Poet, Scholar, Vengeful Ghost, God of Learning — Michizane is Remarkable!

Japan loves threes. Three Great Beautiful Places. Three Great Night Views. Three Great Mountains. In this three article series, I introduce you to Japan’s Three Great Vengeful Ghosts.

Sugawara no Michizane is my favorite of Japan’s three most vengeful ghosts. He was the most noble, then the most frightening, and today, he is the most honored.

Vengeful Ghost #3 — Sugawara no Michizane

Sugawara no Michizane was born into a family of mid-level aristocrats in Kyoto in 845. Both his grandfather and his father were scholars of classical Chinese literature and history, taught at the Kyoto school of higher learning, and were private tutors to emperors. Michizane was destined to surpass them.

He began reading classical Chinese poetry at age five and composed his first poem at the age of eleven. As a child, Michizane could often be found in the garden of his father’s estate, gazing at the plum trees and admiring their ephemeral, delicate blossoms while he composed poetry, a habit he continued throughout his life. Michizane grew to be the greatest composer of classical Chinese poetry in the history of Japan and the epitome of scholarship.

He began his service to the imperial court when he was 25, and quickly advanced through the court ranks. By age 33, Michizane had attained the highest level of scholarship in Kyoto.

Michizane, Friend of the Emperor

Michizane was not only respected by Emperor Uda for his scholarship, but he became family when Uda chose Michizane’s oldest daughter to be one of his concubines. Closer still, when Uda’s third son married Michizane’s third daughter.

In 901, Emperor Uda named Michizane Minister of the Right, elevating him to the second highest court rank. Soon thereafter, Uda retired, turning over control of the government to his eldest son, Emperor Daigo.

A man with whom Michizane had been on friendly terms, Fujiwara Tokihira — who held the higher position of Minister of the Left — along with many of the nobility, were not happy with Michizane’s quick advancement. Remembering his daughter’s marriage to Uda’s son, they devised a scheme to get rid of him.

False Allegations

Nobles, mainly of the Fujiwara family, accused Michizane of conspiring to make his son-in-law, Uda’s third son, emperor in place of Daigo. The accusations carried such weight that, in spite of Michizane’s innocence, he was banished to Dazaifu, a fortified governmental base in northern Kyushu.

One of the conspirators was Fujiwara Sugane, a close associate of Michizane and one of his former students. When Uda heard of the travesty of Michizane’s banishment, he sought an audience with Daigo, but Sugane would not permit him to see the emperor without an invitation. Uda sent a message to Daigo through Sugane, but Sugane never delivered it.

Misery and Death in Dazaifu

Michizane had to pay his way to Dazaifu, and once there, was provided with no attendants or salary. He was given a broken down, abandoned house in which to live. Although holding an official title, he was forbidden to work or even step foot into the government offices. He could not teach. His writings were censored.

His heart was grieved that his family shared in his punishment for his perceived disloyalty to the emperor and had been scattered. He dearly missed them.

He yearned for his life in Kyoto, his evening poetry parties, and his books. He longed for the fine food, beautiful clothes, and refined culture. He wished to sit again in his garden and gaze at his beloved plum tree, with its delicate and fragrant blossoms. So great was his yearning, legend tells us, that one night Michizane’s plum tree uprooted itself from its home in Kyoto and came to rest in Dazaifu. It is still there.

Nothing but misery, crime, and harassment befell him in Dazaifu. The local situation was so full of corruption that Michizane felt it was beyond hope. People murdered and stole without compunction or fear of retribution.

Curious onlookers came to gawk at his misery. Tokihira’s spies hounded him. The colors of his once-lovely kimonos gradually faded as they turned to rags.

As the months passed, Michizane’s money ran out. He could no longer afford food, clothing, or even a place to live. He died heartbroken and in abject poverty in 903, just two years after arriving in Kyushu.

The Fujiwara scheme to banish him from Kyoto and his work was, in effect, a slow, drawn out, and depressing death sentence.

Michizane Becomes a Vengeful Ghost

After Michizane’s death, unexplained troubles began to shake Kyoto. There were cycles of floods and droughts, plagues and earthquakes.

• In 908, Fujiwara Sugane, Michizane’s former student who had plotted against him and refused to deliver Uda’s message to Emperor Daigo, was struck by lightning and died.
• The next year, the main conspirator, Fujiwara Tokihira, inexplicably fell ill and died.

Rumors spread among aristocracy and commoners alike that Michizane’s ghost had returned to seek revenge.

The troubles continued.

• The man who replaced Michizane as Minister of the Right fell into a swamp and died while out hunting.
• Daigo’s second son died. The historical record, Nihon Kiryaku, attributed his death to Michizane’s curse-like, malevolent feelings towards the emperor. Later that year, a fearful Daigo had Michizane reinstated as the Minister of the Right.
• Before another three years had passed, the eldest son of Daigo’s recently deceased son also died.
• Next, Tokihira’s oldest son died.

Again, fingers pointed to the avenging spirit of Michizane. Anxiety and fear grew.

• In 930, a meeting was held in the great hall of the imperial palace with Emperor Daigo in attendance, along with his highest court nobles. Suddenly, a bright fork of lightning split the sky and struck the imperial hall, causing a devastating fire that killed many important government officials. Daigo, traumatized by the disaster, fell ill and died three months later.

The vengeful ghost of Michizane, embodied in lightning, had made his most powerful attack.

This had to stop.

From Vengeful Ghost to Shinto God

Daigo’s son, the emperor Murakami, ordered the building of Kyoto’s Kitano Shrine to house the spirit of Michizane and had him deified as the kami, or Shinto god, Tenjin, “god of the heavens.” This was the first of many Tenmangu Shrines, specifically dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane.

During the Edo era (1603–1867), the story of Michizane’s life became a popular subject of puppet and kabuki plays. In fact, the most famous of those plays, Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami (Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy) is considered one of Japan’s Three Great Kabuki Plays. (I told you Japan loves threes.)

Outside the fanciful world of theater, Michizane came to be worshipped as the god of learning. Students prayed to him in their small temple classrooms, and samurai made offerings for his help in improving their martial arts’ skills.

Today, Michizane is known as the god of scholarship, the god of honesty and sincerity, the god of the performing arts, the god of dispelling false accusations, and even the god of agriculture.

There are approximately 12,000 Tenmangu Shrines dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane in Japan. Each year, thousands of students flock to his shrines to pray for his help in passing entrance exams as well as regular folk hoping to improve their abilities or knowledge.

I wrote about the other two great vengeful ghosts here: Taira no Masakado and Emperor Sutoku.

Sources:

https://news.mynavi.jp/article/20210930-1978876/, https://kitanotenmangu.or.jp/, https://www.dazaifutenmangu.or.jp/about/michizane

The post Sugawara no Michizane —Japan’s Three Most Infamous Vengeful Ghosts, part 3 first appeared on More Than Tokyo and is written by Diane Tincher.

Hell Hath no Fury like an Emperor Scorned

Japan loves threes. Three Great Beautiful Places. Three Great Night Views. Three Great Mountains. In this three article series, I introduce you to Japan’s Three Great Vengeful Ghosts.

Vengeful Ghost #2 — Emperor Sutoku

The central Heian government in Kyoto was beginning to fall apart by the 12th century. A succession dispute in 1156, known as the Hogen no Ran, turned into a fierce battle between the younger Emperor Go-Shirakawa and his older brother, the retired Emperor Sutoku.

This ended badly for Sutoku, and he was banished in disgrace as a criminal to Sanuki (Kagawa Prefecture) on the island of Shikoku.

While under house arrest in Sanuki, Sutoku applied himself to Buddhist study. He made offerings for the souls of those who had died in battle. He reflected on his life and prayed for his rebirth in the Buddhist Pure Land. And he spent months diligently writing out the five main Buddhist texts, or sutras. Some accounts claim that these sutras were written in his blood, so dedicated was he to the purifying of his soul.

Sutoku sent these painstakingly prepared sutras to Kyoto as an offering for a temple. First, though, they were presented at the Imperial Court.

The suspicious Emperor Go-Shirakawa took one look at them and wondered aloud, “Has Sutoku sent us a curse?!” Without even opening them, he had the sutras returned to Sutoku.

This blatant disrespect sent Sutoku into a rage. “If it’s a curse you want, a curse you shall get!” He gnawed his tongue, and with his blood he wrote this curse, “I shall become a mighty demon! I shall cause the Emperor to be made low, and the lowly peasant to be exalted!”

After this, Sutoku changed. He fell into a deep melancholy. His hair, beard, and nails went untrimmed, and he lived out his life in lonely exile away from his beloved Kyoto. Many say he came to appear more like a goblin of the mountains than the once mighty emperor of Japan.

Back in the capital, Emperor Go-Shirakawa retired in 1158, but he continued to keep a tight grip on power through the reigns of the next five emperors — each of whom was one of his sons or grandsons.

In 1164, Sutoku died.

As a final insult, Go-Shirakawa paid no respects and held no funeral services for his older brother, the former Emperor Sutoku. No royal tomb was built for him in Kyoto. He was banished even in death.

The governor of Sanuki Province saw to Sutoku’s funeral.

Birth of a Vengeful Ghost

Twelve years after Sutoku’s death, bad things started happening in the capital.

In 1176, Go-Shirakawa was shaken by the sudden deaths of four of his closest allies in the court. They had died one after the other.

The following year, the powerful warrior monks of Mount Hiei raised their heads, threatening the authority of the emperor. A brazen plot to overthrow the influential Taira clan was exposed. Worse, a massive fire reduced one third of the city of Kyoto to ashes.

A prominent court noble recorded in his diary that all these events were surely the work of the disrespected and banished ghost of Emperor Sutoku.

From that time on, the name Sutoku appeared often in the writings of the aristocracy in connection with any unfortunate event.

At last, the fearful and superstitious nobles pressured Go-Shirakawa to allow Buddhist memorial services to be held for the comfort of Sutoku’s spirit.

He acquiesced.

A mausoleum was built for Sutoku on the site of the Hogen no Ran battle. This was later incorporated into Hirano Shrine, which still stands in Kyoto today.

“Emperors Made Low”

While the nobles in Kyoto were enjoying their sophisticated culture, fine clothing, and poetry, the samurai in the countryside were gradually gaining power. Wars were fought between rival clans, and in 1184, the victorious warlord Minamoto no Yoritomo set up his shogunate in Kamakura. This marked the beginning of the feudal age that lasted until the mid-19th century.

For nearly 700 years, the emperor was reduced to a mere figurehead, cloistered in his palace in Kyoto. All power was held by the shogun.

Sutoku Becomes a Guardian Deity

In the early 13th century, Go-Shirakawa’s great grandson, the retired Emperor Tsuchimikado, was banished to Shikoku Island. He made a point to visit Sutoku’s grave to commiserate with his spirit, and to comfort him by playing his lute. Like Sutoku before him, Tsuchimikado was troubled and lonely, far from his loved ones in Kyoto.

That night, Sutoku appeared to Tsuchimikado in a dream, consoling him and promising that he would look after and protect his family.

Although Tsuchimikado’s family lost power after his exile, about 20 years later through an unexpected turn of events, the baby that Tsuchimikado was forced to leave behind in Kyoto became the emperor Go-Saga. Sutoku’s promise was remembered.

In the 14th century, the powerful samurai Hosokawa Yoriyuki also paid a visit to Sutoku’s grave on Shikoku and made offerings for his happiness in the afterlife. He then prayed for Sutoku’s guidance and help in conquering the island. He succeeded in subjugating Shikoku, and thereafter Sutoku became the guardian deity of the Hosokawa clan.

Sutoku’s Spirit Lives On

In 1868, Emperor Meiji took the throne, ending feudalism and long centuries of samurai rule. Power was restored to the emperor.

The teenage emperor, not wanting any trouble from unappeased angry ghosts, sent an imperial envoy to Sanuki to bring the spirit of Sutoku to Kyoto. Back in his former capital, Sutoku was deified and enshrined at Shiramine Shrine.

On the 800th anniversary of Sutoku’s death, just prior to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Emperor Hirohito sent emissaries to Sutoku’s tomb in Kagawa Prefecture. On the emperor’s orders, they honored Sutoku with an imperial memorial service and prayed for the repose of his spirit. Like his grandfather the emperor Meiji, Hirohito wanted no trouble from an aggrieved Sutoku.

The 1964 Olympics were a milestone in post-war Japan, bringing the country to the world stage as a peaceful, progressive, and prosperous nation.

Perhaps Sutoku’s spirit finally was at peace.

Here is part one of this series about Taira no Masakado, the ghost who haunted Tokyo.

Part three is the story of my favorite ghost, Sugawara no Michizane.

The post Emperor Sutoku — Japan’s Three Most Infamous Vengeful Ghosts, part 2 first appeared on More Than Tokyo and is written by Diane Tincher.