The powerful Tendai, a Japanese school of …

Years: 1465 - 1465

The powerful Tendai, a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, one of several Buddhist sects in Japan, have since the ninth century wielded authority from their monasteries on the Hiyesian, a large hill northeast of the Japanese capital of Kyoto.

The rival Shin sect, founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran Shonin and well established in the capital itself, has for decades been the Tendai’s major competitor for power, land, and influence.

Both sects have warrior monks, but the shoguns have in past times kept their aggressions from boiling over.

Now, with the shoguns reduced, like the emperors, to mere figureheads, antagonism between the two sects evolves into open conflict.

Marching down into Kyoto in 1465, the monks of Hiyesian torch the Shin’s Hongwanji Temple headquarters, burning it to the ground.

The different sects also war with one another on the Japanese countryside, destroying property.

As a result, the Shin would have to stay in the countryside for one hundred and twenty-five years.

This will prove a boon: their following again will grow enormously among ordinary people, especially in the Hokuriku region.

Today, Shin Buddhism is considered the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan.

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