Bodhisattva Jizo

Buddhist monk Saemon of Kyoto in the 4th year of the Jokyo era (1687), Japan

Wood carving (Japanese Hinoki cypress) decorated with natural lacquer and gold fundame.

H: 41 cm

Signed Saemon

O 204

This statue of a bodhisattva atop a flowering lotus base has been carved from wood and decorated with natural lacquer and gold fundame. Two ink inscriptions in sosho calligraphy divulge the name of the professional woodcarver and the date he made the statue: Buddhist monk Saemon of Kyoto in the 4th year of the Jokyo era (1687).

Jizo (Jizo Bosatsu) (Sanskrit: Kṣitigarbha) is a bodhisattva revered as a liberator from the torments of hell and as the guardian of deceased children, the unborn, and figuratively of pregnant women and the itinerant. His attributes are a khakkhara staff (shakujo) in his right hand, its six circles symbolizing the six worlds of Buddhism, and a large tear-shaped chintamani or “a wish-fulfilling jewel” in in his left hand.

(JMl)