Marriage, adoption, and Honganji

Abstract

The Honganji branch of True Pure Land Buddhism, unlike other Buddhist institutions in the Muromachi period, explicitly followed a hereditary, dynastic model for its leadership. Honganjis policies arranging marriage and adoption contributed to the expansion and definition of the sect in the fifteenth century, and to its acceptance as a legitimate branch of Buddhism. Secondarily, when the sect experienced a civil war in Kaga in 1531, differences in marital and adoptive policies between the earlier temples and those led by Rennyos children contributed to the defeat of the latter. © 2005 Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.