Kitano Tenmangu Hatsu-Tenjin (First Tenjin Market of the Year)

Before you go

Kitano Tenmangu's market opens on the 25th of every month; the January market is Hatsu-Tenjin, the first Tenjin of the year.

The 25th comes from the life of Sugawara no Michizane: he was born on 25 June in 845 and died on 25 February, and the shrine's monthly fair day, its ennichi, follows those two dates. The shrine is the head shrine of some 12,000 Tenmangu and Tenjin shrines across Japan, and Michizane is worshipped here as a god of learning.

In an ordinary month the approach is lined with stalls from morning to evening. After sunset the grounds are lit: 350 stone lanterns and 250 hanging lanterns are kindled, and the shrine buildings, the National Treasure main hall among them, stand out in the light. That main hall is a yatsumune-zukuri building, its eight roofs erected by Toyotomi Hideyori. The treasure hall also opens specially on the 25th. It holds the Kitano Tenjin Engi Emaki, a National Treasure painted around 1219, depicting Michizane's life and the founding of this shrine. In season, the grounds carry some 1,500 plum trees of about fifty varieties associated with Michizane, known as the Tenjin plums; the early varieties open gradually after the New Year.

Hatsu-Tenjin is larger than an ordinary month. The shrine counts about 1,000 stalls inside and outside the grounds, more than usual, and attendance of about 150,000. The date falls just before the school entrance examinations, and many of the worshippers are candidates and their parents: some receive prayers for success, others write their wishes on ema votive plaques.

The year's fairs have a beginning and an end: Hatsu-Tenjin in January opens them, and Shimai-Tenjin in December closes them; the shrine calls these two the liveliest of the year. The December market adds stalls selling plants, antiques, second-hand clothes and clothing, and New Year goods such as leaf peonies, shimekazari wreaths and salted salmon.

Getting there

By city bus, the shrine is immediately at the Kitano Tenmangu-mae stop; by Randen tram, it is about a 7-minute walk from Kitano-Hakubaicho Station. (Kyoto City's official visitor guide.)

Kitano Tenmangu was founded in 947. The shrine's own history says that in the first year of Tenryaku, under Emperor Murakami, an oracle led to Michizane being enshrined at Kitano, the 'heavenly gate' at the north-west of the Heian capital. The shrine's annual-events page names Tajihi no Ayako as the first person to worship him; at the festival of the Ayako Tenmangu sub-shrine in the grounds, a portable shrine travels to the site of her former residence in Nishinokyo.