Ushiku Daibutsu, Bronze Buddha statue in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
Ushiku Daibutsu is a standing bronze Amitabha Buddha in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, with a raised right hand and a left arm hanging palm outward. The 100-metre figure stands on a 20-metre pedestal of base and lotus platform, and its surface of over 6,000 bronze sheets shows tile-like seams.
The figure was erected in 1993 to honor the birth of Shinran, the founder of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. It held the record as the tallest freestanding statue in the world for fifteen years.
Visitors can explore four floors inside the figure that hold Buddhist treasures, including a room with three thousand golden Buddha figures. This arrangement invites quiet contemplation and shows the spiritual focus of the site.
An elevator takes visitors to an observation level at eighty-five meters, where you can look out over the surrounding area. Access is available daily between half past nine in the morning and half past four in the afternoon.
The one-hundred-meter torso was divided into twenty horizontal sections to ease assembly. Each section consists of seventeen blocks wrapped in nine bronze sheets.
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