I have been reading Nellie Bly's Around the World in Seventy-Two Days of 1890, in which she describes a visit to the Great Buddha of Kamakura. I was rather surprised by the following comment:
Years ago at the feast of the god sacrifices were made to Diabutsu. Quite frequently the hollow interior would be heated to a white heat, and hundreds of victims were cast into the seething furnace in honor of the god. It is different now, sacrifices being not the custom, and the hollow interior is harmlessly fitted up with tiny altars and a ladder stairway by which visitors can climb up into Diabutsu's eye, and from that height view the surrounding lovely country.
Can anyone confirm whether description of the statue being used for burnt sacrifices is accurate, and if so whether they were animal or human (as implied by referring to them as victims)?
Either seem contrary to what I know of Buddhism, but so far I have been unable to find any source which refutes the claim - in fact I haven't found any which mention it at all.
For reference the entire text of Around the World in Seventy-Two Days can be found here.
The quote seems to demonstrate a misunderstanding of what exactly the Great Buddha of Kamakura is. Daibutsu is literally Great Buddha. The Buddha is made of bronze-a "white heat" would almost certainly end up melting the Buddha. The Japanese do not practice human sacrifice in this manner, although there are the stories of supposed human sacrifice (individuals mostly) prior to large scale construction. For that matter, Buddhists do not practice sacrifice, period.