Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 254, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1912 — PECULIAR BELIEF IN JAPAN [ARTICLE]

PECULIAR BELIEF IN JAPAN

Seems Strange to Our Western Ideas, Though Titers {p Much That Is Pathetic About It ~ Si Among the Buddhists in Japan it fs believed that the souls of children go after death to Sui-no-ka-wara (the stony river-bed) and there they remain until they reach maturity under the care of Jizobosatsu, who is represented as a priest with a long cane in one hand and a ball in the other. He is said to stand in the center of the kawara, where he preaches to the children as they pile np stones, one tot the mother/ the third for brothers, the fourth for sisters an<L the fifth for their own salvation. When night comes on «nd the wind blows hard a gigantic evil spirit appears and with a huge Iron rod knocks down the heaps of stones which the children have made, and thCy are so frightened that they run to Jizo and hide themselves in the big sleeves of his kimono, which have a miraculous way of increasing in size according to the number of children who seek refuge. Then the evil spirit disappears and the children begin again the work of heaping up stones. Passing through cemeteries in Japan one sees tombs that have the image of Jizo carved upon them, as the parents take that way of gaining the special favor of Jizo for their children, and one will see little piles of stones built up by the parents and brothers and sisters of the children with the hope of helping in the tedious work of the little ones in the kawara. —Christian Advocate.