Jizo in the Lantern Holder.

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On a recent day trip to snap some photos I stopped by the Hotokuji temple in Kiryu city, Japan. One thing that really caught my attention were there’s miniature figures of Buddha called Jizo.

Jizo (地蔵 ) literally meaning womb of the earth can be found in the forest, near shrines and temples. They made in the image of Jizo Bosatsu who is said to be the guardian of children who died before their parents as well as travelers, protecting them on their journey. In its stone form, the Jizo statutes can look a little creepy, but have no fear, they are there for your own good.

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The Jizo figures I saw at the temple were more on the cute side and this particular fellow was nestled in the opening of a lantern holder. Whoever placed it there has an artistic side as I found the scene quite photogenic. In the picture above, I focused on the Jizo figure from behind and in the shot below, I focused on the Hotojuki temple in the background. The day was a bit gloomy and i plan to go back when spring is in full bloom to capture alternative shots.

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Below is the shot I love the most, the Jizo figure just matches perfectly with the tone of the stone. If you look closely, you can see a one yen coin in front of the Jizo. I am not sure why people leave money by the Jizo but I am guessing it is for gratitude and luck.

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I have started putting many of my photos on Opensea ( and doing the same with music) hence the links below the images. The reason for this is I believe NFTs are changing the way we see content, especially images and ownership. Minting on the polygon network also has no fees. I shared the idea with @dbooster about Japanese photography NFTs and he now has an awesome and professional looking collection. And now, I am learning from his posting style and putting the opensea links in my posts. I consider myself an amateur photographer but the fact that I can create a portfolio of images as a collection and put them up for sale or have offers received for free, just makes sense to me. And the process of learning about NFTs and actually doing it is bliss.