Shinnyo-en

is a Japanese Buddhist new religious movement in the tradition of the Daigo branch of Shingon Buddhism. It was founded in 1936 by Shinjō Itō, and his wife Tomoji in a suburb of metropolitan Tokyo, the city of Tachikawa, where its headquarters is still located. In 2011, Shinnyo-en was reported to have 860,000 members, and temples and training centers in several countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas. The temples are characterised by the Nirvana image, a statue of the reclining Buddha. Central to Shinnyo-en is the belief, expressed in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, that all beings possess Buddha-nature, a natural, unfettered purity that can respond creatively and compassionately to any situation in life. the head of Shinnyo-en was Shinsō Itō (born 1942, also known as 'Keishu'), who holds the rank of Daisōjō, the highest rank in traditional Shingon Buddhism. Shinnyo-en was established in 1936 by Shinjō Itō and his wife Tomoji in the Tokyo suburb of Tachikawa. In December 1935, Shinjō Itō and Tomoji Itō had enshrined an image of Acala believed to have been sculpted by the renowned Buddhist sculptor Unkei and they began a 30-day period of winter austerities in early 1936. Tomoji cultivated her spiritual faculty on February 4, inheriting it from her aunt. In May 1936, Shinjō Itō was ordained by Daisōjō and Chief Abbot Egen Saeki at Sanbō-in, a temple of the Daigo school of Shingon Buddhism. The Chief Abbot conferred to him the monastic name of Shinjō, meaning "True Vehicle", and the title of Kongō-in, which means "Vajra", in December 1938. Accordingly, he changed his name from Fumiaki Itō to Shinjō Itō in April 1942. The community was first named Risshō-kaku, then the Tachikawa Fellowship of Achala (Tachikawa Fudoson Kyokai, 1938-1948). Formally registered in 1948 under the Religious Corporations Ordinance (, enacted in 1945) the name changed to Sangha of Truth (Makoto-Kyodan) with Shinchō-ji as its Head Temple. In spring of 1949, a young man who worked in the temple office, filed formal charges against Shinjō in 1950.