DAIBUTSU – The Great Buddha of Kamakura

Daibutsu (or 大佛/大仏) means ‘Great Buddha’ or ‘giant Buddha’ in Japanese. It can also be used informally to refer to a big Buddha statue. One such statue is in Kamakura, Japan. The Daibutsu is a statue of Amitabha Buddha and is called The Great Buddha of Kamakura.

The statue dates back to 1252 AD, and is of Amitabha Buddha in sitting position. The statue is approximately 13.35 meters tall, weighing approximately 93 tons and is made from bronze. It is hollow and visitors can enter to view the interior.

According to the temple records, the current statue was preceded by another wooden Daibutsu. A court lady named Inadano-Tsubone, who was an attendant of Shogun Yorimoto, had raised funds together with a priest named Joko. When they collected enough funds, they started the construction work in 1238. That statue took 5 years of construction, but was destroyed after a storm hit the area in 1248. The hall that covered the statue was also destroyed…

They constructed it again, but this time they collected more funds and made a bronze statue. They then constructed a hall to shelter the statue… but it was yet again destroyed in 1335 during a large storm. The hall reconstructed once again, but a typhoon in 1368 brought it down. The 4th (and final) reconstruction of the hall stood for 127 years, until a tsunami hit Japan and destroyed it. However, the bronze statue remained intact and it has been left under the open air since.

The Great Buddha of Kamakura is one of the 2 most famous Daibutsus in Japan, and it is considered a national treasure. It has weathered many natural disasters, even withstanding an earthquake in 1923 where the base of the statue was destroyed and had to be repaired in 1925.

Having a big Buddha statue is very beneficial. It will help bring peace to the surrounding land, stabilize the region and bless the people. It seems this statue ‘absorbed’ the many disasters in the area…and granted blessings.  The bigger the statue, the better… Why? More people will be able to see it!

Below is a short booklet on the Great Buddha of Kamakura. My blog team has scanned it, and retyped the texts to share with everyone.

When I was growing up, my mother had a replica of this great Daibutsu around 4 inches in height and I had this little metal statue in my room as I was growing up. I loved it very much and use to make offerings to Him always.

I found the picture of this Buddha in an Encyclopedia in Howell, New Jersey from our school library also… I read about it and developed a powerful wish to visit this Buddha in Japan. To me back then over 30 years ago to visit Japan and Daibutsu was a distant dream… really a dream as I always liked the Far East.  A few years back, I had my wish fulfilled..I visited this sacred Buddha in Kamakura, Japan. I was so astounded and excited! Kamakura is a few hours from Tokyo by train. I loved the place. I went when there was very little people visiting in the evening and did my prayers/sadhana nearby. The whole town of Kamakura is very quaint, clean, small and very organized. But many places close early… so you have to get there earlier. I loved Kamakura itself. Everything Japanese is so pristine and a wonderful blend of past with the present. I will visit this Buddha in the future again. At the end of the visit, they had a shop on the Temple grounds and I purchased many small statues that are replicas of this Daibutsu to keep on on my car dashboard and to give it to friends as gifts for their cars. So in my car, I have a Kamakura Buddha with me always now.

I strongly recommend a visit to the Daibutsu, if you’re ever in Japan!

Tsem Rinpoche

The first gate at the precincts of Daibutsu

THE DAIBUTSU OF KAMAKURA

“Daibutsu” is a Japanese word meaning a Great Buddha. The Buddha is variously called in Japanese Butsuda, Butsu, Hotoke or more often with honorifics, Hotoke-sama or Mi-hotoke-sama.

The Great Buddha of Kamakura is a representation of Buddha Amitabha, the Lord of the Western Pure Land. This Buddha is also called Buddha Amitayus. Amithaba means “Infinite Light,” Amitayus “Infinite Life”.

Buddha Amitabha is worshipped by the great majority of Japanese Buddhists, their expressed adoration of Him being Namu Amida Butsu, or “Adoration Be to Buddha Amitabha!”

A CONNOISSEUR COMMENTS:

1. The eyebrow is semi-circular.

2. The eye is horizontal.

3. The ridge of the nose starts from the forehead.

4. It has a fine and long moustache.

5. The mouth expresses an Ionian smile.

6. The hair is made of a number of curls winding clockwise. There are 656 curls altogether.

7. It has a fleshly excrescence on the head symbolizing wisdom.

8. It has a white curl on the forehead that emits rays of light revealing all worlds.

9. The ear is large and long.

10. There are webs between the fingers symbolizing fulfillment.

11. The pose expresses the usual way of meditating on the part of the Indians. The legs are crossed in front and the body is inclined slightly forward. The pose is still adopted for meditation by Japanese Buddhists, especially by the followers of the Zen or Meditation School.

12. The direction of the eyes is at right angles to the slightly inclined head, facing the ground a little ahead. It has no ugliness usually felt on the straight-looking eyes on a vertical face.

13. The upper part of the body is larger in proportion to the lower part, the head being larger in proportion to the body. This was done deliberately, in accordance with the laws of perspective.

14. The head is inclined forward, and gives the visitor a feeling of intimacy when approaching it.

15. The image is devoid of the ugliness which usually accompanies colossuses.

The image is a patchwork of pieces of bronze, the surface being finished up with the file. The maker of the prototype is unknown. The caster is said to have been Ono Gorôemon, of whom nothing is known except his name. It is most probable that this image of the Great Buddha was one of the greatest masterpieces of Buddhist art of the time in Japan.

The figure sits in dignified repose with a most placid expression of countenance. From its forehead protrudes a boss representing a jewel from which light is supposed to flow, and which symbolizes an idea similar to that expressed in our Scriptures “I am the light of the World”.

- Dr. C. Dresser’s Japan – Its Architecture

Date of construction –1252 A.D.
Weight — approx. 121.00t
Height — approx. 13.35m
Face — approx. 2.35m
Eye – approx. 1.00m
Ear — approx. 1.90m
Mouth – approx. 0.82m
Knee to knee — approx. 9.10m
Circumference of thumb — approx. 0.85m

Mr. A.C. Maclay, A.M., L.L.B., in A Budget of Letters from Japan, says — “The Daibutsu sits there in the open air, his head looming above the pine-trees, and his face turned toward the peaceful waters of the ocean – typical of the dreamland Nirvana.”

“The Monument dedicated to Daibutsu, that is, the Great Buddha, may be considered as the most complete work of the Japanese genius, in regard both to Art and to the religious sentiment ——- a gigantic seated divinity of bronze, with folded hands, and head gently inclined in an attitude of contemplative ecstasy —— There is an irresistible charm in the posture of Daibutsu, in the harmony of his bodily proportions, in the noble simplicity of his drapery, and in the calmness and serenity of the countenance.”

- Bayart Taylor’s Japan

HISTORY OF THE DAIBUTSU AT KAMAKURA

A Pious Lady’s Unceasing Efforts.

Lady Inadano-Tsubone who was a lady attendant of Shogun Yoritomo (1147-1199) came to cherish the desire to have a Great Image of Buddha. After her master died she left court-service in order to devote herself to raising funds for the construction of the Great Buddha. Her fervent endeavors moved everyone especially Jôkô, a priest in the Province of Tôtômi, who willingly cooperated with her in fund-raising by travelling all over the country. Thanks to the Compassion of the Buddha, enough funds were collected to start the work in 1238.

The Wooden Image

The first image, which was completed in 1243 after five years of continuous labor, was a wooden one. It was damaged by a storm in 1248. Then the lady Idanono-Tsubone and priest Jôkô proposed to make it of bronze, offering the material. However, a vast amount of money was needed to implement this purpose, so they made their last efforts to reconstruct it with the result that a bronze image was completed in 1252. The inaugural ceremony was celebrated on August 17 of that year. This is the image we see now in the precinct of the Kotoku-in Temple at Kamakura after the interval of seven centuries.

A Hall to Enshrine the Buddha

The Great Buddha, who is sitting in the open air, was not always so.

Immediately after the wooden image was completed, a big hall to enshrine it was constructed in 1243. But the storm that damaged the image in 1248 brought the hall to the ground. A new hall was built in the same year when the bronze image was completed, but it was again destroyed by a storm in 1335. Again it was reconstructed, but once again it was smashed by a heavy gale in 1368. The fourth reconstruction that ensued served to enshrine the Buddha till 1495, when an unprecedented tidal wave swept the structure away, leaving the image exposed to the sun. Archbishop Yuten (1637 – 1718), the 36th abbot of the Great Head Temple Zojôji of the Jôdo Sect, did his best to rebuild the lost hall, but the project was discontinued at his death in 1718. Therefore, since 1495 the Buddha has been sitting out-of-doors come rain or shine.

The big earthquake in Sept. 1923 did not harm the body but destroyed its base and it was repaired in 1926.

The latest repair was done in 1960-61. This repair (1) reinforced the neck of the statue which supports the big head and (2) made it possible for the Buddha’s body to move freely on the base in the event of a strong earthquake.

Mr. Percival Lowell says in The Soul of the Far East – “The Kamakura Buddha —- in whose face all that is grand and noble lies sleeping, the living representation of Nirvana.”

A photo to show the white curl on the forehead. The Buddha is believed to emit rays of light from here to illuminate all the worlds in the universe. It is made of pure silver, weighing 29.76 pounds.

(top photo)

The sutra says:

The light pervades
All the worlds.
Everyone who sees it
Will be saved by the Buddha.

(bottom photo) The mouth. It has an Ionian smile. Notice the thin and long moustache.

(top photo) The nose. The line of the ridge retains something of Greek art.

(middle photo) The ear. It is longer than a normal one in proportion to the size of the face. A long ear is one of the characteristics of the image of the Buddha.

(bottom photo) The hands. The position of the fingers signifies meditation.

The circle made by the thumb and the index-finger is smaller in proportion than the normal one, because there is a kind of web between the fingers of the Buddha to symbolize fulfillment of the vows.

AN EXTRACT EROM THE DIARY OF

CAPTAIN SARIS FOR SEPT. 12th, 1613, A.D.

(from “The Voyage of Captain John Saris to Japan, 1613 , edited by Sir Ernest M. Satow G.C.MG., Haldayt Society, 1900.)

The Countrey betwixt Surnunga ¹ and Edoo ² is well inhadited. We saw many Fotoquise³ or Temples as we passed, and amongst others one Image of especiall note, called Dabis⁴, made of Copper, being hollow within, but of a very substantiall thicknesse. It was in height, as wee ghessed, from the ground, with his buttockes resting on his heeles⁵, about one and twentie or two and twentie foot, in the likenesse of a man kneeling upon the ground, his arms of wondefull largenesse, and the whole body proportionable. He is fashioned wearing of a Gowne. This image is much reverenced by Travellers as they passe there. Some of our people went into the bodie of it, and hoope and hallowed, which made an exceeding great noyse.

We found many Characters and Markes made upon it by Passengers,

Whom some of my Followers imitated, and made theirs, in like manner.

1. Certainly the mishearing of Suruga, a province of Japan.

2. Edo or Yedo, the former name of Tokyo.

3. Perhaps the mishearing of Hotokesan, that is literally Our Lord Buddha.

4. Certainly the mishearing of Dai-butsu,

5. The Dai-butsu does not rest his buttocks on his heels, but sits with his legs so crossed that the backs of his feet touch on his knees.

(top photo) The old building. It was constructed in the 15th Century in Korea and removed to here 50 years ago.

(bottom photo) They were dedicated about two centuries ago by believers, whose names are inscribed on the surface. There should be 32 of them to complete the gigantic lotus-stand for the Great Buddha.

The stone tablet standing on the right, facing the temple-gate. It reads: “The Great Buddha, the Grand Head Temple for the thirty three provinces in East Japan founded by the Emperor Shômu.”

It was erected in 1716.

(back cover)

Tags: buddha statue, daibutsu, japan, kamakura