Stories of the Japanese 00700 [Mid-Kamakura Period] Ippen and the Ji-shu Sect

You might read the title as "Tokimune," but it is actually "Jishu."
In the year 1282, the year after the Koan Campaign, there was an incident where the monk Ippen (1239–1289), who advocated for "dancing nembutsu" (chanting the Buddha's name while dancing), attempted to enter Kamakura but was rejected by the shogunate. Let us introduce Ippen here, the founder of the Ji-shu sect and the last of the six founders of the new Kamakura Buddhism (Honen, Shinran, Eisai, Dogen, Nichiren, and Ippen).
Ippen was born in 1239 in Kume-gun, Iyo Province (Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture), as the son of the gokenin (shogunate vassal) Kono Michihiro (d. 1263). The Kono clan had once been powerful vassals, but they lost their influence after siding with the Imperial Court and being defeated in the Jokyu War. Only Michihiro's younger brother, Michihisa, who had sided with the shogunate, was able to increase his territory. The grandson of that Michihisa was Kono Michiari, who played an active role in the Koan Campaign.
Ippen became a monk at the age of nine and studied the Tendai and Jodo sects, but when his father died when he was 24, he returned to secular life and went back to Iyo. It seems he decided to abandon the path of a monk and live as a warrior.
However, a dispute over territory arose among his brothers, and disgusted with the secular world, Ippen became a monk again in 1271 at the age of 32 and began to travel throughout the country.
While traveling from province to province distributing nembutsu charms, Ippen began the "dancing nembutsu" in 1279, which involved chanting the nembutsu while beating drums and gongs and dancing.
"When I hear that the nembutsu is the teaching of Amida, it is a joy that makes me want to dance."
Ippen stated this. It seems his dancing was an expression of that joy.
This dancing nembutsu became a hot topic, and the number of people following Ippen gradually increased. They were called "Jishu," and it is said that this dance was close to a public performance. They would build a stage called a "dancing house," where male and female dancers would form a circle and perform songs and dances. Because it looked like a state of extreme frenzy, conservative warriors and monks strongly opposed it.
Ippen was refused entry to Kamakura in 1282, but he continued to conduct vigorous missionary work in the western provinces until he died of illness in 1289. It is said that the number of nembutsu charms he distributed during his 16 years of travel was 251,724.
The poem left behind by Ippen, who traveled all over the country, is cherished as the sect song of the Ji-shu.
"Traveling in my robes, by the roots of trees or the roots of reeds, where is there a place where I cannot cast off this body?"
(I, who travel wearing my traveling robes, can cast off my body anywhere, whether by the roots of a tree or the roots of a reed.)
After Ippen's death, his disciple Ta-a (1237–1319) led the Jishu, and the popularity of the dancing nembutsu did not fade. However, neither Ippen nor Ta-a had the consciousness that they had founded a new sect; it was not until the Edo period that it came to be called the "Ji-shu" sect.