Born the eldest son of Zonnyo, 7th head of Hongan-ji at Ōtani in Higashiyama, Kyoto. Hongan-ji was then a small, poor temple.
In early childhood his mother had to leave the temple. She left, it is said, praying that in his time he would make Shinran's teaching flourish.
He was ordained at Shōren-in. In poverty, he kept studying by copying out Shinran's writings.
On his father's death he became 8th head of Hongan-ji at 42. He preached in words farmers and merchants could understand and built direct ties with followers everywhere.
Resenting Hongan-ji's growth, warrior monks of Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei destroyed the Ōtani temple, and Rennyo moved from place to place in Ōmi and elsewhere.
He founded a temple at Yoshizaki in Echizen (Fukui). He wrote his teaching in simple pastoral letters (Ofumi) sent far and wide and spread lay associations (kō). People of the Hokuriku flocked there, and Yoshizaki grew into a town.
As his followers were drawn into the military governors' wars, he admonished them against fighting and left Yoshizaki.
He began building a new Hongan-ji at Yamashina near Kyoto, raising over several years a great temple with a town around it.
Followers in Kaga (Ishikawa) overthrew the military governor Togashi Masachika and governed the province for about a century. Rennyo rebuked their excesses.
Even in retirement he kept preaching and built a temple at Ishiyama in Osaka, which later became Ishiyama Hongan-ji and fought Oda Nobunaga for years.
He died at Yamashina Hongan-ji at 84. Having turned a small temple into a great order with followers nationwide, he is called the restorer of Hongan-ji.
Ichijō KaneyoshiYamana SōzenNisshinUesugi NorizaneSesshūSōgiAsakura Takakage (Toshikage)Hosokawa Katsumoto
People of the Muromachi period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.