, born Kisaburà  Ueda ä¸Âç° Ã¥ÂÂä¸Âé (1871–1948) was a Japanese religious leader. Together with his mother-in-law Nao Deguchi, he was one of the two spiritual leaders of the Oomoto religious movement in Japan. While Nao Deguchi is the of Oomoto, Onisaburo Deguchi is the .
Onisaburo had studied Honda Chikaatsu's Spirit Studies (Honda Reigaku) and also learned to mediate spirit possession (chinkon kishin é®éÂÂ帰ç¥Â) from Honda's disciple in Shimizu, Shizuoka. Starting from March 1, 1898, he followed a hermit named Matsuoka Fuyà  (æ¾岡èÂÂèÂÂ), who was a messenger of the kami Kono-hana-saku-ya-hime-no-mikoto (æ¨è±å²è¶姫å½), to a cave on Mount Takakuma near Kameoka, Kyoto, where Onisaburo performed intense ascetic training for one week. While enduring cold weather with only a cotton robe, as well as hunger and thirst, Onisaburo received divine revelations and claimed to have traveled into the spirit world.
Onisaburo met the founder of Omotokyo in 1898 and in 1899 they established the Kinmeikai, later called Kinmei Reigakkai. In 1900, Kisaburà  married Nao's fifth daughter Sumi (also known as Sumiko) and adopted the name Deguchi Onisaburà Â. Oomoto teaches that the guardian spirit of Nao is Amaterasu, described as a male spirit in a female body, and Onisaburo's spirit is Susanowo, a female spirit in a male body.
In 1905, he published (), for which Esperanto and Portuguese translations were published in 1997. Another book similar in length and topic, (), was also published. Onisaburo Deguchi also wrote the Three Mirrors or San Kagami (ä¸Âé¡, 844 chapters total), which consists of the Water Mirror (æ°´é¡, 249 chapters), Moon Mirror (æÂÂé¡, 212 chapters), and Jade Mirror (çÂÂé¡, 383 chapters).
In 1908, he and Deguchi Nao founded the Dai Nihon Shà «seikai (大æÂ¥æ¬修æÂÂä¼Â), which in 1913 became Taihonkyà  (大æ¾ÂÂ) and in 1916 the Kà Âdà  à Âmoto (çÂÂéÂÂ大æ¬). Soon afterwards, he began publishing a periodical journal called Shinreikai (ç¥ÂéÂÂçÂÂ; "World of Gods and Spirits"). In 1923, he learned Esperanto, an international planned language, and introduced it to the activities of Oomoto. In 1924, retired naval captain Yutaro Yano and his associates within the Black Dragon Society invited Onisaburo on a journey to Mongolia. Onisaburo led a group of Oomoto disciples, including Aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba. Ikki Kita had previously been sent to China by the Black Dragon Society and had proposed in for Esperanto to be the only language spoken in the Empire of Japan.
During the à Âmoto Incident, he had been detained for about six years and a half since his arrest in 1935.
He is remembered as a jovial patriarch of that school and is best known to Westerners as a teacher and religious instructor of Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of aikido.
A believer in the Oomoto maxim that it was humanity's duty to move forward together, bringing about a new age of existence on Earth, Onisaburo went to great lengths to promote the syncretic faith preached by Nao Deguchi. He wrote the Reikai Monogatari (Tales of the Spirit World), an 81-volume work that covered his alleged travels into the spiritual planes of existence, as well as many other theologically permeated stories which expounded on numerous Oomoto spiritual ideals.
Onisaburo Deguchi also wrote numerous other texts, such as Michi no Oomoto () and Tama no Ishizue ().
Throughout his life, Onisaburo was often quite flamboyant, taking delight in wearing richly textured costumes of his own design and posing as a wide variety of deities, mostly Buddhist or Shinto. He would also dress like a shaman, and often even took up the appearances of female divinities. His outlook on life tended to be eclectic, sometimes even to the point of being outrageous. At varying points of his lifetime, he claimed to be an incarnation of Miroku Butsu (i.e., Maitreya Buddha), and often referred to himself as a remodeler of the world.
Like most Oomoto followers, Onisaburo believed that the original kami founders of Japan were driven away by the kami of the imperial line. This placed him in opposition to the authorities at the time, though he had the ability to hide it. This again differentiated him from Nao Deguchi, who was more open and direct in her proclamations. Onisaburo was quite talented in quieting the government officials while at the same time subverting their efforts that he found distasteful or amoral.
Onisaburo's legacy is largely concerned with art, including a wealth of calligraphic and poetic works. He also dabbled in cinema, sculpture, and pottery, leaving behind thousands of items that are now considered by many enthusiasts to be of great value. Onisaburo is known for the coining the proverb .
Some Oomoto sacred sites associated with Onisaburo Deguchi include:
Onisaburo Deguchi was a highly prolific writer. As a result, the list of works below consists of a selection of some of his most representative sacred writings, and is far from exhaustive.