During the exam season, count the "great gods of learning" that Japanese test takers must worship

▲(Image from Visual China)

According to Japan's "Oriental New News" report, at the beginning of the new year, Saitama County fired the first shot of the koshoku preliminary examination, thus pulling the curtain on the examination season in the eastern region and even the whole of Japan. In the next two months or so, millions of students will enter various examination halls and accept the important challenges of life. Every season, for Japanese and Chinese parents who have always attached great importance to their children's education, it is also a must-do homework to take their children to the shrine to worship and ask for a good lottery. So what are the great gods of learning in Japan that candidates must worship? Today Xiaobian will talk to you about it.

The god of learning, Michimasa Sugawara

Sugawara Michizen was a famous scholar, poet, and statesman of Japan's Heian period. Deeply trusted and valued by Emperor Uta and Emperor Daigo, he is the author of works such as "History of The Quasi-Jukuni", "Sugawara No Kusanagi", "The Newly Written ManyoShu", and "Records of the Three Generations of Japan". After the Daozhen was victimized by rumors, he was deposed and died in the degraded land. After his death, kyoto began to see a variety of anomalies: first Emperor Daigo's crown prince died of illness one by one, and then the Imperial Palace's Cool Hall was struck by lightning, causing many deaths and injuries. The imperial court was quite frightened by this, believing that The spirit of Dogen was doing the work, so it not only pardoned Do-jin and posthumously awarded the official position, but also built Kitano Tenmangu Shrine in Kitano in Kyoto, specifically to sacrifice him. Since then, Sugawara Michimasa has become part of the Tenjin faith. Because Daozhen was an outstanding scholar and poet during his lifetime, he was worshipped as a god of learning in later generations. Tenman Daishin Tenjin, Japanese Taisei Weide Tenjin, and Kitano Tenmangu Tenjin are all Dozen gods.

As a god of learning, candidates should of course worship and dip some "fairy qi" into the examination room. Although the tenmangu shrines throughout Japan are dedicated to Michijin Sugahara, the most famous of them are the "Three Shrines of the King's Way" – Dazaifu Tenmangu in Hakata, Fukuoka, Kitano Tenmangu in Kyoto, and Yushima Tenmangu in Tokyo. It is said that these three exams are the most effective, so every exam season, the three shrines are always overcrowded, and sometimes even need to dispatch police to carry out traffic control.

Among the three "King's Way Shrines", Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine and Kitano Tenmangu Shrine are known as the main shrines of Tenmangu shrines throughout Japan, and are the most famous shrines in Japan for praying for gold. Every New Year,200,000 people make a wish at Tenmangu Shrine in Dazaifu. Tokyo's Yushima Tenmangu Shrine is particularly popular with school leaders because it is adjacent to the University of Tokyo, Japan's first institution of learning. It is said that half of the students who are admitted to Todai every year go to Yushima Shrine to make a wish before the exam, so the wishing horses and examination passing amulets there are particularly popular. Some people who do not have candidates at home will also go to buy amulets as gifts.

In addition to the Yushima Shrine in Tokyo, two other Tenmangu Shrines are also extremely popular, namely The Kamedo Tenjin Shrine in Koto-ku Ando Andromon, and Taniho Tenmangu Shrine in Koto City. Among them, Kamedo Tenjinsha shrine has echoed with The Tenmangu Shrine in Dazaifu since ancient times, and is known as the "Higashizaifu Tenmangu Shrine". The shrine is particularly famous for the "New Year's Special Ascension Prayer Festival", which is held from January 1 to 7 every year, and is the first place for candidates from the Tokyo area to visit on the first day of the New Year. Before the epidemic, as many as 200,000 people visited here every New Year to pray for academic success. The shrine is also famous for the plums, vines, and chrysanthemums that symbolize the true life of Sugahara. In 901, Michitake, the third son of Sugawara Michiman, was so saddened to hear of his father's death that he carved a statue of his father here. Unlike other shrines, The most famous thing about The Shrine is not the special painted horse and amulet that have been tested, but the Imperial Painted Horse and the Imperial Shrine Pen that are willing to be used after passing. After taking the wish-making exam in the ideal school, candidates need to return to the wish shrine to make a wish. At The Guho Shrine, there are also qualified imperial ceremonial horses. Candidates who purchase a qualified amulet from the shrine will receive a gojin pen. It is said that by using this imperial god pen to paint the imperial cow on the horse, the candidates' future studies will also improve day by day and their grades will rise step by step. In addition, the shrine's "sprout arrow", which is limited to the first month of the shrine and can eliminate disasters and invite blessings, and can achieve wishes, is also an extremely sought-after product. Every Year, 150,000 people visit the shrine on New Year's Day.

Chinese Scholar Saint - Confucius

Confucius, the founder of Confucianism, is not only enshrined as a saint in China, but also enjoys a high reputation in Japan. The "Yushima Shrine" near Tokyo's Ochanomizu Station is a place dedicated to Confucius, and every year candidates and parents who pass the exam come to pray for academic progress.

Built in 1690, Yushima Shrine was a Confucius temple built by the order of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the fifth shogun of the Edo shogunate, and later became an educational institution directly administered by the shogunate, and was the center of Japanese learning in the Edo period, known as the "birthplace of Japanese school education". In addition to the world's largest bronze statue of Confucius, the Tangdao Sanctuary also houses the four sages of Confucius' four disciples— Yan Hui, Zengzi, Zisi, and Mencius. The pentagonal pencils it sells, the qualified pencils, are particularly popular with candidates. Due to the short distance from Yushima Shrine, the average candidate will arrange the two places to visit the shrine together, and the effect of the test is better.

The spiritual leader of the Meiji Restoration, Yoshida Shoin

Yoshida Shoin was a politician, thinker, educator, and reformer of japan at the end of the Edo period, as well as the spiritual leader and theoretical founder of the Meiji Restoration. After the founding of Japan, he wrote articles calling for a national crisis, vigorously advocating "honoring the king and defending against foreign insults", and later established the Matsushita Mura School to teach the art of war, preach the idea of the king of the throne, and trained a number of leaders such as Takasugi Shinsaku, Ito Hirobumi, and Yamagata Aritomo, who were also regarded by later generations of Japanese as gods of learning. Therefore, the Matsuin Shrine dedicated to Yoshida Shoin in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward is also popular with test takers, who come to pray for passing the exam and successful employment all year round. Yoshida Shoin's tomb is located in the shrine, and visitors usually make a special trip to the tomb after making a wish.

The grandfather of Japanese capitalism, Kinjiro Ninomiya

Compared with the previous gods, Ninomiya Kinjiro's name may not be well known to Chinese friends, but he is regarded as a model of diligent study in Japan. Before World War II, many Japanese elementary schools had statues of Kanejiro reading with firewood on his back to encourage children to study hard. Kinjiro is not only a role model for children, but his philosophical ideas and methods of doing things are also highly sought after by many Japanese industrialists. Eiichi Shibusawa, known as the "Father of Japanese Capitalism", has a special respect for Kanejiro. Thus, he is also known as the "grandfather of Japanese capitalism." The Hotoku-2-kyo Shrine in Odawara City, Kanagawa Prefecture is dedicated to Kinjiro Ninomiya and is a popular place of prayer for test takers.

Ninomiya Kinjiro was born in 1787 in Hakuyama, Odawara City, kanagawa Prefecture. His family was originally a wealthy farming family, but the flood of 1791 washed away most of their fields. It took his father 5 years to restore the farmland to its original state, but he died in 1800 due to overwork. As a result, the family's life took a sharp turn for the worse, and In the midst of poverty, Kinjiro's mother died two years later. Since then, 16-year-old Kanejiro has lived in his uncle's house, helping his uncle do farm work during the day and studying hard at night. But his uncle, believing that the peasant did not need to be learned, and that reading all night was nothing more than a useless act of wasting lamp oil, always reprimanded him fiercely. But Kinjiro did not give up, he planted rapeseed in the wasteland, harvested rapeseed and handed it to the oil store to change the lamp oil, so as to continue to pick the lamp night reading. During the day, he went up the mountain to cut firewood, and carried firewood on his back and did not forget to read. Through unremitting efforts, he not only succeeded in reviving the family business, but also founded the "Five Permanent Lectures" of the Mutual Aid Association for Employees with the five permanents of Confucianism as the creed - the world's earliest cooperative and capital mutual aid society.

In addition to the merits of successfully rebuilding the countryside, Ninomiya Kanejiro's original "thought of repaying virtue" also left a profound impact on future generations. He advocated gratitude and virtue, and received the favor of his parents, spouse, brothers, and nature of heaven and earth, and should be rewarded with actions. Baode Thought takes "sincerity", "diligence", "division" and "pushing" as the core concept. Among them, "division" refers to living within one's means and planning expenditures according to one's own income, which is the basis of frugality and savings. "Pushing" is an altruistic idea, advocating that individuals should use the wealth they have saved to help others or contribute to society. This idea was later summarized as "moral economic monism". Later commentators believe that Kinjiro laid the foundation for the formation of modern capitalism in Japan at the ideological level. In addition to Eiichi Shibusawa, industrialists such as modern Japanese banker Yoshijiro Yasuda, Sakiyoshi Toyoda, inventor of fiber machinery and founder of Toyota Motor, Konosuke Matsushita, founder of the Panasonic Group, and Kazuo Inamori, founder of Kyocera and KDDI, are the inheritors and practitioners of Ninomiya's ideas.

Hotoku Ninomiya Shrine dedicated to Kinjiro Ninomiya is located in Odawara City, the birthplace of Kinjiro, near the famous sightseeing spot of Odawara Castle. In addition to academic achievements and qualified amulets, there are also qualified gojin sake specially designed for praying for passing examinations. Due to the epidemic situation, before going to the shrine, don't forget to submit an online application on the main page of the shrine.

Entrance examinations are a big event in life. To get good results on the exam is indispensable to daily efforts and accumulation, but before the exam, by going to the shrine to make a passing wish to give candidates a good psychological hint, it is also a wise move to help the good performance of the exam room. Xiaobian here wishes all Chinese candidates can play their best level in the examination room, the title of the gold list, and the victory in every examination! (Original title: Examination Season, Counting the Great Gods of Learning That Japanese Candidates Must Worship)