Born on February 25, 1415, at the Otani Honganji in Kyoto as the eldest son of the seventh monshu, Zonnyo. Though Honganji carried Shinran's lineage, it was then in extreme decline — its halls were dilapidated, adherents were few, and it was treated as a branch temple of Enryakuji on Mt. Hiei. Young Rennyo grew up in poverty; by some accounts he personally copied scriptures and did odd work to keep the temple running. In 1457, at age 43, he succeeded his father Zonnyo as the eighth monshu. He spread the teaching through the "ofumi" — pastoral letters written in plain vernacular Japanese. As the movement expanded, it alarmed Mt. Hiei, and in January 1465, monks of Enryakuji attacked and destroyed Otani Honganji (the Kansho Persecution). Carrying the portrait of Shinran, Rennyo fled through Katata and other sites around Lake Biwa, and in 1471 opened a hall at Yoshizaki in Echizen. Growth in the Hokuriku region was explosive — within just four years he reportedly commanded over 100,000 adherents, planting the roots of the Kaga Ikko-ikki. Troubled by the arming of his followers and their clashes with Togashi Masachika, he left Yoshizaki in 1475. After passing through Settsu and Kawachi, he began construction of Yamashina Honganji in 1478 (main hall completed 1483). In 1496 he founded the Osaka Gobo — what would become Ishiyama Honganji — at Ishiyama in Osaka. He died at Yamashina Honganji on March 25, 1499, at age 85. Married five times and fathering 27 children, he placed them as heads of key regional temples, completing a nationwide network that would make Honganji the largest religious institution in Japan.