Pure Land Buddhism

What Pure Land Buddhism is

Pure Land Buddhism is the teaching that beings may be reborn in the paradise of Amida. It names a broad current of faith running from the Heian period onward rather than any one sect; the Jodo and Jodo Shinshu schools grew out of it later.

Architectural records speak of a Pure Land form of hall. The Amida hall of Hokaiji in Kyoto, from the early Kamakura period, is recorded as a National Treasure, five bays square under a Hōgyō-zukuri roof in Hiwadabuki with a pent skirt, its Naijin one bay square with an altar at the centre holding a seated Amida of monumental size, and the entry sets it against the Phoenix Hall of Byodoin as a different expression of the same Pure Land type.

The Konjikido at Chusonji in Iwate Prefecture, completed in 1124, is described as having become the mausoleum of the Fujiwara family for four generations after Kiyohira's death, with his coffin beneath the central Shumidan and those of his successors beneath the daises to either side. A hall enshrining an Amida triad doubled as a tomb, faith and building bound together.

Buildings of this current take Amida as their principal image and were raised to bring the paradise to earth. The Amida hall as a building type is its creation.

Distinguished from the Jodo sect

The Jodo sect founded by Honen is one school within this wider current, and records keep the two apart. The main hall of Saifukuji in Shiga Prefecture, built in 1862, is described as having the characteristic plan of a Jodo-sect hall, with an outer area in front and a sanctuary flanked by side bays behind. The main hall of Anrakuji in Kyoto is valued as showing the development of the Jodo-sect hall in the later Edo period.

Heian and Kamakura Amida halls are described as Pure Land in form or faith; early modern main halls are described by sect. The vocabulary of the records shifts with the period.

When writing, do not let the current and the sect merge. Calling Chusonji or Hokaiji a Jodo-sect temple is wrong; they are buildings of Pure Land faith.