Artworks

Konjikidō (Golden Hall), Chūsonji

Artwork · Anonymous · 1124 · building · Chūson-ji Temple

The one Amida hall to survive of more than forty buildings that Fujiwara no Kiyohira (1056–1128), head of the northern Fujiwara, built at Hiraizumi to make it a cultural capital of the north. A square jōgyōdō three bays on each side under a pyramidal roof; on the altar Amida with Kannon and Seishi, six Jizō and two armour-clad guardians. Kiyohira’s embalmed body was placed inside the altar in 1128; two similar altars hold his son Motohira and grandson Hidehira, and the head of Yasuhira, killed by Minamoto Yoritomo’s forces in 1189. Every surface is lacquered and covered with gold leaf, inlaid with mother-of-pearl hōsōge; the central pillars bear Dainichi in maki-e. Restored in the mid-1960s, it now stands inside a glass shell within a concrete building. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 152–153, figs. 185–186. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.