To truly appreciate how immense the Kamakura Daibutsu is, you have to consider the name itself: "Daibutsu." In Japanese, this literally translates to "Big Buddha."
It's not the sort of word you'd use to refer to a medium-sized Buddha.
It was a bright, cloudless day, and thanks to my unconventional Nova schedule, it was a Tuesday. On weekends, as you might imagine, the Daibutsu is mobbed by tourists. But on Tuesday it was sunny, quiet and peaceful, perfect conditions for hanging with the Buddha.
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| Postcards in the gift shop, eat your hearts out. | The Daibutsu is really, really big. | He may look majestic and placid on the outside, but he's actually hollow—on the inside he's dark and scary. It's a metaphor. |
It's only the second-largest, actually, but apart from that, your advisors were right. Before I paid the 20 yen to stand inside the Daibutsu, I had subconsciously assumed he was solid. The flowing lines of the sculpture suggest a weighty mass of bronze, and finding out he was as hollow as a cheap chocolate Easter bunny did kinda take a bit of the magic out of it.
make sure to go see the largest one - its unbelieveable! (but very hard to get a photo of, as you have to stand so far away to get him all in the shot)
thanks for sharing all these photos, mike - i love looking at them! (and its good to know you're getting out and seeing all these wonderful places)
can you please tell me if the big buddha at
Kamakura has a moustache. I have a
small reproduction which does and I wish to
compare my reproduction, found in a market in Quarez, Mexico, with the original.
Thanks, Jack Hayes. Santa Fe
Jack--
I double-checked the postcards I bought at the gift shop, and yes, the Daibutsu does indeed sport a mustache. It's a thin pencil-line one that traces the contour of his upper lip--you can somewhat see it in the enlargement of the second photo.
Thanks for solving the moustache mystery of the Amida Buddha. I enlarged the second photo and indeed saw the three folds in the neck that I mentioned in my reply. Thank you for all of this, I couldn't have foujnd it anywhere else, you are amazing. Jack Hayes, Santa Fe.
More moustache mystery! In my reproduction of the Daibutsu the moustacge curls downward to the outer edge of His lips. As far as I can see in your photos it curls upward. Any clues? Jack Hayes in Santa Fe
Well, I'm not sure what you mean by "upward" or "downward." The mustache follows the exact contour of the lips themselves, so its shape is like a Cupid's bow.
Here's a link to many more photos of the Daibutsu.
http://images.google.com/images?&q=kamakura+daibutsu
Hey! I've seen that Buddha!
Except he was being used as a metaphor for science center exhibit components, and how shallow interactivity (here, getting to see the interior structure of the statue) can diminish the greater experience (whatever you get from standing in front of Japan's largest Buddha), which is really the point.