is an old woman who sits at the edge of the Sanzu River

Sanzu River

The Sanzu River , or River of Three Crossings, is a Japanese Buddhist tradition and religious belief similar to the River Styx...

 in the Buddhist underworld

Underworld

The Underworld is a region which is thought to be under the surface of the earth in some religions and in mythologies. It could be a place where the souls of the recently departed go, and in some traditions it is identified with Hell or the realm of death...

. At the river, she has two primary duties.

According to Japanese Buddhist folklore

Japanese folklore

The folklore of Japan is heavily influenced by both Shinto and Buddhism, the two primary religions in the country. It often involves humorous or bizarre characters and situations and also includes an assortment of supernatural beings, such as bodhisattva, kami , yōkai , yūrei ,...

 (mostly from Japan's Pure Land

Pure land

A pure land, in Mahayana Buddhism, is the celestial realm or pure abode of a Buddha or Bodhisattva. The various traditions that focus on Pure Lands have been given the nomenclature Pure Land Buddhism. Pure lands are also evident in the literature and traditions of Taoism and Bön.The notion of 'pure...

 sects) , when a child dies its soul has to cross the Sanzu River. Traditionally, when a person dies, it is believed that they can cross the river at three different spots depending on how they lived their lives. Since children have not accumulated enough experiences, however, they are unable to cross. At the river's edge, the souls of deceased children are met by Datsue-ba. There, she strips the children of their clothes and advise them to build a pile of pebbles on which they can climb to reach paradise. But before the pile reaches any significant height, the hag and underworld demons maliciously knock it down. The Buddhist bodhisattva

Bodhisattva

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...

 Jizō saves these souls from having to pile stones eternally on the bank of the river by hiding them in his robe.

When a soul is that of an adult, Datsue-ba forces the sinners to take off their clothes, and the old-man Keneō

Keneo

is an old man who sits at the edge of the Sanzu River in the Buddhist underworld. When a soul of an adult arrives at the river, Datsue-ba forces the sinners to take off their clothes, and Keneō hangs these clothes on a riverside branch that bends to reflect the gravity of the sins. Various levels...

 hangs these clothes on a riverside branch that bends to reflect the gravity of the sins. If the sinner arrives with no clothes, Datsu-ba strips them of their skin

Skin

-Dermis:The dermis is the layer of skin beneath the epidermis that consists of connective tissue and cushions the body from stress and strain. The dermis is tightly connected to the epidermis by a basement membrane. It also harbors many Mechanoreceptors that provide the sense of touch and heat...

. Various levels of punishment are performed even at this early stage. For those who steal, for example, Datsueba breaks their fingers, and together with her old-man consort, she ties the head of the sinner to the sinner's feet.