Ikimitenmangu

Ikimi Tenmangu enshrines Sugawara no Michizane, the god of learning, and is the oldest Tenmangu in Japan — founded while Michizane was still alive. It began, so the story goes, when Takebe Genzo, a character familiar from the kabuki classic Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy, built a small shrine in memory of Michizane after his exile to Dazaifu and worshipped him there as a living deity. Within the quiet grounds are smaller shrines to the gods of earth, water and fire, standing guard over the same ground.