Shinran's Jodo Shinshu spreads in Japan

1313

Decades after Shinran's death, his radical doctrine of salvation by pure faith in Amida Buddha had taken root among farmers and fishermen across the Hokuriku provinces. True Pure Land Buddhism would become Japan's largest sect, with married priests inheriting temples, a populist streak unmatched elsewhere in East Asian Buddhism, and congregations that sometimes defied feudal lords in the name of spiritual equality.