In this detailed analysis of the life and teachings of Deguchi Nao (1837-1918) and the religion she founded, Omotokyo, Emily Ooms expands and refines our understanding of women's roles in the creation of new modes of religious thought and action in Japan. Placing Nao within a broad historical context, Ooms also shows how women's experience and consciousness of rapid socio-economic change in late nineteenth-century Japan inspired new forms of resistance and protest.