Benchō 辨阿 (also written 弁阿; lay name Mōri Senchiyo-maru 毛利千代丸; dharma-name Benchō 弁長; common designation Shōkōbō Benchō 聖光房辨阿 — frequently Shōkō 聖光 for short), second patriarch (二祖) of the Chinzei 鎮西 line of Jōdoshū 浄土宗 and the principal direct successor of 源空 Hōnen. Posthumously titled Daishō Shōshū Kokushi 大紹正宗國師 by Emperor Meiji (1885). Born in Kaō 2 (Ōhō 2) / 1162 in Kaga-no-shō Yamada 加賀庄山田 in Chikuzen 筑前 province (modern Ukiha, Fukuoka). Lived to age 77, dying in Ryakunin 1 / 2 / 29 = 1238-04-15.
Initially trained on Hieizan in Tendai-shū under Kanchō 觀朝 and Shōshin 證眞 (1173–c. 1212). Returned to Chikuzen on his mother’s death, and from 1190 was active as a Tendai-school monk in Kyūshū, building temples including Hōonji 報恩寺 in his native Yamada. In Kennin 1 / 1197 at age 36 — and after his younger brother’s accidental death prompted a religious crisis — he went to Kyoto and entered the assembly of Hōnen at Yoshimizu 吉水, where he studied for seven years and received Hōnen’s dharma-transmission, including the Senchakushū 選擇集 (in 1201 according to traditional dates).
Returned to Kyūshū c. 1204 and spent the rest of his life there, establishing the doctrinal centre of the Chinzei line at Zendō-ji 善導寺 in Chikugo 筑後 (founded 1208) and Kōmyō-ji 光明寺 in Chikuzen, attracting disciples including 良忠 Ryōchū (third patriarch), Renjaku 蓮寂, and Bencha 弁長. The Chinzei line — by way of Ryōchū and the Kantō expansion of the thirteenth century — became the mainstream of Jōdoshū as institutionally constituted in the Edo period and through to the present, with Zōjō-ji 増上寺 and Chion’in 知恩院 as principal head temples.
Principal works: Tetsu senchaku hongan nenbutsu shū 徹選擇本願念佛集 (KR6t0315, completed 1237 at age 76); Matsudai nenbutsu jushuin 末代念佛授手印 (KR6t0319); Jōdo shūyō shū 浄土宗要集 (Tōshūyō 東宗要; T 2607); Kanmuryōjukyō myōgenshō 觀無量壽經妙玄章. Wikidata Q11328856.