Kotokuin
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KamakuraDaibutsu1.jpg
Kotokuin (高徳院) is a Buddhist temple of the Pure Land sect in the city of Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The monumental outdoor bronze statue of Amida Buddha is one of the most famous icons of Japan. The statue stands at 13.35 meters high and is the second largest monumental Buddha in Japan after Todaiji in Nara.
The statue probably dates from 1252, in the Kamakura period, when temple records report the construction of a bronze statue. However, it is unclear whether that is the present statue. The statue was built inside a wooden temple but that building washed away in a tsunami sometime during the Muromachi period in the late fifteenth century. The statue remains.
The statue is referred to as 'The Buddha at Kamakura' in several verses that preface the initial chapters of the novel Kim by Rudyard Kipling,1901.ja:高徳院