Also read gokōshiyui Amida. Lit. *Amida 阿弥陀 Meditating for Five Kalpas, a kalpa (sometimes aeon) representing an extremely long period of time. To represent the passage of this time Amida is represented with unexpectedly large amounts of hair. Many years before Amida resided in his gokuraku 極楽 paradise, in his former incarnation as the monk Hōzō 法蔵 he contemplated for five kalpas and made vows to save mankind. Because he did not touch his hair during this long period of contemplation, his spiral hair *rahotsu 螺髪 grew long on the top and sides of his head. Two mudras common to this seated image are *mida-no-jōin 弥陀定印 and *gasshō 合掌. These images are said to have been a new type of Song dynasty Chinese image imported into Japan by Chōgen 重源 (1121-1206). A well-known Kamakura period example is preserved in Gokōin 五劫院, Tōdaiji 東大寺, Nara.