Jizo Bosatsu (Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha)

This painting depicts the central image of worship for Kyoto’s Mibu-dera Temple, home of Mibu Kyōgen, a form of medieval Japanese pantomime. Renowned since ancient times as Mibu Jizō (Skt. Ks・itigarbha), the central image of worship was originally a wooden sculpture carved in the Kamakura period. However, a fire in 1962 claimed the statue and main temple building in which it was enshrined. The painting here was made in the latter half of the Kamakura period and is invaluable as a pictorial representation of the central image, which was destroyed in the fire. Mibu Jizō, who holds a staff in his right hand and a sacred jewel in the left, is expressed in a rare form with an ornate nimbus and sitting in halflotus position with his left leg pendant. Moreover, there are no other examples of Jizō flanked by attendants. Here, Jizō appears with Enma-ten (Skt. Yama-devā) on the right and Kenrō Jishin (Skt. Pr・thivī) on the left. Jizō and Enma-ten are thought to have been consubstantial, while Jishin (also known as Jiten), who later became the base for belief in Jizō, was originally an earth deity in Indian tradition. Both Enma-ten and Jishin appear here as esoteric Buddhist deities.