Jizo Bosatsu

The veneration of the Bodhisattva Jizo (Kshitigarbha in Sanskrit) became popular in Japan from the Kamakura period (1185-1333) onward. Jizo appears as a monk traveling the Six Realms of Existence and carrying the wish-granting jewel and the golden shakujo, a staff with jangling rings. Among Jizo’s roles as the compassionate Bodhisattva is the salvation of suffering believers from the various Buddhist hells, and their guidance to paradise. He also protects children and travelers. Small images of Jizo were increasingly produced during the Kamakura period for private worship. The Kei school artists, particularly Kaikei (active 1185-1223), developed the small-scale sculptural style of Jizo, in which realistic and decorative aspects are integrated. Our Jizo sculpture, embellished in gold, reveals a continuation of the Kei style in the Muromachi period, when changes in sculptural styles came very slowly. (From “A Handbook of the Collection: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art,” 1998)