xxxiv. The Sai Riverbed (賽の河原) of Ichijo-ji (一乗寺) Part 1

Location: Kasai City (near Hokkeguchi Stn., Hojo Line), Hyogo Prefecture; about 1 hour 40 min. from Osaka, or 1 hour 15 min. from Kobe + 1 hour 15 min. walking time; or 35 min. by bus from Himeji + no walking time

Associated with: Sai-no-Kawara (賽の河原), the Buddhist purgatory for departed children

What is this that you do here?

Lo! Your parents still living in the Shaba-world.

Take no thought of pious offering or holy work,

They do nought but mourn for you from the morning unto the evening.

All would agree a child is innocent and free of malice, yet religions put themselves in delicate positions regarding their fate by floating ideas such as original sin and karma. Similar to the Christian problem of original sin when an infant passes without receiving baptism, the Buddhist question is to what realm babes go when they leave this world?

Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

If you’re a Jodo Buddhist you may be inclined to believe that these youngsters end up in something akin to limbo. Unlike the Christian version of limbo, which is said to be a state of the highest “natural happiness” without the presence of God, this Buddhist purgatory is located on the edge of hell and perfectly awful.

Realms of Existence

In Buddhism there are six realms of existence (Samsara), the cycle of repeated birth. We in the human realm make up one. Hello. The others are the realm of the gods, the realm of the demigods, the animals, the realm of the hungry ghosts, and finally the last and worst realm: the beings in hell. All who dwell in each realm are subject to suffering (some more and some less than others), death and rebirth. While the realms of the gods and the demigods seem to be the realms to aim for, their trouble-free existence is thought to promote an attachment to pleasure, making it difficult for their dwellers to embark on spiritual pursuits and therefore attain Nirvana (removing oneself from the cycle of repeated births). The human realm is thought to be the Goldilocks zone for spiritual pursuit, and so it’s a fortunate happenstance that one should find themselves born in this realm. Things go from bad to worse starting with the animals and ending with the beings in hell.

Perception and lived experience vary across the realms, though generally speaking all beings dwell on Earth. Humans can perceive the existence of animals and in their way they can perceive us. Hungry ghosts dwell among us too, but we rarely see or interact with them and barely detect their presence. They can perceive us but unfortunately for them they are obsessed by a terrible preoccupation, and so don’t seem to enjoy much in the way of their freedom to roam around. Quite the contrary, they are plagued by a morbid hunger and a perverse difficulty to satiate it. They are described as having big bellies but tiny mouths and constricted throats that prevent the easy passage of whatever it is they crave, which is often something disgusting. They are additionally confounded by the tendency to roam in areas of relative scarcity, and the things they desire when obtained will often disappear before they can be consumed or explode into flames. They are always hungry. Their existence is definitely hellish, but again, the important distinction is that they are not confined and can wander about.

The beings in hell are stuck there for the duration of that life, which is punishingly long. Hell exists below the earth in underground caverns, with torment taking place in chambers of extreme cold or extreme heat. Presumably a human being cannot withstand the extremes and probably wouldn’t visit if they knew the nature of their destination. For this reason, as humans, we are unlikely to come into direct contact with a being residing in Hell. Again, it’s worth noting that though beings in hell are confined during their time there, their damnation is not eternal.

Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

Moving back up the hierarchy, demigods live at the base of a mountain located in the center of the Earth. This mountain exists outside our perception of physical reality, so we don’t need to wonder how an actual mountain might exist deep within the planet. Some of the beings in the godly realm live at the top this mountain. Others dwell in the sky above our heads. The loftiest of the gods no longer bother to interact with this universe.

Destination Anywhere

If you’re a wicked person you go to hell; if you’re good you go to paradise. If it’s a bit iffy, and it’s often a bit iffy, you end up on trial. The judgement in such cases is split into several weekly trials presided by the kings of hell and takes place in the underworld. The soul is not confined there and wanders around on a bit of a nostalgia tour of the places it used to live, but on the 49th day it’s sentenced and on the 50th day it enters or is forced to enter the world of rebirth. 

Evidence used at your trials is collected by a pair of deities known as Kushojin. There is one to record our good deeds, and another to record our bad. It is said that Kushojin stand on our shoulders from the time of birth till the time we die. Unlike the comical angel and devil versions of our own selves as seen in Donald Duck cartoons, they don’t encourage certain behavior or get into fights among themselves.

This evidence is then presented to the judges in Hell, sometimes to the first judge, King Shinko, but more commonly to the fifth judge, the unpitying King Enma. You’ve perhaps heard his name before... his significance lies in deciding which realm you’ll be sent to based on the judgements of the first four kings. Lafcadio Hearn provides a striking description of him in Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (1894).

[A] terrible figure, all vermilion red... a goblin shape with immense cavernous eyes. His mouth is widely opened as if speaking in wrath, and his brows frown terribly. A long red beard descends upon his red breast. And on his head is a strangely shaped crown, a crown of black and gold, having three singular lobes: the left lobe bearing an image of the moon; the right, an image of the sun; the central lobe is all black. But below it, upon the deep gold-rimmed black band, flames the mystic character signifying KING.

There are others after Enma, deciding your placement within your new realm, how long you’ll live for, whether you can roll your Rs or breakdance really well, etc. You get the idea.

So sadly for you your life is laid bare. If you have not earned a human reincarnation, demons stand by to force your soul into the body of some beast of the earth or worse. It's terrifying to contemplate, but on your side you have a great defender: the Bodhisatva Jizo. Jizo appears before the judges to make excuses on your behalf. He stands between you and the kings of hell. 

Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

Great Guardian Jizo

In a past existence in the time of other Buddhas, Jizo had been a pious maiden greatly concerned for the rebirth of her deceased mother. The mother's sins, Jizo feared, had condemned her to rebirth in hell. For her fervent prayers and offerings Jizo was offered a glimpse of Hell itself, where she was relieved to find that her mother had already ascended thanks to the great merit her actions had generated. However, the suffering that she witnessed affected her deeply, and she vowed to do whatever she could to relieve the hardship of such beings not just in this life, but in her future lives, and not only for the duration of the existence of the universe, but also in the subsequent recreations of the universe in the billions of years to come. During one of Jizo’s lives, we don’t know which, he attained enlightenment, but motivated by this deep compassion remains as a presence in the six realms on earth. Thusly he is defined as a Bodhisattva, or Buddhist saint. As well as aiding all sentient beings in their salvation from suffering, in Japan he is also the guardian of children, expectant mothers, travelers, pilgrims and firefighters.

And this is part of the reason why you see so many Jizo statues in Japan. They’re keeping an eye on you and keeping the demons at bay. Jizo statues can be found on roadsides, busy intersections, mountain paths, at bridge crossings, wherever people go. He can also be found on the boundaries of towns and villages to protect their inhabitants from unwanted elements that may adversely affect their health, fertility, etc. In other words, Jizo could be said to be keeping not only the bad out but the good good. Jizo also stands guard at places like graveyards to protect them from the lurkings that one might expect there. 

Jizo in this sense is a Sae no Kami (塞の神), a god that keeps out evil spirits. The Shinto or folk version of these statues are stone markers called Dosojin. One common type depicts a man and woman, an old married couple known by the names Jo and Uba. They are worshiped as the deities of marriage and fertility, a symbol of happiness and family life.

Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

Ichijo-ji Temple

With all that swirling in our heads, we’re now ready to embark on our site, Ichijo-ji Temple. There is not a lot of information online in English, despite it being very old (650) and serving as temple 26 of the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage (a pilgrimage of 33 temples throughout the Kansai region). Ichijo-ji was founded by Hodo Sennin, an Indian mystic who among other legendary abilities was said to be able to fly. For its remote location, Ichijo-ji is a rather expansive complex with impressive structures that speak of more flourishing times. Besides the construction workers undertaking a restoration project on the temple's training hall, I had the place myself.

In some ways, Ichijo-ji gives visitors the typical “temple” experience. Pay your respects, see the pagoda, take a few photos and be on your way. However, off the main path the atmosphere is more melancholy.

 Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

One of the first things you may come to notice at this temple is the practice of ishi-age (石上げ). This is the custom of placing a stone or pebble atop an object on the grounds of a pilgrimage site, typically onto a lantern or torii gate. It’s a small act of devotion also thought to bring good luck (it’s tricky getting a stone to land cleanly on top of a high torii). While the temple has some genuine examples of ishiage described above, the further you make your way into the grounds you start to encounter monuments where it looks as if people have overdone it. A side path taking you away from the main buildings has you confronting a line of small statues with stones piled high on their roofs. These continue along the path before veering away and up the mountain. It is an odd feeling to see so many coarse stones piled up on beautifully carved statues, and one does not get the feeling that this practice has anything to do with good luck.

Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

Meanwhile in Hell...

A bewildered soul freshly minted by death first finds itself on a stony riverbed, the Sai-no-Kawara (賽の河原). Nearby flows the River Sanzu (三途の川), and a bridge with which to cross it to advance on the journey through the underworld. Presiding over the first trial is King Shinko. His judgement won’t be handed down until the seventh day after death. Only then will the soul be allowed to cross.

In a rather harrowing religious prescription, babies and infants who have died also wake to find themselves on the shore. With no time to have accumulated karma, they end up in a hellish purgatory for the grief they have brought to their parents (cruelly a fate no grieving parent would ever wish for their departed child). 

The other souls are judged by King Shinko and eventually make their way across the river. The innocent can walk across the bridge; the guilty are made to swim. These souls have more trials ahead. The babes however, are unable to cross the river. They are stuck in purgatory.

In their predicament the young ones are further tormented by guardians of the underworld, a kind of demented Jo and Uba but who go by different names. Datsueba, the hag of hell, strips the children of their clothes, which her partner Kaneo hangs on a tree branch to weigh their meager sins. Datsueba instructs the infants to gather up the pebbles of the riverbed to build stone towers for their salvation, little “stairways to heaven.” The babes toil away at this harrowing busy-work, all the while crying for their mothers and fathers. Even after progress is made, Datsueba and Kaneo or some other denizen of hell comes and knocks the towers down, reminding the children that their parents are out of reach and berating them for the grief they are causing. With that the little ones start again. It’s an upsetting scene to contemplate.

Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

But then a voice...

Be not afraid, dears. Be never fearful.

Poor little souls, your lives were brief indeed.

Too soon you were forced to make the weary journey to the Meido.

The long journey to the land of the dead.

Trust to me! I am your father and mother in the Meido.

Father of all children in the land of the dead.

“The Legend of the Humming of the Sai-no-Kawara,” Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Lafcadio Hearn

It is Jizo who finds the suffering of the children intolerable and in his great compassion ferries them through the underworld. The smallest he takes up and envelops in his robes to carry across. For the others he finds the easiest crossing of the river and holds his staff out for the young ones to steady themselves as they cross. If not for him, their toiling would be endless.

And like the children who have toiled on the riverbanks of purgatory, the statues at Ichijo-ji leading up the mountain have stones piled upon them. These cairns are built by the living in the hopes that the babes need pile up less. The statues are clothed so that Jizo in turn may clothe them in their nakedness. It is a sorrowful sight but there is still more to witness.

Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

Up the mountain is the Kaisando or Founder’s Temple, the inner sanctum. It is said to have been the hermitage of Hodo Sennin, a place where he could remove himself from the more occupied areas of the temple grounds. It’s a lovely building in its seclusion, but even here, more stones. A side gate takes the visitor further in and up the mountain along a flowing stream to something quite unexpected.

Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

All the way at the back of Ichijo-ji flows the Sai-no-Kawara. It is a physical reflection in the human world of the underworld crossing. And on one side, hundreds of cairns, small stone piles, overseen by statues of Jizo.

Religion for the Dead

A Westerner’s idea of Buddhism has been a pop cultural mix of pagodas, big statues, zen meditation, rock gardens, the Dalai Lama and a host of middleaged Hollywood celebrities. Besides the last two, Japanese temples usually have no problem delivering what’s expected. However, post-war separation of church and state and the necessity of many Buddhist priests to go out and find other work, along with gentrification and urbanization and a decrease in temple patronage, has cornered many temples into one specific source of income: funereal and memorial services.

While Ichijo-ji houses several recognized important cultural properties and one national treasure (the pagoda), meaning that it’s eligible for government funding, the aspect of it that encompasses “funerary Buddhism” is a particularly sorrowful one. Parents of recently deceased children visit Ichijo-ji to to worship Jizo and to build tiny cairns in prayer that it will alleviate the burden of their child in the underworld. 

Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

End of Part 1

Driver Gragma (yokaitourbus "at" mail "dot" com)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yokaitourbus/

The Master List (Hyogo)
http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.jp/2015/08/6-b-master-list-hyogo.html

(death) The Riverbed Sai (賽の河原)
Site: Ichijo-ji Temple (一乗寺); in full "Hokkesan Ichijo-ji Temple" (法華山一乗寺)
Nearest Station: (Hojo Line) Hokkeguchi Stn. (法華口駅) <-- though not particularly "near"
Google Map Search: "Ichijo-ji Kasai"