Kitano Tenjin Engi Legend

The Kitano Tenjin Engi is a medieval emaki and engi corpus organizing how Sugawara no Michizane, after his death at the place of his demotion in Dazaifu, came to be enshrined at Kitano in Kyoto as a goryo (vengeful spirit). Slandered by Fujiwara no Tokihira, Michizane was demoted in Shotai 4 (901) to Dazai Gon-no-Sochi and died at Dazaifu in Engi 3 (903). Thereafter, the sudden deaths of members of the Tokihira house and the lightning strike on the Seiryoden of Engi 8 (930) and other portents followed in succession; in Tengyo 5 (942) an oracle of Michizane came to Tajihi no Ayako in the Ukyo seventh-ward second-block area, instructing her to enshrine and pacify him at the Ukon training field at Kitano. From this came in Tenryaku 1 (947) the founding of the Kitano shrine (Kitano Tenmangu). The story has three central scenes: the demotion through slander and the diminished death at Dazaifu, the disorders, lightning, and deaths of the Tokihira house in Kyoto, and the oracle to Tajihi no Ayako and Miwa no Yoshitane of Omi-Hira and the founding of Kitano Tenmangu. Medieval Kitano Tenjin Engi emaki, from the Kamakura period, were made in many lineages, carrying the visual expansion of Tenjin worship and showing the shift from goryo belief to the worship of a god of learning. The center is Kitano Tenmangu in Bakuro-cho, Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto. The Sanko-mon and main hall before the worship hall are Momoyama-period structures designated as National Treasures, and a grove of plum trees connected with Michizane is in the precinct, where the Plum Festival in February is famous. Dazaifu Tenmangu in Dazaifu, Fukuoka, stands on Michizane's grave and is paired with Kitano as the centers of Tenjin worship. The two shrines together hold the head-shrine role for the more than twelve thousand Tenmangu shrines nationwide. The medieval emaki Kitano Tenjin Engi Emaki Joken-bon (made Joken 1, 1219, National Treasure), Konan-bon, Nezu-bon, and many other variant emaki are National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties. The Nihon Kiryaku, Fuso Ryakki, Okagami, Jukkinsho, and Kokon Chomonju accumulate the tales of disorder after Michizane's death. The tradition of Kitano Tenmangu, Kyoto City and Kyoto Prefecture cultural property materials, and art-history commentary in the Nihon Emakimono Zenshu and related works are the basic references.