Roku Jizo- Japanese GroupCollective"The Six Earth Treasuries"

The Vow

The Jizō Bosatsu Hongan Kyō records the vow: Jizō would not achieve final buddhahood until every being in every realm had been liberated from suffering. Six realms exist in the Buddhist cycle of rebirth, from the hells below to the heavens above. To reach all six at once, Jizō took six forms. Each went to a different realm. The Roku Jizō.

At the Gate

The six appear most often in stone. At cemetery entrances across Japan, six Jizō statues stand in a row, each about knee-height, each carved with the same mild face. Worshippers dress them in red bibs and knitted caps. The red is for children, for the dead who died young. People set flowers at their feet and light incense before them.

During Obon, when the spirits of ancestors return, tending the local Roku Jizō is part of the welcome. The six figures stand at the boundary between the village and the graves. Wherever the dead go next, whatever realm of rebirth awaits, a Jizō is already there.