Horseheaded Kannon

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Horseheaded Kannon (Batoo Kannon )

馬頭観音
馬頭観世音

Horseheaded Kannon - please share my headache! too much sake ... Temple Eifuku-Ji, Nr. 54 Shikoku My husband just brought a wagonload full of horse manure from a nearby farm to prepare the vegetable fields. And I helped, of course ... I will spare you the smell that goes with this haiku ... shoveling manure to the summer fields - Horseheaded Kannon

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The Horseheaded Kannon

Batou Kannon is not only said to protect dumb animals, particularly those who labor for mankind, but she extends her power to protecting their spirits and bringing them ease and a happier life than they experienced while on earth.

By neighing like a horse, the horseheaded deities ward off the bad demons. Batoo Kannon has been known in Japan since 7th century. He/She is especially honored by the horse breeders in Northern Japan. Nowadays you even find bicycles in front of the stone votive statues on waysides.

Read more about this Batoo Kannon at Mark Schumacher's pages.

Kannon Bosatsu is an important deity in the Buddhist pantheon.
bato kannon
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on earthen clods
he talks of next year
shoveling manure

michele


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Horse-deities of Japan


White horse, hakuba　白馬 at Shinto shrines


quote
As in all the oldest nations, we find in Japan, as its most ancient religion — Sun-worship. Nor are the Elements forgotten, as those are the abodes of all the "minor gods or spirits" — namely, the Powers or Forces of Nature. The Sun still receives deific honours; and its emblem has fully survived in the Sinto temples, called Maya, [Divine residence. Hence the name of the ecclesiastical metropolis Myako, the abode of the Spiritual Emperor] where no idols or images are to be found, save a bright mirror in the shape of a disc, before which are placed high metallic poles, with long and broad slips of paper attached to them, and mysterious inscriptions on these, traced in the Nai-den style, that peculiar sacerdotal written language used only for religious and mystical subjects.
Strange to think, the Japanese practise in reference to Sun-worship that curious ceremony so well known in India under the name of the aswamedha, or sacrifice of the horse. Anciently the horse was considered by every nation an emblem of the primeval and universal manifested being, who, when identified with the Sun, had the horse given him as his attendant.

"The horses of the Sun" are famous, and were deified in all the old religious systems, even in the youngest of the latter — the Mosaic, or Jewish creed. [And he (Josiah) took away the horses that the Kings of Judah had given to the Sun, at the entering of the House of the Lord. (2 Kings, xxiii. II)]
Every Sun-God has a horse (always white) associated with him. Sosiosh, born of a virgin, is expected to appear at the end of the days upon a white horse as Redeemer, says the book Bun Dehesh. Vishnu, or the "Kalanki Avatar", is to come upon a white horse; and St. John, in the Revelation (xix., 11, 14), sees the heavens opened and the "Faithful and True", or the coming Christian Messiah, seated on a white horse; and the "armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses". The white horse is the horse of the Sun; and Mithra, the old Medo-Arian Sun-God, reappears everywhere. [ “The Manicheans held that the Sun, who is Mithra, is Christ himself,” says St. Augustine (cap 8) who had belonged to that sect]

For the Sun is the fiery source of Spirit-power or Spirit of LIFE, while the chariot typifies the body, and the horse its animating principle. And thus in Japan Ten-Zio-Dai-Zen, "he who darts out his rays" is presented with its emblem, the horse, at its Temple on certain festive days. A number of sacred horses in pictures and horses cut out of paper with sacred inscriptions on them are hung on the walls.
source : 　www.theosophical.ca





At Saijo Inari Shrine, Okayama pref.
Photo Gabi Greve 2008


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At Kibune Shrine, Kyoto
貴船神社の馬

The ancient Japanese religion was heavily concerned with water, many of the oldest shrines were placed at important water sources, and this is the case with Kibune. Enshrined here are the God Kuraokami no kami and his wife the Goddess Mizuhonone no kami, both considered water gods. Once the capital was moved to Kyoto the Emperor would visit here for ceremonies connected with rain.
If rainfall was needed,
a black horse would be offered to the shrine,
if dry weather was needed, a white horse.
source : 　japanvisitor.blogspot.com


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jinme, shinba 神馬, 神駒(かみこま)
horses offered to a shrine as vehicles for the gods


The White Horse at Miyajima 宮島白馬
Horse of the Gods at Miyajima 宮島の神馬

One of the seven wonders of Miyajima.
Horses offered to this shrine will turn to a white color within four or five years of living here.
It is sayed that Taira no Kiyomori, who had the shrine build, came visiting often because there was a beautiful woman with white skin living on the island.


© PHOTO :　www.miyajima1.com

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At Shrine Oasahko Jinja in Awaji
Oasahiko no Okami 大麻比古の大神


Photo Gabi Greve, 2007

Oasahiko Daruma Doll


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Memyo Bosatsu 馬鳴菩薩（めみょうぼさつ）
"Neighing Horse Bosatsu"

"Neighing horse deity", menari myojin 馬鳴明神

馬に乗る女神の蚕玉神
Silkworm Goddess on a Horse

The Woman Who Married a Horse
Japanese SILK Deities


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Horse-headed Fudo Myo-O. Bato Fudo Myo-O
不動明王馬頭独鈷杵 Batoo Fudoo Myoo Oo

On a Nepalese Vajra


© PHOTO :　www.himal-j.com


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The Horse in Japanese Haiku

Ema 絵馬　＜＞ Votive Plaques, Votive Tablets, Prayer Boards
Lit. "Paintings of Horses"

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