The Daibutsu

The Daibutsu or Great Buddha, within the precincts of Hōkōji temple, was a popular sightseeing spot from the earliest period of inbound tourism, recommended in Yamamoto’s Guide to the Celebrated Places in Kiyoto (1873), Stray Notes on Kioto (1878), and Keeling’s Tourists’ Guide (1880, p. 80) as “one of the chief attractions of Kioto.” 

The key reason for its popularity was likely its proximity to hotels in Higashiyama; though, arguably, the prominence of awesome Buddha statues in tourist imaginaries of Japan and “the Orient” more generally also played a role — interestingly, Hōkōji’s Great Buddha was the first eyewitness depiction of a Daibutsu to reach Europe, and had arguably helped shape such stereotypical images of Japan from an early point (see Kaempfer's sketch above).

In contrast to Kamakura or Nara’s Tōdaiji, however, the “Great Buddha of Kyoto” was obviously incomplete: once the largest Daibutsu in Japan, the fourth installment seen by visitors from the 1870s had been built on a reduced scale in 1843, as just the shoulders and head — an “insignificant image“ (Satow and A.G.S. Hawes 1881, 322), which “is only a very bad copy of the orginal [sic.] one” (Yamamoto 1873, 19).

For this reason, many guidebooks spilt a great deal of ink in attempting to recover its former glory in print (and the imagination of reader-visitors), as the quote below illustrates. Typically, descriptions of the bronze temple bell — cast in 1614 and still surviving — were also included in introductions of the Daibutsu. Adding to the atmosphere of ruin enjoyed by early visitors, the belfry in which this hung had been taken down in 1868 and, until its reconstruction, the massive bell was left outside on the ground. 

The story of the Daibutsu’s fall from grace, and the key role the bell played in the political struggles of early modern Japan, obviously fascinated guidebook writers and its present denuded condition may even have added to its appeal for romantic travellers. It continued to be recommended to foreign visitors, in guides produced by Western and Japanese writers, into the 1930s. 

Terry’s Japanese Empire was one of the few guides that suggested tourists need not bother: “The Daibutsu, or Great Buddha, a gilded monstrosity not worth looking at, occupies a tawdry shed N. of the Imperial Museum […It] is too contemptible to waste time on unless this hangs heavily on one’s hands […]” (1914, 429 and 433). 

The description in L. Mervin Maus’ An Army Officer on Leave in Japan (1911, 312) suggests that this impression was shared by some visitors at least: “No one […] who has had the pleasure of gazing upon the placid countenance of the great Dai-butsu of Kamakura, will take the slightest interest in the image of Kioto.”

The dimensions of the fourth Daibutsu — the one visited by inbound tourists from the early Meiji period — were given as follows in Murray's Handbook (1891, 301): "Height ... 58 ft. Length of face ... 30 ft. Breadth of face ... 21 ft. Length of eyebrow ... 8 ft. Length of eye ... 5 ft. Length of nose ...9 ft. Breadth of nostril ... 2 ft. 3 in. Length of mouth ... 8 ft. 7 in. Length of ear ... 12 ft. Breadth of shoulders ... 43 ft." 

The Daibutsu was destroyed in a fire in 1973 and never rebuilt.