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The west side of Kamakura, an area known as Hase is home to the town's most famous sight, the Daibutsu (Great Buddha), who was cast in bronze nearly 750 years ago. On the way, it's worth visiting Hase-dera to see an image of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy, which predates the Daibutsu by at least five hundred years, and is said to be Japan's largest wooden statue. Both these sights are within walking distance of Hase Station, three stops from Kamakura Station (Y190) on the private Enoden line. Hase-dera (daily March-Sept 8am-5pm; Oct-Feb 8am-4.30pm; Y300) stands high on the hillside a few minutes' walk north of Hase Station, with good views of Kamakura and across Yuigahama beach to the Miura peninsula beyond. Though the temple's present layout dates from the mid-thirteenth century, according to legend it was founded in 736, when a wooden Eleven-faced Kannon washed ashore nearby. The statue is supposedly one of a pair carved from a single camphor tree in 721 by a monk in the original Hase, near Nara; he placed one Kannon in a local temple and pushed the other out to sea. Nowadays the Kamakura Kannon - just over 9m tall and gleaming with gold leaf, a fourteenth-century embellishment - resides in an attractive, chocolate-brown and cream building at the top of the temple steps. This central hall is flanked by two smaller buildings: the right hall houses a large Amidha Buddha carved in 1189 for Minamoto Yoritomo's 42nd birthday, to ward off the bad luck traditionally associated with that age; while on the left is a small treasure hall (daily 9am-4pm), whose most prized exhibits are the original temple bell, cast in 1264, and an early fifteenth-century statue of Daikoku-ten, the cheerful God of Wealth. Beside the viewing platform, the Sutra Repository contains a revolving drum with a complete set of Buddhist scriptures inside - one turn of the wheel is equivalent to reading the whole lot. Ranks of Jizo statues are a common sight in Hase-dera, some clutching sweets or "windmills" and wrapped in tiny, woollen mufflers; these sad little figures commemorate stillborn or aborted children. From Hase-dera, turn left at the main road and follow the crowds north for a few hundred metres to find the Daibutsu (daily 7am-5.30/6pm; Y200), in the grounds of Kotoku-in temple. After all the hype, the Great Buddha can seem a little disappointing, but as you approach, and his serene, rather aloof face comes into view, the magic begins to take hold. He sits on a stone pedestal, a broad-shouldered figure lost in deep meditation, with his head slightly bowed, his face and robes streaked grey-green by centuries of sun, wind and rain. The eleven-metre-tall image represents Amida Nyorai, the future Buddha who receives souls into the Western Paradise, and was built under the orders of Minamoto Yoritomo to rival the larger Nara Buddha . Completed in 1252, the statue is constructed of bronze plates bolted together around a hollow frame - you can climb inside for Y20 - and evidence suggests that, at some time, it was covered in gold leaf. Amazingly, it has withstood fires, typhoons, tidal waves and even the Great Earthquake of 1923. Its predecessor, however, was less successful: the wooden statue was unveiled in 1243, only to be destroyed in a violent storm just five years later. And various attempts to build a shelter suffered similar fates until, happily, they gave up after 1498 and left the Daibutsu framed by trees and an expanse of sky.
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