every Japanese man, and it was, accordingly, made for use and not for
ornament alone. Of late years wood and ivory sculpture in Japan has
largely degenerated and deteriorated owing to the output of articles
not of utility, but made for the foreign market--"curios," in fact.
No one who has visited Japan can have failed of being impressed by
those gigantic statues of Buddha which have been erected in different
parts of the country. The largest and best known is the Dai Butsu, at
Kamakura, a few miles from Yokohama. The height of this great statue
is nearly 50 feet, in circumference it is 97 feet. The length of the
face is 8 feet 5 inches, the width of mouth 3 feet 2 inches, and it
has been asserted--though I do not guarantee the accuracy of the
calculation--that there are 830 curls upon the head, each curl 9
inches long. The statue is composed of layers of bronze brazed
together. It is hollow, and persons can ascend by a ladder into the
interior. The Dai Butsu at Nara is taller than the one at Kamakura. It
is dissimilar to most of the others in the country in having a black
face of a somewhat African type. This image is stated to have been
erected in the year 750 A.D., and the head has, I believe, been
replaced several times. In the Kamakura Dai Butsu both hands rest upon
the knees, while in the one at Nara the right arm is extended upward
with the palm of the hand placed to the front. The statue at Nara is
made of bronze which is stated to be composed of gold 500, mercury
1,950, tin 16,827, and copper 986,080 lbs., the total weight of the
statue being about 480 tons. Nearly all the Dai Butsus in the country
are of ancient workmanship. There is a modern one constructed of wood
erected in the year 1800 at Kyoto, 60 feet high. As a work of art it
has, however, no pretensions, which rest entirely upon its size.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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