Kitano Tenmangu Shrine: New Year Visit (Hatsumode)

Before you go

The New Year at Kitano Tenmangu begins with calligraphy: Michizane's beloved writing tools are offered up, and visitors write their first brushstrokes of the year before the deity.

The Saitansai is the first rite of the New Year, praying for the prosperity of the imperial family, the flourishing of the nation, rich harvests and peace in the world; the first water drawn from the shrine well in the New Year is offered before the deity as wakamizu.

Michizane was a statesman, a poet and a calligrapher, counted with Emperor Saga and Ono no Michikaze as one of the Three Saints of calligraphy. At the Fudehajime-sai, priests offer his beloved writing tools before the main hall and pray for progress in the art for all who practise calligraphy; at the Tenmagaki that follows, visitors write their first calligraphy of the year at the ema hall, and the pieces offered up are later put on display, judged by calligraphers, with prizes for the best.

In 942 a young woman, Tajihi no Ayako, who lived in Shichijō in the western part of the capital, received an oracle from Michizane telling her to build a shrine to him at Kitano; five years later, Tarōmaru, the young son of an Ōmi priest, received the same oracle, and on 9 June 947 the Asahi-dera monk Saichin built the shrine on the court's orders.

Forty years after the founding, in 987, Emperor Ichijō bestowed the title Kitano Tenman Daijizai Tenjin, and the first imperial offering was made. Reclining ox statues are everywhere in the grounds, and they come from a story: Michizane's will said the hearse should not be pulled by people but should stop wherever the ox stopped, and the ox cart carrying his body sat down and would not move at one spot, and he was buried there.