One Wish Jizo

One day, an elderly woman found a strange stone and brought it back home. She and her husband started worshiping the stone, but...

This is an episode of an old village of Wada (Now in the town of Takahama, west region of Fukui Prefecture).

 

(Jizo or Ojizo-sama: often regarded as the bodhisattva of hell-beings, as well as the guardian of children and patron deity of deceased children and aborted fetuses in Japanese culture)

It was a warm and sunny spring day. Since it was such a nice day, an elderly woman who lived in Wada went on on a little walk in the neighborhood.

“It’s a perfect day for a walk!”

She usually stayed at home, seldom went out. However, on that day, her body naturally moved and let her go out.

Walking slowly while having comfortably the spring sunshine, she found herself coming into the mountains.

When she wanted to go home and turned around, she noticed a peculiar-shaped stone lying on the roadside.

 

"Oh, my. It looks like a rare stone."

She bent forward and picked up the stone. And as she took a close look at it, the stone really seemed like a small statue of Jizo, Kshitigarbha.

"Hmmm…  Anyway, I’ll bring this back with me and have my husband take a look at it."

Carefully carrying the Stone under her arm, the old woman went down the mountain in brisk walking.

Once at home, she immediately showed the stone to her husband.

"Well, this stone must be Jizo, the guardian deity of children. We should deify it immediately!"

The old man was very pleased, and they decided to worship the stone in the house.

But, several days later, in the morning, the old woman suddenly had a low back pain and became unable to move. The old man thoughtfully stared at the stone that was enshrined, and said.

"I think, no matter how eagerly we worship this guardian deity of children in our house, we may not have a response from Buddha. It would be better to return it to the original location.”

The old man asked his wife where she picked it up, and then he went out to the mountain to return the stone while praying for her back pain heal quickly.
Oddly enough, when he came back from mountains, the old woman’s low back pain had almost healed.

To hear the story, the village people also became to worship the stone.

The Jizo is referred to as "One wish Jizo”, which means he makes only one wish of yours come true. Even today, constant offerings such as incense and tea are placed before the Jizo.