Starting in the latter half of the Meiji era and continuing into the Taisho years, a succession of psychotherapy organizations sprung up around Japan, as a craze for spiritual healing swept the nation. The Nihon Shinrei Gakkai (Japan Spiritualist Association) established in 1908 is known as the largest of these spiritualist groups, performing faith healing (psychotherapy) at a network of temples around the country. No copies of the Gakkai journal Nihon Shinrei are held anywhere, even by the National Diet Library, this elusiveness giving Nihon Shinrei a somewhat mystical reputation among scholars in the field. Now however we are able to offer in digital archive form a virtually full set of around 700 issues of Nihon Shinrei , from the first published in 1915, to the last in 1939, that was unearthed at Jimbun Shoin, successor to the Nihon Shinrei Gakkai and now a publisher.
Articles in Nihon Shinrei covered an impressive range of topics, courtesy of a lineup of writers from the worlds of medicine, religion, ideas and literature, including psychologist Tomokichi Fukurai, psychiatrist Shoma Morita, social activist Toyohiko Kagawa, philosopher Tetsujiro Inoue, and detective novelist Fuboku Kozakai. The journal also included an arts column, photographs, and treatment reports and letters from members in different locations, including overseas, and is recognized as a truly unique resource offering a closeup, contemporary view of the hypnosis boom that began in the Meiji era, and the ideologies and activities of Japanese spiritualist organizations.
The archive can be searched by date of publication, title, writer etc., and offers unrestricted access to an incredible 20,000-plus articles. This is a new historical resource sure to be essential reading in many fields, including scientific history, religious studies, the history of ideas, ethnology, literature, and publishing history.