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Born in 942 in Yamato Province, he entered Mt. Hiei as a child and studied under Ryōgen (Jie Daishi). Called "Eshin Sōzu" after Eshin-in at Yokawa on Mt. Hiei, in 985 at age forty-four he compiled the three-volume Ōjōyōshū (Essentials of Rebirth). Drawing on over 160 texts and 950 passages, it vividly depicted the Pure Land and the hells, teaching the path to rebirth through nenbutsu. The work was transmitted to Song China and highly praised. It also influenced the Tale of Genji and shaped Japanese conceptions of the afterlife and hell. He died in 1017 at age seventy-six.

A Tendai polymath combining vast scriptural learning with literary talent for vivid depictions of hell and paradise. Rejecting worldly advancement, he pursued the path to the Pure Land in the stillness of Yokawa.

The Ōjōyōshū became the intellectual wellspring for all Pure Land schools from Hōnen and Shinran onward — one of the most influential works in Japanese Buddhist history. Modern Japanese images of hell and paradise largely derive from this text.