Michizane Sugawara is now revered in Shinto as the god of learning, known as “Tenman-Daijosai-Tenjin” or “Tenjin” for short. The origin of that name lies here.

So, what's the origin of the commercial district in Fukuoka “Tenjin”? When Michizane (Tenjin) arrived at Hakata's harbor after a long journey from Kyoto, he grieved when he saw his worn out reflection on the water's surface.

When a shrine was built at that spot, it became known as Suikyo Tenmangu for this reason (literally “water mirror shrine.”) The shrine is currently located at “Tenjin 1-chome”, the center of the commercial district that started here and spread around the shrine.

This is where things get interesting. Actually, this isn’t where the shrine was first built-- it was moved to its current location after the Edo Period. So that begs the question, “where was the shrine originally? Where was it that Michizane gazed at his own reflection on the water?” The answer is “Imaizumi.” Well, you must be wondering where “Imaizumi” is. Maybe some of you already figured it out.

The location in question is just outside the south exit of the Fukuoka (Tenjin) Station.

Now you can see more than one way that “Tenjin” and “Dazaifu Tenmangu” are connected.

There’s a bath-house that we frequented called “Honjoyu.” There, the clerk told us that the original location of Suikyo Tenmangu is now a meeting spot called “Naorai.”

We weren’t sure whether to believe him at first, until we visited Naorai and saw the plum blossom decorated crest engraved on the roof of the building.

Well, is this the place where Michizane saw his tired reflection? Where he crossed Sugatami-bashi Bridge and headed to Dazaifu from Kyoto? The scene is slowly but surely starting to materialize.
One more thing we ought to mention: The current “Imaizumi” area was once separated by an area called “Shōmura.” When asking a local, they told me that this street used to be called “Honjo-dori,” the main street used for festivals, but nowadays the name of “Honjo” is becoming forgotten, so they named the bath-house “Honjoyu” to keep their history alive.

These are just the stories we heard, but it’s no doubt that Dazaifu was essential to not only the development of Fukuoka, but to Japan as a whole. Surely after hearing these stories, your journey will become deeper than you expected.

We hope that you can find joy in this kind of internal journey.