On one of these to Kumano in Wakayama, Ippen received a revelation that enlightenment could be achieved by reciting the name of Amida, the principal buddha in Pure Land Buddhism. Ippen devised a religious practice involving chanting the name while performing an ecstatic dance, called nembutsu, which became wildly popular with common people. The nembutsu was performed at regular times, hence its name the “time sect”. With a band of followers, Ippen travelled all over Japan, urging people to give up their families and possessions. He came to be known as the Traveling Saint, and the Holy Man of Renunciation. Images of Ippen show an intense, skeletally thin man in a posture of supplicant prayer.

Before he died, Ippen burnt all his writings, but copies were kept by some of his disciples. After his death, many of his disciples committed suicide, throwing themselves into the sea in the hope of being reborn in the Pure Land. The cult-like practice of wild dancing and the self-destructive denouement meant that Ippen’s sect failed to last beyond the lifetime of its guru, although his name is still revered around Japan.

In 1292, three years after Ippen’s death, Hōgon-ji, was rebuilt by one of Ippen’s disciples. The main hall and several buildings burned down in 2013 although the original gate remains. The other buildings have been rebuilt in a new configuration.