One night in 1949, a 43-year-old acupuncturist in Nagoya named Hidenobu Maeda had a strange dream that compelled him to build a daibutsu, or great statue of Buddha. Although a total amateur in sculpture, Maeda decided to do as he was told, and completed the reinforced concrete statue five years later. Standing (or rather, sitting) 60 feet tall, the Hotei Buddha is the largest privately owned daibutsu in Japan, even bigger than the famous Great Buddha of Nara. This Buddha is noted for its rather unusual appearance—often described as being humorously out…
