[citation needed] According to traditional biographies, Shinran was born on May 21, 1173, to Lord and Lady Arinori, from a branch of the Fujiwara clan, and was given the name Matsuwakamaro.

Modern historians contest the identity and date of death of Shinran's parents, suggesting he ordained alongside his father due to instability from the Genpei War.

[5] On entering the monkhood he wrote the following poem: "Like the cherry blossom, the heart planning on tomorrow is ephemeral indeed—what sudden storm may not arise in the middle of the night".

[6] According to his own account to his wife Eshinni (whose letters are preserved at the Hongan-ji), in frustration at his own failures as a monk and at obtaining enlightenment, he took a retreat at the temple of Rokkaku-dō.

There, while engaged in intense practice, he experienced a vision in which Avalokitesvara appeared to him as Prince Shōtoku, directing Shinran to another disillusioned Tendai monk named Hōnen.

In this period, aristocratic exiles were provided land and seed and were required to take up farming, a measure designed to humiliate and humble them, which brought Shinran into the company of many of the lower social classes.

[14] While Shinran's teachings and beliefs were generally consistent with the Pure Land Buddhist movement at the time, he also had idiosyncrasies as well: In any case Shinran, like others in Hōnen's community, felt that in the age of Dharma Decline, it was no longer possible to achieve enlightenment through traditional monastic practices, and thus one could only rely on the vows of Amitabha Buddha, particular the 18th or "Primal Vow" and seek rebirth in the Pure Land.

In a passage from his magnum opus, the Kyōgyōshinshō, he writes of himself:[13] Therefore, reverencing the expositions of the treatise masters and relying on the exhortations of the religious teachers, I, the Bald-Headed Fool Shinran, abandoned forever the provisional path of manifold practices and good work, and separated myself once and for all from birth in the forest of the twin śāla trees.

I turned to the true path, the basis of virtue and good, and gave rise to the aspiration for birth [in the Pure Land] that is difficult to comprehend.

I have separated myself straightaway from the aspiration for birth that is difficult to comprehend, and I long to attain birth that is difficult to fathom....In this passage, Shinran explains that he not only gave up traditional monastic practices to focus on rebirth in the Pure Land, but that in time he eventually gave up on practices related to rebirth in the Pure Land, instead relying solely on faith in the vow of Amitabha Buddha.

In the Kyōgyōshinshō, third fascicle, Shinran explores the nature of shinjitsu no shinjin (真実の信心, "true faith"), by describing it as something bestowed by Amitabha Buddha, not arising from the believer.

[14] As one's faith in Amida deepens, Shinran articulated ten spiritual benefits that develop: Protected by unseen divine beings (myoshu goji), Possessed of the supreme virtue (shitoku gusoku), Having evil turned into good (tenaku jyozen), Protected by all Buddhas (shobutsu gonen), Praised by all Buddhas (shobutsu shyosan), Protected by the Buddha's spiritual light (shinko jogo), Having much joy in mind (shinta kangi), Acknowledging His benevolence and repaying it (chion hotoku), Always practicing the Great Compassion (jyogyo daihi), Entering the Rightly-Established Group (shojyoju ni iru).

In particular, he drew inspiration from a Chinese Buddhist master named Tao-cho who centuries earlier taught that in the latter age of the Dharma the Pure Land teachings were the most suitable for the capacities of the people of the time.

Shinran acknowledged the religious practices of Japan outside the Buddhist tradition, including Shinto kami, spirits, divination, astrology, etc., he believed that they were irrelevant in comparison to the power of Amitabha Buddha.

[13] He developed a Japanese Buddhist heresiology that constructed other forms of religious practice as equivalent to demon-worship; his followers would later use this equivocation both to enforce proper interpretations of Shinran's thought and to criticize "heretical" sects of Buddhism such as the Tachikawa-ryu.

[21] On March 14, 2008, what are assumed to be some of the ash remains of Shinran were found in a small wooden statue at the Jōrakuji temple in Shimogyō-ku, Kyōto.

[22] In March 2011, manga artist Takehiko Inoue created large ink paintings on twelve folding screens, displayed at the East Hongan Temple in Kyoto.

[23] Author Hiroyuki Itsuki wrote a novel based on Shinran's life which was serialized with illustrations by Akira Yamaguchi and won the 64th Mainichi Publishing Culture Award Special Prize in 2010.