Ikkyu was a famous eccentric Zen monk-poet (1394-1481) and a contemporary and friend of Rennyo. Ikkyu himself has been the subject of popular legend and made popular some years ago in TV cartoons as little Ikkyu. On one occasion, when Rennyo was building the Yamashina Honganji Temple, Ikkyu came and seated himself over some trees that were going to be used in the construction and put some grass over his head. Some people working in the construction became nervous, since Ikkyu refused to move. They went to Rennyo to complain about it. After explaining the situation, Rennyo said to them just give some tea to Ikkyu, and he will leave. They gave him tea and he immediately left the construction. Everybody wondered what happened, when Rennyo explained: "The kanji (Chinese) character for Tea is made from three parts: Grass on top, a person in the middle and tree on the bottom. This was just Ikkyu's way of asking for tea".
On another occasion, in Kyoto there was a very famous pine Tree called Very Tortuous (or spiral) Pine (Nana magari no matsu). Ikkyu put up a sign just in front of the pine tree which announced: "I am going to give a great sum of gold to the person who can see this pine tree in a straight way". Everybody tried to see how could such a twisted tree be seen straight. Some people thought that from some angle the tree could be seen straight. After some time, someone told Rennyo about the sign. Rennyo, without seeing the tree, said that he knew the answer and asked for the gold. Ikkyu said that on the reverse side of the board there was a warning: "This is not valid for Rennyo". However, when they asked Rennyo for the answer he replied: "The answer is very simple. The way to see this tree straight is to recognize that it is twisted."
Again, Ikkyu sent the following koan (Zen riddle-like question) to Rennyo: "Amida has no mercy since Amida only saves who says His Name". (In Japanese: Amida ni wa makoto no jihi wa nakarikeri, tanomu shujou nomi tasukeru" ). Rennyo answered the koan with a poem: "There is no heart far from Amida, but a covered bowl of water covered cannot reflect the moon" (Amida ni wa hedatsuru kokoro wa nakeredomo futa aru mizu ni tsuki wa yadoraji).
By contrast stories concerning Shinran such as we find in the Godensho are more serious and express points of doctrine. Through these popular stories, Rennyo is shown in a more light-hearted way to be on good terms with a monk of another sect, but also spiritually keen in responding easily to the questions put to him by the monk. The stories show that Rennyo was the equal of Zen monks who were prominent in religion and arts.