Shinran　親鸞 Shinran (1173-1263), often with an honorific title of “Shonin” (litterally meaning “venerable man”), is the founder of the Japanese Buddhist school, Jodo Shinshu. Based on Buddhist sutras as well as commentaries and treatises written by the Pure Land masters in India, China, and Japan, he revealed the significance of Amida Buddha’s Primal Vow of great compassion and clarified the religious truth for ordinary people. The most important of all his works is the Kyōgyōshinshō (The True Teaching, Practice, and Realization of the Pure Land Way).