Tokyo, city of gigantic statues

Tokyo Statues

When planning a visit to a city, one can make two lists: the list of the most popular tourist attractions and the list of tourist attractions stranger. My ideal trip is to mix both lists, in this way the visit becomes more personal and you don't end up seeing what everyone else is.

Tokyo, capital of Japan, is a great city. Some describe it as a large town rather than a city: there are open spaces and nameless alleys where one, a foreigner, can get lost. It seems as if the city is expelling us from its most secret spaces, from its privacy, but we will not give up. Here is a list of the largest and most popular statues in Tokyo, ancient and modern, which sometimes and despite their size are not easy to find on the streets of the Japanese capital. 

Maman-san

Maman statue

This is the name of the very creepy and huge spider-shaped sculpture that adorns the surroundings of the Mori Art Museum. It was sculpted by Louise Bourgeois in 1999 and is carried out in steel, bronze and marble. It is one of the largest sculptures in the worldIt is just over thirty feet tall, and looks like something out of a science fiction movie.

Louise Joséphine Bourgeois was a French-American sculpture who died in 2010 at the age of 99. She was known as the Spider woman for these sculptures that began to populate his art in the '90s. The spider, titled Maman (maman is mother, in french), appeared for the first time in London, at the Tate Modern, and later some replicas were made. One of them is the one we see in Tokyo.

Maman Statue 2

The sculpture has 26 marble eggs inside the bronze thorax and represents the strength of the mother of the artist, who repaired fabrics and tapestries in Paris, who spun like a spider, and who died when she was 21 years old. The Maman of Tokyo is intimidating and goes hand in hand with Tokyo because in this city, from Gozdilla and its monsters, infernal beings are very good.

Gundam

Gundam

If you like the Japanese comic and animation (manga and anime, in Japanese), and you go to Tokyo, you can't miss the giant Gundam. Gundam it is a work of science fiction, of war, which recounts the confrontation between different sides that use in their fights giant robots. If there is something that the Japanese adore, it is these robots and Gundam is a very classic series. The robots are called Mobile Suits and the first series dates from the late 70s but there are several sequels.

There are a giant Gundam on the artificial island of Odaiba, in Tokyo Bay. Today the island is a popular shopping and entertainment destination, but formerly there were forts and other defenses to protect themselves from foreign invasions and American ships that wanted to force the opening of Japan to international trade (XNUMXth century). Much later the Japanese united the small islands into larger islands and the land was filled in, turning the area into a futuristic urban landscape.

Gundam 2

The Mobile Suit Gundam statue is over 20 meters tall, a building, and is made with a 1: 1 scale. It stands in front of the Diver City Tokyo shopping center and is the heart of an attraction called Gundam Front Tokyo that operates on the sixth floor of the mall and includes a 360º theater, an exhibition of other Gundams models and drawings, sketches and other things of the series.

The Kamakura Buddha

Kamakura Buddha

This is a very large statue too, one of the largest bronze statues in the world. Kamakura is one of the must-see visits from Tokyo. It is south of the city, just over an hour by bullet train. There are many temples with cultural treasures, but without a doubt the giant Buddha statue is wonderful. It is made of bronze and was originally covered with gold leaf., although there is nothing left of that golden bath and it is only visible around the ears.

The Kamakura Buddha dates from the year 1252 and has little more than 13 meters high. It is hollow inside and at the end of the XNUMXth century, while Europeans were rediscovering America, a tsunami washed away the temple that surrounded and covered the statue and the decision was not to build it again and to leave the statue in the open air. That's how it has been since then

Hachiko, the faithful dog

Hachiko statue

There are two films about this lovely dog, a Japanese one and an American one starring Richard Gere. Both are exciting. Hachiko it was a real dog but today there is only history and the statue that it's at Shibuya Station. Tell the story that Hachiko faithfully waited for its owner for nine years. Hidesaburo Ueno was a professor working at the University of Tokyo and his Akita dog used to wait for him at the train exit.

Hachiko movie

One day the professor died while at work, in 1925, and he never returned. Hachiko continued to wait for him, day by day, year by year, for a total of nine years, until he died in 1935, on a street, heading for the station. The loyalty of the dog aroused sympathy and became a japan icon. The first Hachiko statue was raised in 1934, yes, before the dog's death, but it must have been cast during WWII when metals were needed for the war industry.

When the war ended, the Tokyo authorities entrusted the son of the original sculptor with the construction of another sculpture, and it is this statue that has been at the station since 1948, at the Hachiko Exit precisely. Today is a super popular meeting place Among the Tokyoites and there is no shortage of tourists who come to take photos. In addition, every April 8 there is a small ceremony in memory of the faithful dog. And if we think about it, his fame transcended borders and dazzled the Hollywood industry.


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