The 1498 Meiō tsunami washed away the hall around the Great Buddha in Kamakura, Japan.
The statue stands at Kōtoku-in, a Buddhist temple in Kamakura, south of present-day Tokyo. The 1498 Meiō earthquake struck offshore along the Nankai Trough on September 20, generating a powerful tsunami that reached several Japanese coastal areas.
The wave destroyed the building that enclosed the Great Buddha, but the large bronze statue itself survived. Since then, the Buddha has stood outdoors, which can make visitors assume it was always designed as an open-air monument.
Kamakura is sometimes confused with Nara or Kyoto, other cities famous for Japanese temples and Buddhist art. The tsunami was associated with the Meiō Nankaidō earthquake, whose estimated magnitude was about 8.6; historical casualty estimates vary widely because records from the period are incomplete.