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Nikko NP, Tochigi
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Locals call them Bake Jizo (“changing Jizo”) because the number seems to differ between the walk out and the return. The old story turns a quiet line of stone guardians into a counting challenge.
A 2-meter-tall stone Fudo Myōō once stood on a boulder across the river, but the 1902 flood swept it away. The boulder still bears the carved Sanskrit characters “Kanman,” attributed to monk Yamajun.
The local walking map calls these 百体地蔵 (“100 Jizo”): more than 100 once stood here, but the 1902 flood carried some away. The map records 74 surviving statues today.
A head-only Jizo preserved at nearby Jōkōji is identified by the MLIT’s Nikko office as one of the row’s 2 “parent Jizo.” The 1902 flood separated it from the statues that remained at the gorge.
A local walking map says Tenkai’s disciples and other connected clergy and laypeople carved about 100 Jizo here as prayers for all departed souls and for their own enlightenment.
In 1689, Matsuo Bashō and his companion Kawai Sora visited this gorge during their Oku no Hosomichi journey. Tochigi’s cultural-heritage record notes that Sora’s diary records their morning visit on lunar April 2.
The stream’s roar was said to sound like “Kanman,” the final phrase of Fudo Myōō’s mantra, inspiring the gorge’s name. Though 含満 is often read “Ganman,” Rinnoji says “Kanman” is the correct reading.
The 1902 flood swept away Jiunji’s main hall along with many Jizo. Local volunteers later helped restore the statues, but the temple’s present hall was not rebuilt until 1973—71 years after the disaster.
