Hongan-ji Kennyo

Born in 1543 (Tenbun 12) at Ishiyama in Settsu Province (the modern Chūō Ward of Ōsaka City) as the son of the tenth Hongan-ji head, Shōnyo.

In 1554, at twelve, he succeeded to the position of eleventh head of Hongan-ji on his father's death. The Hongan-ji organization of the time held powerful adherent organizations across the Kinki, Hokuriku, and Tōkai regions, and existed as an effectively armed religious force that dealt on equal terms with the Sengoku daimyō.

In 1570 (Genki 1), his conflict with Oda Nobunaga became decisive, and Kennyo issued calls to the adherents of the provinces to overthrow Nobunaga.

The Ishiyama War that would last ten years began. He held out through Nobunaga's siege at Ishiyama Hongan-ji (the site of the modern Ōsaka Castle), coordinating with anti-Nobunaga forces — Asakura, Azai, Takeda, Mōri — and became one of the enemies who most troubled Nobunaga.

In 1580 (Tenshō 8), through a peace mediated by imperial edict of Emperor Ōgimachi, he withdrew from Ishiyama Hongan-ji and moved to Sagimori in Kii Province (the modern Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture).

In 1583, granted a temple site at Tenma south of the former Hongan-ji ground in Ōsaka by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he rebuilt Hongan-ji.

In 1591 he moved to Shichijō Horikawa in Kyoto (the modern Nishi Hongan-ji). He died in 1592 (Bunroku 1), aged fifty.

“Nobunaga is an enemy of the Buddha. If we do not strike him down, there will be no other way.”

Kennyo, as the leader of the largest religious armed force of the Sengoku period, had great impact on the process of Oda Nobunaga's unification of the realm.

The ten years of the Ishiyama War tied up Nobunaga's forces over the long term and influenced his decisions on other fronts.

After the peace of 1580, Hongan-ji as inherited in Kennyo's line survived through the Edo period as one of the largest sects of Japanese Buddhism.

In 1602, the line of Kennyo's eldest son Kyōnyo, with support from Tokugawa Ieyasu, established Higashi (East) Hongan-ji separately, and Hongan-ji thereafter divided into two branches.

Nishi Hongan-ji at Shichijō Horikawa and Higashi Hongan-ji at Karasuma Shichijō still stand today as the head temples of the Jōdo Shinshū Hongan-ji-ha and the Shinshū Ōtani-ha, and are familiar as 'Onishi-san' and 'Ohigashi-san' of Kyoto.

The former ground of Ishiyama Hongan-ji became Ōsaka Castle under Toyotomi Hideyoshi and is now the starting point of the modern center of Ōsaka.