Glossary

The Buddha who presides over the Western Pure Land and is believed to receive the dying into it; images and paintings of him multiplied in Japan as Pure Land devotion spread from the Heian period.

The ornament set behind a Buddhist image to represent radiance, either a disc behind the head or a full-body mandorla, made in wood or gilt bronze and painted or pierced.

The hand gestures of Buddhist images, each expressing a vow or quality of the figure; forms such as the meditation, welcoming and wisdom-fist gestures help identify who a statue represents.

The bodhisattva of compassion, represented in a basic form and in many variant forms with multiple faces or arms, and also as an attendant of Amida.

The descent of Amida Buddha with attendant bodhisattvas to receive a dying believer into the Pure Land, best known as the subject of raigō paintings.

The four guardian kings who protect the four quarters of the Buddhist cosmos, shown in armour trampling demons and placed at the corners of an altar around the main image.

The Buddha of healing, shown holding a medicine jar in the left hand and usually enshrined as a triad with the bodhisattvas of sunlight and moonlight.