Visitors to Tokyo's Zojogi Temple are greeted with the strange sight of rows and rows of little stone figures, all alike in their red knitted caps, tiny bibs and pinwheels at their sides. The figures stand for aborted babies. The names of their mothers are inscribed on cup placed in front of each tiny statue.
The cost of a statue, together with maintenance for one year, is 7,000 yen. For another 6,300 yen the memorial ceremony called "mizuko kuyo" will be celebrated for the unborn child. The ceremony is intended to bring peace to the child and to ask the goddess (represented by a statue at the end of each row of child-statues) to take the baby across the River Sai to its ancestors. Happy there, it will not return to upset the parents or cause sorrow.
Parents also buy wooden plaques and inscribe them with messages to the unborn. The plaques can be read by visitors who will find them hanging in a covered walkway nearby. One of the most poignant reads:
"You are our baby, I will never forget you. From the bottom of my heart, I ask forgiveness forever and ever."
There are some 20,000 little stone statues in Zojogi Temple.
Source: Found in Catherine Hammond, Stories to Hold An Audience
Applications: abortion, termination, forgiveness, guilt