Chapter XI: Bak'e-Jiz:o

The figure of the Bodhi-sattva Jiz[:o], the savior of children's ghosts, is one of the most beautiful and humane in Japanese Buddhism. Statues of this divinity may be seen in almost every village and by every roadside. But some statues of Jiz[:o] are said to do uncanny things--such as to walk about at night in various disguises. A statue of this kind is called a _Bak['e]-Jiz[=o]_[56],--meaning a Jiz[=o]; that undergoes transformation. A conventional picture shows a little boy about to place the customary child's-offering of rice-cakes before the stone image of Jiz[=o],--not suspecting that the statue moves, and is slowly bending down towards him.

[Footnote 56: Perhaps the term might be rendered "Shape-changing Jiz[=o]." The verb _bak['e]ru_ means to change shape, to undergo metamorphosis, to haunt, and many other supernatural things.]

Nanig['e] naki
Ishi no Jiz[=o] no
Sugata sa[:e],
Yo wa osoroshiki
Mikag['e] to zo naki.

[_Though the stone Jiz[=o] looks as if nothing were the matter
with it, they say that at night it assumes an awful aspect
(or, "Though this image appears to be a common stone Jiz[=o],
they say that at night it becomes an awful Jiz[=o]; of
granite."_[57])]

[Footnote 57: The Japanese word for granite is _mikag['e]_; and there is also an honorific term _mikag['e]_, applied to divinities and emperors, which signifies "august aspect," "sacred presence," etc.... No literal rendering can suggest the effect, in the fifth line, of the latter reading. _Kag['e]_ signifies "shadow," "aspect," and "power"--especially occult power; the honorific prefix _mi_, attached to names and attributes of divinities, may be rendered "august."]