Oomoto: the Japanese faith that took up Esperanto

Two faiths took up Esperanto without being asked. Oomoto, a Japanese religion, made it part of its mission in 1923 and still teaches it. The Bahá'ís call for a world language and encourage Esperanto, but have never chosen it. Between them stands Lidia Zamenhof, the author's daughter. The religions page has the Christian story.

Oomoto takes up Esperanto, 1923

Oomoto was founded in 1892 by Deguchi Nao, a poor peasant woman in Ayabe, in Kyoto Prefecture. Her son-in-law Onisaburo Deguchi built it into a movement with a universal mission. On 28 June 1923 it founded an Esperanto study society, renamed the Esperanto-Propaganda Asocio that October; its successor still runs in Kameoka.

Its motto stands on a monument raised in 1963 at Kameoka:

• Unu Dio, Unu Mondo, Unu Interlingvo. - One God, one world, one international language.

Oomoto's own pages give Onisaburo's short poems of 1923 in Esperanto. One:

Ĝuste Esperant' / kun forta influpovo / de la vortanim' / ja iĝas granda helpo / por la nobla misiad'.

Esperanto, precisely, with the strong influence of the word-spirit, becomes a great help to the noble mission.

• Onisaburo Deguchi, 1923, in Oomoto's Esperanto version

The key word is vortanimo: vorto plus animo, word-soul, which seems to render the Japanese idea of a spirit living in words. A prose note dated 1 July 1923 says: Mi do elkore deziras ke ĉiu sufiĉe studu ĉi tiun lingvon, so I sincerely wish that everyone would study this language well.

In December 1935 the state moved against Oomoto. Its own history records the result in four words: Interrompiĝis Esperanta movado de Oomoto, the Esperanto movement of Oomoto was interrupted. It came back after the war.

Esperant', vortanim': the poet's apostrophe

The poems clip words to fit the metre. Rule 16 of the Fundamento lets you drop a noun's final -o, and the final letter of la, marking the gap with an apostrophe:

The stress stays where it was: Esperant' is still stressed on the ran. The rule allows it anywhere, but it lives mainly in verse and song; in everyday prose it sounds poetic. Poetic Esperanto has the full rule.