, a beginning for later development.
In fact, I was curious about how things unfolded ten years ago, right after the four “festival years” centered on the 200th anniversary of the founding of the faith. Looking back at the records, the year 2016 (Heisei 28) began with the February “Ise Pilgrimage of Ten Thousand People,” offered in gratitude for the fulfillment of the festival years. Then, at the April Grand Festival of the Founder, the Chief Patriarch (the present Sixth Patriarch) formally announced his retirement, to take place on September 18 of the following year (Heisei 29). Plans for an unprecedented succession ceremony were suddenly set in motion. Throughout that year, milestones such as the 170th anniversary of the founding of Kurozumikyō, the 160th anniversary of the bestowal of the Daimyojin title, and the 140th anniversary of independence as a separate denomination were not especially emphasized. Yet in the sense of launching into a new era, it was unmistakably a “year of setting forth.”
To add further: since Divine Munetada himself did not teach in terms of the Ten Heavenly Stems and Twelve Earthly Branches (Jikkan Jūnishi 十干十二支, the ancient Chinese zodiac), we rarely explain the Way in that framework. Yet in the Goreisho 御定書, in Tenshin 天心, and in the famous calligraphy of “Selflessness 離我” written by Munetada-sama, one finds the inscription “Kōka 3, Year of the Fire Horse (Hinoe-uma)弘化三年丙午.” It is worth a brief note. “Hinoe 丙 (the Heavenly Stem ‘Fire, Yang’) signifies blazing flame; Uma 馬 (the Earthly Branch ‘Horse’) points to the hour of noon and the direction due south, the sun at its zenith.” Together they mark a cycle of maximum strength and momentum.
To begin with, I sincerely hope that all companions on the Way will, with the vigor of the Hinoe-uma 丙午 (literally "Fire Horse") cycle, set things in motion with a long-term perspective of ten years. This should start by actively inviting the next generation, as well as acquaintances and friends, to join in the divine bond through participation and service at two key events: the 140th Anniversary Procession of Munetada Shrine on April 5, and the first Okihiki Gyōji お木曳行事 (timber-hauling ceremony) of the 63rd Shikinen Sengū of Ise Jingu 伊勢神宮式年遷宮 (Ise Jingu’s ritual rebuilding of its sacred shrines every twenty years to renew purity and continuity: Translator’s note) on June 7. By taking part and encouraging others to do so, we can extend the divine connection and launch this decade with strength, prayer, and expectation.
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