A woman was paying her respects at the Tsutsujigaoka Tenmangu behind a sacred rope with straw dangling from it

People praying at the Tsutsujigaoka Tenmangu Shrine in Sendai — Tsutsujigaoka Tenmangu Shrine

Originally, the Shinto shrine was supposed to be a place to repose the soul of Sugawara Michizane, who died of a broken heart and became a vengeful spirit, but nowadays Tenmangu Shrine does not have such a horrifying image. Most people think of it as a place where the god of learning is enshrined, and many people must have visited Tenmangu Shrine before the examination season to pray for success. Gods of good fortune for success are popular, and there is a Tenmangu Shrine here in Sendai. It is true that Sugawara Michizane, the deity of the shrine, was an outstanding scholar. When did he come to be worshipped as a 'god of learning' rather than a grudge spirit?

Although nowadays it is understandable that entering a difficult university is a shortcut to success in life, such a path was not established in Japan until after the Meiji Restoration at best. Japan, which had adopted the Chinese system of governance as a reference but did not adopt the system of the Imperial examination, may have found it difficult to rise to prominence in academia until then. In any case, unlike mainland China and Yi Dynasty Korea, which had a system of the Imperial examination, actual Japanese society was run not by intellectuals who had passed the examination system, but by samurai who would go to war with their swords when the time came. In such a world, being born into a good family was probably a prerequisite for success rather than passing the examinations.

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