Agonashi Jizo

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Fudo Myo-O Gallery


. Jizo Bosatsu　地蔵菩薩 .
Kshitigarbha


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Agonashi Jizo 腮無( あごなし)地蔵
Jizo without a jaw
Jizo without a chin あごなし地蔵尊



隠岐島のあごなし地蔵尊の遷座.
東光院萩の寺 Hagi no Tera, Osaka
大阪府豊中市南桜塚1丁目12番7号

The two figures by the side of Jizo are
Shoozen 掌善（しょうぜん）
Shooaku 掌悪（しょうあく）

Jizo curing a toothace 歯痛平癒

In the year 1870, the temple 伴桂寺 at Oki Island had to close down. The last priest of the temple had been a disciple of the head prist of the Hagi Temple in Osaka, so he gave all his temple treasures to the Hagi Temple, including the statue of the "Jizo without a jaw", made by Ono no Takamura 小野篁（おののたかむら）卿正.
Two years later a special hall was built for the statue,which is a secret statue (hibutsu) and only shown once a year.

ago naoshi 阿古直し ... ago nashi

source :　www.haginotera.or.jp


. Ono no Takamura 小野篁 (802 - 852) .

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The legend from the village of Kanawa
in Omiya Town

Once upon a long long time
far away from this town on the island of Oki, there lived a man who had a painful toothache. For three days, he was crying all day long
"My tooth aces, my tooth aces so much!"
He could not sleep at night and not eat during the day because of the pain.
In the end he pulled out his jaw, threw it away - and died.


But then, how wonderful, he was reborn as a Bodhisattva.

The pious people of Oki Island then made a wooden statue of Jizo without a chin and prayed to it when they got a toothache.

Soon people from far away also came to pray for healing, and as a gift of gratitude placed one nashi pear into a nearby river or lake or the ocean.
(This is a pun on the sound of NASHI, pear, or
NASHI, to have not (a toothache).



One month during the following year, they placed a nashi pear in the water.
And all the nashi pears flow back to Oki Island.

That was all long long ago, and now we come to a story that happened about 160 years ago.



The farmer Hayashi Yasubei from Kanawa 金輪の林安兵衛 went to the wilderness where the Statue was located, hoisted it on his back and carried it all the way to his village, Kanawa, to a little temple. That was in the Year Tenpo 10, on March 24.
So to our day there is a monthly festival at this temple now.
Tenpo 10, by the way, is the year 1841 of the Edo period.



source : www.bunka.pref.mie.


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quote
Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan
Lafcadio Hearn

I had first heard in Matsue of Agonashi-Jizo, while suffering from one of those toothaches in which the pain appears to be several hundred miles in depth--one of those toothaches which disturb your ideas of space and time. And a friend who sympathised said:

'People who have toothache pray to Agonashi-Jizo. Agonashi-Jizo is in Oki, but Izumo people pray to him. When cured they go to Lake Shinji, to the river, to the sea, or to any running stream, and drop into the water twelve pears (nashi), one for each of the twelve months. And they believe the currents will carry all these to Oki across the sea.

'Now, Agonashi-Jizo means 'Jizo-who-has-no-jaw.'
For it is said that in one of his former lives Jizo had such a toothache in his lower jaw that he tore off his jaw, and threw it away, and died. And he became a Bosatsu. And the people of Oki made a statue of him without a jaw; and all who suffer toothache pray to that Jizo of Oki.'

This story interested me for more than once I had felt a strong desire to do like Agonashi-Jizo, though lacking the necessary courage and indifference to earthly consequences. Moreover, the tradition suggested so humane and profound a comprehension of toothache, and so large a
sympathy with its victims, that I felt myself somewhat consoled.

Nevertheless, I did not go to see Agonashi-Jizo, because I found out there was no longer any Agonashi-Jizo to see. The news was brought one evening by some friends, shizoku of Matsue, who had settled in Oki, a young police officer and his wife. They had walked right across the island to see us, starting before daylight, and crossing no less than thirty-two torrents on their way. The wife, only nineteen, was quite slender and pretty, and did not appear tired by that long rough journey.

What we learned about the famous Jizo was this:
The name Agonashi-Jizo was only a popular corruption of the true name, Agonaoshi-Jizo, or 'Jizo-the-Healer-of-jaws.'
The little temple in which the statue stood had been burned, and the statue along with it, except a fragment of the lower part of the figure, now piously preserved by some old peasant woman. It was impossible to rebuild the temple, as the disestablishment of Buddhism had entirely destroyed the resources of that faith in Oki.
But the peasantry of Tsubamezato had built a little Shinto miya on the sight of the temple, with a torii before it, and people still prayed there to Agonaoshi-Jizo.

This last curious fact reminded me of the little torii I had seen erected before the images of Jizo in the Cave of the Children's Ghosts. Shinto, in these remote districts of the west, now appropriates the popular divinities of Buddhism, just as of old Buddhism used to absorb
the divinities of Shinto in other parts of Japan.
source : www.gramotey.com

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Ago nashi Jizo at temple Koosaiji 広済寺 Kosai-Ji
Saitama, Kawagoe, Kita Town 川越市喜多町に広済寺

If you have no chin, you have no teeth and can not get a toothache.
People who got healed when praying to this statue brought a toothpick made from a willow branch as an offering.
source : www.tabi2ikitai.com


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temple Jikooji 慈光寺 Jiko-Ji of the Kannon Pilgrimage
Saitama
埼玉県比企郡ときがわ町
source : ohenro.blog.ocn.ne.jp


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On a roadside near the river Kakogawa in Hyogo
"so that Jizo can help all people who leave town and seek good fortune".

This Jizo stands in a small wooden hall, with a stone marker by its side.
The chin of the statue is covered by a red big, so we do not know wheather it has a chin or not.
加古川　兵庫
source : www.hyogo-c.ed.jp


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Taikichoo in Mie. 大紀町三重県
source :　michihata

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More Jizo to help your toothache

. Haitadome Jizoo
歯痛止のお地蔵さん .

Hagami Jizo 歯神地蔵尊
Jizo as God for Toothache


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梅雨最中　ずきずき　ずきと　歯の痛み
tsuyu sanaka 　zukizuki　zuki to 　ha no itami

long rainy season -
splitting splitting splitting
my tooth aches

. Gabi Greve, 2006 .



the god of toothache -
I wish I was there
to add my coin

In the town of Kathmandu in Nepal there is a God of Toothache at a road corner in Thamel, just a piece of wood shaped like a molar itself. If you have a toothache, you go there and hammer one coin wishing your illness might pass.

. Toothache and Haiku .


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With a map of the location:
source : okinoshima.info

. Reference : Agonashi Jizo



. Jizo Bosatsu　地蔵菩薩 .


O-Fudo Sama Gallery

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. Amulets and Talismans for your health .　


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Tomoe Gozen - Yoshinaka

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Daruma Pilgrims Gallery

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Tomoe Gozen (巴御前)

(1157?–1247)

Tomoe on a festival float in Hirozaki


A late twelfth-century concubine of
Minamoto no Yoshinaka.

Tomoe was a rare female samurai warrior (onna bugeisha), known for her bravery and strength. She is believed to have fought and survived the Genpei War (1180–1185).

According to one historical account,
Tomoe was especially beautiful, with white skin, long hair, and charming features. She was also a remarkably strong archer, and as a swordswoman she was a warrior worth a thousand, ready to confront a demon or a god, mounted or on foot. She handled unbroken horses with superb skill; she rode unscathed down perilous descents. Whenever a battle was imminent, Yoshinaka sent her out as his first captain, equipped with strong armor, an oversized sword, and a mighty bow; and she performed more deeds of valor than any of his other warriors.
— The Tale of the Heike



Minamoto no Yoshinaka (Tomoe's master)
took Kyoto and desired to be the leader of the Minamoto clan. His cousin Yoritomo was prompted to crush Yoshinaka, and sent his brothers Yoshitsune and Noriyori to kill him. Yoshinaka fought Yoritomo's forces at the Battle of Awazu on February 21, 1184, where Tomoe Gozen purportedly took at least one head of the enemy. Although Yoshinaka's troops fought bravely, they were outnumbered and overwhelmed. When Yoshinaka was defeated there, with only a few of his soldiers standing, he told Tomoe Gozen to flee because he wanted to die with his foster brother Imai no Shiro Kanehira and he said that he would be ashamed if he died with a woman.

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quote
Women warriors of Japan
The menfolk of these islands have had their martial ideals since time immemorial, but there have been many women with that fighting spirit, too

Tomoe Gozen was the prototypical Japanese female warrior.

She had "long black hair and a fair complexion, and her face was very lovely; moreover she was a fearless rider, whom neither the fiercest horse nor the roughest ground could dismay, and so dexterously did she handle sword and bow that she was a match for 1,000 warriors, fit to meet either god or devil."

A woman so dashing deserves to be better known. She figures, all too fleetingly, in the "Heike Monogatari," the 13th-century chronicle of the 12th-century Genpei War, the classic confrontation between the Taira and Minamoto military clans.

Tomoe Gozen was — what? the mistress? wife? servant? the extant descriptions vary — of a Minamoto ally whose insubordination got him eliminated fairly early in the campaign. This was Minamoto Kiso Yoshinaka, who, surrounded and facing certain death, called Tomoe to him and said:
"As you are a woman, it were better that you now make your escape."



... "Woman's surrender of herself to the good of her husband, home and family," wrote Nitobe, "was as willing and honorable as the man's self-surrender to the good of his lord and country. Self-renunciation ... was the keynote of the loyalty of man as well as of the domesticity of woman ... In the ascending scale of service stood woman, who annihilated herself for man, that he might annihilate himself for the master, that he in turn might obey Heaven."
source : Japan Times, October 2001 - MICHAEL HOFFMAN


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to moe gozen 戸燃え御膳

燃える戸がご飯を食べている a burning door is eating

つまり、「戸燃え御膳」　＞＞　巴御前


. Rebus Pictuers
hanji-e 　江戸の判じ絵 .


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Kiso Yoshinaka　木曾義仲,
Minamoto no Yoshinaka 源義仲
War Lord. 1154 - 1184, March 4. 寿永3年1月20日（1184年3月4日）

Yoshinaka ki 義仲忌 (よしなかき)
Yoshinaka Memorial Day

kigo for mid-spring



紅梅を近江に見たり義仲忌　
koobai o Oomi ni mitari Yoshinaka ki

in Omi
I enjoy the red plum blossoms -
Yoshinaka Memorial Day

. Mori Sumio 森澄雄 .



The Chinese characters 義仲 can be read Gichuu too.
The temple with his grave is Gichu-Ji, see below.

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Minamoto no Yoshinaka (源 義仲)
1154 – March 4, 1184
was a general of the late Heian Period of Japanese history. A member of the Minamoto samurai clan, Minamoto no Yoritomo was his cousin and rival during the Genpei War between the Minamoto and the Taira clans.
...
Yoshinaka defeated the army of Taira no Koremori at the Battle of Kurikara Pass and marched to Kyoto. The Taira retreated out of the capital, taking the child Emperor Antoku with them. Three days later Yoshinaka's army entered the capital and the cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa bestowed upon him the title of Asahi Shogun. However, his army ransacked Kyoto, and the emperor ordered him to attack the Taira in order to get the army out of the capital.
...
He was buried in Otsu, in Ōmi; a temple was built his honor during the later Muromachi period. Its name, Gichū-ji, has the same two kanji as his given name. Kanehira's grave is also in Otsu, but it is not close to Yoshinaka's.

The Edo period poet Matsuo Basho, pursuant to his last wishes, was buried next to Minamoto no Yoshinaka in the temple Gichu-ji .

Minamoto no Yoshinaka is one of many main characters in the Kamakura period epic, the Tale of Heike. The story of Yoshinaka and Kanehira is fairly well known in Japan; it is also the subject of the Noh play "Kanehira", in which Kanehira's tormented ghost describes his and Yoshinaka's death, and his wish to go to the other side.

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. Basho and Temple Gichu-Ji . 義仲寺





Grave of Yoshinaka at temple Gichu-Ji


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. Taira no Kiyomori 平清盛 .
1118 – March 20, 1181

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. WKD : Memorial Days of Famous People .

　

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