The Phoenix Hall at Uji and the symmetries of replication - Buddhist temple

In 1053 the Japanese nobleman Fujiwara no Yorimichi (990-1074), of the celebrated Fujiwara family of palace aristocrats and aesthetes, witnessed the completion and consecration at his residential temple, Byodoin, of a legendary Amitabha Hall. The birdlike configuration of this building yields the name by which it has come to be better known to commentators and worshipers alike, the Phoenix Hall, or Hoodo [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURES 1, 2 OMITTED].(1) Situated on the western bank of the Uji River in the scenic town of Uji not far from the ancient capital city of Kyoto,(2) and extensively restored in the twentieth century, the Phoenix Hall is a three-dimensional interpretation of the teachings of an important Pure Land Buddhist scripture, the Kan Muryoju kyo, or Visualization Sutra. As such the Phoenix Hall forms at Byodoin a sanctified zone for the worship and celebration of the Buddha Amida, or Amitabha,(3) as manifest in his world-realm Gokuraku, or Sukhavati, in the western quadrant of the Buddhist cosmos. It is an evocative site, not simply for its physical beauty but also for the enduring human concerns - of life and of family - that have governed its reception in history.

The Phoenix Hall was unprecedented in plan and construction. Unlike most Buddhist architecture of the time, it was not modeled on an earlier temple structure or group of structures, nor did it follow established protocols for an Amitabha Hall. Whereas this was typically either a square building under a pyramidal roof structure, or rectangular in plan with a hip-and-gable roof, the Phoenix Hall was constructed as a square building with galleries extending to each side and a corridor attached at the rear [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED].(4) Ota Hirotaro and Shimizu Hiroshi have suggested that Yorimichi, who commissioned and financed the Phoenix Hall, also invented it.(5) The rationale for such an idiosyncratic production lies in the importance of the Visualization Sutra to Yorimichi and his family.

In keeping with its formal title Bussetsu kan Muryoju Butsu kyo, or The Sutra on Visualization of muryoju, the Buddha of Immeasurable Life, as Expounded by the Buddha Sakyamuni, the Visualization Sutra explains a set of sixteen visualizations that produce a vision of Amitabha in Sukhavati for those aspiring to rebirth there.(6) Aspirants are instructed to contemplate the vision, meditate on Amitabha, and recite his name, thereby earning spiritual merit for future entry into his world-realm. The sutra is visual and visionary in emphasis and has visualization and contemplation of the Buddha as its goals. The initial stages of visualization are intended to generate a feature of Sukhavati that appears to the aspirant "whether the eyes are open or shut" (342a3 - 4, 20) and is then focused upon for deeper contemplation.(7)

The Visualization Sutra is a sermon directed by the Buddha to a woman, the virtuous Idaike, or Lady Vaidehi, who has implored him for rebirth in a pure land to escape her travails "in this polluted and evil place teeming with hells, hungry ghosts, and animals" (341a-b). The Buddha appears before her and her female attendants and, "a golden light radiating from his forehead," illuminates the cosmos and the pure lands from which he asks her to choose for her rebirth (341b21-27). Lady Vaidehi selects Sukhavati, "the place of Amitabha," and asks the Buddha to teach her how to achieve rebirth there (341b29-341c1). The Buddha smiles, a light of five colors emanating from his mouth, and begins the instruction (341c1-2).

He tells Lady Vaidehi that, through ethical behavior and the power of the Buddha, she and other sentient beings "will be able to see that distant Pure Land as though seeing one's own face in a mirror held in the hand" (341c20-21). The first of the sixteen visualizations is that of the sun. "Look at the setting sun," the Buddha says to Lady Vaidehi, "awaken to contemplation, seat yourself properly facing west, and abandon yourself to visualization of the sun" (342a1-2). Twelve visualizations follow by which the physical appearance of Sukhavati is described in hallucinatory detail, from its "trees of jewels, earth of jewels, lake of jewels" (342c10-11) to Amitabha himself, a golden colossus with "eyes like the four oceans, pale blue and clear" (343b17-20). Beside Amitabha to right and left stand the bodhisattvas Kanzeon, or Avalokitesvara, and Daiseishi, or Mahasthamaprapta, who attend him but are also emanations from his body (342c17-18, 344b6). At the end of the thirteenth visualization, whose focus is the moment of rebirth when the aspirant awakens atop a lotus flower as its petals open, Lady Vaidehi is instructed to see and contemplate Amitabha as a monumental figure rising above the lake in Sukhavati (344b26).

The remaining three visualizations address the nine grades of rebirth in Sukhavati, with emphasis on the type of persons qualified for each grade and the manner in which, at death, they are "welcomed" to the pure land. Aspirants in the upper three grades are greeted by Amitabha, who appears before them surrounded by bodhisattvas and musicians in a pool of light. Holding hands with bodhisattvas the aspirants are brought to the "palace of seven treasures" where Amitabha resides in Sukhavati (344c19, 21-22). Aspirants in the lower grades are welcomed by Avalokitesvara and Mahasthamaprapta or a golden lotus that shines like the disk of the sun (345c17, 346a21).