Image of Jizo Bosatsu (Kshitigarbha): Kencho-ji

This seated statue of Jizo Bosatsu (Jizo Bodhisattva), which is the Honzon (principal deity) of Kencho-ji Temple, is housed in the exquisitely constructed wooden Buddhist hall. It is very rare in the Zen temples of Japan for a Jizo Bosatsu image to be the principal object of worship. 

This Buddhist guadian-deity (371.5 cm high) is made by "Mokushin kanshitsu-zukuri" method (dried lacquer over wood-core) and is thought to have been made in the Muromachi period (1336-1573). With this shaping technique, the general shape of a statue is carved out of wood and finished off with a layer of wood shavings and Japanese lacquer on top of it.

Although the common principal image of Zen temples of Japan is usually Shakyamuni Buddha or Vairocana Buddha, but Kencho-ji Temple have had Jizo Bosatsu as its principal image, because this temple was built in the place of the old Jizodo hall which had stood  to console the dead souls in the execution site called Jigoku-dani (hell valley). Jizo Bosatsu performs his sacred mission of relieving dead children, slain travellers and decreased persons from the underworld.

In Japan, the Buddhist images made with the use of Kansitu-zukuri (dry-lacquer techinique) were very popular during the Nara period (710-794), because the plasticity of the materials was matched the realistic style of the statues. But this technique was gradually declined as it was time-consuming and its materials (especially japanese lacquer) was scarce.

Mokushin-kanshitu statues had been produced since the early Heian period. In the Kamakura (1185-1333) and Muromachi (1336-1573) periods, with the rise of the trade between Japan and the Sung dynasty, many Chinese Zen monks including Rankei Doryu (the founder of Kencho-ji) were invited to Japan from the Sung dynasty, and Zen temples were built in Kamakura and Kyoto under the teaching of these monks. The Buddhist images in the style of Mokusin-kanshitu are said to be influenced by the modeling technique of the Sung dynasty.

This seated statue of Jizo Bosatsu is said to have been created in the Muromachi period, and is characterized by the vestment style called "Hoe Suika" in which the sleeves and hem of the robe are hung down. This Sung-Dynasty style vestment of Buddha images was popular in the Kamakura region from the Nanbokucho (Northern and Southern Dynasties) to the early Muromachi period (1336-1573).

 

Image of Bodhidharma: Kencho-ji

Bathed in the bright afternoon sunlight, the black granite statue of Bodhidharma (Daruma) sinking in deep meditation is placed beside the winter bamboo grove.

This image of Bodhidharma seems to represent his ascetic Zen practice to seek true enlightenment by continuing to sit in meditation alone while gazing the rock wall in a dark and narrow cave.

Bodhidharma, the founder of Chinese Zen Buddhism, is said to have been a Brahman from India. He traveled to China in the early 6th century and taught Zen in various places.

It is said that he spent nine years for performing his intense Zen meditation for entering nirvana, at Suzan Shorin-ji Temple in the outskirts of Luoyang.

In the Shaolin Temple, there is a small cave called "Daruma-Cave" behind the Hatsuzo-an hermitage on the hillside of Gonyu Peak. This cave is said to be the place where Bodhidharma kept performing the rigorous practice of Menpeki (facing the rock wall for meditation).

Image of Bodhidharma: Kencho-ji

A granite image of Bodhidharma in meditation is sitting firmly in the isolated grove of midsummer.

Numerous cicadas are devotedly singing their songs of courtship as if to have noticed the approaching end of summer and their lives.