The school is traditionally considered as having been established in 1175 and is the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan, along with Jōdo Shinshū.

The Jōdo-shū as an independent sect is not to be confused with the term "Jōdo Tradition" (Jōdo-kei, 浄土系) which is used as a classification for "Japanese Pure land Buddhism" in general.

The work of Genshin was also important for Hōnen, as he was a Japanese Tendai monk who focused on Pure Land practice.

In time, Hōnen gathered disciples from all walks of life, and developed a large following, notably women, who had been excluded from serious Buddhist practice up to this point.

[13] Eventually, Hōnen was pardoned and returned to Kyoto in 1211, but died soon after in 1212, just two days after giving his final testament, the One-Sheet Document to disciple Genchi.

Other offshoots such as Jodo Shinshu and the Ji-shū sects are considered different enough to be separate schools from Jodo-shū.

Ryōchū helped to legitimize the "Chinzei branch" of Jōdo Shū as the mainstream one, and is credited as the 3rd Patriarch accordingly.

Renjaku-bo felt that Genchi and Benchō had been in complete agreement, so he willingly united his lineage with Ryōchū's, helping to further increase its standing.

[23] Another important figure within the reform movement was Fukuda Gyōkai (福田行誡), a Buddhist scholar, poet, and the head priest of Chion-in from 1887 to 1888.

[25] Before and during World War II, Jōdo-shū, along with other Buddhist sects, faced pressure to endorse the actions of Imperial Japan and its policy of State Shintō.

This included building several temples within Japan’s overseas colonies (all of which would later be destroyed in the years following the war) and providing memorial services to deceased soldiers as well as relief for their families.

[26] After the Second World War, during the 1940s and early 1950s, several temples broke off from the main Chinzei Branch of Jōdo-shū, forming their own independent sects.

The first Jōdo-shū temple built in Hawai'i was the Hāmākua Bukkyo Kaido, constructed in 1896 under the supervision of Reverend Gakuo Okabe.

In particular, Honen argued that it was through Amida Buddha's merit and compassion that one achieved rebirth, and since the nembutsu was explicitly called out in the Immeasurable Life Sutra in the 18th Vow (also known as the Primal Vow), it was the only practice that would work, especially in the latter age of Mappō, when people could no longer effectively put the teachings of the Buddha into practice anymore.

Toward the end of the Immeasurable Life Sutra is the following passage: The Buddha further said, "I have expounded this teaching for the sake of sentient beings and enabled you to see Amitāyus and all in his land.

Those beings who encounter it will attain deliverance in accord with their aspirations.Since the Jōdo-shū school was founded near the end of the Heian period, when Buddhism in Japan had become deeply involved in political schemes, and some in Japan saw monks flaunting wealth and power, it was felt that society had already reached the era of latter days of the Dharma, and that, based on the passage above, all other practices had ceased to have any efficacy.

Although the Hossō [Yogacara] sect conceives of it as indeed a very fine superior place, they do not allow that the common man can be born there at all.

namu amida butsu (南無阿弥陀仏, "Praise to the Buddha Amitabha"), is the most fundamental practice of Jōdo-shū, which derives from the Primal Vow of Amitābha.

There is no strict rule on this however, as Jōdo-shū stresses that the compassion of Amitābha is extended to all beings who recite the nembutsu, so how one observes auxiliary practices is left to the individual to decide.

[31] Jōdo-shū also hosts a circuit pilgrimage of 25 Sacred Sites that Hōnen visited throughout his life, as well as temples that are important to the sect.