Dressed statues of Jizō Bosatsu divinity, Okunoin Cemetery, Mount Kōya (Koyasan), Wakayama Prefecture, Honshu island.

Dressed statues of Jizō Bosatsu divinity. Okunoin (Oku-no-in, meaning 'inner sanctuary') is a sacred Buddhist site, cemetery, and major pilgrimage destination on Mount Kōya (Koyasan), in Wakayama Prefecture, Honshu island, Japan. In Japan, Buddhist statues of Jizo (O-jizo-sama) are commonly seen along roadsides, graveyards, and trails, sometimes wearing tiny children's clothing, or a red or white cap and bib or scarf, or with toys, placed by parents to help their lost progeny in the afterlife or to thank Jozo for their child being cured from sickness. The tradition of dressing certain Buddhist and Shintō deities in red bibs first appeared in the Heian period 794 to 1185 AD. Jizō Bosatsu is one of the most loved of Japanese divinities — a patron saint of expectant mothers, women in labor, children, firemen, travelers, and pilgrims. In modern Japan, Jizo is worshipped as the guardian of the souls of mizuko, the souls of stillborn, miscarried or aborted fetuses ("water children"). Jizo is a Japanese version of Ksitigarbha (Sanskrit for "Earth Treasury", "Earth Store", "Earth Matrix" or "Earth Womb"), a bodhisattva revered in East Asian Buddhism — usually depicted as a Buddhist monk with a halo around his shaved head. A Bodhisattva (Bosatsu in Japanese) is one who achieves enlightenment but postpones Buddhahood until all can be saved, a hallmark of Mahayana Buddhism. Opened in 835, Okunoin contains the mausoleum of Kobo Daishi (aka Kukai), the founder of Shingon Buddhism and one of the most revered persons in Japan's religious history. Okunoin is the largest cemetery in Japan, with two hundred thousand graves and memorial monuments lining the two-kilometer approach to Kobo Daishi's mausoleum.

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Contained in galleries: Kii Peninsula: Koyasan / Mt. Koya, 2024 Oct: JAPAN all

Dressed statues of Jizō Bosatsu divinity. Okunoin (Oku-no-in, meaning 'inner sanctuary') is a sacred Buddhist site, cemetery, and major pilgrimage destination on Mount Kōya (Koyasan), in Wakayama Prefecture, Honshu island, Japan. In Japan, Buddhist statues of Jizo (O-jizo-sama) are commonly seen along roadsides, graveyards, and trails, sometimes wearing tiny children's clothing, or a red or white cap and bib or scarf, or with toys, placed by parents to help their lost progeny in the afterlife or to thank Jozo for their child being cured from sickness. The tradition of dressing certain Buddhist and Shintō deities in red bibs first appeared in the Heian period 794 to 1185 AD. Jizō Bosatsu is one of the most loved of Japanese divinities — a patron saint of expectant mothers, women in labor, children, firemen, travelers, and pilgrims. In modern Japan, Jizo is worshipped as the guardian of the souls of mizuko, the souls of stillborn, miscarried or aborted fetuses ("water children"). Jizo is a Japanese version of Ksitigarbha (Sanskrit for "Earth Treasury", "Earth Store", "Earth Matrix" or "Earth Womb"), a bodhisattva revered in East Asian Buddhism — usually depicted as a Buddhist monk with a halo around his shaved head. A Bodhisattva (Bosatsu in Japanese) is one who achieves enlightenment but postpones Buddhahood until all can be saved, a hallmark of Mahayana Buddhism. Opened in 835, Okunoin contains the mausoleum of Kobo Daishi (aka Kukai), the founder of Shingon Buddhism and one of the most revered persons in Japan's religious history. Okunoin is the largest cemetery in Japan, with two hundred thousand graves and memorial monuments lining the two-kilometer approach to Kobo Daishi's mausoleum.