Small men with aprons

When I visit temples in Japan I always see the small stone carved men with aprons and got very curious about them. The connection to Buddhism is obvious but why do they really where the small aprons and hats?

Not to surprising the aprons and hats is connected to old Japanese beliefs, that does not only stretch to Buddhism but also to the Japanese Shinto religion. There are several deities that seem to be connected to the color red and then also wear red clothing, in Buddhism there is Binzuro, Jizō Bosatsu and Kannon Bosatsu for example. In Shinto there is Shishi Gate Guardians, The Fox and the Monkey. Several of these deities wear red clothing. According to the Japanese folk traditions the color red is for "expelling demons and illness" and the association was made in between 552-645 A.D. when the Yamato court created a ritual revolving a fire god to send illness away from the land and in to another world.

But some deities do not only wear red clothes but in various different colors. This has its most likely origin in the legend of children limbo "Sai no Kawara". The legend tells us about what happens to children that die prematurely, they are sent to Sai no Kawara as a punishment for causing great pain on their parents. Where they stack small stones while praying for salvation in hope of building a high enough stone tower to be able to climb up to paradise. But sooner rather than later, the hell demons come to destroy the towers and beat the children with iron clubs. This is when the deity Jizō Bosatsu comes and rescues the children by hiding them in the wide sleeves of his robes.

This is most likely the reason for the high number of aprons, hats and other clothes covering the Jizō Bosatsu. Parents, families or concerned others give clothing to the deities in hope that he will have more cloth to hide the children in. And in this legend you can also find the answer for why there is so may pebbles stacked on one another close to or on top of the Jizō Bosatsu. Sorrow stricken parents stack stones as to help their child escape the Sai no Kawara and reach paradise.

I do find all these traditions interesting, though the legend about the children limbo scares me. I also find it memorable that Japanese people still follow these traditions in such an extent. There is not only a few old clothes on the statues, they seem quite new to me, and they must exchange them at some point to have them looking as new as they sometime does. I tried to find some kind of counterpart within the western world but could not really find something connected with religion that so many people do by themselves whiteout doing it within an already established environment like church. It is a very interesting phenomena and it makes for some great pictures as well.