Jizo is a bodhisattva in Japanese Mahayana Buddhism, originally known in Sanskrit as Ksitigarbha ('Womb of the Earth', 'Earth’s Treasury'). He is worshipped primarily in East Asia. Jizo is believed to have sworn not to attain Buddhahood, choosing rather to instruct the denizens of six worlds. His decision to postpone his Buddhahood, for the time between Gautama Buddha’s death and the arrival of Maitreya Buddha, was also taken in order to empty hell of all its prisoners.