engineering

Kōtoku-in

Kōtoku-in is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kōtoku-in rather than just read about it. In short: Kōtoku-in (高徳院) is a Buddhist temple of the Jōdo-shū sect in the city of Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Its mountain name is Daii-zan (大異山), and its common temple name is Shōjōsen-ji (清浄泉寺).

Key takeaways

Kōtoku-in belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kōtoku-in to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kōtoku-in from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kōtoku-in (高徳院) is a Buddhist temple of the Jōdo-shū sect in the city of Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Its mountain name is Daii-zan (大異山), and its common temple name is Shōjōsen-ji (清浄泉寺). The temple is renowned for The Great Buddha of Kamakura (鎌倉大仏, Kamakura Daibutsu), a monumental outdoor bronze statue of Amitābha, which is one of the most famous icons of Japan. It is also a designated National Treasure, and one of the twenty-two historic sites included in Kamakura's proposal for inclusion in UNESCO's World Heritage Sites.

Statue

The Great Buddha of Kamakura (鎌倉大仏, Kamakura Daibutsu) is a large bronze statue of Amitābha, located on the temple grounds. Including the base, it measures 13.35 metres (43.8 ft) tall and weighs approximately 93 tonnes (103 tons). According to temple records, the statue dates from around 1252, during the Kamakura period, which it is named after. The statue is hollow, and visitors can view the interior. Many visitors have left graffiti on the inside of the statue. At one time, there were thirty-two bronze lotus petals at the base of the statue, but only four remain, and they are no longer in place. A notice at the entrance to the grounds reads, "Stranger, whosoever thou art and whatsoever be thy creed, when thou enterest this sanctuary remember thou treadest upon ground hallowed by the worship of ages. This is the Temple of Buddha and the gate of the eternal, and should therefore be entered with reverence."

History

The current bronze statue was preceded by a giant wooden Buddha, which was completed in 1243 after ten years of continuous labor, the funds having been raised by Lady Inada no Tsubone and the Buddhist priest Jōkō of Tōtōmi. The wooden statue was damaged by a storm in 1248, and the hall containing it was destroyed, so Jōkō suggested making a new statue of bronze, and the huge amount of money necessary for this and a new hall was raised for the project. The bronze image was probably cast by Ōno Gorōemon or Tanji Hisatomo, both leading casters of the time. At one time, the statue was gilded. There are still traces of gold leaf near the statue's ears. The hall was destroyed by a storm in 1334, was rebuilt, was damaged by yet another storm in 1369, and was rebuilt yet again. The last building housing the statue was washed away in the tsunami resulting from the Nankai earthquake of 20 September 1498, during the Muromachi period. Since then, the Great Buddha has stood in the open air. In the mid-Edo period, the monks Yūten and Yōkoku sponsored a restoration of the daibutsu with funds provided by Nojima Shinzaemon, a merchant from Asakusa. The earthquake of 1923 destroyed the base the statue sits upon, but the base was repaired in 1925. Repairs to the statue were also carried out in 1960–61, when the neck was strengthened and measures were taken to protect it from earthquakes. In early 2016, further research, restoration, and preservation work was performed on the statue.

Measurements Weight: 121 tonnes (267,000 pounds) Height: 13.35 metres (43.8 ft) Length of face: 2.35 metres (7 ft 9 in) Length of eye: 1.0 metre (3 ft 3 in) Length of mouth: 0.82 metres (2 ft 8 in) Length of ear: 1.90 metres (6 ft 3 in) Length from knee to knee: 9.10 metres (29.9 ft) Circumference of thumb: 0.85 metres (2 ft 9 in)

In arts and poetry The statue is referred to as the "Buddha at Kamakura" in several verses that preface the initial chapters of the novel Kim by Rudyard Kipling (1901). The verses were taken from the poem of the same name the author wrote after visiting Kamakura in 1892. The poem appears in its entirety in Kipling's poetry collection The Five Nations of 1903.

Gallery

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kōtoku-in

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kōtoku-in claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kōtoku-in before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kōtoku-in ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kōtoku-in

In research: Kōtoku-in appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kōtoku-in in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kōtoku-in is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 13th-century Buddhist temples in Japan, Buddhist temples in Kamakura, Buildings and structures completed in 1243, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kōtoku-in outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kōtoku-in in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kōtoku-in means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kōtoku-in out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kōtoku-in in simple terms?

Why does Kōtoku-in matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kōtoku-in?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kōtoku-in.