Shinran was born into the Hino family, a minor branch of the Fujiwara clan, on April 1 (May 21 in new calender), in 1173. At The time, Japan was experiencing a tremendous social upheaval. The collapse of the social order was caused among other things by the Hogen and Heiji rebellions in 1156 and 1159. Given these harsh social conditions as a backdrop, Shinran entered the Buddhist priesthood at nine, beginning his hard practice at Mt. Hiei, at that time the authoritative center of Japanese Buddhist studies. He spent twenty years living within the monastic community of Mt. Hiei. Things he saw while living in the monastic surroundings of Mt. Hiei convinced him that the real situation of Buddhist community at; that time was not hopeful. Most of the monks had lost any true aspiration for enlightenment and merely contended with one another for worldly fame and political supremacy. He took this situation as evidence that this was the age of the last dharma, a degenerate age, which the Buddha had predicted. In addition to such vulgar circumstances, the more earnestly Shinran devoted himself to Buddhist practices, the more keenly he felt his own disgraceful mind. He found it impossible to actualize the true mind which was a condition for attaining enlightenment.
    Finding a way out of the impasse, Shinran encountered Honen-bo (1133-1212) who was teaching at Higashiyama Yoshimizu, that every one; even a evil person, could birth in the Pure Land by saying nenbutsu. Shinran, convinced that the teaching of birth through nembutsu was the only way for the foolish and ignorant being like him to attain buddhahood, abandoned the practices on Mt. Hiei at the age of twenty-nine. He became Honen's disciple and entrusted himself to the path of nembutsu.
    The nembutsu teaching, insisting that regardless of ones' rank and position, both the good and the evil were all saved by saying nembutsu, rapidly spread among the ordinary people, who were obliged to live in the lowest level of society. However, the established Buddhist sects stubbornly asserted that the nembutsu teaching was instigating views that ran counter to the Buddhist order and was seducing the public by spreading a false teaching. They petitioned the imperial court to prohibit the nembutsu teaching, and both Master Honen and Shinran were exiled from Kyoto in 1207. This affair is called the Jogen persecution. Shinran was stripped off his ordination as a monk and was forced to use a secular name, Yoshizane Fujii. He was then banished to Echigo (today's Niigata prefecture).
     Without flinching at this hardship, Shinran considered his banishment as a good opportunity to spread nembutsu teaching to remote places. Even though monks were not allowed to marry in those days, he got married while he was in Echigo. After he was pardoned he did not return to Kyoto, but migrated to the Kanto area. Shinran spoke himself as neither monk nor worldly (layman)', for; deprived of his ordination, he could no longer be considered a monk, yet he still strongly aspired for enlightenment. He also called himself by the name foolish and short-haired (bold-headed) Shinran,' and throughout his life he showed the way by which an ordinary man could attain buddhahood. In his later years, he returned to Kyoto. He died at the age of ninety on November 28 (January 16 in new calender) in 1263. Thereafter till the present day, we call him as the Shinran Shonin, the Excellent Listener Shinran, for reminding his veracious attitude to the Dharma and himself.
     The thing that we can admire about Shinran's life at this time was his attempt to live his life based on religious truth instead of basing it on secular norms. For example, when he was convinced that the great compassion of the Buddha was to save all beings; including people possessing evil passions, he abandoned his practices and studies on Mt. Hiei, to which he had devoted himself for twenty years, and chose Honen's nembutsu teaching. Even when he was exiled in the Jogen persecution, he never abandoned this belief. In his later years, he disowned his son Zenran, when Zenran taught false teachings in Kanto area, in order to obey nembutsu teaching. All these facts bear witness to his conviction regarding the correctness and importance of the nembutsu teaching.
     In many of his works, Shiran revealed that Jodo-shinshu, the true teaching of the Pure Land way, is in line with the fundamental principle of Buddhism. Moreover, he asserted that it should be considered the legitimate form of Buddhism. Of all his works, The True Teaching, Practice, and Realization of the Pure Land Way (KYOGYOSHINSHO) is the most important one. In this book, he made clear the true intention of the Lager Sukhavati-vyuha Sutra, by systematically collecting many passages from sutras and masters' discourses as proof. That is why, the Jodo-shinshu sect takes the year of 1224, when this book is accomplished, as the year of the creation of the sect. Shinran also wrote many things in Japanese as well as those things written in Chinese composition. For example, he wrote many hymns on the Pure Land, the Patriarchs and the Last Age. We also have his letters that were mailed to his disciples in Kanto area and the Tan'nisho, or Notes Lamenting Differences, which recorded Shinran's words in ordinary conversation. Since the Tan'nisho, especially, collects Shinran's own words, it transmits Shinran's thought to us as if we were hearing his teaching in his presence.

THUS, HEARD BY SHINRAN SHONIN
- his understanding on Buddhadharma -

1. The Buddhist path of other power which exists for the sake of ignorant people the object is not an inferior teaching, it is in fact superior to other teachings simply because it saves even ignorant people.
2. The nembutsu practice, by itself, not as a part of other practices, is the right cause for attaining buddhahood.
3. Although the Buddhist path of other power does not requires us to perform difficult practices, it surely brings us to the attainment of buddhahood. It does not perform a supportive function for other teachings which were told to the sages by the Buddha. And it leads us to the same enlightenment as the other paths do.
4. There are no differences between the enlightenment of the Other Power teaching and that of Self Power teachings. Because the cause of Other Power is given to us by Amida: although our personal abilities toachieve enlightenment are limited, it nevertheless bring us to the highest enlightenment.
5. The nembutsu teaching was taught especially for the sake of ordinary people and ignorant, sometime evil people, thus this kind of person becomes the primary focus of salvation.