Yushima-Tenjin: a Mecca for students who sit for entrance exams

The entrance exam season is upon us again in Japan because the new school year begins in April, and many students who are about to take the tests and their parents visit Yushima Tenjin, a Shinto shrine, to ask for help in getting into the university of their choice. They write their wish or the names of the schools they want to enter on wooden votive tablets called Ema, which they receive after making an offering of 800 yen. When their wishes come true, the shrine recommends they should come again to receive another Ema for 800 yen and express their gratitude to the enshrined deity, Sugawarano Michizane.

Michizane was a scholar and politician in the 9th century. Due to his extraordinarily high intelligence and hard work he moved up the political ladder. However, he was demoted from the highest rank official in Kyoto, the capital, to minor post in a remote town as the result of his rival's scheme. Although he wasn’t successful as a politician and died unhappy he is revered by Japanese people as a great scholar.

On a chilly but sunny day in February I took my American guest Steve, who is a professor of law, to the shrine. He was amazed at the thousands of Emas, saying there no custom like that in his country. The garden was crowded with people who came and saw the hundreds of ume plum blossoms at the shrine which cultivate them because of Michizame’s favorite. Michizame composed a beautiful poem about the ume blossoms in his garden when he left Kyoto for the last time, never to return.

When the spring east wind blows,
Ume plum trees,
Don't forget to bloom with scent,
Even without your master



A lot of Emas




The annoucement: They passed the entrance exams!



 A tea ceremony in the garden

Michizane rode on a cow and left Kyoto