Ushiku Daibutsu (牛久大仏) is a statue located in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. Completed in 1993, it stands a total of 120 m tall, including the 10 m base and 10 m lotus platform. It held the record for the tallest statue from 1993 to 2008 and, it is the fifth-tallest statue in the world. An elevator takes visitors up 85 m to an observation floor. The statue depicts Amitabha Buddha and is made of bronze. It is also known as Ushiku ARCADIA (Amida's Radiance and Compassion Actually Developing and Illuminating Area). It was built to commemorate the birth of Shinran, founder of the Jōdo Shinshū 浄土真宗 or "True Pure Land School" of Buddhism.

Construction

Construction was commissioned to Kawada (ja:川田工業), applying curtain wall system (ja:カーテンウォール工法). First, a cast iron steel column was erected at the center supporting the weight of the entire Daibutsu. Then, arranging a steel frame structure around it which was pre-assembled on the ground block by block in advance. The 100 m tall torso, or body, of the statue was divided into 20 tiers, with each tier consisting of 17 blocks on average. In addition, each component block had welded on nine bronze sheets, 1.5 by and around 6 millimeters thick, on a steel frame. Those steel frames connected to the main frame as branches of a tree do, forming a complicated outline. The bronze sheets are much lighter compared to that of the Great Buddha at Tōdai-ji temple in Nara, since the one at Ushiku applies a steel frame to support the structure. The elaborate design of each hand and arm was also assembled on the ground, then attached on the body with a huge crane lifting each parts.

Details

Inside the statue itself is a four-storey building, which serves as a museum.