Nikko Day 2 - part 3

After Chuzenji Lake, it was starting to get dark so I rushed to Narabi-jizo, just outside of the National Park.

The area has rows and rows of Jizo 地藏 statues. According to wikipedia:

"Jizō, or Ojizō-sama as he is respectfully known, is one of the most loved of all Japanese divinities. His statues are a common sight, especially by roadsides and in graveyards. Traditionally, he is seen as the guardian of children, particularly children who died before their parents. Since the 1980s, the tendency developed in which he was worshipped as the guardian of the souls of mizuko, the souls of stillborn, miscarried or aborted fetuses. In Japanese mythology, it is said that the souls of children who die before their parents are unable to cross the mythical Sanzu River on their way to the afterlife because they have not had the chance to accumulate enough good deeds and because they have made the parents suffer. It is believed that Jizō saves these souls from having to pile stones eternally on the bank of the river as penance, by hiding them from demons in his robe, and letting them hear mantras.

Jizō statues are sometimes accompanied by a little pile of stones and pebbles, put there by people in the hope that it would shorten the time children have to suffer in the underworld (the act is derived from the tradition of building stupas as an act of merit-making). The statues can sometimes be seen wearing tiny children's clothing or bibs, or with toys, put there by grieving parents to help their lost ones and hoping that Jizō would specially protect them. Sometimes the offerings are put there by parents to thank Jizō for saving their children from a serious illness. Jizō's features are also commonly made more babylike in order to resemble the children he protects."

Sorry about the wall-of-text, I just thought I'd put it in context!


Behind the rows of Jizos (up the stairs behind the jizo in the foreground) is Bake-jizo, the so-called scariest place in Nikko, which is in fact a Monk graveyard. It was pretty spooky, but not enough to stop me from using some of the graves as tripods, lol. Nighttime in that graveyard would be a different story though...


To finish the day, I returned to the onsen for a soak and had an awesome vegetarian dinner prepared for me by a monk that lived/worked at the hostel I was staying in. It was definitely a great day! Tomorrow, Yamagata!