For unborn children

Each "jizo" represents an aborted baby.

Though I have clicked on "Good" in support of their statements pointing out that this is not correct for several of the posters above, the numbers have not changed. (That regularly happens on JT forums.)

Please remember that not every so-called aborted fetus is one a mother chooses to abort. The surgery to remove a non-viable fetus is also called an abortion. And I know women who have been shamed by judgmental nurses who did not know the particulars of their cases or the grief which those abortions caused. Miscarriages are also termed as "spontaneous abortions." Whatever the case, each is highly personal and should not be judged by anyone not privy to the facts of the case--which means most of us.

It is particularly apposite that in Japan people who need to grieve an unborn or stillborn child have a place to do so openly and publicly. In much of the rest of the world that's not acknowledged properly even by family members, but swept aside and hidden. Or worse, callously and stupidly dismissed as something that will offer the couple "so much fun as they try again."

@realist The scourge of modern society. One good thing regarding this in Japan, though, is that the babies are recognises as babies, even though they are aborted. In America and other western countiries the aborted babies are thrown into trash cans at the back of the abortion factories. Its been reported recently that in New York City alone each year over 34,000 children of African Americans are disposed of im this way, and that figure is more thsm the live births. What a sick world we live in.

Did you have to name any particular ethnicity, to make your point, I think it would have been more respectful if you had said in "AMERICA" don't skew readers into thinking one particular ethnicity does this. To be more direct you are not from the America's because Americans don't spell RECOGNIZE as "RECOGNISES" so spew your hidden agenda somewhere else!

these are not just aborted babies but the babies who died shortly after they were born.

Each "jizo" represents an aborted baby.

I'm sorry, but you are mistaken. These statues can represent miscarried or stillborn babies, as well.

One of the saddest sights in Japan. Each "jizo" represents an aborted baby.i can think of more appropriate terminology than the sick political correctness of the word 'unborn' for this. The scourge of modern society. One good thing regarding this in Japan, though, is that the babies are recognises as babies, even though they are aborted. In America and other western countiries the aborted babies are thrown into trash cans at the back of the abortion factories. Its been reported recently that in New York City alone each year over 34,000 children of African Americans are disposed of im this way, and that figure is more thsm the live births. What a sick world we live in.

Frankly, it wasn't important to me whether they were deceased unborn, stillborn, or died shortly after birth. I still wept when I knelt down and prayed for them while my 25-year old daughter watched and learned something about how her father regards children.

Wiki explains the custom of Mizuko kuyo pretty well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizuko_kuyō

The important function with which Jizo is credited is caring for the souls of departed children. A widespread belief, particularly prevalent in rural areas, is that the souls of children who die have to undergo trials at the Sai-no-Kawara, (an Eastern counterpart of the River Styx of Greek mythology).

They should have put it they way you did then.

@sensei

No, you're exactly right. That's what they mean by "deceased unborn."

No disrespect to Buddhists intended, but I'm confused by the way this is written. The only way children could be "deceased" while still being "unborn" is if they died in the womb or were aborted. Or am I missing something?