After a long and hard construction, the casting of the Great Buddha was completed and in 752 the Kaigan-e (ceremony of "kaigan," to enshrine a newly built Buddhist image and to put in a spirit to open eyes to Buddhism) was conducted with the priest from India Bodai Senna as the ceremony leader.
難工事の末、大仏の鋳造が終了し、天竺（インド）出身の僧・菩提僊那を導師として大仏開眼会（かいげんえ）が挙行されたのは天平勝宝4年（752年）のことであった。