A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

182 Japanese Miscellany
countless Buddhist cemeteries. Often at cross-
roads, and still more often in graveyards, you will
find, instead of a single statue of Jizo, six images
in a row, — each figure bearing a different mys-
tical emblem. These Six Jizo, or Rohu-Ji^d,
symbolize the teaching that Jizo Bosatsu, self-
multiplied, at once exercises his saving pity in all
the Six Spheres of Sentient Existence, — that is
to say throughout the entire Universe of Forms.
But, according to the higher Buddhism, " there is
no being besides Buddha, and no Buddha besides
being." All the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas
are veritably but One ; — all substance, all life,
all mind is but One. And Jizo of the Six States
of Existence is not only a multiple manifestation
of the Absolute : he also is the Absolute. . . .
To find these conceptions embodied in a child's
play-song is somewhat startling; but there are
many things quite as startling to be met with in
the old popular literature of Buddhism : —
{Province of Mutsu.)
Hashi no shita ni Roku-Jizo
Nezumi ni atama wo kajirarete,
— Nezumi koso Jizo da
— Nezumi Jizo dara,
!