Before we catched the afternoon train to Ginza, we decided to take a walk along the river at the back of our hotel. After walking some time, we came across a row of stone Buddha sculptures. It was surreal..
Those Jizous (sculpture) are put in a line. Each of these Jizou was carved by follower of Bishop Tenkai, but there were about 100 Jizous at that time. However, some of those were washed away by flooding in 1902.
The group of Jizo is called "Bake-jizou," "Narabi-jizou (Jizous in a line)," or "Hyaku-jizou (100-Jizou)." The name of the Bake-jizou derives from two stories. Number of Jizous did not match to the certain number even though these were counted many times. It was like a ghost. The ghost is "Bake" in Japanese. Another story is that Bakku-yoraku of Buddhist term was shortened to "Bake."
Ginza is a place in Chuo ward, Tokyo named after the silver coin foundry or Ginza established here in 1612 (Edo period). It is an up-market area of Tokyo with many department stores, boutiques and restaurants. Also the location of the Kabuki-za (Kabuki theatre).
No comments:
Post a Comment