hadaka-jizo

Updated: June 11, 2025

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.

Lafcadio Hearn - Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan : First Series

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.

Lafcadio Hearn - Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan : First Series