Page "Rennyo" Paragraph 7

During this time, Rennyo established a new form of liturgy ( gongyō ), incorporating elements that would eventually become the core of Honganji Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism.

He also rewrote many Buddhist texts into kana, the simple, phonetic Japanese characters, making the texts more accessible for the common person.

In 1496, Rennyo sought solitude and retired to a rural area at the mouth of the Yodo River, where he built a small hermitage.

The area was known for its " long slope ," or " Ō-saka " ( 大阪 ) in Japanese.

Contemporary documents about Rennyo's life and his hermitage were thus the first to refer to this place by the name Osaka.

Rennyo's isolation did not last long, however ; his hermitage grew quickly into a temple and surrounding temple town ( jinaimachi ) as devotees gathered to pay him homage and to hear his teachings.

By the time of Rennyo's death three years later ( in 1499 ), the complex had come to be known as the Ishiyama Hongan-ji, and was close to the final shape which would prove to be the greatest fortified temple in Japanese history.