Anecdotes of Oyasama

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Anecdotes of Oyasama
Anecdotes of Oyasama.jpg
Author: Various authors
Date Published: 1976
Pages: 159 (English ed.)

Anecdotes Index

Anecdotes of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo is the English translation of Kohon Tenrikyo Oyasama Itsuwa-hen 稿本天理教教祖逸話篇, published by Tenrikyo Church Headquarters on January 26, 1976 in commemoration of the 90th Anniversary of Oyasama. The English Trial Translation was published on May 26, 1977. The work was last printed in 1979.

Anecdotes of Oyasama is one of the jun-genten or "supplemental text to the Scriptures." (The other texts that fall under this category are The Doctrine of Tenrikyo and The Life of Oyasama.)

Content

Anecdotes of Oyasama contains 200 stories or selections. Although some selections from Anecdotes are missing exact dates, the selections are organized in the chronological order when the described events are thought to have occurred.

Between 20 and 30 selections in Anecdotes of Oyasama were originally considered for inclusion in The Life of Oyasama (1956) until the second Shinbashira Shozen Nakayama suggested that they could form the base of a separate publication.[1]

Religious significance of the text

The current Shinbashira, Zenji Nakayama, has expressed the religious importance of Anecdotes of Oyasama in the following manner:

"Each story recorded in Anecdotes of Oyasama has profound meaning, which becomes increasingly clear and allows us to feel ever closer to Oyasama as we read it over and over. Further, these Anecdotes are not at all stories of bygone events with little relevance to us but deal with many topics and issues that we encounter in our own lives."[2]

References

  • Anecdotes of Oyasama, "Acknowledgements" and "Foreword."
  • 『改訂天理教辞典』 Kaitei Tenrikyo jiten, p. 324.
  • 上田嘉成 Ueda Yoshinaru. 1976. 「稿本天理教教祖伝逸話篇について」 "Kohon Tenrikyo Oyasama-den itsuwa-hen ni tsuite." 『みちのだい』 Michi no dai 65 (May 1976), pp. 26–43.

Notes

  1. Ueda Yoshinaru, p. 29.
  2. 2007 Spring Grand Sermon <online link to first half> <online link to second half (where quote appears)>