Unborn Children Garden at Zojoji Temple

As you can imagine, with so much time on my hands, I have visited many of the Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Tokyo. While the shrines and temples are amazing and I definitely recommend visiting a few, it is hard not to get a bit blasé after awhile.  It is a similar feeling to traveling through Italy and coming to the point where you can't possibly imagine wanting to see even one more church. Especially if you have been to Rome, the home of over 900 churches. 

However, after saying that, I was particularly touched by the Zojoji Temple near Tokyo Tower. The temple area itself is quite extensive and has many interesting features (the Main Hall and Main Gate were used in the movie 'The Wolverine'  and the temple contains the tombs of 6 Tokugawa shoguns) but the area I felt most affected by was the Unborn Children's Garden. 

The garden is filled with rows and rows of tiny statues of children to represent the unborn babies of Japan. Parents who have lost an unborn baby can choose a statue to decorate with clothing and toys. The garden is believed to be protected by jizo bosatsu, who guards the souls of unborn children. He hides them from demons in his robes and brings them safely to the afterlife because they have not had the chance to do the good deeds in this life necessary to get to the afterlife themselves. Jizo is also the protector of all children, expectant mothers, firemen and travelers.

People also leave small gifts for jizo to ensure their children are carried to the afterlife. Some people also leave piles of stones next to the statues to shorten the amount of suffering their child has to undertake on their way to the afterlife.

Considering how many people still consider miscarriages, still births and abortions to be taboo subjects around the world, I was happy to see that places like this exist for parents in Japan. I do not have children nor have I experienced the loss of an unborn child. However, I have seen the emotional devastation it has caused people around me. I can only imagine how difficult it would be going through these experiences and not feeling like you can talk openly about it. I hope this garden does bring parents a sense of release and a place to grieve.