Also called kubon ōjōraigō 九品往生来迎. The nine possible levels of birth into *Amida's 阿弥陀 Paradise gokuraku 極楽. Raigō refers to the welcoming descent of the Buddhas who greet the newly born into Paradise. According to the Kanmuryōjukyō 観無量寿経, there are three classes of birth, each class being divided into upper, middle and lower levels, for a total of nine in all. The faithful are born into the level appropriate to the depth of their ascetic practice and the degree of their capabilities. Each level of birth has an appropriate raigō grouping, and Amida appears with the appropriate mudra gesture. In practice, however, for kubon Amidas 九品阿弥陀, there seem to have been little strict adherence to any group of nine mudras. The earliest appearance in Japan of such depictions is the three scenes of the Sixteen Contemplations jūrokkan 十六観 located in the bottom court of the *Taima mandara 当麻曼荼羅, dated from the latter half of the 8th century. In the early Heian period, independent kubon raigō paintings adorned wooden doors and panels of Buddhist halls such as the *Jōgyōdō 常行堂 on Mt. Hiei 比叡. The earliest extant examples are the wooden door paintings in Byōdōin *Hōōdō 平等院鳳凰堂 (1053) Kyoto. When Nine kubon ōjō Amida 九品往生阿弥陀 appear in sculptural form, they are known as Kutai Amida 九体阿弥陀 (the Nine Amida Images) and are installed as a group in a large Nine Amida Hall, Kutai Amidadō 九体阿弥陀堂, the only extant example being the 12th century hall at Jōruriji 浄瑠璃寺, Kyoto.