In 901, the scholar Sugawara no Michizane (845-903) was banished from the capital Heian-kyô to Dazaifu on Kyûshû. When several catastrophes struck the capital in the following years, it was suspected that Michizane’s dead soul was taking revenge. He was posthumously rehabilitated and declared the deity Tenman Tenjin. In 947, a place of worship was founded in his honour, which Toyotomi Hideyori, son of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, had rebuilt into a shrine in 1607. In Kitano-tenman-gû today, students in particular invoke the deity of learning before their entrance examinations. The plum trees favoured by Michizane stand in the forecourt of the complex.
