Kitano Tenjin, the God of Learning, Visiting China (Totō Tenjin 渡唐天神)

Sugawara no Michizane 菅原道真 (845–903), a nobleman of the Heian Period (794–1185), was a scholar, poet, and statesman who rose to high rank at the imperial court. Embroiled in a power struggle, he was demoted and exiled to a distant province, where he died. Various calamities then struck the capital and were determined to be the vengeance of Sugawara’s angry spirit. To appease him, he was deified as Kitano Tenjin 北野天神. Originally understood to be a storm god, by the Edo period Tenjin had become known as the God of Learning.

Here, he appears in a popular form based on a Zen Buddhist legend known as Tenjin Visiting China (Totō Tenjin 渡唐天神), identified by the Chinese scholar’s cap and robe he wears. The blossoming plum branch is a more frequent symbol of Tenjin—in exile, Sugawara wrote a famous poem about the plum tree at his home back in the capital.