Hongan-ji

Hongan-ji (本願寺, Temple of the Primal Vow), also archaically romanized as Hongwanji, is the collective name of the largest school of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism (which further sub-divides into the Nishi and Higashi branches).

[1][2] The Hongan-ji was established as a temple in 1321, on the site of the Ōtani Mausoleum, where Shinran, the founder of the Jōdo Shinshū ("True Pure Land") was buried.

Compared with the Higashi Hongan-ji, it has a history of institutional stability that accounts for high membership figures, and a larger geographical reach, but fewer well-known modern thinkers.

The Nishi Hongan-ji has a sizable number of overseas temples in the United States, South America, Hawai'i, Canada, and Europe which are organized into several kyodan ("districts").

The Hongwanji International Center, to the east of Nishi Hongan-ji, coordinates dialogue with Jōdo Shinshū organizations around the world and produces translation work.

The Nishi Hongan-ji operates the Hongwanji Publishing Company[7] which produces books, music, films, and anime about Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism.

They also publish a bimonthly newspaper, the Hongwanji Journal and their website includes, among other things, a TV channel devoted to explaining Buddhism and Hongan-ji's everyday operations.

Despite, or perhaps even because of, this climate of instability, the Higashi Hongan-ji movement has also produced a significant number of controversial but influential thinkers, such as Soga Ryōjin, Kiyozawa Manshi, Kaneko Daiei and Akegarasu Haya, amongst others.

The Shinshū Honbyō, the mausoleum of Shinran, is now owned by the Ōtani-ha but is still commonly called Higashi Hongan-ji (東本願寺) by Kyoto visitors and locals.