Fudehajime-sai and Tenmagaki (New Year calligraphy before the deity)

Before you go

The year's first calligraphy is written before the deity. Kitano Tenmangu enshrines Sugawara no Michizane, honoured as one of the Sansei, the three sages of calligraphy, alongside Emperor Saga and Ono no Tōfū. Michizane was also a statesman, and a poet whose Chinese verse and waka are still read today. The Fudehajime-sai, the shrine's New Year rite for the brush, begins by honouring this side of him.

At the rite, calligraphy tools said to have been loved by Michizane are offered before the main hall. His virtue as a calligrapher is remembered, and progress is prayed for on behalf of everyone who practises the art. Kyoto City's official visitor guide names one of the offerings: the inkstone called Matsukaze no Suzuri, handed down as Michizane's own, set out with ink, brushes and a water pot. The same treasured tools are offered again at the summer Mitarashi festival, that time with summer vegetables and dumplings.

The Tenmagaki follows. Worshippers sign up at the ema hall and write their first characters of the year before the deity, praying for improvement in their calligraphy.

The link between Michizane and the brush long outlived him. Kitano Tenmangu's own history page records that in the Edo period, terakoya schools across Japan hung a portrait of him, called a goshin'ei, in the classroom, and prayed for success in study and in the martial arts. The shrine gives this as one of the reasons he came to be widely known as a god of learning.

The sheets written at the Tenmagaki are kept for people to see. They are put on public display, judged by calligraphy teachers, and prizes are awarded to the outstanding pieces.