I liked the story “Jizo” (UY Vol 2, #3 and UY Book 8) a lot! Who is Jizo-sama?
(Silver Bullet Comics Interview, November 2000 FIXME Broken link) I try to include aspects of Japanese history and culture into my stories. As you said, Jizo is the guardian of dead children. To this day you can see images of Jizo along roadsides in Japan. I took a different approach to that story in that the “camera” or point of view remains stationary and all the action takes place in the same set. (UY Vol 2, #3) Jizo Bosatsu is the Buddhist patron saint of travelers, pregnant women and children. The souls of dead children are doomed to pile stones in the “Sai-no-Kawara”, the dry riverbed of Hell, and every night demons would come to knock down the stone piles. The children would run to Jizo who hides them and comforts them in his great sleeves and drives the demons away. Even today, people often leave pebbles at the base of figures of Jizo to ease the burdens of the children.
Related Questions
- What is a tanuki (the creature which also attacked that same village in "The Wrath of the Tangled Skein" (UY Vol 3, #3 and UY Book 10)?
- What was Groo doing in "The Kite Story" (UY Vol 1, #20 and UY Book 5) in Usagi Yojimbo?
- I liked the story "Jizo" (UY Vol 2, #3 and UY Book 8) a lot! Who is Jizo-sama?
