Nagara Tenjin Shrine

Nagara Tenjin Shrine in Nagara, Gifu City, stands on the right bank of the Nagara River at the northern foot of Mount Kinka. Its main deity is Sugawara no Michizane (845-903), recorded in Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku and Fuso Ryakki as a Heian-era scholar and minister, who came to be venerated nationwide as the Tenjin deity. The shrine descends from the Kitano Tenmangu in Kyoto and the Dazaifu Tenmangu in Fukuoka as part of the Tenman cult. Its precise founding date is unknown but it is recorded in Edo-period Mino gazetteers as the tutelary shrine of the Nagara district. Annual rites include the October reisai and the Baika-sai on February 25, the death day of Michizane.