Byodo-in

You have seen this building before. The Phoenix Hall is on the back of the ten-yen coin, and the phoenixes on its roof were on the 10,000-yen note until the new series arrived in 2024, which makes it the most reproduced piece of architecture in Japan.

It was finished in 1053, and it is the only major Heian-period building still standing in something close to its original form. Everything else from that century burned. The hall was built by Fujiwara no Yorimichi at the height of his family's power, at a moment when the Buddhist doctrine of mappo, the degenerate final age, had convinced the aristocracy that the world was ending and the only hope was rebirth in Amida's western paradise. So they built the paradise: a hall shaped like a bird about to take off, reflected in a pond laid out to be seen from the far bank, with the Amida Buddha inside visible through a round window from across the water.

That statue is by Jocho, the sculptor who invented the joined-block technique that made large wooden Buddhas possible. Around it, 52 bodhisattvas ride clouds along the walls, playing instruments and dancing. The interior is open to small timed groups for an extra fee and there is usually a wait.

The Hoshokan museum, built underground in 2001 so as not to intrude, holds the original roof phoenixes, the temple bell and half the bodhisattvas, and it is far better than a temple museum has any right to be.

Entry is around 700 yen. Uji is Japan's most famous tea town, and the shops along the river between the station and the temple sell matcha that Kyoto restaurants buy. Twenty minutes by JR from Kyoto.