The Phoenix Hall (Hōō-dō) of Byōdō-in, in the small temple city of Uji about half an hour south of Kyoto Station, is the most famous surviving piece of Heian-period (794–1185) architecture in Japan and so familiar to Japanese eyes that it is depicted on the back of the ten-yen coin. The hall was built in 1053 as the private chapel of a Fujiwara regent and stands on a small artificial island, designed to be viewed across a reflecting pond as a representation of Amitabha's Western Paradise.
Inside is the original three-metre seated wooden Amida Buddha by the master sculptor Jōchō, the canonical example of late-Heian Buddhist style. Behind it, fifty-two carved wooden bodhisattvas dance, play instruments, and float on clouds along the walls — the museum next to the hall preserves and rotates them. Combine with a stroll through the surrounding tea-merchant town of Uji, the most important green-tea growing area in Japan.