Daibutsu

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Daibutsu (大仏 or in traditional orthography (kyūjitai) 大佛) is a Japanese word meaning literally "Large Buddha" that refers to large statues of the Buddha or one of his various incarnations.

[edit] List of Daibutsu

(List by size)

• Ushiku Great Buddha, in Ibaraki Prefecture, 120 metres (393.7 ft) tall in total with a 10 metres (32.8 ft) base, is Japan's largest daibutsu.
• The Daibutsu of Nihon-ji at Nokogiriyama in Chiba Prefecture, built in 1783 and restored in 1969, is Japan's largest stone carved daibutsu with 31.05 metres (101.9 ft) tall
• Echizen Great Buddha, 17 metres (55.8 ft) tall ^[1]
• Ganmen Great Buddha in Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture: This 16.5 metres (54.1 ft) high buddha is one of the five large Buddhas in Japan and is known as the Northern Rock Buddha. It depicts Amida Butsu and commemorates the deaths of soldiers in two local wars in the 11th century. Originally it was a full Buddha seated in heaven but the body was destroyed in an earthquake in 1896. ^[2]
• Great Buddha of Takaoka - Takaoka in Toyama Prefecture has the self-proclaimed "Number 3 Great Buddha of Japan," but it is not actually the third largest. It is 15.85 metres (52.0 ft) from the ground to the halo, but the statue itself is only about half that height.^{[citation needed]}
• Great Buddha of Nara, in Tōdai-ji (752), 14.98 metres (49.1 ft) tall. It was made from National Project of Japan.
• Gifu Great Buddha, 13.7 metres (44.9 ft) tall, located in Shōhō-ji, Gifu, Gifu Prefecture^[3]
• Kamakura Great Buddha (1252), 13.35 metres (43.8 ft) tall. In the West, the term is often used to refer to the Kamakura Great Buddha following its popularization in the poem "The Buddha at Kamakura" by Rudyard Kipling.
• Kamagaya Great Buddha in Kamagaya, Chiba Prefecture, 2.3 metres (7.5 ft) tall in total with a 0.5 metres (1.6 ft) base, is Japan's smallest daibutsu.
• The Daibutsu of Hōkō-ji in Kyoto (16th-20th centuries) was destroyed by a series of earthquakes and fires and has not been rebuilt after the last disaster which happened in the 1970s.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Photographs and information on famous Daibutsu
• New York Public Library Digital Gallery, early photograph of Kamakura Daibutsu from rear
• New York Public Library Digital Gallery, early photograph of Hyōgo Daibutsu