Gilt Bronze Phoenixes (former ridge ornaments of the central hall of the Phoenix Hall)

A Pair of Phoenixes, National Treasure since 1973

Gilt Bronze Phoenixes (former ridge ornaments of the central hall of the Phoenix Hall) (金銅鳳凰, Kondo Hoo) are Heian-period metalwork at 527 Chaya-cho, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, made an Important Cultural Property on 30 May 1972 and designated a National Treasure on 6 June 1973. The quantity is one pair and the category is craft.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives the location as the Kyoto National Museum. The owner is Byodoin, so ownership and keeping are divided.

They are cast bronze, gilded. Each phoenix stands with its breast thrown out and wings and tail spread wide, cast in three parts and assembled. Not cast whole, but in three pieces put together.

A Listing History in Four Stages

The most striking thing in this record is the sentence tracing how the listing changed.

Designated a National Treasure in 1951 together with the Phoenix Hall, removed in 1965 for repair and preservation, made an Important Cultural Property afresh in 1972, and now designated a National Treasure again.

Four stages in a row: 1951 as part of the hall, 1965 removal, 1972 Important Cultural Property, 1973 National Treasure once more.

The first listing was as a structure, since ridge ornaments are part of a building. Then they were taken down for repair and left the building.

Having left it, they came to be treated separately as craft. Something already a National Treasure passed through Important Cultural Property in changing category, then returned to National Treasure.

Inside and Outside Parted on One Day

The date of 30 May 1972 carries a second meaning.

On that same day the wall and door paintings of the central hall were designated a National Treasure as painting. The pictures inside the hall became painting; the ornaments that had stood outside it became craft.

The record for the paintings calls that a double designation, since a listing as painting was laid over a hall already listed as a structure.

The phoenixes went the other way. They came out from under the listing as a structure and stood on their own as craft. From one building, the inside was doubled and the outside was separated.

Designated twice while still part of the building, or taken down and moved to another category: two paths recorded on a single day.

Dedicated on the Fourth Day of the Third Month

This record is precise about the hall's completion too.

The Phoenix Hall was built by Fujiwara no Yorimichi, chancellor and minister of the left, and dedicated on the fourth day of the third month of 1053. The day itself is fixed.

The record for the wall and door paintings gave only the third month of 1053. For one building, one record gives the month and another the day.

Where the phoenixes stood is set down as well: at the north and south ends of the great ridge of the central hall. The count of one pair answers to those two positions.

Two assessments are stacked. Surviving Heian craft objects are few, and this is an outstanding one; further, it can be called a representative surviving work in the history of Japanese metalwork.

Seeing Them

The Agency gives the location as the Kyoto National Museum. Accounts elsewhere say they can be seen at a facility of Byodoin; this article follows the record.

Byodoin owns them and a museum keeps them, and they are not objects kept on permanent display.

Being a pair, the two are not necessarily shown together.

Exhibition plans can change, so check before travelling. The Phoenix Hall itself and its wall and door paintings are recorded as separate properties.