is a

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

in Kamigyō-ku, Kyoto,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

History

The shrine was first built in 947 to appease the angry spirit of bureaucrat, scholar and poet Sugawara no Michizane, who had been exiled as a result of political maneuvers of his enemies in the

Fujiwara clan The was a powerful family of imperial regents in Japan, descending from the Nakatomi clan and, as legend held, through them their ancestral god Ame-no-Koyane. The Fujiwara prospered since ancient times and dominated the imperial court until th ...

. The shrine became the object of Imperial patronage during the early

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

. In 965,

Emperor Murakami The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother/grandmother ( empress dowager/ grand empress dowager), or a woman who rul ...

ordered that Imperial messengers be sent to report important events to the guardian ''

kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

'' of Japan. These messengers initially presented gifts called ' to 16 shrines; and in 991, Emperor Ichijō added three more shrines to Murakami's list — including Kitano.Ponsonby-Fane, ''Studies in Shrines,'' p. 118. From 1871 through 1946, the Kitano Tenman-gū was officially designated one of the , meaning that it stood in the second rank of government supported shrines.

Tenjin

The shrine was dedicated to Michizane; and in 986, the scholar-bureaucrat was deified and the title of " Tenjin" was conferred. The grounds are filled with Michizane's favorite tree, the red and white ''

ume ''Prunus mume'', the Chinese plum or Japanese apricot, is a tree species in the family Rosaceae. Along with bamboo, the plant is intimately associated with art, literature, and everyday life in China, from where it was then introduced to Kor ...

'' or plum blossom, and when they blossom the shrine is often very crowded. The Plum Blossom Festival (梅花祭, ''baikasai'') is held on February 25, coinciding with the monthly market. An open-air tea ceremony (野点, ''nodate'') is hosted by geiko and apprentice maiko from the nearby Kamishichiken district, where tea and

wagashi is traditional Japanese confectionery, typically made using plant-based ingredients and with an emphasis on seasonality. ''Wagashi'' generally makes use of cooking methods that pre-date Western influence in Japan. It is often served with green ...

are served to 3,000 guests by geisha and maiko.Open-Air Tea Ceremony with the Scent of Plum Blossoms: Plum Blossom Festival at Kitano Tenman-gu Shrine
, Kyoto Shimbun, 2007.2.25 The plum festival has been held on the same day every year for about 900 years to mark the death of Michizane. The outdoor tea ceremony dates back to 1952. In that year, a big festival was held to mark the 1,050th anniversary of Michizane's death, based on the historic Kitano Ochakai tea ceremony hosted at the shrine by

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

Kitano Tenmangū is popular with students praying for success in exams because the deity was in his life a man of literature and knowledge. On the 25th of every month, the shrine hosts a

flea market A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of street market that provides space for vendors to sell previously owned (secondhand) goods. This type of market is often seasonal. However, in recent years there has been the development of 'formal' ...

. Together with the similar festival at Tō-ji, a temple in the same city, they inspired the Kyoto proverb, "Fair weather at the Tōji market means rainy weather at the Tenjin market," calling to mind Kyoto's fickle weather.

Notes

References

* Breen, John and

Mark Teeuwen Mark J. Teeuwen (Marcus Jacobus Teeuwen, born 9 February 1966, Eindhoven) is a Dutch academic and Japanologist. He is an expert in Japanese religious practices, and he is a professor at the University of Oslo.University of Oslo faculty CV/ref> In a ...

. (2000)
''Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami.''
Honolulu:

University of Hawaii Press A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. * Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1962).
''Studies in Shinto and Shrines.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 399449
* ____________. (1959)
''The Imperial House of Japan.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 194887
* ____________. (1964)
''Visiting Famous Shrines in Japan.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby-Fane Memorial Society.

External links

Kitano Tenmangū Official web page

Beppyo shrines 947 establishments Religious buildings and structures completed in the 940s Shinto shrines in Kyoto National Treasures of Japan Important Cultural Properties of Japan 10th-century establishments in Japan Sugawara no Michizane Tenjin (kami) Kanpei Chūsha Twenty-Two Shrines Kokushi genzaisha {{Tenjin Faith

History

Tenjin

See also

Notes

References

External links