Sacred Shriites^ aiid their Devotees, 155 
by two large gatekeepers, as described before, and the idol 
worshipped at this place is an immense figure made of 
bronze and gold. Dai-Butsu is represented as sitting on 
the lotus-flower, — which, with the chrysanthemum, is a 
sacred emblem, — and the height of the image, as it sits, is 
63I feet. Above his head rises a halo-like erection, of over 
14 feet high ; the face is 16 feet long, by 9I feet wide ; the 
eyes are 3 feet 9 inches long, and the eyebrows 5J feet in 
length; the ears are 8 feet in length; and the middle 
finger, 5 feet. The chest of the figure is 20 feet in depth ; 
while each leaf of the lotus-flower on which he sits, is 10 
feet long, and there are 56 of these leaves to form the 
throne. This idol was cast first in 743, and contains a 
weight of 450 tons of metal. This temple contains many 
ancient, and historical relics, such as sacred Buddhist 
writings, and scriptures, many hundreds of years old. But 
these may well be worthless, for instead of being printed 
and distributed to the people, they are here locked up in 
strong boxes, and are jealously guarded by the priests. 
There is also at this place, the temple of Kwannon, the 
goddess of Mercy. She is represented as having a thousand 
arms and hands, and holding in each hand some sacred 
emblem. A recent traveller states that the wall of this 
temple is hung with tresses of hair, which have been ofl'ered, 
with vows, both by men and women. 
There are two other immense Dai-Butsu images in Japan, 
one at Kama-Kura, and the other at Taffa. Five persons 
can sit on the thumb of one of these images, so colossal are 
they in their proportions. At Kioto, is the celebrated 
temple of the Thousand Gods. This temple contains a 
thousand idols of large size, each of which is surrounded 
by a number of smaller images, so that altogether there are 
said to be 33,333 images. 
