Amida — the one true spelling, and the forms that fail it
Evidence dossier 017 — Amida. Every exhibit catalogued, every ruling stated with its grounds.
At a Glance
- Canonical form: Amida
- Original script: 阿弥陀
- Pantheon: Japanese
- Convention: Hepburn with macrons — ō and ū marked, never collapsed to o/u or rewritten ou
- False forms on record: 0
- Contested forms: none attested
- Series: The Canonical Register, No. 17 of 437
The Evidence
Exhibit 1 — the attestation. The name is attested as 阿弥陀, as Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra and Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra preserve it. On the evidence, it means "Immeasurable light". The canonical transliteration is Amida.
Exhibit 2 — the flattened form. The plain form amida differs from the canonical Amida only by convention of display — case, not content. It is acceptable everywhere: in legacy systems, in plain-text citation, in the DNS itself. What is not acceptable is what follows in the register: respellings that change the letters, not just their case.
Exhibit 3 — the physical record. Byōdōin at Uji (1053 CE) is the most famous Amida temple in Japan, built as a Pure Land paradise hall and now a UNESCO site. Its Amida image by Jōchō set the standard for Heian-period Buddhist sculpture. Zenkōji in Nagano has housed a hidden Amida triad since the 7th century, attracting pilgrims from across the archipelago.
Exhibit 4 — the continuing record. Amida's name is among the most recited in Japanese religious history. Temples such as Hōryūji, Byōdōin, and Zenkōji preserve colossal Amida images.
The Convention's Own History
Every tradition in this register has its own scholarly transliteration standard, built by its own specialists over decades or centuries, and the register follows each on its own terms: Hepburn with macrons — ō and ū marked, never collapsed to o/u or rewritten ou. The principle that unifies them is the one the whole project stands on: a name is evidence, and evidence is not negotiable — not for keyboards, not for convenience, not for anyone.
The Protocol's Position
Can the canonical form live in the address bar? Almost always, yes. IDNA 2008 admits every mark this register defends — the DNS stores them as `xn--` punycode and modern browsers render them natively. The real frictions are practical, not legal: some registrars stock only part of the IDN space, so a theoretically valid name can be temporarily unbuyable; and stacked combinations (an acute riding a macron) remain awkward to type on mobile keyboards even where the protocol accepts them.
The project's answer is a ranked ladder, not a compromise: the full restoration first, then attested fallbacks in descending order of completeness. The ladder's lowest rung, plain ASCII, is a vehicle for legacy systems — sanctioned, but never presented as the scholarly form.
The Verdict
Case closed on Amida: canonical, cited, and defended. The keyboard form amida is the same name in another register of display — always acceptable. The register's files remain open: if a source surfaces that changes any line of this entry, the entry changes. Until then, the temple at /amida/ holds the canonical form.
The docket for this ruling: no false forms on the docket; no contested forms attested; the attestation rests on 5 cited sources — Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, Amitāyurdhyāna Sūtra.
The Register Continues
Entry 17 of 437 in the Canonical Register. Around it: the temple's founding dispatch, the Restoration File on the marks themselves, the Resonance File on the archetype at work, and the Rulebook behind all of it.
Continue the register — previous entry: Amərətāt (read it) · next entry: Amitābha (read it).
The Canonical Register is written from the same canonical record as the lexicon itself. If a false form is missing from this page, it is because the evidence does not support calling it false — or because we have not seen it yet. Show us, with a citation, and the register will answer.