Michizane no Sugawara was a political leader, scholar, and literary figure of the middle Heian period. After his death he was worshiped as the deity Tenjin at the Temmangu shrine.
Background
Michizane no Sugawara was born on 1 August 845 in Kyoto. His grandfather, Sugawara no Kiyotomo, served the court, teaching history in the national school for future bureaucrats and even attained the third rank. His father, Sugawara no Koreyoshi, began a private school in his mansion and taught students who prepared for the entrance examination to the national school or who had ambitions to be officers of the court, including his own son Michizane.
Education
Michizane no Sugawara displayed literary talent at an early age, and in 872, when he was chosen to entertain the envoy from the state of Pohai, won praise for his poetry in Chinese.
Career
After attending the state university and holding various posts, he was appointed a professor of the university in 877. He was the fourth member of his family in succession to hold that position, his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father having also been professors and the presidents of the state university as well.
In 886 he was appointed governor of the province of Sanuki in Shikoku. Upon his return to the capital, he gained favor with Emperor Uda and in 891 was selected for the important post of head of the Kurododokoro, an office in charge of palace affairs. This appointment took place shortly after the death of the powerful minister Fujiwara no Mototsune and suggests that Emperor Uda hoped to make use of Michizane to help curb the power of the Fujiwara family.
Michizane continued to rise in office along with Fujiwara no Mototsune’s son Tokihira, until in 897 Tokihira was appointed dainagon (great counselor) and Michizane was appointed gon-no-dainagon (acting great counselor). Tokihira and Michizane became in effect the most powerful ministers at court.
Emperor Daigo came to the throne in 893, and in 899 he appointed Toki- hira minister of the left and Michizane minister of the right. This was the first time since the appointment of Kibi no Makibi in 766 that a scholar had been appointed to this high post, and it represented an extreme honor for Michizane. But it also placed him in a dangerous position, and in 901, as a result of the slanders of Tokihira, he was appointed Dazai-no-gon-no-sochi, or head of the administrative office (the Dazaifu) in Kyushu. The appointment was nominal, for in fact he was being condemned to banishment. He died two years later at his place of exile in Kyushu.
After his death, a number of untoward events occurred that were believed to have been caused by Michizane’s angry spirit.
In 923 he was declared guiltless of the charges against him and was restored to his former rank and office and in 993 he was posthumously promoted to the court rank of senior first rank and the office of dajodaijin (prime minister).