Kitano Tenman-gū
Kitano Tenman-gū ( Japanese 北野 天 満 宮 ) is a Shinto shrine in the city of Kyoto in Japan .
It is dedicated to the Kami Tenjin and was built in 942 to calm the angry mind ( Onryō ) of the late scholar and poet Sugawara no Michizane , who was exiled because of the political intrigues of his opponents in the Fujiwara clan . Initially, the shrine was dedicated to him personally before he was deified under the name Tenjin in 986 . Currently, Kitano Tenman-gū is considered the main shrine of the many Tenmangu shrines throughout Japan.
On the entire area of the shrine, more than 2000 umebrees were planted, as these are said to have been Sugawara's favorite trees. The shrine is particularly popular with high school and university students who pray here for success in exams. On the 25th of each month (the anniversary of Michizane's birth and death), the shrine hosts a local flea market .
In 959 the shrine was significantly enlarged by Fujiwara no Morosuke . The first Kitano- Matsuri was held in 987 , a festival that is still celebrated today. In 1004, Tennō Ichijō paid his first visit to the shrine, later the shrine was added to the list of Nijūnisha , the "Twenty-Two Shrines," considered the most important of the Heian, along with other large shrines such as Kamo Shrine and Iwashimizu Shrine -Time counted , recorded. The three main buildings of the shrine from 1607 are in the architectural style gongen-zukuri ( 権 現 造 ) and have an H-shape. They were built by Hideyori Toyotomi .
Tea cups are dedicated in the shrine on November 6th to commemorate the day in 1587 when Hideyoshi Toyotomi first performed this ceremony. On this occasion there is a procession of about 150 people from the offices of the prefectural administration to the shrine, led by six representatives from six major regions of Japanese tea production.
Inside the shrine are several picture scrolls ( emakimono ) dating from the 13th to 17th centuries that tell the history of the shrine and were painted by some of Japan's most famous artists.
literature
- Ichiro Hori (Author), Joseph M. Kitagawa, Alan L. Miller (Eds.): Folk Religion in Japan: Continuity and Change (= Haskell Lectures on History of Religions , Vol. 1). University of Chicago Press, Chicago / London 1994, ISBN 0226353346 , pp. 43-51.
- Stanca Scholz: Aspects of medieval syncretism in the image of Tenman Tenjin in the Nô (= Munich East Asian Studies , vol. 59). Steiner, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-515-05623-8 , pp. 7-9 & 18-20, (at the same time: Munich, University, dissertation, 1989).
Web links
- Shrine website (Japanese, English)
- Information provided by Kyoto Prefecture (English)
- Gongen-zukuri in the Japanese Architect and Art Net Users System (English)
- Legend of the origins of the shrine (Japanese, English)
Coordinates: 35 ° 1 ′ 52 ″ N , 135 ° 44 ′ 7 ″ E