“The largest and most remarkable of the temples seen at Miyako was that called Daibutsu, on the road to Fushimi. It was enclosed by a high wall of freestone, the front blocks being near twelve feet square. A stone staircase of eight steps led up to the gateway, on either side of which stood a gigantic image, near twenty-four feet high, with-the face of a lion, but otherwise well-proportioned, black, or of a dark purple, almost naked, and placed on a pedestal six feet high. That on the left had the mouth open and one of the hands stretched out. The opposite one had the mouth shut and the hand close to the body. They were said to be emblems of the two first and chief principles of nature, the active and passive, the giving and taking, the opening and shutting, generation and corruption. Within the gateway were sixteen stone pillars on each side for lamps, a water basin, etc.; and on the inside of the enclosing wall was a spacious walk or gallery, open towards the interior space, but covered with a roof which was supported by two rows of pillars, about eighteen feet high and twelve feet distant from each other. “Directly opposite the entrance, in the middle of the court, stood the temple, much the loftiest structure which Kämpfer had seen in Japan, with a double roof supported by ninety-four immense wooden pillars, of at least nine feet diameter, some of them of a single piece, but others of several trunks put together as in the case of the masts of our large ships, and all painted red.” Within, the floor was paved with square flags of freestone,—a thing not seen elsewhere. There were many small, narrow doors running up to the first roof, but the interior, on account of its great height, the whole up to the second roof forming but one room, was very badly lighted. Nothing was to be seen within except an immense idol, sitting (not after the Japanese, but after the Indian manner, with the legs crossed before it) on a terete flower, supported by another flower, of which the leaves were turned upwards, the two being raised about twelve feet from the floor. The idol, which was gilt all over, had long ears, curled hair, a crown on the head, which appeared through the window over the first roof, with a large spot not gilt on the forehead. The shoulders, so broad as to reach from one pillar to another, a distance of thirty feet, were naked. The breast and body were covered with a loose piece of drapery. It held the right hand up, the left rested edgewise on the belly.