Misode Tenmangu

Misode Tenmangu (御袖天満宮) is a Shinto shrine in Nagae, Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, an Onomichi temple-town shrine of the Tenjin cult, reached by a steep stairway of 55 natural-stone steps from the foot of Mount Senko-ji. The principal kami is Sugawara no Michizane (845-903), the Heian-period scholar and Minister of the Right exiled to Dazaifu, with Ame-no-Hohi-no-Mikoto (ancestral kami of the Sugawara clan) as an auxiliary kami. The shrine name "Misode" (honoured sleeve) derives from the local legend that Michizane stopped at Onomichi on his way to exile in 901 CE and left a piece of his sleeve with the local people, which was later enshrined. The present main hall (1809) is a designated cultural property of Hiroshima, and the Tenjin Festival in late July is observed by the Onomichi merchants and shipowners.