Tradition / Region: Japanese Buddhist mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Mountain dweller, Elephant
The Myth
In the depths of the Buddhist cosmos, beyond the human world and far below the mountains that encircle Mount Sumeru, lies the Fire Elephant Hell. There dwells the terrible beast known as Kazou.
This hell is reserved not for the ignorant, but for those who once knew the Dharma. They had entered the Buddhist path, shaved their heads, donned robes, and received the pure precepts of the Tathagata. Yet despite their vows, they succumbed to lust and desecrated sacred images. Their betrayal of faith cast them down into this inferno.
Between the vast Iron Encircling Mountains—those final barriers at the edge of the world—the Fire Elephant Hell burns without end. There stands the great fire elephant, enormous and dreadful. Smoke pours from its mouth and eyes. Flames surge from its body as though its flesh were a furnace.
When the condemned monks are brought before it, they are struck motionless by terror at its overwhelming presence. Paralyzed by fear and the heat of its blazing form, they cannot flee. Horse-headed jailers seize them and hurl them onto the elephant’s back.
With a roar like thunder, the fire elephant charges forward. Its burning hide scorches the sinners. The monks fall from its back into the flames below, where their bodies are crushed beneath its massive feet. Some are trampled into ash. Others are seized in its blazing jaws and devoured.
Yet death offers no release. Day and night, a thousand times over, they die and are reborn in that same place, only to suffer again. The elephant’s flames never dim, and its fury never tires.
Thus the Kazou stands as the terror of the Fire Elephant Hell—an embodiment of burning remorse and unending punishment for those who betrayed their sacred vows.
Gallery
Sources
tyz-yokai.blog.jp contributors. (n.d.). Kazou. In tyz-yokai.blog.jp, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010654402.html
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