Ofuna Kannon Temple: A Giant Kannon, from the Shoulders Up

Agreeing on a shape did not mean they could finish it. The Great Depression made donations difficult to raise, and work stopped in 1934. It would remain suspended for 23 years.

A child born when construction stopped could have been an adult before it resumed.

Through war, defeat and the beginnings of postwar recovery, the unfinished statue remained on the hill. Construction finally resumed in 1957, and the completion ceremony followed in 1960 — 31 years after work had begun.

Then there are the small figures of the Sentai-butsu, or “Thousand Buddha” memorial, arranged in closely packed rows. Outside, the photographic challenge is fitting one figure into the frame. Inside, it is deciding where to look first.

This interior is a space for remembrance and prayers for a world without war. It also raises a question that the statue’s sheer size can easily overshadow: whom was it built for?

The original project was rooted in ideas of national protection and the moral reform of society. But in 1939, while the statue was still unfinished, Zen priest Rōsen Takashina called for it to commemorate both Japanese and Chinese soldiers killed in the conflict. His proposal still used the nationalist language of its time, yet explicitly called for those on both sides to be mourned equally.

When the project was revived after the war, remembrance of the dead and world peace became central to the appeal for funds.

A memorial to victims of the atomic bombings was unveiled here in 1970. In 1990, a flame preserved from the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing was brought to the temple. It is kept alight in the Tower of the Atomic Bomb Flame.

Before it reached Kamakura, the flame had been kept burning at a municipal office in Fukuoka Prefecture, far to the west. On 10 December 2024, the day Nihon Hidankyo, a nationwide organisation of atomic bomb survivors, received the Nobel Peace Prize, people gathered here to pray for peace in front of it.