iles from Yokohama. The height of this great statue
is nearly 50 feet, in circumference it is 97 feet. The length of the
face is 8 feet 5 inches, the width of mouth 3 feet 2 inches, and it
has been asserted--though I do not guarantee the accuracy of the
calculation--that there are 830 curls upon the head, each curl 9
inches long. The statue is composed of layers of bronze brazed
together. It is hollow, and persons can ascend by a ladder into the
interior. The Dai Butsu at Nara is taller than the one at Kamakura. It
is dissimilar to most of the others in the country in having a black
face of a somewhat African type. This image is stated to have been
erected in the year 750 A.D., and the head has, I believe, been
replaced several times. In the Kamakura Dai Butsu both hands rest upon
the knees, while in the one at Nara the right arm is extended upward
with the palm of the hand placed to the front. The statue at Nara is
made of bronze which is stated to be composed of gold 500, mercury
1,950, tin 16,827, and copper 986,080 lbs., the total weight of the
statue being about 480 tons. Nearly all the Dai Butsus in the country
are of ancient workmanship. There is a modern one constructed of wood
erected in the year 1800 at Kyoto, 60 feet high. As a work of art it
has, however, no pretensions, which rest entirely upon its size.

Criticisms in regard to the artistic merits of these immense images
have been numerous and by no means unanimous. To my mind they are
superb specimens of the work of the old metallurgists of Japan, and
they are, moreover, deeply interesting as indicative of the ideas of
their designers in regard to the expression of placid repose of
Nirvana. Mr. Basil Chamberlain has appositely remarked in reference to
the great statue at Kamakura: "No other gives such an impression of
majesty or so truly symbolises the central idea of Buddhism, the
intellectual calm which comes of perfected knowledge and the
subjugation of all passion." And Lafcadio Hearn, that learned
authority on everything Japanese, who has brought into all his
writings a poetical feeling which breathes the very spirit of old
Japan, has observed in regard to the same statue: "The gentleness, the
dreamy passionlessness of those features--the immense repose of the
whole figure--are full of beauty and charm. And, contrary to all
expectations, the nearer you approach the giant Buddha the greater the
charm becomes. You look up into the solemnly beautiful fa