Hakuba Daibutsu, Bronze Buddha statue in Itoigawa, Japan.
The Hakuba Daibutsu is a seated Buddha figure with a five-storey structure, standing 23.5 metres tall including its base and 18 metres wide at the front. Its eyes and urna are made of jade, and its lips of agate. It is located in the hot-spring area of Hakuba Onsen in Itoigawa, Niigata Prefecture.
The Hakuba Daibutsu was consecrated in 1969, with its installation ceremony held on 27 October 1972. It was erected by Yoshitaka Kaneda, head of the religious corporation Hakuba Daibutsu Kyōkai and president of the Hakuba Kankō Hotel. The hotel opened in 1960 as the first lodging in Hakuba Onsen, and the onsen road was completed in 1959.
The statue was founded by Kaneda Yoshitaka, head of the Hakuba Daibutsu religious association and president of the Hakuba Kanko Hotel. Its eyes and urna are made of jade, and its lips of agate, materials a visitor can pick out on the face. The site belongs to the hot-spring area of Hakuba Onsen in Osho, Itoigawa.
The statue stands at 989 Ōsho, Itoigawa, Niigata 949-0464, reachable on foot from JR Ōito Line Hiraiwa Station via Prefectural Route 375, about 1,433 m in a straight line. The five-storey figure is viewed from outside; the Hakuba Kankō Hotel that once served the site is closed and its building no longer exists.
The statue's eyes and urna are made of jade, and its lips of agate, details easily missed from a distance. The site belongs to the Hakuba Daibutsu Church, whose head also ran the now-closed Hakuba Kanko Hotel. The hotel's open-air bath was finished on 25 July 1962.
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