At noon, Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture.
With the turmoil at the Gion Festival and the melee at Hachiman-gu leaving everyone on edge, Kyoto residents streamed in to seek comfort through prayer. The major shrines and temples of Kyoto saw more worshippers, not fewer.
Tenmangu Shrine, which enshrined Sugawara no Michizane, the god of learning, was naturally no exception.
"Kitano Tenjin, please let my son get into the University of Tokyo... a slip of the tongue. Please keep my son safe."
"Kyoto isn't peaceful. Our family has decided to hide out in the countryside for a few days. Please grant us a safe journey."
All sorts of people offered prayers to Sugawara no Michizane in the worship hall.
Although Sugawara no Michizane was the foremost of the four great vengeful spirits, he was also widely worshipped in Japan as a righteous deity.
The standing of Tenmangu shrines in Japan was equivalent to that of Confucian temples on the mainland.
Sugawara no Michizane was a court noble of the middle Heian Period, a man of extraordinary talent who had once been granted the senior second rank and the office of minister of the right, attaining the dignity of a chancellor. He was therefore also revered as the god of learning, with more than ten thousand branch Tenmangu shrines throughout Japan. Whenever examination season came, students praying to pass flocked there in countless numbers.
Over time, Sugawara no Michizane's role as the god of learning had even overshadowed the fearsome thunder associated with his deification.
Those idiots in the government are playing dumb again. Their announcements keep recycling the same empty words, leaving people to live without knowing anything and die without knowing anything!
After finishing his prayers, a young office drone in a cheap black suit walked