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Born in 1173 as the son of the minor aristocrat Fujiwara no Arinori in Kyoto. He entered Enryakuji on Mt. Hiei at age 9 and trained under Jien for 20 years. Yet the deeper his practice, the more acutely he felt the weight of his own passions and the inadequacy of existing Buddhism to save him. In 1201, aged 29, after a retreat at Rokkakudo where he received a dream vision of Prince Shotoku, he sought out Honen and devoted himself to exclusive nenbutsu practice—a meeting that defined his life. In the Jogen Persecution of 1207, Honen was exiled to Tosa and Shinran to Echigo, forcibly laicized. After pardon he moved to Inada in present-day Ibaraki and spent 20 years teaching common people. Returning to Kyoto in his later years, he authored "Kyogyoshinsho," systematizing Jodo Shinshu doctrine around Amida's Primal Vow. His paradoxical teaching "Even good people attain rebirth—how much more so the wicked" was a revolutionary declaration that all humanity could be saved. He died in 1263 at the age of 90.

Humbly called himself "Gutoku Shinran" (foolish, stubble-headed Shinran), deeply aware of his own worldly passions. A revolutionary cleric who openly married, rejecting asceticism. He always stood with common people.

Jōdo Shinshū grew into Japan's largest Buddhist denomination. Honganji became a major power in the Warring States period. The Akunin Shōki teaching continues to profoundly influence Japanese thought.