Overview
The Phoenix Hall is the Amida hall of the temple Byōdō-in at Uji, south of Kyoto, completed in 1053. The regent Fujiwara no Yorimichi converted the family villa, inherited from his father Fujiwara no Michinaga, into a temple in 1052 and built the hall a year later.
Description
The hall enshrines a seated Amida Buddha by the sculptor Jōchō, regarded as the defining masterpiece of the yosegi joined-wood technique. With its winged corridors and the paired bronze phoenixes on its roof, the building rises over a pond like a vision of the Pure Land paradise brought into this world, according to tradition.
History and legacy
The Phoenix Hall is one of the few buildings of the Heian period to survive. It is depicted on the 10-yen coin, and in 1994 it was inscribed as part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing of the monuments of ancient Kyoto.