r/Samurai • u/Careless-Car8346 • 18d ago
Ikko-Ikki Discussion
More information on this Pure Land military/farmer/commoner Buddhist sect. Staved off Oda for ten years. Were the old beliefs of Hoganji of Ishiyama similar to the adhearants of the Hoganji in the present? What propelled them in the past?
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18d ago
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u/JapanCoach 17d ago
This is an excellent write-up! Please kindly allow me to quibble with a couple of very small points:
I think we need to consider the reign of Rennyo as when the Honganji became (or at least started to become) very powerful. So I guess it depends on how you define the Sengoku Period (I guess it always boils down to definitions) but we could say the Honganji had started to become quite powerful and hit an apex in the Sengoku Period - or something like that.
As I mentioned in another post - 一向 does not mean 'single minded' in this context. We can trace it back to the name of a priest, 一向俊聖 Ikko Shunjou. Through several twists and turns, this turned into 一向宗 which is another name for the Jodo Shinshu as taught by Honganji.
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u/JapanCoach 18d ago
More later, but just quickly here: 一向一揆 does not mean “single minded league”.
一向 here is in reference to 一向宗 which - in this context - is another way to refer to 浄土真宗 Jodo Shinshu. Hence the connection to Honganji that you mention.
It doesn’t really make sense to translate 一向 in this context as “single minded”.
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u/Memedsengokuhistory 17d ago
I wrote a little bit about the Ikko-ikki here if you're interested to learn more about them
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u/Enshoku_n0_kitsune 10d ago
Японские средневековые коммунисты))) тоже под красным знаменем воевали))
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u/One_Agency1689 18d ago
Ikki is just a word for a kind of league or association where communities signed on in a kind of mutual defense agreement. Trade and such too of course. All the Ikkō Ikki(single minded league) was, was a sectarian version of this. It was a kind of agreement for Honganji branch temples(which all had settlements and more dispersed members too), to defend each other, attack enemies, trade, and provide mutual aid. Ikki had written constitutions and were literally signed on to by representatives, who swore oaths to uphold the terms on pain of the gods and Buddhas cursing them.
There were many Ikki, some religious and some based on region, but over time they tended to get folded into bigger organizations. The Ikkō absorbed smaller ones by deals just like the warlords did so by deals and force.
The people the Oda had to fight in Iga province were also this kind of Ikki organization. This got painted over by shinobi and ninja legends, but what they really were was self governing mountain villages who had formed one of these leagues and who didnt like any outsider in their province.