Datsueba

King Enma and Datsueba (Enryū Temple, Nakatsu , Ōita Prefecture )

Datsueba (Enryu Temple)

Datsueba Hall in Shido Temple ( Shido-ji ), Kagawa Prefecture

According to popular tradition of Japanese Buddhism, Datsueba ( Japanese Alte 婆 ), literally "old woman who tears off clothes" is a terrifying, gaunt old woman who waits for the dead on the border river to the underworld, the Sanzugawa ( 三途川 ). Other names are Sōzukaba ( 葬頭河婆 ), Shōzuka no baba ( 正塚婆 ), Ubagami ( 姥神 ) and Ubason ( 優婆尊 ). This figure, around which many stories were formed, appeared in the late Heian period, which was marked by an apocalyptic mood and was disseminated in post-canonical Buddhist scriptures, mandalas of the six spheres ( rokudō ), ten worlds ( jikkai ) and popular tales.

The deceased find themselves on the 6th day after their death on the stony bank (Sai-no-Kawara) of the “river of the three passages” (Sanzugawa), which separates this world from the hereafter. In a kind of preliminary investigation by the king Shinkō-ō ( 秦広王 ), the first of the "ten judges" (Jūō 十王 , literally ten kings), they are divided into three groups. The sinless "good guys" ( zennin ) are allowed to cross the river over a bridge accompanied by the Bodhisattva Jizo ( Kshitigarbha , Japanese Jizo Bosatsu). Those with minor sins wade through a shallow ford. Serious sinners have to swim through the river at one point with a raging current.

Datsueba, waiting on the bank, tears off the clothes of arriving sinners. Those who come without clothes lose their skin. She hands the clothes or the skin to her partner, the “clothes hanger – old man” (Keneō 懸衣翁 ), who hangs them on the branch of a “clothes tree ” ( eryōju 衣領樹 ) on the bank. The more the branch bends, the more serious the sins of the deceased are. This serves as evidence in the courts of the following nine judges / kings, which are held on specified days: Shokō (Shaka Nyōrai), Sōtei (Manji Bosatsu), Gokan (Fugen Bosatsu), Enma (Jizō Bosatsu), Henjō (Miroku Bosatsu), Taizan ( Yakushi Nyorai) etc. Datsueba often appears in the context of Enma , who is judgment on the 35th day.

Datsueba and her partner Keneo are capable of all kinds of cruelty. This is how they break the fingers of thieves. Datsueba encourages children who actually died too early and are too small and weak to cross the river to pile stones into small towers in order to ascend to paradise. But as soon as a certain height is reached, demons smash the turrets at their command. The children, it is said, are then rescued by the Bodhisattva Jizō at the request of their relatives, who hide them in his wide robes and bring them over the bridge.

According to other accounts, Datsueba is the wife of the king of the underworld, Enma. During the Edo period , she gained popularity as a helper against coughs, catarrh in children and in warding off diseases in general. Temple, B. the temples Sōen-ji ( 宗円寺 ), Taisō-ji ( 太宗寺 ) and Shōju-in ( 正受院 ) in Tokyo, Shido-ji ( 志度寺 ) in Sanuki (Kagawa) , Gofuku-ji in Matsumoto u. a. m., were built, prayers and magical sayings spread. With their rise, interest in Keneo waned.

literature

Matsuzaki, Kenzō: Jizō to Enma, Datsueba - Gense, raise wo mimamoru hotoke . Tōkyō, Keiyusha, 2012 ( 松崎憲三『地蔵と閻魔・奪衣婆ー現世・来世を見守る仏』慶友社 )
Kawamura, Kunimitsu: Jigoku meguri . Tōkyō, Chikuma Shobō, 2000 ( 川村邦光『地獄めぐり』筑摩書房 )
Teiser, Stephen F .: The Scripture on the Ten Kings and the Making of Purgatory in Medieval Chinese Buddhism . Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.

References and comments

↑ Sanzugawa, roughly equivalent to the river of the three passages; also Sanzu no kawa, Sōzuka ( 葬頭河 ) or Watarigawa ( 渡り川 )
↑ Kawamura (2000) pp. 145-157, 169-171, Matsuzaki (2012). List of the most important texts up to the 16th century in Matsuzaki (2012), p. 76
↑ The basis for the ten judges / kings in Japan from Daoism is a post-canonical sutra ( Jizō-bosatsu hasshin onen jūō kyō 地蔵菩薩発心因縁十王経 ). Ten Buddhas have been assigned to them since the Kamakura period. More from Teiser (1994)
↑ According to one narrative variant, light sinners are allowed to use a boat.
↑ This is a particularly important date because Enma, who is assigned to the Bodhisattva Jizō, decides on the induction into one of the "Six Spheres" ( Rokudō ).
↑ Kawamura (2000), Matsuzaki (2012), pp. 50ff., 72ff.
↑ Kawamura (2000). Mourning relatives still erect stone towers, preferably near Jizo statues, to help deceased children. You also tie a child's bib around the statue so that Jizō can find it more quickly based on the smell. In the northern regions of Japan in particular, there are also river banks called Sai-no-Kawara, where such stone towers can be found in large numbers.
↑ Matsuzaki (2012), p. 50ff.

[1] Sanzugawa, roughly equivalent to the river of the three passages; also Sanzu no kawa, Sōzuka ( 葬頭河 ) or Watarigawa ( 渡り川 )

[2] Kawamura (2000) pp. 145-157, 169-171, Matsuzaki (2012). List of the most important texts up to the 16th century in Matsuzaki (2012), p. 76

[3] The basis for the ten judges / kings in Japan from Daoism is a post-canonical sutra ( Jizō-bosatsu hasshin onen jūō kyō 地蔵菩薩発心因縁十王経 ). Ten Buddhas have been assigned to them since the Kamakura period. More from Teiser (1994)

[4] According to one narrative variant, light sinners are allowed to use a boat.

[5] This is a particularly important date because Enma, who is assigned to the Bodhisattva Jizō, decides on the induction into one of the "Six Spheres" ( Rokudō ).

[6] Kawamura (2000), Matsuzaki (2012), pp. 50ff., 72ff.

[7] Kawamura (2000). Mourning relatives still erect stone towers, preferably near Jizo statues, to help deceased children. You also tie a child's bib around the statue so that Jizō can find it more quickly based on the smell. In the northern regions of Japan in particular, there are also river banks called Sai-no-Kawara, where such stone towers can be found in large numbers.

[8] Matsuzaki (2012), p. 50ff.