Phoenix Hall in Byodo-in Temple. Completed 1053, Late Heian (Fujiwara) period. Painted wooden structure. Kyoto, Japan.
Phoenix Hall-Home to the Fujiwara family. Pantheon (exemplary display) of all things japanese. originally built in 998 in the Heian period as a rural villa (home) of Fujiwara no Michinaga, one of the most powerful members of the Fujiwara clan. This villa was changed to a Buddhist temple by Fujiwara no Yorimichi in 1052. It consists of a main rectangular structure flanked by two L-shaped wing corridors and a tail corridor. The most famous building in the temple is the Phoenix Hall aka "Amida Hall", constructed in 1053. It is the only remaining original building, surrounded by a scenic pond.
***In the Fujiwara period, Pure Land Buddhism, which offered easy salvation through belief in Amida (the Buddha of the Western Paradise), became popular. This period is named after the Fujiwara family, then the most powerful in the country, who ruled as regents for the Emperor, becoming, in effect, civil dictators. Concurrently, the Kyoto nobility developed a society devoted to elegant aesthetic pursuits.
Inside- amidha (japanese version of shakaumuni( budda) Constructed in Quarters, which perserved it to honor the ymato race it was made of japanese cypress and covered in gold foil (destinct to japan)
. Inside, a single golden image of Amida (c. 1053) is installed on a high platform. The Amida sculpture was executed by Jōchō, who popularized the Chinese technique of creating a work from several smaller pieces of sculpted wood (yosegi). Although it limited the amount of surface detail the artist could carve into each piece, the method forced the sculptor to convey his intended message within these limits. This resulted in more refined and ephemeral-looking pieces.[16] More importantly, it allowed several assistants to work on the sculpture at once, greatly speeding the process.[17] Jōchō, as the master, did the finishing work.[18] The technique also led to systematized proportions of body parts and simple surface details, as these sped the creation of the constituent parts and the formation of the finished piece.[19]
Walls (Early Spring Landscape) were constructed in sections with human activities and rolling hills. similar to southern chinese painings and depicted a stylized nature and early begginings of Ymato E (japanese style of paintings)
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