Restoration work on the colors of the paintings has been completed inside the Amida-do hall of Zenrinji Temple's Eikando in Sakyo Ward, Kyoto. The intense colors of dragons and heavenly beings on the pillars and beams have been painted afresh, bringing them back to the state they were in roughly 400 years ago when the hall was constructed.

Eikando is the head temple of the Jodo-shu Seizan Zenrin-ji Sect. A survey and restoration has been underway since 2006 covering general maintenance of the temple precincts to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the death of Honen, the founder of the Jodo sect of Buddhism, in 2011.

The Amida-do hall containing the principal image, known as "Mikaeri Amida Nyorai-zo," or Amitabha looking back, is said to have been at the Mandala-do hall of Shitennoji Temple in Osaka, and was relocated to this location and reconstructed in 1607; the hall is a designated cultural property of Kyoto Prefecture. The large-scale restoration of the colors was conducted for the first time since its foundation.

Before restoration, the paint was peeling and falling off, and the decorations were almost impossible to see, but following a precise survey, scenes including heavenly ladies dancing in the sky with phoenixes and tigers were repainted with mineral pigments. A delicate pattern in cut gold leaf was also worked in, bringing back the sparkle of times past.

As part of the maintenance of the temple precincts, an approximately 13-meter-tall elevator tower has been newly installed on the path between the Amida-do hall and the Miei-do hall. Toshio Ohno, a temple deacon, said, "After this, the exterior paint on the Amida-do will be restored, and we also want to make further progress on barrier-free construction."