What in the Hell? It's a Jizo.

They seem to be whereever you go in Japan - especially around the countryside. Although their Japanese name "Ji-zo" (written with the two kanji "地" [ji,for "earth"] and "蔵" [zo, for "safe, storage place"]) seems to allude to that which is terrestrial, these petite, seemingly harmless statues actually serve as guardians of souls in hell. To quote one web site (referred to me by my erudite Buddhist buddy, Bill Dunbar) on Shinto and Buddhism in Japan, the jizo represent "saviors from the torments of hell."

The site also says that the jizo is one of the most beloved of all Japanese divinities - ah! So maybe that explains why these little stone critters seem to crop up all over the place: in random street allies, near bus stops, on the side of rice paddies, and in public parks - not to mention all those jizo in the temples and shrines. Maybe that explains why they're often clad in homemade bibs, crocheted shawls, and little red hats.

The Jizo apparently ease suffering and shorten sentences of those serving time in hell. Given their names and their prevalence in public, earthly milieu, one is led to wonder if these guys are also called on to alleviate suffering from hell on earth - the this-wordly, hellish lifestyles of Japanese salary men; the housebound, bento-making tedia of housewifery, or suffering in the notorious "exam hells" of lost, Japanese childhoods.

Don't get me wrong - I actually think life in Japan is pretty blissful. (It just suddenly overcame me - how easy it is to parrot off all those terrible, threadbare stereotypes.) In fact, my interest in Jizo comes from a practice in Japan that might surprise some people, and has yet to make its way into the hall of fame of Japanese cliches. Worshipping unborn fetuses.

Yes, you heard me right: My interest in Jizo has to do with their relevance to aborted, miscarried, and stillborn babies. They are called Mizuko Jizo, or "Water Baby Jizo," little cute statues, dressed in homemade costumes, worshipped for their ability to serve as guardians to lives which have ended early. They are an appeal to unborn beings who float in a "watery world awaiting birth." Apparently, the practice of bereaved parents who buy jizo statues for their prematurely dead children is not a tradition adapted from mainland Buddhism in Asia. Instead it constitutes a "native" practice adapted to assuage contemporary issues in modern Japanese life.