The Great Buddha of Kamakura

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The Great Buddha of Kamakura
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This bronze statue of Amita Buddha was cast in
1252 A.D. and originally located inside a large
temple hall. However, the temple buildings were
washed away by a tsunami tidal wave in the end of
the 15th century. In the 500 years since then,
the holy statue has been exposed to sunshine,
storms, and snow. The latest repair was done in
1960- 1961, to strengthen the Buddha's neck and
to make it possible for the Buddha's body to move
freely on the base to prevent a damaging shock to
the statue in case of an earthquake. The statue
is 13.35 meters tall, and weighs 121 tons.
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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 statue is a
patchwork of pieces of bronze, the surface being
finished up with the file. There are distinctive
characteristics in each part of the body of the
statue The eye is horizontal The eyebrow is
semi-circular There is a white curl on the
forehead that emits rays of light revealing all
worlds in the universe. It is made of pure silver
weighing 13.5 kgs. The mouth has a Ionian smile
The ridge of the nose starts from the forehead
which retains something of Greek-Art The hair is
made of a number of curls winding clockwise.
There are about 656 curls altogether. The legs
are crossed and inclined slightly forward The
pose expresses the usual way of meditating on the
part of Indians, and it is still adopted for
meditation by Japanese Buddhists, especially by
the followers of Zen. The direction of the eyes
is at right angles facing the ground and gives
the visitor a feeling of intimacy when
approaching it.
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