The Tokyo Great Buddha at Joren-ji Temple is the third largest bronze Buddha statue in Japan

If you come to Joren-ji Temple in Akatsuka thinking of the Great Buddha in Todai-ji Temple in Nara or the Great Buddha in Kotokuin Temple in Kamakura, you will be a little disappointed. Although the Great Buddha of Tokyo, as it is called, is enshrined in Joren-ji Temple, its size is not as big as I had expected.

Perhaps it was because of my high expectations, but the Tokyo Daibutsu, which looked smaller than I had expected, was not so small when I examined it. It is said to be the third largest cast bronze Buddha in Japan, after the Great Buddha in Nara and the Great Buddha in Kamakura. The reason why it looks so small may be because it is a seated statue. It is true that most of the huge Buddha statues that come to mind are standing statues, such as the Great Buddha of Ushiku and the Great Kannon of Sendai.

It may not be fair to compare the size of standing and seated statues. The third largest bronze Buddha statue in Japan, the Great Buddha of Tokyo, is 13 meters tall. However, the Great Buddha of Ushiku is 120 meters tall, and the Great Kannon of Sendai is 100 meters tall. They are totally different in size.

Looking at the year of construction of the Great Buddha, I have the impression that most of them were built or planned during the bubble economy. In the same way, budgets must have been richer during the bubble economy when it came to building Buddhist statues. The Tokyo Big Buddha was built in 1977, before the bubble economy started to boom. Although the size of the statue does not necessarily change the benefit, if it had been built during the bubble economy, it would have been a much larger statue.

Comment via

日本語