Jizo

Davis identifies Jizo as a Buddhist figure who comforts bereaved mothers and protects children. His description combines parental tenderness with the claim that Jizo has set aside Nirvana to remain with them.

In the river-bed story, children build towers of stones and oni knock them down. Jizo hides the frightened children in his sleeves and drives the oni away with his staff.

Read together, the two passages foreground care for vulnerable children and consolation for the living. This is an editorial reading of Davis's account; it does not establish the geography or existence of the world described.