RENNYO

posthumous name Kenju Daishi, assumed name Shinsho-in born April 4, 1415, Kyoto, Japan died May 5, 1499, Kyoto Japanese Buddhist leader and eighth patriarch of the Hongan Temple in Kyoto, the centre of reformed Japanese Buddhism. Rennyo furthered the anti-institutional Buddhist reform initiated by Shinran (13th century) that created the Jodo Shinshu (True Pure Land sect) and inspired the Ikko rebellions, 15th-century uprisings by militant, religious-political Buddhist societies against Japanese feudal lords. Generally regarded as the restorer of the Jodo Shin sect, Rennyo undertook the compilation of the Sanjo wasanthree of the volumes of Buddhist poems and hymns (wasan) written by Shinran to expound his religious viewsand oversaw the rebuilding of the Hongan Temple at Yamashina, on the outskirts of Kyoto.