History of Japan men instead joined forces with Emperor Go-Daigo and overthrew the Kamakura shogunate. Japan nevertheless entered a period of prosperity and population growth starting around 1250. In rural areas, the greater use of iron tools and fertilizer, improved irrigation techniques, and double-cropping increased productivity and rural villages grew. Fewer famines and epidemics allowed cities to grow and commerce to boom. Buddhism, which had been largely a religion of the elites, was brought to the masses by prominent monks, such as Hōnen (1133–1212), who established Pure Land Buddhism in Japan, and Nichiren (1222–82), who founded Nichiren Buddhism. Zen Buddhism spread widely among
Faith in Buddhism hand. Pure Land Buddhism is currently still one of the most popular forms of religion in East Asia, and is practised by most East Asian monks. As of the 1990s, the older generation of Chinese people still used the Amitābha mantra in common everyday greetings. The Tendai scholar Genshin (942–1017), Tendai priest Hōnen (1133–1212) and his student Shinran (1173–1262) applied Shandao's teachings in Japan, creating Pure Land Buddhism there as a separate school for the first time. They believed and taught that mindfully reciting the "nembutsu" would be enough to secure the faithful person's entrance into the Western Paradise. Although