DOJI JIZO DO (Housing for Forgotten Orphans Graves)

This is in a small housing named "DOJI JIZO DO" next to Tottori Folk Craft Museum in the downtown Tottori. "DOJI" is "child" in Japanese. "JIZO" is a Japanese word for "Ksitigarbha" in Sanskrit. "DO" is a Japanese word for housing, cabin or temple. There is a short introduction in front of it.

"Origin of DOJI JIZO DO.
The Ksitigarbha statues in this housing are graves of orphans, lovable children. Different from other stone Ksitigarbha statues, they are vivid, primitive, beautiful and cute. In this sense, people thought it is pity if they were lost by weathering, and they decided to invite and shade the statues here from eleven graves of different temples in Tottori city."

When an orphan passed away, people used to make Ksitigarbha-shaped special gravestones since orphans did not have their family grave which would be inherited by family. However, people sometimes had forgotten after a while and the statue graves were left. Then those forgotten statues were gathered in this DOJI JIZO DO. This housing which is shaped in octagonal prism is a crystallization of many sad forgotten places. We can imagine how the people felt so sorry about the Ksitigarbha statues and came to take good care of them here for a long time.

<Below is a description in Japanese.>

鳥取の街中、鳥取民藝美術館・たくみ工芸店にある小さなお堂の中です。お堂の前にはこんな説明があります。

「童子地蔵堂の由来
このお堂の中のお地蔵さんはおまつりする人のなくなった無縁の童子・童女のお墓なのです。 可愛い子供達のお墓なのです。 他の石地蔵とは違ってこの新鮮で、原始的で美しく可愛らしいお地蔵さんが風雨や放棄から消えるのを惜しんで、鳥取市の十一のお寺の墓地から、お連れ申して、このお堂にお守りすることになったのです。」

孤児が死んでしまった時、このようなお地蔵様の形の墓石が作られました。ですが長年の後その墓が人々に忘れられて放置されることが有ったのでしょう。そしてそのような忘れられた場所からお地蔵様がここへ集められました。この八角柱の形をしたお堂は忘れられたたくさんの悲しい場所の結晶体なのです。その残されたお地蔵様を後の人々がその後も大切におまつりしている、その心情が想いはかられます。

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Asia / Japan

Lat: 35° 29' 46.31" N
Long: 134° 13' 37.74" E

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Ricoh GX200 / Raynox DCR-CF185PRO / Handmade panorama mount