The Kyoto nobility created a new form of Buddha hall, known as the Amida hall, which blends the secular with the religious and houses one or more Buddha images within a structure resembling the mansio...The Kyoto nobility created a new form of Buddha hall, known as the Amida hall, which blends the secular with the religious and houses one or more Buddha images within a structure resembling the mansions of the nobility. In 784, the Japanese Emperor Kammu, threatened by the growing secular power of the Buddhist institutions in the city of Nara, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (Kyōto), which remained the imperial capital for the next 1,000 years.
