History of the Higashi Honganji

When Kakunyo (1270–1351) was the caretaker of the memorial hall, he transformed the hall into a Buddhist temple and named it the Honganji. Although the temple was very small, it continued to be maintained by Shinran’s descendants. When Rennyo (1415–1499) was the head priest, the membership of the temple significantly expanded because of his energetic propagation efforts. In 1465, the Honganji was destroyed by the monks of another Buddhist school and Rennyo had to leave the place. While he moved around from one place to another to propagate, new communities of Jōdo Shinshū followers sprang up in many places. Those outlying communities eventually became the firm foundation of the Honganji in Japan.

Around 1480, Rennyo moved to Yamashina on the eastern outskirts of Kyoto, where the Honganji was rebuilt. In the 1490s, he also began building another Honganji temple in Osaka. In the 1500s, the Honganji came to have significant influence in the country. In 1532, the Honganji temple in Yamashina was destroyed by their adversaries. When Kennyo (1543–1592) was the head priest, the Honganji engaged in a ten-year battle against the powerful warlord Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) in 1570. Although the imperial court mediated and discussed the terms for the surrender of the temple, Kyōnyo (1558–1614), Kennyo’s oldest son, insisted to continue to fight to protect the temple. At the end of the war in 1580, the Honganji temple fortress in Osaka was burned down. Even during those troubled times, however, the torch of the Jōdo Shinshū tradition was carried on.
After Nobunaga died, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598), a vassal of Nobunaga, came to power and unified the country. He donated a large parcel of land in Kyoto to Kennyo so that he could build a new temple of the Honganji there. After Kennyo died, Kyōnyo succeed him but was ordered to retire by Hideyoshi the next year.

Even though Kyōnyo stepped down as the head priest, he continued his propagation efforts and gained a strong following in many outlying parts of the country. During that period, Kyōnyo cultivated relations with Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616), the most powerful vassal of Hideyoshi. Ieyasu seized power by defeating the opposition forces in a decisive battle in 1600. He then donated a large parcel of land in Kyoto to the east of the original Honganji. In 1603, Kyōnyo established a new Honganji temple there, which came to be known as the Higashi (east) Honganji. On the other hand, the Honganji he left came to be known as the Nishi (west) Honganji. Since then, the two Honganji temples have walked separate paths down to the present day.

The Higashi Honganji has continued to be maintained by its followers until today on the same site since its establishment by Kyōnyo. Even though the temple complex was burned down four times, it was rebuilt every time thanks to the devotion of its followers. The last fire took place in 1864. The two main halls of the temple were reconstructed in 1895 and other facilities were also rebuilt in the early 1900s even though the temple was in financial difficulties. The buildings also underwent major renovation between 2004 and 2016. The Higashi Honganji has gone through great vicissitudes in its history, but its original spirits as the spiritual focus of the followers of Jōdo Shinshū has never changed.