Great Buddha (Daibutsu) of Kamakura

Category

Library Item

Item no

15126

Title

Daibutz [Great Buddha (Daibutsu) of Kamakura]

Description

A large statue of the Daibutsu (Great Buddha) stands at the top of a set of stone steps. Japanese sago palms are visible on the left-hand side of the photograph. There is a dais with urns on it in front of the statue. Five men stand in front of the Buddha, showing its imposing scale. The roof of a hut is visible on the right-hand side, perhaps used for worship.

Artist / maker

von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz

Date

1881

Size

19.5 x 24 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Art and Design Library

The statue of the Daibutsu (Great Buddha) stands in the grounds of the Kotokuin Temple in Kamakura, about 50km southwest of Tokyo. The bronze statue was built in the 13th century in reaction to the Daibutsu in Nara. It is 11.310 meters high, weighs 122 tons and represents Amida Buddha (the main Buddha in the Pure Land Sect). Many early Japanese pictures of the Daibutsu still remain today. The Great Buddha is an object of worship and climbing on it is prohibited.

This item is part of a collection of prints from the studio of Baron Franz von Stillfried-Ratenicz, an Austrian photographer practising in Japan in the late 1870's. Von Stillfried ran a studio in Yokohama at the same time as his brother Raimund, who was also known as 'Baron Stillfried'. This caused a great deal of confusion with the local residents and visitors to Japan in the Meiji Period, and with art historians today.

This album, which dates from 1879-83, comprises 67 separate mounted prints presented in a lacquerware box. Albums of this kind were popular among foreign tourists, who frequently selected the individual prints they wished to include from the studio's collection. Many of these albumen prints were hand tinted. This was a laborious process for which von Stillfried employed, at the height of his success, a substantial number of Japanese workers.

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Related subjects

Architecture > Monuments > Statues

People > Adults > Men

Places > Asia > Japan

Religion > Religious gods and goddesses > Buddhas