Kitano Tenmangu Shrine Treasure House

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The treasure hall seems like an armory of old, as many samurais dedicated armor and blades to the deity of scholarship and martial arts

Gifts from admirers of the deified spirit

Kitano Tenjin-san, or the deified spirit of Sugawara Michizane (845~903), a Heian scholar and politician, is synonymous with Kitano Tenman-gu Shrine, the head shrine of the Tenjin religion, with Tenman-gu shrines nationwide worshiping the Tenjin spirit, which stands for scholarship. The present main shrine is a National Treasure that was built by Hideyoshi’s son Hideyori Toyotomi (1593~1615) and passes on the gorgeous delights of Momoyama culture to us, today.
Widely believed in by many - including the Imperial family, nobles and merchants - the shrine and its deified spirit of the scholarly and war-versed Michizane were held in great esteem by samurais, who, in turn, presented the shrine with many treasures, such as swords, suits of armor, stone lanterns and votive pictures of horses. And, now, some 70 to 80 of these heirlooms are exhibited on a rotation basis during each of the four seasons in the shrine’s treasure hall. Notable artworks include the illustrated hand scroll of the history of Kitano Tenman-gu Shrine and the life of Michizane Sugawara (National Treasure), the oldest chronicles of Japan Nihon-shoki (Important Cultural Property) and Onigirimaru (the ogre slayer) sword.