These were not only monasteries, but seats of learning, as in Europe
in the Middle Ages, and here the Doctrines were subjected to
brilliant analysis and logical subtleties which had almost
superseded the living faith. In that cold atmosphere the spirit of
Shiran Shonin could not spread its wings, though for twenty years he
gave his thoughts to its empty glitter. Therefore, at the age of
twenty-nine he cast it all behind him, and in deep humility cast
himself at the feet of the great Teacher Honen, who, in the shades
of Higashiyama, was setting forth the saving power of the Eternal
One who abideth in the Light and in whom is no darkness--the Buddha
of Boundless Light. And in this place and from this man Shinran
received enlightenment.

Life now lay before him as a problem. Unlike as the two men are in
character and methods, his position resembled that of Martin Luther
on quitting the Church of Rome. For the Buddhist monastic rule
requires its members to be homeless, celibate, vegetarian, and here,
like Luther, Shinran joined issue with them. To his mind the
attainment of man lay in the harmonious development of body and
spirit, and in the fulfilment, not the negation of the ordinary
human duties. Accordingly, in his thirty-first year, after deep
consideration, he married the daughter of Prince Kujo Kanezane,
Chief Minister of the Emperor and head of one of the greatest houses
in Japan, and in that happy union he tasted four years of simple
domestic joy, during which a son was born to him. Then the storm
broke.

Trouble was stirred up by the orthodox Buddhist Church with evil
reports which reached the ears of the Emperor, and Shinran was sent
into banishment in the lonely and primitive province of Echigo--a