The Rockefeller Collection in Focus: Jizo Bosatsu Asia Society
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Jizo and the Six Realms Buddhism in Japan from the Sixth to the Thirteenth Century Recognizing Jizo
Zen'en (1197-1258)
Zen’en (1197–1258)
Jizo Bosatsu
Japan; Kamakura period (1185-1333), 1221–1226
Japanese cypress (hinoki) with cut gold leaf (kirikane) and pigment, inlaid crystal eyes (gyokugan); staff with metal attachments
H. 16 1/4 in. (41.3 cm), excluding base
Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection of Asian Art
1979.202a-e
Jizo Bosatsu is the Japanese form of the Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha, an earth deity of ancient Indian origin absorbed into the Buddhist pantheon. Although other bodhisattvas are typically represented in princely garb, wearing jewelry, crowns, and flowing sashes, Jizo appears in the guise of a priest, with shaven head and priest’s outer vestment (kesa). The kesa, derived from the Indian kashaya, is a rectangular garment originally pieced together from rags, denoting the life of poverty and humility assumed by Buddhist monks. Even after the kesa came to be fashioned from luxurious silks and brocades for the wealthy clerical orders of East Asia, the patchwork design was retained in the pattern of the garment. The kesa worn by this Jizo sculpture includes “borders” with a design of scrolling vines separating identical “pieces,” rectangular areas decorated with a fret pattern.

Jizo typically holds two attributes: a round jewel in the left hand and a priest’s staff in the right. Images of Jizo with these attributes proliferated in the late Heian period (794–1185), and this form remained the standard for Japanese representations of the bodhisattva for several centuries. The wish-granting jewel (nyoi-hoju) is symbolic of Jizo’s power to answer the prayers of the faithful. The priest’s staff (shakujo), with its pagoda-like finial and dangling rings, is emblematic of Jizo’s commitment to traverse the six realms of existence (rokudo) to aid believers and rescue those fallen into hell. Such staffs were originally used by priests on pilgrimage; the noise made by the rings when shaken was believed to ward off snakes and other predators. The jewel and staff held by this Jizo image are thought to be original to the sculpture.