Kamakura Daibutsu

The Kamakura Daibutsu.

• Built: 1272
• Japanese: 鎌倉大仏 (Kamakura daibutsu)

The Kamakura Daibutsu, or "Kamakura Great Buddha," is the second-largest bronze statue of the Buddha in Japan. It was constructed in 1272, of multiple pieces of bronze, and is housed at the temple of Kôtoku-in in Kamakura. The sculpture was originally located indoors, within a wooden daibutsuden, or "Great Buddha Hall," but a tsunami destroyed the hall in 1498, leaving the statue nearly completely undamaged. The 1923 Great Kantô Earthquake caused the Daibutsu to shift two feet, but then too it remained undamaged.

Visitors are allowed to enter inside the great hollow sculpture for a small fee, providing a unique view of how the sculpture was assembled. Like the Nara daibutsu at Tôdai-ji, it was made by piling tons of earth around a mold, allowing workers to then climb atop the earthen mound to pour molten bronze in from above. Numerous layers, or piece-molds, were used, so that at the end, the Buddha was completely encased in a massive pile of dirt created to allow workers to get up high enough to pour the last sections (i.e. the head). The dirt and molds were then removed, leaving only the cooled, hardened bronze. From inside the Buddha, the seam where the top part and the lower part, cast separately, were then joined, is clearly visible. Also visible is a part of the inside of the neck which looks like it has been painted with clay - the result of a strengthening, a conservation effort, in 1960, using a kind of plastic or resin.

After the statue separated from its base and moved in the Great Earthquake, base-isolating quake protection was installed. No matter how great an earthquake, the statue will now never fall off its base, or fall over.

It is the first Japanese Cultural Property to be repaired using plastic, and to have this type of base-isolating quake protection installed.

The Kamakura Daibutsu is:

• 13.35 meters tall (including the base)
• 11.312m tall (not including the base)
• 121 tons in weight.
• Its face is 2.35m wide.
• Its eyes are each one meter wide.
• Its mouth is 82 cm wide.
• Its ears are each 1.9m long.
• Its urna is 18cm in diameter
• Each whorl of hair is 18cm tall, and 24cm in diameter
• There are 656 whorls of hair.

References

• Plaques and signs on-site.