The most popular site in Kamakura

Sorry for the long preface, last Sunday, I went to the observation tour on the slime molds (Myxomycetes) held at the forest park with a large pond at Kamakura City, located about a 20- to 30-minute ride by the local bus from JR Ofuna Station, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Most of the participants were women, including some who had traveled from as far away as Kyoto and Hyogo Prefecture.

I took some photos of the slime molds there, but I plan to release them on another blog. Now I’m currently trying to grow the plasmodia (amoeboid forms) from the fruiting bodies I brought back from the site.

Let's get to the point, since I went all the way to Kamakura, I visited the Great Buddha of Kamakura located at Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture on the previous day. This large statue locates near-by the place I will visit next day. Actually, I came here on a school trip in junior high school many decades ago, but this is my second time since then. The bronze statue commonly known as Kamakura Daibutsu (Great Buddha of Kamakura) is about 11.3 meters tall and weighs around 121 tons.  The construction of the Great Buddha is said to begin in 1252. It has a history of over 750 years. 

Unfortunately, it was raining, but there were so many tourists, in particular foreign tourists, that the sidewalk leading to the destination was packed with people. This might be a popular spot for foreign tourists. Tourists were taking souvenir photos with the Great Buddha in the background. If I take the photo from directly in front of the statue, other people would inevitably be in my frame, so I took it from this angle to avoid other tourists.

There are several routes to the Great Buddha, but if you go by train, transfer to the Enoshima Electric Railway at JR Kamakura Station and get off at Hase Station. The journey takes about 5 minutes. From the station to the Great Buddha is about a 7-to-8-minute walk.

The inside of the Great Buddha is hollow, and we can go inside. We descend a little first before entering inside. Then we climb the narrow stairs.

The small protrusions on the head of the Kamakura Great Buddha symbolically represent the Buddha's hair.

This is the inside of the Great Buddha. We can see the signs of repeated repairs. 

It was raining today, which was fortunate, but on sunny days the inside gets so hot that we can only stay inside the statue for about a minute, not an exaggeration, written on the sign board there. 

This is the view looking up at the interior of the Great Buddha's head. According to the sign board, the "Showa Era Major Repair" was carried out in 1960, at that time, reinforced plastic (FRP) was applied to the neck area to reinforce the head. This dark brown reinforcement would be the trace of repair mentioned above, I suppose.

I think the black circular pattern on the inside corresponds to the protrusions on the head of the Great Buddha.

Besides the Great Buddha of Kamakura, there is another giant Buddha statue. This one is called the Ofuna Kannon, and it is also located in Kamakura city and very close to JR Ofuna Station. We can see it from the station. It takes about 6 minutes to get from Kamakura Station to Ofuna Station on the JR Yokosuka Line. It is approximately 25 meters tall. Construction began in 1929, but it was interrupted by the war and was completed in 1960.

An elderly woman who I saw at the bus stop and got on the same bus, probably living in Kamakura, told me that, during the world war Ⅱ, this statue was painted pitch-black to avoid becoming enemy's targets.  She kept me entertained with sightseeing information about Ofuna and Kamakura throughout the ride, so I ended up not getting bored before arriving at the bus stop near my destination, the forest park.

I took the photos shown above on June 20th and 21st, 2026.