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Lafcadio Hearn - Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan, 1
8
Akira also tells me this:
It is related in the seventh volume of the book Kamakurashi that there was formerly at Kamakura a
temple called Emmei-ji, in which there was enshrined a famous statue of Jizo, called Hadaka-Jizo, or
Naked Jizo. The statue was indeed naked, but clothes were put upon it; and it stood upright with its feet
upon a chessboard. Now, when pilgrims came to the temple and paid a certain fee, the priest of the
temple would remove the clothes of the statue; and then all could see that, though the face was the face
of Jizo, the body was the body of a woman.
Now this was the origin of the famous image of Hadaka-Jizo standing upon the chessboard. On one
occasion the great prince Taira-no-Tokyori was playing chess with his wife in the presence of many
guests. And he made her agree, after they had played several games, that whosoever should lose the next
game would have to stand naked on the chessboard. And in the next game they played his wife lost. And
she prayed to Jizo to save her from the shame of appearing naked. And Jizo came in answer to her prayer
and stood upon the chessboard, and disrobed himself, and changed his body suddenly into the body of a
woman.
9
As we travel on, the road curves and narrows between higher elevations, and becomes more sombre. 'Oi!
mat!' my Buddhist guide calls softly to the runners; and our two vehicles halt in a band of sunshine,
descending, through an opening in the foliage of immense trees, over a flight of ancient mossy steps.
'Here,' says my friend, 'is the temple of the King of Death; it is called Emma-Do; and it is a temple of the
Zen sect - Zen-Oji. And it is more than seven hundred years old, and there is a famous statue in it.'
We ascend to a small, narrow court in which the edifice stands. At the head of the steps, to the right, is a
stone tablet, very old, with characters cut at least an inch deep into the granite of it, Chinese characters
signifying, 'This is the Temple of Emma, King.'
The temple resembles outwardly and inwardly the others we have visited, and, like those of Shaka and of
the colossal Jizo of Kamakura, has a paved floor, so that we are not obliged to remove our shoes on
entering. Everything is worn, dim, vaguely grey; there is a pungent scent of mouldiness; the paint has
long ago peeled away from the naked wood of the pillars. Throned to right and left against the high walls
tower nine grim figures - five on one side, four on the other - wearing strange crowns with
trumpet-shapen ornaments; figures hoary with centuries, and so like to the icon of Emma, which I saw at
Kuboyama, that I ask, 'Are all these Emma?' 'Oh, no!' my guide answers; 'these are his attendants only -
the Jiu-O, the Ten Kings.' 'But there are only nine?' I query. 'Nine, and Emma completes the number.
You have not yet seen Emma.'
Where is he? I see at the farther end of the chamber an altar elevated upon a platform approached by
wooden steps; but there is no image, only the usual altar furniture of gilded bronze and lacquer-ware.
Behind the altar I see only a curtain about six feet square - a curtain once dark red, now almost without
any definite hue - probably veiling some alcove. A temple guardian approaches, and invites us to ascend
the platform. I remove my shoes before mounting upon the matted surface, and follow the guardian
behind the altar, in front of the curtain. He makes me a sign to look, and lifts the veil with a long rod.
And suddenly, out of the blackness of some mysterious profundity masked by that sombre curtain, there
glowers upon me an apparition at the sight of which I involuntarily start back - a monstrosity exceeding
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