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Watercolour and crayon
©2015 Charlene Brown
On November 5, on the way to Hakone, we stopped at
Kamakura. The presence of the Great Buddha was surprisingly calming,
considering the throngs of tourists and uniformed school children at the site.
This huge (13.35 m) bronze statue has withstood much
worse over the years, since its original casting in 1252. At first it was
housed in a large hall, but this was destroyed (twice) by storms during the 14th
century, then washed away by a tsunami at the end of the 15th
century. Since then it has stood in the open air. The Great Kanto Earthquake of
1923 destroyed the base, which was repaired in 1925, and a seismic upgrade was
completed in 1961.
