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I am trying to write something along the lines of 'the Daibutsu is made out of
bronze.' I am using です・ます体. In this case, which word would be more appropriate
to use? Is there even a difference?
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2022-09-25T12:35:06.857
96361
2022-09-26T01:33:44.240
54545
question
word-choice
青銅 versus ブロンズ, which one should I use?
First, while English speakers distinguish "copper" and "bronze" rather
strictly, Japanese people do not use 青銅 that often. "Bronze medal" is just
銅メダル, and "bronze statue" is usually just 銅像. If you ask a native speaker
"What is a 10-yen coin made of?", the response is probably 銅, not 青銅 nor ブロンズ.

Typically, ブロンズ(像) is used for Western-style bronze statues, and it's rare to
use ブロンズ to refer to Buddhist statues. The following image search results
support this:

[![Image search
results](https://i.stack.imgur.com/F33nC.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/F33nC.jpg)

Therefore, even though 青銅 and ブロンズ are chemically the same, it is much safer
to use 青銅 or just 銅 when you are talking about _daibutsu_. However, this is
not a strict rule. For example, in [the Wikipedia article for
牛久大仏](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%89%9B%E4%B9%85%E5%A4%A7%E4%BB%8F),
ブロンズ is used many times for a giant _daibutsu_ , and this is probably because
international comparison was important when applying to the Guinness Book.
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2022-09-26T01:22:50.163
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2022-09-26T01:33:44.240
2022-09-26T01:33:44.240
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answer