U.S. Zen priest calls to prepare 300,000 Jizos for A-bomb victims

NAGASAKI, June 10 Kyodo - An American Zen priest is seeking to gather about 300,000 handmade images and statues of Jizo, one of the most beloved divinities in Japan, by summer 2005 in memory of every victim of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The priest, Jan Chozen Bays, 58, plans to dedicate ''Jizos For Peace'' exhibitions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki next summer when the two cities observe the 60th anniversaries of the atomic bombings which claimed a total of about 300,000 lives.

Bays, an Oregon physician who was ordained as a Zen priest in 1977, was born Aug. 9, 1945, the day an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki City.

Bays decided to start the project last December when she visited the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. She says she wants to dedicate a Jizo for every victim of the atomic bombings so that they will never be forgotten.

The project has gathered the images and statues of about 20,000 Jizos so far, which were mostly donated from children and prisoners in the United States.

Some Jizos are made of ceramic and about the size of a palm, while others are hand-drawn on pieces of cloth designed to make a panel. The project has also received origami Jizos that can be strung together.

Jizo is a popular Mahayana Buddhist Bodhisattva, usually depicted as a monk. With its express vow to help all beings in all realms, Jizo is regarded as the protector of travelers -- whether their journeys are in the physical world, or in spiritual realms. Jizo statues can be found everywhere in Japan, especially in graveyards.

Since it has published information on the Internet, the project has received inquiries from countries around the world, including Japan, Australia and Germany.

Information is also available from the Nagasaki Peace Museum. ==Kyodo