Byodoin

Byodoin began as a Fujiwara villa and was converted to a temple in 1052; the Phoenix Hall was completed the following year and has stood since - a genuine eleventh-century building, which is rare, and a national treasure. It was built as a representation of Amida's Pure Land on earth, with the hall's winged form set on the far side of a pond so that it appears to float and doubles in the water. Inside is a seated Amida by Jocho, the sculptor whose technique of assembled blocks set the standard for Japanese Buddhist sculpture afterwards, surrounded by fifty-two bodhisattvas on clouds attached to the walls. The building is on the ten-yen coin and the phoenix on its roof is on the ten-thousand-yen note. A modern museum built partly underground holds the original roof phoenixes, the temple bell and half the wall bodhisattvas.

History

The site began in 998 as a country villa of the courtier Minamoto no Shigenobu; after his death the powerful Fujiwara no Michinaga bought it from his widow, and Michinaga's son Yorimichi turned it into a temple in 1052 - the year many believed marked the start of mappō, the age of the Dharma's decline, which drove aristocrats towards Pure Land devotion. The Phoenix Hall followed in 1053, with its 2.4-metre Amida by the sculptor Jōchō. Fighting in 1336 brought a fire that took most of the other buildings; sub-temples were added in the following centuries, the Phoenix Hall was restored in 1670, and a great fire in Uji in 1698 badly damaged the temple. The hall and its Amida became National Treasures in 1951, the hall is on the 10-yen coin, and in 1994 Byōdō-in was listed with the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto as a World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, Byōdō-in).

What's there

• An 1053 building - the Phoenix Hall itself, standing since the eleventh century.
• The reflection - the winged hall doubled in the pond it was sited against.
• Jocho's Amida - the sculpture that set the standard for Japanese Buddhist carving.
• The underground museum - original roof phoenixes, the bell and wall bodhisattvas.

When to go

Late April for wisteria over the pond; all year otherwise. Two hours.

Good to know

The hall interior is entered only on a timed extra ticket in small groups, and slots sell out early in the day. The reflection needs still water. Uji is a further train ride beyond Kyoto. Photography inside the hall is prohibited.

Nearby

Uji's tea shops line the river; Fushimi Inari is north.

Key facts