taro. Yoshiie had taken part in many of the wars and campaigns of the troubled times in which he lived: Yoshichika had been appointed Governor of Tsukushi (Kyushu), had been recalled for maladministration, but, refusing to accept his recall, had murdered an Imperial envoy and set up a rebellion, which was, after some time, put down with a strong hand by Taira Masanori. After his defeat, he fled to the north, where he became a monk, but, coming back once more as a rebel into the wicked world, was captured and put to death (1187). [**]

Thus, on both sides, Shinran was connected with traditions hostile to the Taira family, and more so, perhaps, to the predominating Tendai influences in religion. His father died when he was four years old, when he was eight he lost his mother. It is quite possible that the daughter of Yoshichika had her own version of her father's life to pour into the receptive ear of her young son. The orphan was taken up by his relatives. "He was adopted and nourished by his father's elder brother Noritsuna," says a Japanese biographer, [*+]" and he learned Confucian doctrines from his father's younger brother Munenari ... From an early age he entertained a desire of leaving the world and seeking the priesthood."

It would seem that his uncles soon tired of their charge, for the boy entered a monastery at the age of nine, and the Confucian studies, if continued at all, must thenceforward have been pursued under the guidance of clerical tutors. The temple he chose (should we not rather say, chosen for him by his guardians?) was the Shoren-in, one of the numerous priests' residences on Hiyeizan, the head of which was a certain Hangen, who had at one time been Archbishop of the whole community, and who also held the court office of Shonagon. Hiyeizan was the central monastery of the Tendai sect, and enjoyed all the spiritual (and worldly) privileges supposed to be attached to an Established Church.

The political unrest of Japan during the eleventh and twelfth centuries found its counterpart in the religious world, and there were already movements afoot against the worldliness, as well as against the complex errors, of the Tendai system. In the miseries of the time, men were looking for a simpler creed, and a more spiritual devotion. Already in 971 Kuya had died, who, Prince of the Blood though he was, had become an itinerant preacher in order that he might win men to trust in, and invocation of Amida's name. Already in 1017, the gentle Genshin, whom the Shinshu revere as one of the great Patriarchs of Amidaism, [**] had retired from Hieizan to Yokogawa, where he had taught the Faith in the Buddhist Saviour to a select band of disciples. A civil war of monks broke out in 1041, which must have made spiritual or religious