The Takaoka Great Buddha is said to be one of the three greatest Buddha statues in Japan, alongside those in Nara and Kamakura. Recently, it has also gained a reputation as the most beautiful Buddha statue in Japan.
The current Takaoka Great Buddha is a 15.85m tall statue of Amida Nyorai. It is larger than the Great Buddhas of Nara and Kamakura, and is characterized by being made from copper. The Takaoka Great Buddha is the culmination of Takaoka copperware techniques, and was rebuilt in hopes of further development of the local industry.
In the 1200s, when the Takaoka Daibutsu was enshrined on Mt. Futagami, it was a wooden Buddha. In the Edo period, when Maeda Toshinaga built Takaoka Castle, the Takaoka Daibutsu was also relocated. After that, it was burned down twice, and in 1932 it became the Buddha we see today.