Ōtani family

was a key Japanese Buddhist figure of the Kamakura Period who is regarded as the founder of the Jōdo Shinshū school of Japanese Buddhism. A pupil of Hōnen, the founder of the Japanese Pure Land movement, Shinran articulated a distinctive Pure Land vision that emphasized faith and absolute reliance on Amida Buddha’s other-power.

Japanese noble (1876–1948)

thumb|Kennyo , also known as Kōsa (光佐), was the 11th patriarch of the Hongan-ji lineage of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, and Chief Abbot of Ishiyama Hongan-ji, cathedral fortress of the Ikkō-ikki (Buddhist warrior priests and peasants who opposed samurai rule), during its siege at the end of the Sengoku period. Similar to his father, Shōnyo (10th patriarch), Kennyo engineered many alliances, and organized the defenses of the cathedral to the point that most at the time considered Ishiyama Hongan-ji to be unbreachable. ==Biography== In 1570, Takeda Shingen, a relative of Kennyo through marriage, faced

Rennyo (, 1415–1499) was a descendant of Shinran and the 8th head priest of the Hongan-ji branch of Jōdo Shinshū, a major Japanese Buddhist tradition. He is known for his tireless preaching of the Shin teaching and is credited with transforming the Honganji into a major religious organization. According to Dobbins, during Rennyo's tenure, Hongan-ji temple "emerged as the premier institution of the school, and the Shinshū itself burgeoned into one of Japan's largest and most powerful schools of Buddhism." Shinshū Buddhists often refer to him as the restorer of the sect ( in Japanese). He was al

Japanese poet

thumb|The Crane Circle crest, the Mon (emblem)|family crest of the Honganji families, descendants from Kakunyo. Kakunyo (覚如, also written as 覺如; 1271–1351) was a key figure of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism active from the late Kamakura period through the Nanboku-chō period. He was the great-grandson of Shinran and served as the third Monshu (head priest) of the influential Hongan-ji Temple in Kyoto. As head priest of the Ōtani Hongan-ji, he played a decisive role in transforming Shinran's mausoleum into a fully institutionalized Buddhist temple. He is thus regarded by modern scholars as the de facto f