was a Buddhist temple in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

which was, for a time, one of the highest temples in

Japanese Buddhism Buddhism was first established in Japan in the 6th century CE. Most of the Japanese Buddhists belong to new schools of Buddhism which were established in the Kamakura period (1185－1333). During the Edo period (1603–1868), Buddhism was cont ...

. The temple was built around the year 1017, by

Fujiwara no Michinaga was a Japanese statesman. The Fujiwara clan's control over Japan and its politics reached its zenith under his leadership. Early life Michinaga was born in Kyōto, the son of Kaneie. Kaneie had become Regent in 986, holding the position unt ...

of the

Fujiwara clan The was a powerful family of imperial regents in Japan, descending from the Nakatomi clan and, as legend held, through them their ancestral god Ame-no-Koyane. The Fujiwara prospered since ancient times and dominated the imperial court until th ...

. The dedication of its Golden Hall in 1022 is detailed in the historical epic '' Eiga Monogatari''. The Emperor Go-Ichijō attended the ceremony, and so every effort was made to ensure the ceremony was as lavish and perfect as possible. According to the '' Eiga Monogatari'', the Golden Hall's pillars rested on masonry supports in the shape of elephants, the roof tiles and doors were gilded and silvered, and the foundations were of rock crystal. The interior of the hall was decorated lavishly with gold, silver,

lapis lazuli Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color. Originating from the Persian word for the gem, ''lāžward'', lapis lazuli is ...

, and jewels of all kinds, as well as a series of images and murals detailing the life of the historical Buddha, and a central image of the

Vairocana Buddha Vairocana (from Sanskrit: Vi+rocana, "from the sun" or "belonging to the sun", "Solar", or "Shining"), also known as Mahāvairocana (Great Vairocana), is a major Buddha from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Vairocana is often interpreted, in texts ...

. The temple was destroyed by fire in 1053 and not rebuilt.

References

*Sansom, George (1958). ''A History of Japan to 1334''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. Buildings and structures completed in 1017 Religious buildings and structures completed in the 1010s Buildings and structures completed in 1022 Religious buildings and structures completed in the 1020s Former Buddhist temples in Japan Buddhist archaeological sites in Japan Buddhism in the Heian period 11th-century Buddhist temples {{Japan-Buddhist-temple-stub