Architecture & Gardens - Kyoto - page 385

flowing robes or with 1000 arms (the better to help all sentient beings). Jizō is often depicted as a monk with a
staff in one hand and a jewel in the other. Other jizō are barely distinguishable from stones with faintly carved
faces or bodies. You might see these wearing red bibs, which reflects jizō's role as protector of children.
» Myōō (Kings of Light) : These fierce looking deities entered the Buddhist pantheon from Hinduism. You
might see them arranged beside nyorai and bosatsu in Buddhist temples. The most common figure is Fudō
Myōō, the Immovable God of Light. These figures act as protector figures and their wrathful forms are thought
to snap people out of wrongful thinking.
» Tenbu : Usually directly translated as 'ten' or 'tenbu', these are a group of guardian figures inherited from In-
dian and Chinese cosmologies. A common example is the four heavenly kings, who guard the Buddha by sur-
rounding him in the four directions.
Gongen Style
The gongen style employs a H-shaped plan, connecting two halls with an intersecting
gabled roof and hallway called an ishi no ma . This element symbolises the connection
between the divine and the ordinary worlds. The best example of this architectural style in
Kyoto is at Kitano Tenman-gū ( CLICK HERE ).
Architectural Components
At the entrance to the shrine is the torii (gateway) marking the boundary of the sacred pre-
cinct. The most dominant torii in Kyoto is in front of Heian-jingū ( CLICK HERE ), a massive
concrete structure a considerable distance south of the shrine. Fushimi-Inari-Taisha ( CLICK
HERE ) in southern Kyoto has thousands of bright vermilion gates lining paths up the
mountain to the shrine itself.
Neighbourhood Shrines
Every neighbourhood in every Japanese town or city has its own tiny shrine to Jizō.
Pieces of clothing or red bibs draped around Jizō figures are an attempt to cover the souls
of dead children. An annual August children's festival (Jizō-bon) features two days of
praying and playing around the Jizō shrine by the local children dressed in yukata (a light
kimono for summer or for bathing in a ryokan).
The shrines are located by fū-sui (known in Chinese as feng shui), a specifically Asian
form of geomancy. It is impossible (or bad luck) to move them, so they are found almost
everywhere, often notched into concrete walls or telephone poles.