Dazaifu Tenjin Legend

The Dazaifu Tenjin legend records the goryo cult that arose around the Heian-era statesman and scholar Sugawara no Michizane (845-903). Slandered by Fujiwara no Tokihira, Michizane was demoted to Dazai-no-gon-no-Sochi at Dazaifu in 901 and died there in 903. In Kyoto, lightning strikes, epidemics and the early deaths of members of the Tokihira house followed; the court, reading these as the work of Michizane's vengeful spirit, restored him to udaijin in 923, posthumously promoted him to daijo-daijin shoichi-i in 993, founded the Kitano Tenmangu and instituted offerings to soothe his spirit. The tradition has three layers: slander and exile; calamities at the capital and the deaths in the Tokihira house; and the awarding of divine rank with the founding of Kitano and Dazaifu. The cult marks the high point of Heian goryo belief, and Michizane later acquired his role as patron of scholarship and letters. The Dazaifu Tenmangu in Fukuoka stands above his grave and is the founding site of the cult, with the tobiume plum tree said to have flown from Kyoto. The Kitano Tenmangu in Kyoto is its court counterpart. Sources include the Nihon Kiryaku, Fuso Ryakki, the Kitano Tenjin Engi picture scrolls (Kamakura period), Fujiwara no Yukinari's Gonki, Minamoto no Takaaki's Saikyu-ki, and the Edo Chikuzen no Kuni Zoku Fudoki (Kaibara Ekiken, 1703).