The figure of the Bodhi-sattva Jizö, the savior of children's ghosts,
is one of the most beautiful and humane in Japanese Buddhism. Statues
of this divinity may be seen in almost every village and by every
roadside. But some statues of Jizö are said to do uncanny things--such
as to walk about at night in various disguises. A statue of this kind
is called a _Baké-Jiz[=o]_[56],--meaning a Jiz[=o]; that undergoes
transformation. A conventional picture shows a little boy about to
place the customary child's-offering of rice-cakes before the stone
image of Jiz[=o],--not suspecting that the statue moves, and is slowly
bending down towards him.
[Footnote 56: Perhaps the term might be rendered "Shape-changing
Jiz[=o]." The verb _bakéru_ means to change shape, to undergo
metamorphosis, to haunt, and many other supernatural things.]
Nanigé naki
Ishi no Jiz[=o] no
Sugata saë,
Yo wa osoroshiki
Mikagé to zo naki.
[_Though the stone Jiz[=o] looks as if nothing were the matter
with it, they say that at night it assumes an awful aspect
(or, "Though this image appears to be a common stone Jiz[=o],
they say that at night it becomes an awful Jiz[=o]; of
granite."_[57])]
[Footnote 57: The Japanese word for granite is _mikagé_; and there is
also an honorific term _mikagé_, applied to divinities and emperors,
which signifies "august aspect," "sacred presence," etc.... No literal
rendering can suggest the effect, in the fifth line, of the latter
reading. _Kagé_ signifies "shadow," "aspect," and "power"--especially
occult power; the honorific prefix _mi_, attached to names and
attributes of divinities, may be rendered "august."]