Overview of Buddhist Temples
In Japan, Buddhist temples are places for paying reverence to objects of spiritual devotion and for other religious activities and observances. Buddhist temple compounds had their origin in India, where the main structures were quarters known as vihara where monks engaged in religious training, chaitya halls for worshiping Buddhist images, and rounded stupas which were said to enshrine bits of bone (sarira, or shari in Japanese) from the body of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhist temples in Japan underwent their own unique development after incorporating influences from China and Korea.
During the Asuka and Nara periods many temples had a layout which followed the so-called Shitennoji model, centering around a tower-like pagoda (to) which was for the worship of shari relics and was considered more important than the so-called "golden hall" (kondo) for the worship of Buddhist images. There was a later transition to a type of layout known as the Horyuji model where pagodas and image halls were given equal prominence. Then, gradually, the halls that housed Buddhist images took a central position and pagodas had the role of "decorative structures," as in the case of the Yakushiji and Todaiji Temples in Nara.
With the spread of "esoteric Buddhism" (mikkyo) in the Heian period, the forms of temple compounds became more diverse, and with the spread of the raigo concept (i.e., the expectation of the coming of Amida Nyorai to greet souls departing this earth), there appeared so-called Amida Halls with attached gardens in a single compound, whose construction was inspired by the desire to produce replicas of Amida's "Western Paradise of the Pure Land" here in this world. The most famous structure of this type is the Phoenix Hall (Hoodo) of the Byodoin south of Kyoto. With the popularity of Zen in the Muromachi period, new temple styles were adopted from the Asian continent and numerous imposing Zen compounds were constructed.
