Koshi-Ita-Jizo

Last Saturday, April 19, my husband and I drove about 90 minutes and visited the statue of Koshi-ita-Jizo in Kazurane, Yamasaki-cho, Shiso City, Hyogo Prefecture.

 

The Japanese word "koshi" means "hips," while the other word "ita" can be translated into "aches."

 

I got interested in the Jizo statue when I heard about it on the radio on April 14.  They reported about the spring festival held on the day before.  They said that many people who had their hip pain visited the festival.

 

 

We missed the chance to visit the festival but still wanted to see what the place look like.

 

Pic. No. 1 - My husband said he was one of them. 

He has hip pains.    

Pic. No. 2 - The board is read "Koshi-Ita-Jizo-Statue"

We found four manga illustrations to explain the old story why this statue was created, and I uploaded them below.

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Pic. No. 3 - Once upon a time, there was an old woman who had been suffering terrible back pain in  Kazurane village.  She often laid down and asked her children to stand up on her hip to ease the pain.

 

 

Just before dying, she asked her family to come and spoke to them.  "After I die, please make a statue of jizo out of a flat stone.  Lay the statue with the face down in the flowing water of a rice field and use it as a bridge.    The jizo will heal everyone's hip pains by crossing it."

She passed away having said so.

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Pic. No. 4 - Her family made a jizo statue as they were told, then they laid its face down and crossed it as a bridge.

To everyone's surprise, their hips were all healed after crossing the bridge after by wearing zori, Japanese traditional sandals.  If zori were repeatedly used by someone else, the person who felt pain in the hips would suffer again.  They cut the straps of the zori with scissors after crossing the bridge.  There should only be one pair of zori for each person.

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Pic. No. 5 - There were many people who used to cry in futon, or Japanese traditional bed due to the hip pains, so they were glad to have the jizo because it was effective in eliminating their pains as they crossed the statue on foot.

One of them thought that it was not a good idea to cross such a statue as a bridge.  The statue should be treated with respect so he made the statue stand.

Then, after putting the statue in an upright position, his terrible hip pain came back, and he couldn't move at all.  In the end, he thought that it was a bad idea to have erected the statue, he asked someone to laid down the statue as it used to be.

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Pict No. 6  The villagers started to believe in the statue's healing powers.  Many people started to come to cross the statue wearing zori.

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Pic. No. 7 - A pair of zori for 300 yen.

Pic. No. 8 - The style of Japanese sandals, zori

Pic. No. 9 - We also found some pairs of scissors nearby.

 

 

 

 Pic. No. 10 - My husband should have worn zori on bare feet.
 

 

Pic. No. 11 - He is stepping on the koshi-ita-jizo statue.

Pic No. 12 - He is praying to another jizo wearing red clothes to remove his hip pain.

Pic. No. 13 - He is cutting off the strap of zori.

Pic. No. 14 - He is still doing with the scissors.

Pic. No. 15 - The straps were cut off so nobody else can use the zori anymore.

Pic No.  16 - We put the used zori in the trash box nearby.

 

 

Pic.No. 17 - The poster says "we feel that it's gonna be a good day."

 

We enjoyed visiting the unique jizo for the first time.  After that we headed for another 30-minute drive, and took a bath in a hot spring in Shiso city.   

 

Pic No. 18 - The "koshi ita" husband was totally relaxed after the bath. 

He was reading a leaflet in the tatami room of the hot spring.