Osorzan

This whole trip I have tried to be open to the directions I am led. And as it happens they have all led me to exactly the right spot. While in Toyama I had a 5 minute conversation with a man about what I was doing and he suggested I go to Osorezan. So I did. It took a single car train to not where and a bus ride. All in total about 2 hours one way.

The place I brought me to was un-paralleled. Finally no school children and hardly any people. This final resting place was truly peaceful, and yet there was an incessant insanely loud strum of either frog,cycadas,or crickets, or a combination so loud coming from the woods just beyond this barren site. I cannot describe place better than as is already written, "Osorezan is also known as entrance to afterlife, because it features geographical elements similar to descriptions of Buddhist hell and paradise, including eight surrounding peaks and a river, Sanzu no Kawa, which has to be crossed by all dead souls on their way to afterlife and is often compared to the River Styx of ancient Greek mythology."

This is a place where people come to pray for the repose of their parent or guidance for their children in the afterlife.

What better spot than here to receive some marbles and the last of the ashes I brought.

The bodhisattva that the founding priest carved and established here was Jizô. "Jizô's virtues is linked to that of the mother earth, which never minds being tread on and willingly supports all in the world from below. His compassion is compared to motherly love, through which he shares the suffering of those who are on pain. Jizô vows to suffer hell himself to allocate the pain of those condemned to hell, to free human beings from the illusion of life and death in this world, and to lead even heavenly beings of the purer world to eternal salvation. Thanks to these vows of the bodhisattva Jizô  the sulphurous valley in the depth of this mountainous area becomes a land of salvation, where absolute peace and happiness are freely given. Here one can listen to an inaudible sermon. Which teaches that any place is Paradise so far as Jizô is there."

How more perfect could this place be for my mom. I did not have nearly as much time at this place as I would have liked.

Even before you enter the official grounds  6 Jizô's( I think).

The gate

The guards

A turtle with passengers, for luck

The drawing on the exterior was stunning

Gorgeous sign no idea what it says

The terrain.

Daiol-Ishi. He was in the back of the grounds and seemed strikingly important and alone.

I gave him some company and someone to watch over.

This individual with single child I found to be symbolic.

So with its other offerings I added one more.

And then I got the the waters edge. Poisonous for the living, but not for the dead.

I kneaded at the waters edge and asked for whatever was there to guide my mom to her new place. As I tossed up her ashes into the water the heavier particles fell,but in the wind the dust briskly danced away in figurative clouds. I included a coin for the ferry man.

Sayonara mamala, happy journeys.