Ksitigarbha

Kshitigarbha ( Skt. Ksitigarbha क्षितिगर्भ [ kʂɪtɪɡʌrb ʱ ʌ ]; Chinese地 藏, Pinyin Dizang, W.-G. Ti - tsang; jap地 蔵, Jizō; . Viet DJIA Tang; Tib ས་ཡི་སྙིང་པོ, sa'i snying po, Korean: 지장, 지장 보살, ji jang, jang ji bosal ) is an especially popular in Japan bodhisattva figure.

Japanese Buddhism

The Jizō statues show a Buddhist monk with a shaved bald head, holding a pilgrim's staff in his hand. Often Jizō is also represented as a child.

Jizō accompanies the souls on their way to the underworld. Legends tell how he descends into hell and saves sinners. Therefore, you will find most Jizō statues and cemeteries.

Jizō is traditionally the patron of children, particularly children who die before their parents. Since the 1980s, a trend that him as guardian of the souls of Mizuko (水 子, water children), so of stillbirths, miscarriages and aborted fetuses developed to worship. This should be seen in connection with a then widespread because of a ban on contraceptive practice of abortion.

In Japanese mythology, souls of unborn or stillborn children incapable of the mythological river Sanzu (三途の川) to cross on their way to the underworld, they remain in a kind of limbo. Jizō should now find and bring them across the river.

The statues have often tied baby bibs. These are tied by parents who hope that their children will Jizō faster based on this personal property ( the smell ).

On the Osorezan ( = Schreckenberg ) an extinct volcano on the edge of a crater lake in Aomori Prefecture is the temple founded 845 Entsu -ji, around which a desert spreads of solidified lava. In the midst of this landscape are statues of Jizo. This area is in fact considered a limbo where Jizo fights against the demons who are trying to pull in the hell the souls of dead children.

Jizō is often the deities of travelers and roads, the Dosojin counted.

Two Jizō in Nikko

Jizos on Zōjō -ji, Minato, Tokyo Prefecture

Jizō on Daien -ji, Meguro, Tokyo Prefecture