A few weeks ago, in surfing photoblogs, I came across a photo taken in Tokyo of a bas-relief of a figure called Jizo. The photo was nice, not terribly remarkable but I did something I’ve rarely done with an online photo. I bookmarked it.

Every few days I’d check in on him, his tilted head resting on the palm of his hand, the worn writing in the background in the emblems so lovely and mysterious to me. I learned there are Jizo figures all over Japan. That he is considered the guardian of women and children. That before reaching Japan, he had an earlier incarnation in India--where originally he was she.

This month I had a good visit with a friend who spent much of her autumn in Japan. Yesterday, she emailed me two photos she had taken. Jizos near monasteries where she stayed.

I look at these statues, so different from each other and from the first. These are standing figures, one looks old and primitive, the other elegant and elaborate. And yet, they are so the same.

They look to me like the embodiment of a quiet mind.



http://boxman.awazo.com/archives/2005/12/relaxing_jizo.html