Byodo-in Phoenix Hall (1053): Fujiwara Splendour in Uji

The Phoenix Hall of Byodo-in, at Uji just south of Kyoto, is a Buddhist hall completed in 1053 for Fujiwara no Yorimichi, the most powerful man at the Japanese court. Built to house a gilded statue of Amida Buddha and to call to mind his Western Paradise, it is the finest surviving building of the Heian period. Its graceful outline, reflected in a garden pond, is so familiar in Japan that it appears on every 10-yen coin.

Background: the Fujiwara at their height

In the 11th century the Fujiwara family dominated Japan’s imperial court in Heian-kyo. By marrying daughters to emperors, they served as regents for their grandsons and controlled appointments and wealth. Fujiwara no Michinaga (966–1028) brought the family to its peak, and his son Yorimichi (992–1074) served as regent for around half a century.

Uji, on the river of the same name south of the capital, was a favourite retreat of the aristocracy. Its scenery features in the final chapters of The Tale of Genji, written in Michinaga’s time. Michinaga acquired a villa there that had earlier belonged to Minamoto no Toru, a ninth-century prince-turned-courtier often suggested as one model for the hero Genji.

Pure Land faith and the year 1052

Fear and hope shaped Yorimichi’s decision. Japanese Buddhists widely believed in mappo, the “end of the Law”, a final age in which the Buddha’s teaching would decline and people could no longer reach enlightenment by their own efforts. By a common reckoning, mappo began in 1052.

The answer offered by Pure Land Buddhism was faith in Amida (Amitabha), the Buddha of Infinite Light, who had vowed to welcome believers into his Western Paradise at death. The monk Genshin’s Essentials of Rebirth in the Pure Land, written in 985, had spread vivid images of paradise and of Amida descending to greet the dying. Aristocrats built Amida halls to bring this vision to earth.

Michinaga himself had built a great Amida hall at his temple Hojo-ji in the capital and, according to accounts of his death in 1028, died holding cords attached to the hands of Amida statues so that he might be led to paradise. Hojo-ji was later destroyed, which makes Byodo-in the best surviving witness to this aristocratic Pure Land devotion.

In 1052 Yorimichi converted his Uji villa into a temple, Byodo-in, the “Temple of Equality”. The Amida Hall that became known as the Phoenix Hall was dedicated in the following year, 1053.

Architecture of the Phoenix Hall

The hall stands on an island in a pond. A central building with a double roof is flanked by two L-shaped corridors and backed by a tail corridor, so that seen from the front the whole structure resembles a great bird with its wings spread. Two bronze phoenixes crown the main roof; the originals are now kept in the temple museum, with replicas in their place.

The corridors were never meant for much practical use; their upper storeys are too low to stand in comfortably. They exist to create an image, of a heavenly palace floating on water, as described in Pure Land scriptures and painted in Chinese and Japanese depictions of paradise. Worshippers on the far bank of the pond could see the face of Amida through an opening in the central doors.

The garden is part of the design. The pond, known as the Aji-ike, was laid out so that the hall and its reflection form a single image, an early and influential example of a Pure Land garden. Archaeological excavations from the 1990s uncovered the original pebble-covered shoreline, which has been restored, giving visitors a view closer to the Heian arrangement than the one seen for most of the modern era.

Jocho’s Amida and the cloud bodhisattvas

Inside sits the gilded wooden Amida Buddha, about 2.8 metres tall, by the sculptor Jocho (died 1057). It is his only securely attributed surviving work. Jocho perfected the joined-block technique, building a statue from many carved pieces of wood, which allowed large, light and finely finished figures. His calm, gently proportioned style became the standard for Japanese Buddhist sculpture for generations.

On the upper walls around the statue hang 52 small wooden bodhisattvas riding on clouds, playing instruments, dancing and praying, as if accompanying Amida’s descent. The doors and walls were painted with scenes of Amida’s descent set in Japanese landscapes of the four seasons, among the earliest surviving examples of yamato-e, painting in a native Japanese style.

Survival through the centuries

Byodo-in was once a large temple complex with many halls. Most of them were destroyed by fire in 1336, during the fighting that followed the collapse of the Kamakura shogunate, but the Phoenix Hall survived. Its endurance through nearly a thousand years of war, earthquakes and decay is remarkable for a wooden building.

The hall has been repaired many times. A major conservation project from 2012 to 2014 renewed the roof and restored the reddish paint believed to match its Heian appearance, prompting debate over how bright a historic building should look. The temple’s bronze bell, decorated with lions, phoenixes and heavenly figures, is traditionally ranked among the three most famous temple bells in Japan and is admired above all for its form. The temple’s Hoshokan museum, opened in 2001, now displays the original phoenixes, the bronze bell and many of the cloud bodhisattvas.

A national symbol

The Phoenix Hall has been on the Japanese 10-yen coin since 1951, and one of its phoenixes appeared on the 10,000-yen note issued from 2004. Byodo-in became part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto in 1994, and the hall and its Amida are National Treasures.

Its design also influenced later Amida halls in Japan, from the gilded Konjikido of Chuson-ji at Hiraizumi in the north, completed in 1124, to many provincial temples. Devotion to Amida continued to grow in the following centuries, finding monumental expression in the Great Buddha of Kamakura, cast in the 13th century. Abroad, a smaller-scale replica of the Phoenix Hall was built in 1968 in the Valley of the Temples on Oahu, Hawaii.

Myths and facts

Myth: the Phoenix Hall was always called the Phoenix Hall. It was originally the Amida Hall; the name Hoodo came into use later, inspired by its shape and its roof ornaments.

Fact: it was a private devotion of the ruling family. Byodo-in was not a public temple for ordinary worshippers. It expressed the wealth, taste and religious anxieties of the Fujiwara elite.

Timeline

• 998: Fujiwara no Michinaga acquires the villa at Uji.
• 1052: Fujiwara no Yorimichi converts the villa into Byodo-in, in the year mappo was believed to begin.
• 1053: The Amida Hall, later called the Phoenix Hall, is dedicated with Jocho’s Amida statue.
• 1057: Death of the sculptor Jocho.
• 1336: Fire destroys most of the temple; the Phoenix Hall survives.
• 1951: The Phoenix Hall appears on the 10-yen coin.
• 1994: Byodo-in is inscribed as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• 2012–2014: Major restoration of the roof and paintwork.

Why it matters

The Phoenix Hall brings together architecture, sculpture, painting and garden design in a single vision of paradise, and it is the best-preserved monument of the Heian court’s culture. It shows how religious fear of the end of an age inspired some of Japan’s most serene art, and it remains a symbol recognised by everyone who handles Japanese coins.