Jyomyo-in: Touchstone for Travelers

Buddhism teaches that there are six cosmological realms, which our souls transmigrate in a cycle of death and rebirth. The Jizo is a beneficent bodhisattva who has kindly stayed behind to guide us on our own winding road to enlightenment.

Jyomyo-in became famous as a site of Jizo worship in 1879, when the temple’s 38th chief priest, Myoun, first vowed to erect a whopping 84,000 of the statues as a token of gratitude to Buddha’s grace and also a symbol of the temple’s mission to save the souls of its worshippers. The plan resonated and construction soon began in earnest, catalyzing a Jizo boom that spread nationwide. Today, nearly 50,000 Jizo statues can be found across Japan, as a testament to Myoun’s legacy.

The temple is also home to a unique Jizo that is particularly relevant to our times. Called a Hechima Jizo – after the hechima, or loofah, held in its hand – the rare figure is said to help cure coughs and asthmatic conditions. Each year on August 15th of the old lunar calendar, the temple holds a ceremony to “seal off” ailments inside the loofah. While it’s a popular event even now, back in the days before inhalers, the line of worshippers reportedly stretched all the way to Uguisudani Station.

Although Kyoto is famous for its Roku Jizo, or “six Jizo,” Tokyo has six notable Jizo of its own, stationed at the six main thoroughfares leading into the city during the Edo period. The six bronze Jizo were respected by the people of Edo as markers of the start of a safe journey and defenders of the city against evil. However, following the Meiji Restoration, the government sought to elevate native Shintoism and erase the influence of imported Buddhism, even dismantling the sixth Jizo, which had stood at Eitaiji temple in Fukagawa. In 1906, a new Jizo constructed elsewhere in Tokyo as a monument to soldiers killed during the Russo-Japanese war took its place, once again filling out the Jizo sextet.

The Jizo even used to make house calls. Tradition has it that numerous Jizo would travel from house to house among the temple’s parishioners. The tradition lives on in the “Ukagai Jizo.” After making a wish, lift the Jizo. If the statue feels lighter than expected, then the wish will be granted. If it’s heavy, the prospects of the wish being granted are bleak.

As priest Yoshikazu Sato explains: “The Jizo is not a figure to be worshipped from a distance, but a much closer and more intimate part of our lives, always ready to lend a steadying hand. This is all the more reason why the statues have an anthropomorphic form. The Jizo is a role model, in the sense that I hope our temple similarly becomes a familiar, close part of our parishioners’ lives.” Sato has embraced technology to bring his temple to a wider audience. In order to share the trove of historic treasures that had previously been collecting dust in the temple’s quarters, he opened the Jyomyo-in to virtual tours on Google Street View. He also installed a vending machine that allows visitors to receive the benefaction of the Jizo in the form of omamori amulets even after the temple’s gates have closed for the night.

Although synonymous with Jizo, the Jyomyo-in's  Main Hall contains an array of icons, from the Amida Buddha to Avalokiteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta. Three of the lucky gods – Bishamonten (Vaisravaṇa), Benzaiten (Saraswati), and Daikokuten (Mahakala) – are enshrined to the right. When embarking on his project to erect the 84,000 Jizo statues, Myoun is said to have prayed to these three gods, who are also believed to bestow material abundance.

Successive generations of priests passed a precious Jizo icon used as a “hidden Buddha,” concealed from public view. Formerly in the collection of Zenjiro Yasuda, founder of the Yasuda empire (currently the Fuyo Group), the extended provenance of the item was a longstanding mystery. However, when the icon was shown to the public in 2018 to commemorate the opening of a new section of the temple, a curator with the Tokyo National Museum immediately recognized the Jizo as a Heian period relic that had disappeared from the radar in Nara nearly a century earlier. A small turn of fate led to a big discovery.

The Jizo’s mission is making these small connections on the journey of life. Sato says it would behoove the traveler to pause and give an appreciatory nod toward any Jizo statue encountered by the roadside. “We believe that the Buddha imparted 84,000 teachings, for all the different paths that can save each person. Hence the 84,000 Jizo at our temple. The number isn’t literal, but a representation of near infinite possibilities. There’s something to gain from every encounter with a Jizo.” In the spirit of Myoun’s vow, the Jyomyo-in will continue to bring Jizo and wandering souls together, step by step, for many years to come.