Rennyo
Eighth head of the Hongan-ji branch of True Pure Land Buddhism, whose plain pastoral letters (ofumi) and congregations spread the faith across Hokuriku and the Kinai and made the Hongan-ji a great church
Eldest son of Zonnyo, seventh head of the Hongan-ji, he was born at Higashiyama Ōtani in Kyoto. He became head in 1457 but lost the Kyoto temple to an attack by the Enryaku-ji, and from 1471 his base at Yoshizaki in Echizen greatly multiplied believers across Hokuriku. His pastoral letters (ofumi) in plain kana and village congregations (kō) drove the mission. He tried to keep his distance from the Kaga uprising, rebuilt the Hongan-ji at Yamashina around 1480, and late in life opened a small temple at Ishiyama in Osaka, later the Ishiyama Hongan-ji. He is called the restorer of the Hongan-ji.