Kigenkai is based on Japan's indigenous Shinto religion and sells purified water the sect claims can cure diseases.(www.religionfacts.com)
The death of Okuno, who ran a sushi restaurant, came to light when staff at a Komoro hospital informed police September 25 that a woman who was taken there had died and her corpse bore signs she had been beaten.
Four members of Okuno’s family, also sect members, were later arrested and initially told police they assaulted Okuno at their home in Komoro amid a family rift, before admitting they were told by senior sect members to lie.
Kigenkai was formed in 1970. Hinomoto Okami, which roughly translates as “The Great God of the Sun,” is the group’s main god.
As a registered religious group, the sect falls under the jurisdiction of the education ministry.
© 2008 Kyodo News.
August 27, 2008
JAPAN: Senior member of sect denies beating woman to death
.
KOMORO, Nagano (Japan Today), August 27, 2008:
A senior member of the Shinto-linked sect Kigenkai denied in her first trial session Tuesday that the beating she inflicted on a fellow member last September directly caused the woman’s death. Yasuko Kubota, 50, has been charged with inflicting injuries resulting in the death of Motoko Okuno, 63, at Kigenkai’s headquarters in Komoro, Nagano Prefecture, and of attempting to disrupt the police investigation by ordering sect members to make false statements.
Kubota admitted assaulting Okuno but argued the beating wasn’t harsh enough to kill her and suggested other sect members dealt the fatal blow. Kubota, a senior figure in Kigenkai, is accused of ordering other members to beat Okuno on September 24 and 25 after becoming angry with her. Okuno drew the scorn of many in the sect after her 27-year-old daughter, also a member, became romantically involved with a male sect member. The daughter was also beaten.
Okuno’s killing led to charges being leveled against 26 mostly female sect members, ranging in age from teenagers to some in their 80s, and 20 have so far been convicted.
Kigenkai leader Motohiro Funahashi is on trial for making false statements about Okuno’s death.
Kigenkai is based on Japan's indigenous Shinto religion and sells purified water the sect claims can cure diseases.(www.religionfacts.com)
The death of Okuno, who ran a sushi restaurant, came to light when staff at a Komoro hospital informed police September 25 that a woman who was taken there had died and her corpse bore signs she had been beaten.
Four members of Okuno’s family, also sect members, were later arrested and initially told police they assaulted Okuno at their home in Komoro amid a family rift, before admitting they were told by senior sect members to lie.
Kigenkai was formed in 1970. Hinomoto Okami, which roughly translates as “The Great God of the Sun,” is the group’s main god.
As a registered religious group, the sect falls under the jurisdiction of the education ministry.
© 2008 Kyodo News.
Kigenkai is based on Japan's indigenous Shinto religion and sells purified water the sect claims can cure diseases.(www.religionfacts.com)
The death of Okuno, who ran a sushi restaurant, came to light when staff at a Komoro hospital informed police September 25 that a woman who was taken there had died and her corpse bore signs she had been beaten.
Four members of Okuno’s family, also sect members, were later arrested and initially told police they assaulted Okuno at their home in Komoro amid a family rift, before admitting they were told by senior sect members to lie.
Kigenkai was formed in 1970. Hinomoto Okami, which roughly translates as “The Great God of the Sun,” is the group’s main god.
As a registered religious group, the sect falls under the jurisdiction of the education ministry.
© 2008 Kyodo News.
