Basic Terms of Shinto 神道基本用語集

詳細表示 (Complete Article)

Title	Tenjin
	天神
Text	Originally meant "Heavenly God," but later came to refer exclusively to the spirit of courtier-scholar Sugawara Michizane (845-903). A victim of political intrigue, Michizane was sent into exile but continued to protest his innocence through poetry until his death. His angry spirit was later judged to be the source of a series of disasters, and so he was posthumously pardoned, given a promotion in court rank, and ultimately deified. He is revered as the patron saint of scholarship at such shrines as the Dazaifu Tenmangû in Fukuoka Prefecture and Kitano Tenjin shrines throughout Japan. See also Tenjin Matsuri.