Ushiku Daibutsu

Ushiku Daibutsu is a standing bronze statue of Amida Buddha (Amida Nyorai) in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture. It is run by Higashi Honganji, the head temple of the Jodo Shinshu Higashi Honganji school, and stands next to its Ushiku Joen cemetery park. The figure itself is 100 metres tall and reaches 120 metres with its pedestal, a height chosen for the twelve lights of Amida. In 1995 Guinness World Records listed it as the tallest bronze Buddha statue in the world.

Inside the statue

An elevator runs up through the hollow interior, which is divided into five levels. The first, the World of Light, leads from a dark space standing for worldly desires to a single shaft of light standing for compassion. The second floor has about 77 desks for shakyo, the copying of sutras by hand. On the third floor, the Lotus Treasury World, about 3,400 small golden Buddha images line the walls, and sutras are chanted there every morning and evening. Relics of the Buddha are kept on the upper floors, with panels on his birth and death.

The observation floor is in the chest of the statue, 85 metres above the ground, with windows on all four sides. Tokyo Skytree and Mount Fuji can be seen in clear weather. Panels on the building of the statue and a model of its thumb are also on display.

The grounds

The statue stands in a Pure Land garden laid out according to Sansui Hidensho (山水秘伝抄), a Kamakura-period text on garden making handed down at Higashi Honganji. A pond called Gunjokai (群生海) stands for the world of the living. The Hakkenmon gate (發遣門) lies between a statue of Shaka and the Daibutsu, so that the two Buddhas face each other across it. The temple describes its bronze incense burner, 2.5 metres round, as the largest in Japan.

About 10,000 square metres of flower fields are planted through the year: poppies in spring, peonies in May, hydrangeas in June and cosmos in October. A garden terrace has a small petting zoo and monkey shows, and a row of shops sells souvenirs and food.