Tenrikyo is a monotheistic religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

 originating in revelation

Revelation

In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...

s to a 19th-century Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 woman named Nakayama Miki

Nakayama Miki

was the Japanese foundress of Tenrikyo who is worshiped by that religion as the Shrine of God the Parent. Tenrikyo is, arguably, the largest current religion to have a woman founder. The official Tenrikyo biography states she was a holy woman born to a wealthy farming family in what is now Nara...

, known as Oyasama by followers. Followers of Tenrikyo believe that God, known by several names including Tenri-O-no-Mikoto

Tenri-O-no-Mikoto

Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto is the name used to refer to the single god or creator, of the entire universe in Tenrikyo's principal beliefs. In English the name most frequently used to refer to Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto outside of ritual is "God the Parent"; in Japanese, the equivalent common name is Oyagamisama...

, expressed divine will through Nakayama's role as the Shrine of God, and to a lesser extent the roles of the Honseki Izo Iburi

Izo Iburi

Izo Iburi was the second spiritual leader of Tenrikyo after the death/withdrawal of Oyasama in 1887. Having received the "grant of speech" from Oyasama, he dictated the Osashizu, additional divinely inspired instructions on the creation and maintenance of a Tenrikyo community.Iburi presided over...

 and other leaders. Tenrikyo's worldly aim is to teach and promote the Joyous Life

Joyous Life

In Tenrikyo, the Joyous Life is an ideal taught by spiritual leaders and pursued through charity and abstention from greed, selfishness, hatred, anger and arrogance...

, which is cultivated through acts of charity and mindfulness called hinokishin

Hinokishin

Hinokishin is a teaching from Tenrikyo in which adherents are taught to perform selfless actions in gratitude for the daily blessings of their bodies, which are considered as "a thing lent, a thing borrowed" from "God the Parent."-External links:*...

.

The primary operations of Tenrikyo today include 16,833 locally managed churches in Japan, the Jiba in Tenri City, the oyasato-yakata

Oyasato-yakata

The oyasato-yakata complex is a collection of buildings in Tenri City, Nara, Japan. that form an incomplete square on each side surrounding the Divine Residence , a structure sacred to the Japanese new religion Tenrikyo...

, and many other community-focused organizations.