The Yushima Tenjin Shrine (or Yushima Tenmangu Shrine) is the most famous shrine of scholars in Tokyo. This picturesque shrine with its tree-lined grounds is located on the top of a slope in the Tokyo district of Ueno, near the Ueno Park.
This ancient shrine was founded in 458 AD to worship the god Ameno-tajikaraono-mikoto. In 1355, it became one of many "Tenjin" shrines across Japan - the most famous was Kitano Tenmangu in Kyoto.
Tenjin is the name of the deified spirit of the famous scholar Michizane Sugawara (845-903) from the ninth century. Sugawara, a senior government official, was originally idolized as a soothing response to the natural disasters that struck the then capital, Kyoto, in politically motivated exile immediately after his death.
But his reputation as a scholar finally outshone his supposed power to bring about natural disasters, and he was venerated as the god of learning.
That is why Yushima Tenjin, like all Tenjin shrines, is visited by students to pray for passing exams and to label ema - small wooden boards - with requests for exam success and entry to the university of their choice.