Phoenix at Byōdō-in

    When we visited Byodo-in I really had no idea what to expect. I had never seen pictures of it and the only info that I knew about it was what we talked about in class. When we showed up to the temple I was surprised first by the water that surrounded the building. It made the building look isolated from the world and I hadn't seen any other shrines or temples that had designs similar to this. As I looked at the building more I noticed the two statues stood on top. At first I thought they were roosters, which I thought was a weird choice for either a summer home or a Buddhist temple, but once I was in the museum I learned that they were Phoenix not roosters. The idea of Phoenix came to Japan from China and was adopted into Japanese art, religion, and imperial symbolism. The Phoenix, or hōō" (鳳凰) is said to represent peace and prosperity and is said to only appear in times of peace. This aligns with the fact that the Phoenix has been associated with the imperial family for centuries, symbolizing the emperors role of maintaining peace and order. Similar to the western Phoenix the Japanese Phoenix is also associated with ideas of rebirth and renewal. This idea is especially fitting for a place like Byodo-in which has a lot of symbolism for birth and a new life in the Pure Land. Another bit of symbolism that I had no idea about is in Japanese culture the Phoenix is described as both male and female representing balance, harmony, and the unity of opposites. Another fact about Byodo-in that I didn't realize until I was researching is the fact that the hall itself is designed to look like a phoenix spreading its wings, with the hall as the body, the two hallways as the wings, and the hall that leaves from the back of the hall as the tail. 






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