Tenjin (天神, Sugawara no Michizane)
The deified Sugawara no Michizane, venerated as the deity of learning.
Tenjin is the deified spirit of Sugawara no Michizane (845–903), a Heian scholar and statesman who rose to Minister of the Right before being demoted to Dazaifu on a rival's slander, and who died there. Disasters in the capital afterwards were widely read as his anger, and he was placated as a thunder deity; farmers received him instead as the bringer of the rain their fields needed. In time his scholarship and character came to dominate, and he became the deity of letters, poetry, calligraphy and learning worshipped at Tenmangu shrines across Japan. Plum blossom is his emblem.
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ShrineYushima Tenmangu
- Exams & Study
A Bunkyo shrine enshrining Sugawara no Michizane, where Tokyo students come to pray before examinations, and whose plum garden opens each February.
ShrineKameido Tenjin Shrine
- Exams & Study
A Koto shrine laid out in 1662 on the model of Dazaifu Tenmangu, head of Tenjin devotion in eastern Japan, and the best place in Tokyo to see wisteria.