Japanese Buddhist tradition
Sai-no-Kawara
Sai-no-Kawara is the river-bed beneath the earth described in the Jizo chapter of Myths and Legends of Japan. Davis places children there after death, building little stone towers that hostile oni overturn, while Jizo shelters them and sends them back to their games. The story connects this afterlife landscape with the stones that grieving mothers pile around Jizo images in the world of the living.
Also known as Sai no Kawara · Dry Bed of the River of Souls
Loading your archive…
In the sources
A river-bed beneath the earth
TraditionalDavis introduces Sai-no-Kawara as the Dry Bed of the River of Souls beneath the earth. His account places children and people who have never married there after death; this is the source's particular formulation.
Stone towers and Jizo's protection
TraditionalChildren pile stones in the river-bed, while mothers above them build towers around Jizo images as prayers and charms. Oni knock down the children's towers, and Jizo shelters the children in his sleeves and drives the oni away.
Context & interpretation
This entry follows F. Hadland Davis's English-language retelling and its quoted hymn, rather than treating one account as the whole of Japanese Buddhist belief. Its description of who goes to Sai-no-Kawara belongs to that source. The image is Evelyn Paul's depiction of Jizo, the realm's protector, rather than a surveyed landscape, and the river-bed is presented as a religious setting.
Original passages
Source 1
Myths and Legends of Japan
Under the earth there is the Sai-no-Kawara, or "the Dry Bed of the River of Souls."Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Chapter VI, printed p. 106
Read directly from the active prepared scan; line breaks and spacing normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0052-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0052-E001-P0120
- Original scan leaf
- 138
- Recorded leaf number
- 138
- Current Reader position
- 119
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Myths and Legends of Japan
a shadowy and grey world of dim hills and vales through which the Sai-no-Kawara winds its wayOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Chapter VI, printed p. 107
Read directly from the active prepared scan; line breaks and spacing normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0052-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0052-E001-P0121
- Original scan leaf
- 139
- Recorded leaf number
- 139
- Current Reader position
- 120
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
