Byodo-in |
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The land where the famous Temple of Equality, Byodo-in, now stands was originally site of several aristocratic villas. The first, in the ninth century, belonged to Minamoto no Toru and the tide was passed on to others of his family. It was here that Ukifune washes up after her suicide attempt in the Tale of Genji.
Located some distance from the capital at the summer resort of Uji, home of the firefly and the many poems about them, the land was eventually owned by the Fujiwara family—the tide descending upon Michinaga and through him to his son Yorimichi. It was this latter who—according to tradition—turned his villa into a temple in 1052.
In honor of the new resident, Amida himself, an amount of rebuilding was done. Just how much is unsure. The center pavilion in the structure—all that remains—was enlarged. But then apparently so was everything else. The originally revised ecclesiastical villa had thirty-three buildings on its grounds, including seven pagodas.
It was in the Chinese style (very fashionable in the capital), had a number of Buddhist innovations—still much in vogue—and the Hoodo, the phoenix pavilion, was built in the shape of that stylish Chinese bird. The result must have been something to see.
The emperor Go-Reizei himself came to look—an unheard of honor'—but then, Go-Reizei was both Yorimichi's son-in-law and his nephew, as well as his ruler.
Regardless of calls to duty and obligation, however, imperial curiosity may have been a reason. Byodo-in is still one of the most beautiful Buddhist structures standing, and in its original form it must also have been one of the most impressive.
It was an architectural metaphor for all nine levels of the Paradise of Amida itself. Still radiant, it must have been gorgeous. A saying of the period indeed endorsed the ecclesiastical potential of the place: "If you long for Paradise, then pay your respects at the noble temple in Uji."
And there, in the central pavilion (the phoenix-shaped Hoodo) sat Amida, that manifestation of the Buddha who presided over the Western Paradise of the Pure Land—a place you went to if you obeyed the precepts of the sect.
When the worshippers facing the hall (facing fittingly west) came to pay their respects they had to stand on the further side of Aji Pond, thought to duplicate the lotus lake of Amida's Paradise, and thus laid out in the shape of the Sanskrit letter "A," a symbol which separates this world of suffering from that world of the Pure Land. From these shores the pious could view Amida himself—though only when the door was open.
You can still what they saw, paradise itself trembling in the reflected waters before it. There are some differences, however. Now that the religious purpose of most temples and churches has vanished, architectural bodies all over the world are displayed as tourist sites. The Byodo-in has even been turned of an evening into a son et lumiere spectacle, exuding a light never of its own, a paradisical pile, blazing away.
Amida sat (and still sits) inside the Hall of the Phoenix impressively sculpted by the famous Jocho—the only one of this artist's works remaining in Japan. Not only is the statue nearly ten feet high, but it sits alone. Customarily Amida is flanked by attendant deities, Kannon and Seishi, who accompany him in his meditations, but not in this Amida-do.
It was said that the Fujiwaras wanted Amida all for themselves and thus excluded both of the attendants. The deity could thus devote his entire attention to the spiritual welfare of the family. Amida is thus meditating by himself on his golden lotus throne, and his mudra—the position of his hands—indicates that he is already in the highest of his nine paradises. Very good at his job, he exhibits a calm and serenity indicating a desirable absence of desire—his lips are neither open nor closed, and his gaze is averted from the view.
This gaze would—were he looking;—have included the little lake just at the base of the structure but not the worshippers gathered on the farther shore. Nevertheless this shore became a place of pilgrimage.
The Lady Nakatsukasa, writing in her diary in 1281, noted that when she saw the Byodo-in she well realized why people said it is possible here to envision the splendors of paradise. Even the colors of the autumn leaves she found different and thought they would make fine souvenirs for those left at home.
Here then, in his own personal paradise, Yorimichi knelt and prayed and would have noted with satisfaction perhaps—like his father before him—that, though Amida avoided the pilgrims across the pond, his gaze was directed downward at his famous and powerful worshipper. His father, Michinaga, had indeed died holding a string tied to this very statue of Amida, so that he could the more conveniently be led to the real Paradise of which this below was simply a faithful copy.
This personalized Amida (no one but the family was allowed to pray there: it was institutionalized but not a public temple) remains. From the time of William the Conqueror until now, Amida has sat and endured—thus illustrating one of the precepts of Buddhism. Yet, with the decline of the Fujiwara family the compound was neglected and eventually deserted.
It was also much visited with war and destruction. In 1180 the great battle of the Uji Bridge spilled over into its confines. Minamoto no Yoshimasa, wounded, took refuge in the Byodo-in itself. His two sons, seeking to protect him, were both killed. One was hit in the face with an arrow, the other killed himself in the fishing pavilion (still standing at one edge of the pond) after having suffered many wounds. His head was cut off and thrown under the verandah. The father asked his lieutenant to behead him as well but not until he had penned a final poem.
The scene is described in the Heike Monogatari and the poem goes:
No flower of fortune
Has blessed a life resembling
A long-buried tree—
Yet how bitter is the thought
That all should end like this.
Then "without another word, he thrust the tip of his sword into his belly and fell forward, his vitals pierced. Although we would not expect a verse of a man at such a time. Yorimasa had been an ardent poet since boyhood, and he did not forget his avocation at the end."
Later a great fire carried away most of the buildings, including the last pagoda. The Amida-do, however, was spared and sat there until major reconstruqtion work was begun in 1680—which resulted in the Byodo-in we now know.
The vision of the Western Paradise still floats above the lotus pond and the two ecclesiastically (and architecturally) useless wings of the immortal bird support it so that the whole structure seems to float. It continues to illustrate, what George Sansom has called a successful compromise, a happy blend of temple and palace.
Inside, the paradise itself is still visible. On his throne under his canopy, golden, tarnished, immensely old, Amida still sits with downcast gaze, surrounded by all fifty-two of his own celestial attendants, the kuyo-bosatsu, small bodhisattva attached to the wall behind him. They make merry, plucking and tootling on their musical instruments like cherubim otputti, while Amida listens with half an ear and the faithful are ravished—for this celestial music is designed to create a desire for the Pure Land.
Like their deity, the frolicking attendants are all originals—except for one, a recent fabrication standing in for the single of these statues which was lost. But this is all that remains. The outlying buildings, the gold inlay, the decorative paneling are gone—but the true treasure is that anything survived at all.
Amida often performed miracles but this is perhaps the greatest: to still exist, a roof over his head, after nearly a thousand years. And to still create the illusion of calm and beauty and wisdom that is the legacy of the past.