Leaders in an Age of Transition

Abstract Immediately after the Japanese defeat in World War II there was a period when the so-called feudalistic character of Japanese Buddhism was much discussed. At this time there were within the Jodo Shin sect many loud calls for a “return to Shinran” (although of course this was not the first time such calls had been issued) and much investigation of the historical background of Shin’s feudalistic institutional structures and its doctrines promoting submission to political authority. It was concluded by some that it was Rennyo, the eighth hossu (head abbot) of Honganji, who had distorted Shinran’s teachings and established the feudalistic character of the Shin sectarian organization.