Shinran and the Pure Land Buddhism of Jodo Shinshu

Shinran (1173–1263), born Matsuwakamaro to the aristocratic Hino family in Kyoto, was ordained on Mount Hiei at around nine years old following his father's early death and his family's political decline, and spent roughly two decades in Tendai practice before, in 1201, becoming a disciple of Honen (1133–1212). Honen had founded the independent Jodo-shu Pure Land school on the claim that, in the present degenerate age of the Dharma (mappo), exclusive recitation of the nembutsu, "Namu Amida Butsu," homage to Amida Buddha, was the only reliably effective practice available to ordinary beings, superseding older and more demanding contemplative and monastic disciplines. In 1207, amid pressure from established Nara and Tendai institutions alarmed at the movement's popular success and perceived laxity, the retired emperor's court banned exclusive nembutsu practice, executed several of Honen's followers, and exiled both Honen and Shinran to separate provinces; Shinran was sent to Echigo, stripped of his monastic status, and given the lay name Fujii Yoshizane, a lay identity he deliberately retained even after his later pardon.