Located on the west coast of Honshu, Echizen is a wealthy province famous for the production of ceramics and washi, "Japanese paper". Washi is used to make clothing and household items, as well as for all the other traditional uses of paper. It was in Echizen that Rennyo, the spiritual leader of the Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism, established his temple after he was chased out of Kyoto in the late 1400s.