What a Friend We Have in Jizōs 32

     At the age of five, Kichizaemon Yamamoto’s father ordered him 
     to take sword in hand and cut down a dog. At the age of fifteen, 
     he was ordered to execute criminals. It used to be that a warrior 
     was ordered to take a head by the age of fourteen or fifteen. 
     Lord Katsushige learned to kill with the sword under the 
     direction of his father, Lord Naoshige, while he was still very 
     young. After a while he could cut down ten men in succession. 
     In times past this was the practice, especially among the 
     affluent, but now no one learns to kill while young. This is very 
     short-sighted.’
  Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure- The Book of the Samurai, 1716

The path leading to the main temple grew steeper. Robyn and I climbed up beside a large grotto, containing hundreds of small grey gnomic stone statues, a bald monkish army of cute Casper ghosts, all shapes and sizes, splattered with waves of red fabric, standing in rows. The visual impact was overwhelming. 
“Children?” Robyn asked.
“Their guardians.” I said. “Jizōs.”
Originating in India as Kshitigarbha, the Earth Repository Bodhisattva, Jizō was protected by Prithvi, the Hindu ‘mother of all creatures’ fertility goddess, who personified the blessings of Earth and Space. In the Vedas scriptures, she was celebrated as the consort of the sky, and vowed to use all her miraculous powers to protect Jizō devotees. 
Seven hundred years before Jizō arrived in Japan, during the reign of Emperor Suinin, Haniwa terracotta clay figures, which Picasso once praised for their beauty, began to substitute for the live human sacrifices previously buried at funerals of important people. The ‘earth bearer’ Jizō came through China in the seventh century and in appeared in Nara Period Japan a hundred years later, associated with the Lord of Death and the Taoist Ten Kings of Hell. 
Jizō was the only Bodhisattva portrayed as a monk- no adornments, no royal attire, dressed in the simple kesa robe, and shaven head often surrounded by a halo. In his right hand he holds a six-ring shakujo staff. When Jizō shakes the staff, the jingling awakens us from our delusions, and helps us break free of the six states of rebirth to achieve enlightenment. In his left he holds a hōjunotama mani jewel, which signifies bestows of blessings on all who suffer, grants wishes, pacifies desires, and brings clear understanding of the Dharma.
Jizō’s cartoon likeness was depicted as that of a 7th-century Korean priest named Gin Chau Jue, who resided for 75 years at Chiu-hua-shan in China. When Jue died in 728, at the age of 99, his body did not decay, and was gilded and venerated as an emanation of Jizō.
The height of Jizō’s early popularity came during the late Heian era when the rise of the Jōdo Sect (the Pure Land Sect devoted to the Amida Buddha) intensified fears about afterlife hell. Because of his connection with death and suffering souls, Jizō became closely associated with Amida’s heavenly western paradise, where true believers seek enlightenment and to avoid the torments of the netherworld, no longer trapped in the six states of desire and karmic rebirth. Like Jesus, Jizō is a savior par excellence. The Japanese believe that will save them at any time, in any situation, without any conditions or stipulations beyond simple faith. Even those who have already fallen into the pit, serving time in Hell, are promised that Jizō-san will work diligently to ease their sufferings and shorten their sentences. Jizō is a Bodhisattva who has achieved enlightenment but postponed his own Buddhahood until all can be saved, the embodiment of supreme spiritual optimism, compassion, and universal salvation, all hallmarks of his Mahayana Buddhism.
Jizō is the first deity most people encounter when they set foot in Japan, because he is the patron protector of travelers and pilgrims. You’ll find him peeking out from everywhere- among the grasses along the road, standing at busy intersections, overseeing borders, in graveyards, in temples, along hiking trails, or sitting in a wooden shelter built especially for him. He is found at boundaries between places both physical and spiritual, between here and there, life and death.
In all these places, he fulfills his customary role as guardian of the weak, expectant mothers, children, firemen, and all beings caught in the six realms of transmigration. One of the most beloved of all divinities, depicted in countless forms unique to Japan, a friend to all, never frightening even to children, this is the Jizo they know and love, the Jizo full of awesomeness, compassion and fortitude. Jizo does not get angry, nor does he ever give up, even when trampled and stepped upon like the earth he is the bearer of. They carve him out of stone because of the protective power and spiritual value the material possesses to engage the human heart. 
Nearly all villages have their own beloved Jizō statues, frequently given unique names defining their specific salvific functions- Greasy Jizō, Jizō Without a Jaw, Food Tasting Jizō, Jizō Begging the Sky for Rain, Sweating Jizō, Rice-Ball Jizō, Great Vow Jizō, Muddy-Feet Jizō, Longevity Jizō, Naked Jizō, Noseless Jizō, Blow Hole Jizō, Belly Girdle Jizō, Hatted Jizō  Time-Limiting Jizō, Fire Kindling Jizō, Jizō With Burnt Cheeks, Empty-Handed Jizō, Child-Raising Jizō, Easy Childbirth Jizō, Turn-My-Head Jizō, Jizō with Head Cut Off, Black Jizō, Fire-Kindling Jizō, Patron of Guiding Jizō, Bean-Paste Jizō, Miso-Licking Jizō, Rubbing Jizō, Upside-down Jizō, Cough-Stopping Jizō, String-Bound Jizō, Spirit-Pacifying Jizō, Kitchen-Brush Jizō, Splinter Removing Jizō, Deaf Jizō, Old Woman Jizō, Wheel Jizō, Arrow-Gathering Jizō...
“What a Friend We Have in Jizōs.” Robyn said.
“With his jingling sounds, and his legendary good deeds.” I said. “There seems to be a bit of Saint Nick in him as well.”