Jizo auspicious picture scroll - Jizo engi emaki

Japanese: 地蔵縁起絵巻 - じぞうえんぎえまき

A picture scroll with the theme of various aspects of salvation by Jizo Bodhisattva. Many excellent works remain from the Kamakura period onwards. As a bodhisattva who liberates all living beings in the six realms, Jizo Bodhisattva attracted widespread faith among the common people, especially in the Middle Ages, and statues of Jizo Bodhisattva were widely made. In addition, legends explaining the origins of Jizo statues in specific temples and the Miracle Records of Jizo Bodhisattva, which are a collection of stories of the miraculous powers of various Jizo statues from China and Japan, were created and made into picture scrolls. A representative example of the former is the two-volume Yata Jizo Engi (Yata Temple, Kyoto) from the Kamakura period. It tells the story of how a Manchu saint met a living Jizo statue in hell, carved its image, and founded Yata Temple, and the miraculous tale of Mushadokoro Yasunari, who accidentally killed his mother, being saved from hell after his death by the Jizo statue of Yata Temple, whom he worshiped.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

地蔵菩薩による救済の諸相を主題とした絵巻。鎌倉時代以降の優れた遺作が多くのこる。六道の衆生を済度する菩薩として，地蔵菩薩は特に中世において民衆の間で広い信仰を集め，その造像も盛んに行われた。そして特定の寺院の地蔵尊の由来を説く縁起や，中国，日本のさまざまな地蔵の霊験談を集めた《地蔵菩薩霊験記》が作られ，絵巻化された。前者の代表例としては鎌倉時代の《矢田地蔵縁起》2巻(京都矢田寺)があげられよう。満米聖人が地獄で生身の地蔵に会い，その姿を彫って矢田寺を開いた由縁と，あやまって母を殺した武者所康成がその死後，日ごろ信仰していた矢田寺の地蔵によって地獄から救い出される霊験譚を内容としている。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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