The Great Buddha of Kamakura is a bronze statue of Amitābha at the Kōtoku-in temple in Kamakura. It is a National Treasure. Temple records date it to about 1252. The casters were probably Ōno Gorōemon or Tanji Hisatomo, though this is uncertain. The priest Jōkō proposed casting it in bronze after a storm damaged an earlier wooden Buddha.
The statue is 43.8 feet (13.35 meters) tall, including its base, and weighs about 93 metric tons. It was once gilded, and traces of gold leaf remain near the ears. It is hollow, and visitors can see inside.
Storms destroyed its hall in 1334 and 1369. A tsunami washed away the last hall on September 20, 1498, so the Buddha has stood in the open air since. The 1923 earthquake destroyed its base, which was repaired in 1925. Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem about it after his 1892 visit.
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