Kitano Daimyōjin

The Tenjin faith, which enshrines Sugawara no Michizane

The enshrined kami of Kitano Tenmangū is Sugawara no Michizane. Reverence for a person who excelled in learning has led to the Tenjin faith, in which people pray for success in study and scholarship. It is a place of worship where Michizane as a historical figure and the traditions of Tenjin-sama, revered as a kami, overlap.

Source: 北野天満宮

Feelings for Michizane, entrusted to the plum tree

Kitano Tenmangū explains that because Michizane loved the plum, the shrine has inherited the plum as a tree with a deep divine connection. The plum is not merely a seasonal decoration but a symbol linked with the faith that remembers Michizane.

Source: 北野天満宮

Guarding one day at a time in turn: the faith of the Thirty Guardian Kami

The Thirty Guardian Kami (Sanjū Banjin) are a faith, combining kami and buddhas, in which thirty kami divide the days among themselves to protect the country and the Buddhist teaching. In Shōhōin's list, each kami is assigned a day from the first to the thirtieth. It is a grouping handed down in the Tendai and Nichiren lineages and others, and it needs to be distinguished from present-day explanations of the enshrined kami at shrines of the same name and from historical views about the original buddhas (honjibutsu).

Source: 飛不動尊 正宝院

Kami who come to hear the sutras — the origin story told by Shinjō-ji

Shinjō-ji, a temple of the Nichiren school, introduces a tradition that while Nichiren Shōnin was reading the Lotus Sutra on Mount Hiei, a different person visited him each day and revealed himself to be one of the Thirty Guardian Kami. This is the origin story of "the Thirty Guardian Kami who protect the Lotus Sutra" as taught by that temple. This site does not treat it as a historical event shared by all faith in the Thirty Guardian Kami.

Source: 日蓮宗 玉蓮山真成寺

Protection in turns that supports daily faith

Shinjō-ji introduces the Thirty Guardian Kami as guardian deities, combining kami and buddhas, who divide their duty by the day. What the temple values is the faith that they protect the Lotus Sutra and the people who believe in its teaching. This explanation is for learning their role as the Thirty Guardian Kami, in addition to the divine virtues handed down at each shrine.

Source: 日蓮宗 玉蓮山真成寺

Related kami and buddhas

• Jūichimen Kannon十一面観音
• Sanman Tōmyō Butsu三万燈明仏
• Sanjū Banjin三十番神