Rennyo and Ofumi: Letters That Turned Wartime Faith into Community

1. Core Theme

Rennyo was the eighth head of Hongwanji who made Shinran’s teaching audible, readable, and socially repeatable for people living through war. His central medium was the letters called Gobunsho in the Hongwanji-ha tradition and Ofumi in the Otani-ha tradition. （出典: The Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha Research Institute explains Gobunsho as Rennyo’s letters, written in plain language and sent to disciples across the country. See J-Soken, lecture on Gobunsho and Shonin ichiryu sho.）

This report uses one theme: Ofumi turned wartime anxiety into the form of shinjin and community. Rennyo did not invent a new religion from zero. He took Shinran’s teaching centered on entrusting faith and tied it to short letters, daily liturgy, inscriptions of the Name, lay meetings, and temple-town organization.

flowchart LR A["War and anxiety"] --> B["Gobunsho / Ofumi"] B --> C["Shinjin clarified"] C --> D["Meetings and liturgy"] D --> E["Mondo community"]

2. From a Poor Hongwanji to a Sengoku Center

Rennyo was born in 1415 at Otani Hongwanji in Kyoto’s Higashiyama district. He became a priest at seventeen, copied sacred writings in his twenties, assisted his father Zonnyo, and succeeded as the eighth Hongwanji leader in 1457 at the age of forty-three. （出典: Hongwanji-ha’s statement for Rennyo’s 500th memorial summarizes his birth, ordination, copying of sacred writings, and succession at age forty-three. See Hongwanji-ha, memorial message on Rennyo.）

Hongwanji at his succession was not yet the later large institution. The Higashiyama temple stood inside older Tendai-centered religious authority, and Shinshu lineages were divided across regions. Rennyo’s success in Omi provoked the Enryakuji establishment on Mount Hiei. In 1465 warrior monks attacked Otani Hongwanji and destroyed buildings, forcing Rennyo to flee. （出典: Hongwanji’s English history says Hongwanji became the center of Jodo Shinshu only in Rennyo’s time and notes the 1465 attack by Mount Hiei warrior monks. See Hongwanji, History.）

The Onin-Bunmei War then broke Kyoto. The civil war began in 1467 and lasted until 1477. Afterward, the Muromachi bakufu lost nationwide authority and warfare spread across regions. Kyoto saw fortifications, refugee life, epidemics, fires, and early forms of urban self-defense. Rennyo’s mission unfolded in the same age of damaged urban and provincial order. （出典: Kyoto City’s urban history describes the Onin-Bunmei War from 1467 to 1477 and explains that after it the bakufu lost nationwide influence and Japan moved into the Sengoku age. See Kyoto City, Onin-Bunmei War.）

3. Yoshizaki Made Ofumi a Community Medium

In 1471 Rennyo moved his base to Yoshizaki in Echizen. There he joined letters, inscriptions of the Name, Shoshinge-Wasan, and lay meetings. His stay lasted only about four years, until 1475, but it became decisive for Hongwanji expansion. The Fukui Prefectural History treats this period as a turning point because new texts, name inscriptions, mass distribution, and the first Hokuriku Ikko ikki appeared together. （出典: The Fukui Prefectural History explains that Rennyo’s Yoshizaki years saw mass distribution of Name inscriptions, publication of Shoshinge-Wasan, Ofumi activity, and the first Hokuriku Ikko ikki. See Fukui Prefectural History, Six-character Name, Shoshinge-Wasan, Ofumi.）

The letters worked because they made doctrine short enough to read aloud. The Research Institute says more than two hundred of Rennyo’s letters circulated, and in Jitsunyo’s time eighty were compiled into five fascicles. In the Hongwanji-ha tradition, reading Gobunsho after Shoshinge-Wasan remains part of ordinary daily service. （出典: The Research Institute explains that Rennyo wrote more than two hundred letters, that eighty were later compiled into five fascicles, and that Gobunsho reading became linked to daily service. See J-Soken, lecture on Gobunsho and Shonin ichiryu sho.）

The contents vary, but the center is stable. First, Rennyo places the root of birth in the Pure Land in shinjin. Second, he treats the nenbutsu not as a practice that buys salvation, but as gratitude after receiving Amida’s vow. Third, he returns doctrine to ordinary settings: death, impermanence, family, meetings, relations with other sects, and relations with worldly authority.

4. Thought in the Shonin Ichiryu Letter

Rennyo’s doctrinal core is shinjin sho'in, faith as the true cause, and shomyo hoon, saying the Name in gratitude. The Shonin ichiryu letter puts Shinran’s teaching in faith and says that when a person abandons miscellaneous practices and entrusts to Amida, birth is settled from the side of the Buddha. The nenbutsu that follows is understood as grateful response. （出典: The Research Institute divides the Shonin ichiryu letter into faith as the true cause and saying the Name in gratitude. See J-Soken, lecture on Gobunsho and Shonin ichiryu sho.）

This mattered for people in Rennyo’s world. It moved salvation away from temple ritual, amount of practice, status, and learning as exclusive measures, and placed it in entrusting Amida’s vow. Rennyo did not preserve Shinran’s thought as abstract doctrine alone. He gave listeners language through which they could hear it inside their own life and death.

Another famous example is the letter known as White Ashes. It looks at human life as fragile, tells listeners that age gives no fixed order of death, and urges them to entrust to Amida and say the nenbutsu. For people living amid war, disease, fire, and displacement, the letter made death a matter of today’s body and family rather than a distant idea. （出典: Wikisource presents White Ashes as the sixteenth letter of the fifth fascicle, using the Japanese translation of the Buddhist canon as its base text. See Wikisource, White Ashes.）

5. Meetings, Lay Associations, and Ikki Tension

Ofumi was not written only for private reading. Followers gathered in ko and other meetings, chanted Shoshinge-Wasan, heard the letters read, and checked their meaning. Faith grew as a relationship among people sitting in the same place. Hongwanji-ha’s memorial statement links Rennyo’s plain letters with his habit of discussing the Dharma on the same floor with followers. （出典: Hongwanji-ha’s memorial statement says Rennyo spoke with people on the same floor and taught in plain Gobunsho letters. See Hongwanji-ha, memorial message on Rennyo.）

The expanding follower community could not stay outside politics. In Echizen and Kaga, armies tied to the Onin-Bunmei conflict, the Togashi house, the Asakura, and the Kai moved through the same region. The Fukui Prefectural History describes Yoshizaki during Rennyo’s stay as dangerous and tense. One striking point is that the letters barely discuss the detailed political situation, while people still came to Yoshizaki amid battles. （出典: The Fukui Prefectural History says Yoshizaki during Rennyo’s stay lay amid Onin-Bunmei conflict and regional troop movement, while the letters almost never mention the local political situation. See Fukui Prefectural History, Kaga Ikko ikki in Bunmei 6.）

It is misleading to portray Rennyo as a simple commander of the Ikko ikki. He organized followers with enormous force, and Hongwanji followers became a political presence in local society. At the same time, he tried to restrain followers from violence and political conflict, and his departure from Yoshizaki belonged to that tension. Hongwanji’s English history says he withdrew when the movement became entangled in violent rioting and he could not restrain his followers. （出典: Hongwanji’s English history explains that Hongwanji-related temples and followers around Yoshizaki became a political force and that Rennyo chose to leave when the movement became entangled in violent rioting. See Hongwanji, History.）

6. Yamashina, Ishiyama, and Death

After leaving Yoshizaki, Rennyo returned to the Kinai region. In 1478 he selected Yamashina southeast of Kyoto as the place to rebuild Hongwanji. Around 1483 the temple complex was completed, and a temple town grew around it. After handing administration to Jitsunyo at age seventy-five, Rennyo continued teaching. At eighty-two he established a temple at Ishiyama on Osaka Bay, using a site suited to river traffic and propagation. （出典: Hongwanji’s English history says Rennyo selected Yamashina in 1478, completed a large temple complex five years later, continued teaching after retirement, and established Ishiyama at age eighty-two. See Hongwanji, History.）

Rennyo died on the twenty-fifth day of the third month of Meio 8, 1499, at the age of eighty-five. Hongwanji-ha presents him as the person who laid the foundation of the modern Hongwanji tradition and continued teaching until death. （出典: Hongwanji-ha’s memorial statement says Rennyo retired at seventy-five and continued teaching until his death in Meio 8, at age eighty-five. See Hongwanji-ha, memorial message on Rennyo.）

Rennyo’s influence cannot be measured only as simplified doctrine. He created places to read, chant, gather, and support a temple. Gobunsho was doctrinal explanation, community discipline, language for facing death, and a medium that connected Hongwanji to local society. In wartime Japan, that medium gave people a form of belonging beyond military force and bloodline.

Sources

• Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha Research Institute, lecture on Gobunsho and Shonin ichiryu sho
• Hongwanji-ha, memorial message on Rennyo
• Hongwanji, History
• Fukui Prefectural History, Rennyo and Yoshizaki
• Kyoto City, Onin-Bunmei War
• Wikisource, White Ashes

flowchart LR A["戦乱と不安"] --> B["御文章・御文"] B --> C["信心の確認"] C --> D["講と勤行"] D --> E["門徒共同体"]