Sado's Sai-no-kawara

In "Sado: Japan's Island in Exile", author Angus Waycott visits the island's eerie Sai-no-Kawara shrine on the island's lonely northwest coast. According to Buddhist teaching, on the sixth day after death (that is, the seventh 'day' of the afterlife) the souls of the dead arrive at the banks of the river Sanzu (三途), which all must cross on their 49-day, 800-里 journey to the underworld, or Meido (冥途). Now, before crossing, the souls of children who die before their parents must first perform a curious act of contrition. As Jizo-sama plays a key role in this stage of the child's passage, grieving parents have placed 1000s of figures of the bodhisattva at the 'shrine of limbo', for he consoles and protects the spirit children as they collect and pile the stones found beside the river- for such is the form of their penance. Alas, no sooner is a little mound of stones erected than it is toppled by one of the grinning demons hovering nearby, whereupon the little child rushes crying to Jizo-sama and the comfort of his encircling robes. Observes Waycott: "... much as I profess respect for the religions of others, I couldn't feel right about Sai-no-kawara... The duty of children to 'repay' their parents for the gift of life... smacks more of earthbound thinking and Confucian sociology than divine authority... [the faint smile on Jizo's face] looked to me like the smirk of a complacent idiot". 賽の河原霊場 https://share.google/D04ekHxD2YUBAxJ9L Regarding Buddhist teaching and the journey to the Meido: 賽の河原とは？意味・由来に関する基礎知識｜葬儀の知識｜葬儀・お葬式なら【公益社】｜葬儀の知識｜葬儀・家族葬なら信頼の【公益社】 https://share.google/Mg8xO7gApRD08unFf