At a roadside, beside a cemetery gate, or at the crossing of a village path, Jizō stands close to ordinary life. In the Sutra of the Original Vow of Kṣitigarbha, he vows to work for beings lost in the six realms until the coming of Maitreya. He does not appear in a jeweled crown, but in the plain robes and shaven head of a monk—as though ready to walk directly into the places of greatest suffering. This article follows that vow through the sutras and through the forms it later took in Japan.
Overview
What Is Kṣitigarbha (Jizō)?
A bodhisattva seeks awakening while working for the liberation of others. In the Sutra of the Original Vow of Kṣitigarbha, Kṣitigarbha undertakes to aid beings throughout the interval between the passing of Śākyamuni Buddha and the future appearance of Maitreya Buddha. The six realms are the hells, hungry ghosts, animals, asuras, human beings, and heavenly beings.
The vow described in that sutra places Kṣitigarbha last: only after suffering beings have been led toward liberation will he himself complete the path to buddhahood. In Japan, this scriptural vow was received through many forms of devotion—to the departed, to children, to travelers, and to those believed to suffer in the hells.
In Sanskrit his name is Kṣitigarbha, which means "the treasury of the earth."
Name
The Meaning of the Name "Jizō"
The name "Jizō" holds two images within it: the great earth and the hidden treasury.
The Sutra of the Ten Wheels of Kṣitigarbha of the Great Collection, translated by Xuanzang, strings together the merits of Kṣitigarbha through similes and plainly shows the origin of his name.
Words of the sutra (the origin of the name)
Translation
To bear all in patient endurance and not be moved is like the great earth; the deeply secret stillness of his meditative concentration is like a buried treasury (a hidden storehouse of treasure) beneath the ground.
Original text
安忍不動猶如大地、靜慮深密猶如祕藏。 (He bears all in patient endurance and does not move, just like the great earth; his quiet meditative concentration is deep and secret, just like a hidden treasury.)
Source
Xuanzang's translation, Sutra of the Ten Wheels of Kṣitigarbha of the Great Collection, "Introductory Chapter" (Taishō No. 411)
Vow
The Original Vow
In the Sutra of the Original Vow, Kṣitigarbha promises to place the liberation of suffering beings before his own completion of buddhahood.
The Sutra of the Original Vow of Kṣitigarbha tells of the vow that Kṣitigarbha, who in a past life was the child of a great elder, made before the Buddha.
Words of the sutra (the original vow)
Translation
Now, to the very end of the future, throughout countless ages beyond reckoning, for the sake of the beings of the six realms who are sunk in sin and suffering, I will set forth every skillful means and lead them all to liberation. Only then will I myself become a Buddha, last of all.
Original text
我今盡未來際不可計劫、為是罪苦六道眾生、廣設方便、盡令解脫、而我自身方成佛道。 (Now, to the very end of all future ages, for incalculable kalpas, for the sake of these sin-stricken, suffering beings of the six realms, I will broadly set forth skillful means and bring them all to liberation; only then shall I myself attain the path of buddhahood.)
Source
Śikṣānanda's translation, Sutra of the Original Vow of Kṣitigarbha, "Chapter on Spiritual Penetrations in the Palace of the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven" (Taishō No. 412)
Form
Why the Form of a Monk?
Although Kṣitigarbha is a bodhisattva, he is depicted not in the splendid bodhisattva form adorned with a jeweled crown and strands of gems, but in the form of a shaven-headed monk (the śrāvaka form). This derives from the Ten Wheels Sutra. It teaches that when Kṣitigarbha appears in the assembly, he appears taking the form of one who has left home as a monastic.
In a defiled age without a Buddha, in the most familiar form of a renunciant, he enters the six realms and stands beside those who suffer. That Japanese images of Jizō are made with a monk's shaven head and monastic robes accords with the intent of this sutra.
Khakkhara (shakujō, the pewter staff)
The staff with which a wandering monk strikes the ground as he walks. It expresses that he is a roving savior who walks the six realms to visit beings and opens even the gates of hell.
Wish-fulfilling jewel (hōju)
The cintāmaṇi jewel that fulfills the wishes of beings. It symbolizes the virtue of Jizō.
Sutras
The Principal Sutras, and the Story of Saving a Departed Mother
Three scriptures are commonly grouped as the principal Kṣitigarbha texts in East Asia: the Sutra of the Original Vow of Kṣitigarbha, the Ten Wheels Sutra, and the Sutra of Divining the Requital of Good and Evil Actions.
The Sutra of the Original Vow includes two stories in which Kṣitigarbha, in a former life, acts for the sake of a deceased mother: the stories of the brahmin's daughter and the maiden Bright Eyes. In each, filial devotion opens into a larger vow for all beings. These narratives became one important scriptural support for memorial practice and gratitude toward parents; they are not the sole origin of every later ancestral rite.
The Sutra of Divining the Requital of Good and Evil Actions calls Kṣitigarbha "one who skillfully speaks comfort and reassurance," the one who saves beings especially generously in the evil age of the five turbidities, and it bestows a method for gazing upon one's own karma, repenting, and turning toward the right path.
Shingon
His Place in Shingon Buddhism and Esoteric Buddhism
In the Womb-Realm Maṇḍala transmitted in Shingon Buddhism, Kṣitigarbha presides over a northern group known as the Jizō Hall, an assembly of nine deities.
This placement gives Kṣitigarbha a distinct ritual and iconographic setting within the maṇḍala. It should not be read as a simple ranking of deities; the maṇḍala maps different workings of awakening rather than arranging them on a single ladder.
Benefits
What the Sutra Teaches—and What Japan Added
The Sutra of the Original Vow lists twenty-eight benefits for those who make offerings to and praise Kṣitigarbha. Japanese devotion later carried that promise into prayers shaped by local communities and family life.
In the Sutra: Liberation in the Six Realms
The Sutra of the Original Vow portrays Kṣitigarbha working for beings who suffer throughout the six realms and guiding them toward liberation.
In the Sutra: Merit Offered for the Departed
The text teaches that good cultivated for the deceased benefits both the departed and the living. Among its twenty-eight benefits is the promise that departed relatives may leave suffering behind.
In Japan: Protection of Children
Devotion to Jizō as guardian of children, including children who died young and prayers associated today with mizuko memorials, developed in Japan. It resonates with the bodhisattva's vow but is not stated as such in the Indian or Chinese sutra passages cited here.
Mantra
The Mantra to Recite
Mantra of Kṣitigarbha
On kakaka bisanmaei sowaka
oṃ ha ha ha vismaye svāhā
"Ha ha ha" is the sound that praises the virtue of Jizō, and "vismaye" is said to mean "how wondrous!" It is a mantra that praises the great compassion of Jizō and prays for his salvation. It is based on the mantra of Kṣitigarbha transmitted in the ritual manuals of the Womb Realm.
Japan
Devotion in Japan
On the foundation of the vow taught in the sutras, Kṣitigarbha spread into various forms of devotion in Japan. It is accurate to see clearly which elements are rooted in the sutras and which developed in Japan.
The Six Jizō. From the principle in the Sutra of the Original Vow that he divides himself into the six realms to save beings, sets of six Jizō came to be erected at the entrances of graveyards and at temple gates.
The riverbed of Sai and the protection of children. The tale that Jizō saves and protects children who died young was widely told from the medieval period onward, and he became established as the guardian Buddha of children. There is no direct scriptural basis for it; the spirit of the Sutra of the Original Vow, in which the departed are saved through offerings, extended to prayers for young lives and for the souls of stillborn and unborn children.
Fusion with the road-guardian deity. Jizō standing at village boundaries and crossroads merged with the road-guardian deity (dōsojin) who guards boundaries, becoming the Buddha who protects travelers and the village from calamity.
Life-prolonging Jizō and the victorious general Jizō. The life-prolonging Jizō who extends one's lifespan and the victorious general Jizō clad in armor are all forms of Jizō devotion that developed in Japan.
Byodoji
Kṣitigarbha at Byodoji
At Byodoji, the twenty-second sacred site of the Shikoku Eighty-Eight pilgrimage and a temple of Kōyasan Shingon Buddhism, we perform the Jizō goma on the night of the 24th of each month. The 24th is the feast day of Kṣitigarbha.
The Jizō at Byodoji is a bronze seated image, cast around 1750 through the donations of the people of Tsuyama in Okayama. He holds a monk's staff (shakujō) in his right hand and a wish-fulfilling jewel (hōju) in his left, seated quietly upon a lotus pedestal.
Prayers for children and the departed, for healthy growth, for mizuko memorials, and for ancestors are entrusted to the sacred wisdom-fire of the goma.
The bronze Jizō in the precincts and the stone Horidashi Jizō beside Kōbō's sacred-water well differ in age, material, and setting. Yet both return us to the same vow: to stand close to those who suffer and not pass them by.
Byodoji also enshrines the Horidashi Jizō, said to have been unearthed by Kōbō Daishi. Held to be a stone image of around twelve hundred years ago, it stands beside the well of Kōbō's sacred water.
About the Statue
PeriodAround 1,200 years ago (attributed)
MaterialStone
EnshrinedBeside the well of Kōbō's sacred water
Frequently Asked Questions
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This article was prepared by Taniguchi Shinryō, head priest of Byōdōji, on the basis of the following primary texts and research. Chinese sutras and ritual manuals were checked against the Taishō Revised Tripiṭaka in CBETA; "No." refers to a Taishō text number. The formation and translatorship of the Sutra of the Original Vow and the Sutra of Divining remain debated, as do several East Asian scriptures concerning Life-Prolonging Jizō and the Ten Kings. We identify those questions explicitly. The Ten Wheels Sutra, whose translation history is comparatively clear, is used as an important source for the name Kṣitigarbha—not as a claim that one scripture settles every later form of Jizō devotion.
Chinese canon: scriptures expounding Kṣitigarbha (the three Kṣitigarbha sutras)
Sutra of the Ten Wheels of Kṣitigarbha of the Great Collection (Daijō Daijū Jizō Jūrin-gyō), 10 fascicles, trans. Xuanzang (Taishō No. 411). Said to have been translated in 651 (Yonghui 2) under the Tang; an important early source for Kṣitigarbha tradition. It expounds the meaning of the name through the images of the earth and a hidden treasury.
Sutra of the Great Vast Ten Wheels (Daihōkō Jūrin-gyō), 8 fascicles, translator unknown (Taishō No. 410). An alternate (older) translation of No. 411 whose translator is not transmitted (presumed translated under the Northern Liang).
Sutra of the Original Vow of Kṣitigarbha (Jizō Bosatsu Hongan-gyō), 2 fascicles, attributed to Śikṣānanda (Taishō No. 412). Expounds the stories of the Brahman woman and the woman Bright Eyes, and the original vow of Kṣitigarbha. [See note: debate over Chinese composition.]
Sutra of Divining the Requital of Good and Evil Actions (Senzatsu Zen'aku Gōhō-kyō), 2 fascicles, attributed to Bodhidīpa (Taishō No. 839). Expounds the method of divining one's own karma with wooden wheels, repenting, and turning toward the right path. [See note: regarded as apocryphal since the Sui.]
Hymn in Praise of the Dharma-Body Requested by Kṣitigarbha from the Sutra of a Hundred Thousand Verses of the Great Collection (Hyakusenju Daijikkyō Jizō Bosatsu Shōmon Hosshin-san), 1 fascicle, trans. Amoghavajra (Taishō No. 413). A hymn of praise in which Kṣitigarbha inquires about the Dharma-body.
Chinese canon: esoteric ritual manuals (Womb-Realm Maṇḍala, Jizō Hall)
Ritual Manual of the Lotus Womb-Realm Compassion-Born Maṇḍala for the Great Attainment, from the Mahāvairocana Sūtra (Renge Taizō Hishō Mandara Kōdai Jōju Giki), 2 fascicles (Taishō No. 852b). The ritual manual transmitting the Jizō Hall of the Womb-Realm Maṇḍala and the Kṣitigarbha mantra "oṃ ha ha ha vismaye svāhā."
Mahāvairocana-abhisaṃbodhi Sūtra (Mahāvairocana Sūtra), trans. Śubhakarasiṃha and Yixing (Taishō No. 848). The root scripture that serves as the basis for the Womb-Realm Maṇḍala.
[Note] Scriptures whose composition and translatorship are debated (Chinese composition / apocrypha)
The Sutra of Divining the Requital of Good and Evil Actions (No. 839) was held to be the basis of the stūpa-repentance rite (tōzanbō) performed in Guangzhou during the Kaihuang era of the Sui, and its authenticity was questioned; in Fei Zhangfang's Record of the Three Treasures Through the Ages (Rekidai Sanbōki, Taishō No. 2034) it was likewise treated as a text of uncertain translator and provenance. There has been a view from early on that it is a Chinese composition (apocryphon).
The Sutra of the Original Vow of Kṣitigarbha (No. 412) does not appear in the Tang scriptural catalogues (Kaiyuan Catalogue of the Teachings, Zhenyuan Newly Established Catalogue of the Teachings), and first enters the canon in the Ming-edition Tripiṭaka. Its attribution to Śikṣānanda is not certain, and the prevailing view holds it to be a composed scripture expanded in China on the basis of the Ten Wheels Sutra, incorporating Pure Land original-vow thought.
Texts such as the Sutra of Life-Prolonging Jizō and the Sutra on the Ten Kings to Be Cultivated in Advance (Yoshū Jūō Shōshichi-kyō, the so-called Ten Kings Sutra) are scriptures composed in East Asia and are not what the three Kṣitigarbha sutras expound. The notion that Kṣitigarbha saves the dead who undergo the judgment of the Ten Kings after death derives from this lineage.
Secondary literature (bibliographically verified)
Manabe Kōsai, Jizō Bosatsu no kenkyū (A Study of Kṣitigarbha), Sanmitsudō Shoten, 1960; 2nd ed. 1969. A comprehensive study including the miraculous legends and folk observances of Jizō.
Hayami Tasuku, Jizō shinkō (Jizō Faith), Hanawa Shinsho 49, Hanawa Shobō, 1975. An accessible overview tracing the origin, transmission, and development of Jizō faith.
Zhiru Ng, The Making of a Savior Bodhisattva: Dizang in Medieval China, Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism 21, University of Hawai‘i Press, 2007 (a history of the formation of Kṣitigarbha faith in medieval China).
Stephen F. Teiser, The Scripture on the Ten Kings and the Making of Purgatory in Medieval Chinese Buddhism, Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism 9, University of Hawai‘i Press, 1994 (the Ten Kings Sutra and the formation of conceptions of the underworld and hell).
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Articles to learn more about Kṣitigarbha and the prayers of Byodoji.
