Description
Book SynopsisâœFarther on, I find other figures of Jizo, single reliefs, sculptured upon tombs. But one of these is a work of art so charming that I feel a pain at being obliged to pass it by. More sweet, assuredly, than any imaged Christ, this dream in white stone of the playfellow of dead children, like a beautiful young boy, with gracious eyelids half closed, and face made heavenly by such a smile as only Buddhist art could have imagined, the smile of infinite lovingness and supremest gentleness. Indeed, so charming the ideal of Jizo is that in the speech of the people a beautiful face is always likened to hisââJizo-kao,â as the face of Jizo.â âLafcadio Hearn, Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan (1894)Stone images of the Buddhist deity Jizoâbedecked in a red cloth bib and presiding over offerings of flowers, coins, candles, and incenseâare a familiar sight throughout Japan. Known in China as a savior from hellâs torment, Jizo in Japan came to be utterly transformed through fusion with the local trad
