The Cult of Ancestors and of Tenrikyo: New Japanese Religion and its Temple as Bauru’s Cultural Heritage

Abstract

This paper approaches the Japanese religious spaces and the recognition of the Tenrikyo temple as Cultural Heritage of the city of Bauru (São Paulo, Brazil). The worship of ancestors, carried out to the city by the Japanese immigrants, took place after the organization and late foundation (1951) of Buddhist or Shinto temples, even if the group's immigration to the city took place around 1914. To understand this process, the constitution of the religious identity of these individuals are presented through values, practices, and the cult of ancestors itself - which constitute an intangible heritage. Such worship was carried out in domestic oratories inside the residences, until the foundation and organization of the first temple of the Tenrikyo Church, which became a cultural heritage of Bauru’s people, contributing to maintain and preserve the identity of its community. The theoretical assumptions used in this work understand that Cultural History allows different approaches and methods, varying according to the object of study and the sources. Methodologically, reports published in the periodical “Jornal da Cidade de Bauru”, electronically, from 2007 to 2015, and the “Atas” which belong to the Clube Cultural Nipo Brasileiro, from 1936 to 2008, were used in this research. The method of bibliographic research allowed access to different sectors of social life, to the dissemination of ideas and everyday values, to memories, to ideologies and to ways of thinking and acting. It made possible, therefore, to understanding certain manifestations, such as the consolidation of values and the comprehension of the Japanese culture and Bauru’s society.