Turbulent times in old Japan

I'm really enjoying the Charles B Jones book on Pure Land Buddhism, and have just been reading the section in it about the life of famous Japanese monk Honen, who's a key figure in the development of this strain of Buddhism in Japan.

I have looked at other online sources for his story, but none put it as elegantly as Jones.    It's full of drama and intrigue, and this summary paints the picture:

He was born in the fourth month of 1133 in Mimasaka province (modern Okayama prefecture) into a provincial military family. The military clans of Japan were then embroiled in a struggle with the nobility for control of agricultural lands, and in 1141 Hōnen's father, Uruma Tokikuni, was killed in a skirmish over possession of a local manor. The young Hōnen was sent to a nearby Tendai Buddhist temple, the Bodaiji, probably for protection from his family's enemies.

Hōnen seemed a promising candidate for a clerical career and was therefore sent in 1145 to continue his novitiate at the Tendai main temple of Enryakuji on Mount Hiei near Kyoto. His training went well, and in 1147, at the age of fourteen, he was formally ordained into the Tendai priesthood.

In Jones' book, he indicates that young Honen witnessed his father's death (he paints it more as a  unexpected assassination at home), and claims that he (Honen) was always haunted by the way it taught him that death could come at any instant.     Some other sources on line claim that the father gave this message to his son:

On his deathbed Uruma told his eight year-old son not to avenge his death but to become a monk and honor his father’s life with good deeds.

But back to the previous link:

Hōnen was a serious and dedicated monk. His early biographies reveal that in the years following his ordination he read the entire Buddhist canon three times and mastered not only the Tendai doctrines but those of the other contemporary schools as well.

Conditions then, however, were every bit as unsettled on Mount Hiei as elsewhere in Japan and hardly conducive to a life of study and contemplation. The great national struggle between the nobility and the provincial military clans (the same struggle that had claimed the life of Hōnen's father) was rapidly increasing in intensity, and the monastic establishments of the day, including the Tendai order, had become deeply involved in this struggle.

Not only was political intrigue rife on Mount Hiei, but numbers of monks had been organized into small armies that engaged in constant brawls with the monastic armies of other temples and with the troops of the Taira military clan, which had by then occupied Kyoto, the capital.

Yeah, Jones mentions the monk soldiers too.   I mean, I know Japanese history is chock full of back and forth between warring factions, but the fact that there were "monastic armies" I had not known.   A tad Jedi-ish, I guess you could say.  

Anyway, I guess I will skip through the development of his religious beliefs, and note how other established Buddhist temples complained about the behaviour of Honen's followers.   The big controversy latter in his life was this:

...late in 1206 two of his disciples engaged in an indiscretion that had serious repercussions:

During the absence of Go-Toba, the priests Anrakubō and Jūren led the Emperor's Ladies in a Pure Land devotional service that continued throughout the night.

The jealous Emperor was furious and acceded to the demands of the Kōfuku-ji monks.

Early in 1207, Jūren and Anrakubō were executed, the cultivation of Exclusive Nembutsu was prohibited, and Hōnen and several of his disciples were exiled to distant provinces.

OK, well, in case it wasn't already obvious, other sources indicate that you should put air quotes around "Pure Land devotional service that continued throughout the night".   Jones in his book notes that one of the priests was notoriously handsome, and could sing well.   

Jones, and other sources, also explain how the problem with "exclusive Nembutsu" - the belief that calling on the name of Amida Buddha was enough to guarantee a kind of salvation, and the  equivalent of salvation by faith alone in Protestantism - was that some took it as licence to not have to act morally at all.   This theological conundrum seems to have been an active problem earlier in the East than in the West.

Anyway - next up is the intriguing life of Shinran, the other big figure in Japanese Buddhism, and whose statute is often seen around temples.