Virtual Ueno Oji Komagome 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #29 Tokaku-ji Temple

 

     Togaku-ji Temple was founded at Kanda in 1491 by Priest Genga.  It moved to Negishi, and moved again to its present place in the 1590's.

     From 1487 to 1505, Uesugi Akisada (1454-1510), who was the Regent of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate and who was the head of the Yamanouchi-Uesugi Family, and Uesugi Sadamasa (1443-1494), the head of Ogigayatsu-Uesugi Family, intermittently fought over the hegemony in the Kanto Region.  After Sadamasa's death, his nephew, Tomoyoshi (1473-1518), succeeded to the fight.  Curses return upon the heads of those that curse.  Both the 2 families declined.  The temple might have moved to Negishi when the Later Hojo Clan gained supremacy in the Kanto Region, and moved again presumably after the collapse of the clan.  The temple could have moved due to its supporters' peaks and troughs.

     The temple's web page claims it enshrined a copy of the statue of Hayagriva, who has the head of a horse, of the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #29 Matsuo-ji Temple.  However, it enshrines an Avalokitesvara statue surrounded by 50 kinds of animals today.  It's untraceable whether the Avalokitesvara statue was made before the organization of the Ueno Oji Komagome 33 Kannon Pilgrimage in 1771 or it replaced a Hayagriva statue after the organization of the pilgrimage.  Did the organizers of the Ueno Oji Komagome 33 Kannon Pilgrimage recognize certain similarity, say over their animality or animalism, between the statues?

     On April 13th, 1945, the air raid burned all the temple buildings, Buddhist images, and documents except the main deity and the Avalokitesvara statue.

Address: 2 Chome-7-3 Tabata, Kita City, Tokyo 114-0014

Phone: 03-3821-1031