O-jizou Sama
Comments: 7
O-jizou sama is the boddhisattva Khitagarba (I probably mispelled that), the guardian of children and travellers. Small shrines and statues can be found everywhere — throughout neighbourhoods, along roads and mountain paths, anywhere children and travellers need protecting.
It gets cold in the winter, so people knit them little woolen caps. Up north where it gets really cold I’ve seen them dressed in everything short of down vests.
•••
Posted to Oh, the Humanity • 2003.03.08 (Sat) • 22:19
Comments
Posted by Peter 2003.03.08, 22:29
Being helpful, it’s Bodhisattva. Being grateful, I really enjoyed the photographs. That’s remarkable.
Posted by Mary Beth 2003.03.09, 03:19
What an amazing thing. Is it fortuitous that all the hats are red or is this a plot on your part?
Posted by Nicklas 2003.03.09, 04:56
This is just so neat. People are wonderful beings really, which this demonstrates.
Posted by Emese 2003.03.09, 07:03
Fascinating. I must also ask if the fact that all the caps are red has any significance?
Posted by niji 2003.03.09, 10:19
it isnt really unspecific, generic kindnesss to some ethereal Heavenly identity. this type and kind of statue at the side of the road, or at an intersection, is, sadly, erected often times in memory of the person who was killed at that location. even when you find these little statues in a group situation, at temples, they are still erected to the memory of a spefic person, or, many times, a child. you can tell something about the person who died by what is left as an offering at each one. if a child had died, they leave a milk carton, or a toy. if man died, maybe a sake bottle is left. something that that individual used or cherished.
by the way, have you been to kamakura, just a little outside of tokyo?
in kamakura, there is an amazing, as well as extremely sad, temple that is where women go who have decided to have an abortion. at this temple, there are tens of thousands of these, only in a miniturized size. they line the cave walls and the garden. i would recommend this temple as a place to go to study more about this, and, as a place of deep, provoking thought about our world, and the problems we face in dealing with it.
thnx
Posted by niji 2003.03.09, 10:21
it isnt really unspecific, generic kindnesss to some ethereal Heavenly identity. this type and kind of statue at the side of the road, or at an intersection, is, sadly, erected often times in memory of the person who was killed at that location. even when you find these little statues in a group situation, at temples, they are still erected to the memory of a spefic person, or, many times, a child. you can tell something about the person who died by what is left as an offering at each one. if a child had died, they leave a milk carton, or a toy. if man died, maybe a sake bottle is left. something that that individual used or cherished.
by the way, have you been to kamakura, just a little outside of tokyo?
in kamakura, there is an amazing, as well as extremely sad, temple that is where women go who have decided to have an abortion. at this temple, there are tens of thousands of these, only in a miniturized size. they line the cave walls and the garden. i would recommend this temple as a place to go to study more about this, and, as a place of deep, provoking thought about our world, and the problems we face in dealing with it.
thnx
Posted by UltraBob 2003.03.10, 19:56
I had never noticed it before, but I think Emese is right. I don’t think I have ever seen one of those statues with a hat that wasn’t red.
Post a comment:
Send This Story to an Enemy
• • •
