1 Founder of Shin-Buddhism:
Shinran

Shinran lived 800 years ago.
Shinran(1173-1262), at the age of nine.
left his home to enter the path of Buddhism.
He joined the Tendai school of Buddhism located on beautiful Mount Hiei in Kyoto as a monk.
Mount Hiei was the major center of Buddhist studies and practice in Japan by that time.
Shinran practiced Buddhism there for 20 years,
but he could not find a meaningful solution to his search for enlightenment.
When he was 29 years old, he left Mount Hiei.
In despair he decided to spend 100 days
in a small temple named Rokkaku in Kyoto dedicated to
Prince Shotoku Taishi(who was a Japanese Prince in the 7th Century,
very literate in Buddhist doctrine and a great patron of Buddhism).
On the 95th day, exhausted and in despair,
Shinran had a dream in which Prince Shotoku appeared in the form of Kannon Bodhisattva
expressing to him that he, Shinran, would finally be able to find a good master teacher.
After that prophetic incident, Shinran met Honen and learned about
the teaching of entrusting in the Other-Power, the teaching of Nembutsu.
As the teaching of Nenbutsu started to become more and more generally accepted,
Honen and his disciples including Shinran,
were persecuted, resulting in sentencing to exile for political reasons.
Shinran was exiled in the Northeastern part of Japan called Echigo.
This became the first step of spreading his understanding of the Nembutsu teaching throughout Japan.

This was the foundation of what is called Shin (Authentic) Buddhism today, and
Shinran is honored by recognition as its founder.

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