{"id":4070,"date":"2016-03-18T08:05:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T23:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/?p=4070"},"modified":"2020-03-27T11:39:11","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T02:39:11","slug":"great-buddha-ibaraki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/great-buddha-ibaraki\/","title":{"rendered":"Ushiku Daibutsu, the Great Buddha of Ibaraki"},"content":{"rendered":"
When foreigners head to Japan, many of them are recommended to visit the Great Buddha statues in Kamakura and Nara, and some have the pleasure of being able to see them. Indeed, they are both a sight to behold and are by far the most well-known Great Buddha statues, but that doesn\u2019t make them the largest in Japan. In fact, Ushiku Daibutsu<\/a>, as it is called, is one of the tallest statues in Japan and is located in Ushiku, Ibaraki, a\u00a0neighbouring prefecture of Tokyo. It\u2019s a wonder that this magnificently large statue isn\u2019t as popular as it is among foreigners. Although, I have an inkling that the reason for that is because its accessibility isn\u2019t as great as the one in Kamakura. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/a><\/b><\/p>\n When I say it\u2019s a large statue, I mean it. Ushiku Daibutsu stands at 120m high including the base, that\u2019s 390 feet tall. The Buddha himself is 100m. In fact, it won the Guinness world record for tallest bronze statue from 1993-2002. Before you even reach the garden area, the Great Buddha of Ibaraki can be seen from the bus on the way there, proving just how large it really is. Of course, the full magnitude of how large it is doesn\u2019t quite hit you until you\u2019re standing at the foot of the base, craning your neck to look up at the face of the Great Buddha. It offers some pretty great views from the inside thanks to its towering height. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/a><\/b><\/p>\n After you enter the gate, you are brought to a large Buddha head that is 1\/1000<\/span>th<\/span> the size of the head on the Great Buddha statue. It really puts some perspective on just how large this statue is as you\u2019re standing in front of the \u2018small\u2019 head. On the path to the entrance, you\u2019ll notice some footsteps painted on a bridge with Japanese characters written in them. For those of you who can\u2019t read Japanese, they read: na \u2013 mu \u2013 a \u2013 mi \u2013 da \u2013 butsu. The reason for doing this isn\u2019t stated, but my best guess is that it\u2019s a sort of incantation that you say as you pass over into the more spiritual world from the regular world. <\/span><\/p>\n