Old Edo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #2 Komagata-do Temple

     Haji Matsuchi, Hinokuma Yamanari, and Hinokuma Tekenari were netting fishes in Miyato River (nearly Sumida River today) in 589.  They caught an Arya Avalokitesvara statue out of the river.  They wove a small shed with wild spinach canes, and put the statue in it. Komagata-do Temple stands at the very place where the wild-spinach-cane shed was built, or woven.

     But the deity here today is another metamorphosis of Avalokitesvara, Hayagriva, who has the head of a horse.  The temple name, Komagata, literally means horse shape.  Does it something to do with Hayagriva?  I don’t know.  Why did Avalokitesvara metamorphose into Hayagriva here? I don’t know.

Address: 2 Chome-2-3 Kaminarimon, Taito City, Tokyo 111-0034