Kṣitigarbha is the bodhisattva who vowed, after the passing of Śākyamuni and until Maitreya appears in the world and becomes a Buddha in the future, to save all beings lost in the six realms (the hells, hungry ghosts, animals, asuras, humans, and heavenly beings) throughout that "age without a Buddha."

His vow is distinctive for putting himself last: he attains buddhahood only after he has saved every suffering being without exception. Above all, he has long been beloved across Japan as the Buddha who saves those fallen into the hells and those who have died, and who protects young children and travelers on the road.

In Sanskrit his name is Kṣitigarbha, which means "the treasury of the earth."

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.

"Unmoving like the great earth (chi/earth)" and "holding inexhaustible virtue hidden like a buried treasury (zō/treasury)." Bearing all suffering without being moved, he keeps immeasurable merit hidden within. From this figure he was named "Jizō."

Kṣitigarbha vowed that he would become a Buddha last of all, only after he has finished saving every suffering being.

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.

Incidentally, the widely known saying "Until the hells are empty, I vow not to become a Buddha" is a slogan that spread in later ages and is not found in the actual text of the Sutra of the Original Vow itself. The thrust of the vow that the sutra teaches is just as in the words above.

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.

The khakkhara and the wish-fulfilling jewel are the two representative attributes that became established in Japan. Not every Jizō image holds a khakkhara.

The principal sutras that teach of Kṣitigarbha are the three Jizō sutras: the Sutra of the Original Vow of Kṣitigarbha, the Sutra of the Ten Wheels of Kṣitigarbha of the Great Collection, and the Sutra of Divining the Requital of Good and Evil Actions.

Among them, the Sutra of the Original Vow of Kṣitigarbha transmits two stories in which Kṣitigarbha in a past life saves his departed mother through offerings (the brahmin's daughter and the maiden Bright Eyes). In both, a child cultivates offerings for the sake of a departed mother and saves her, and in time makes the great vow to save all beings. These serve as the scriptural basis for memorial offerings in Jizō devotion and for repaying one's debt to one's parents.

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.

The Sutra of the Original Vow and the Sutra of Divining are also sutras over which there is scholarly debate regarding their transmission and formation. In this article, while clearly indicating the sources, we anchor the meaning of the name in the Ten Wheels Sutra, which is the most reliable in doctrinal terms, and cite from it.

In the Womb-Realm Maṇḍala based on the Mahāvairocana Sutra transmitted by Kōbō Daishi Kūkai, Kṣitigarbha occupies a seat in the north as the principal deity of an independent hall, the "Jizō Hall." It is a single hall composed of nine deities with Kṣitigarbha at its head.

That he holds an independent hall within the maṇḍala itself shows the high standing of Kṣitigarbha in esoteric Buddhism. It is a proper hall, on a par with the Mañjuśrī Hall and the Hall of the Removal of Obstacles.

The Sutra of the Original Vow of Kṣitigarbha teaches the "twenty-eight kinds of benefit" obtained by those who make offerings to and praise Kṣitigarbha.

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.

Jizō's monthly feast day is the 24th of each month. The 24th of the first month in particular is called the "First Jizō." Note that the notion that Jizō saves the dead who undergo the judgment of the Ten Kings after death belongs to the framework of the Ten Kings Sutra lineage that circulated in Japan, and is not what the three Jizō sutras teach.

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, the growth of children, the memorial of stillborn and unborn children, and the memorial of ancestors, we carry on the wisdom-fire of the goma and deliver them.

About the Statue

• Kṣitigarbha at Byodoji (introduction)
• The Jizō goma on the 24th of each month (explanation and application)

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