Old ume tree cheers students toward entrance exam season with good fragrance

Jan. 28, 2013

Old ume tree cheers students toward entrance exam season with good fragrance

The old ume Japanese apricot tree is right in front of the main building of the Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine and always the first to bloom among about 6,000 ume trees in the shrine area.
The shrine, located in Dazaifu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, is dedicated to the memory of Michizane Sugawara, a Heian period scholar-turned politician. He is known as the “god of learning.” So, the shrine attracts many students from across the country for the god’s protection for their endeavor to pass entrance exams for junior and senior high schools and universities. Dazaifu Tenmangu is at the top of over 4,000 Tenmagu shrines across Japan. This is even more encouraging to students worshiping at Dazaifu for the god’s favor for their attempts. As Japan’s school year starts in April, entrance exams take place from mid-January to early March at many schools.
Coinciding with the start of the entrance examination season, the “Tobiume” (Flying Ume) tree, so called for a legend linked to Michizane, begins to blossom in mid-January with its white double-petaled flowers giving off a refreshing fragrance.
Michizane fell victim to slander when he was Minister of the Right in 901. He was then exiled to the Dazaifu governor-general’s headquarters and died there two years later. After that, the Imperial Court acknowledged the charge against him was false and restored his honor. The shrine was built at the site of his grave a few years after his death.The legend says that the ume tree flew from Michizane’s residence in Kyoto in one night to Dazaifu, longing for his soul.

When the kochi east wind blows, please blossom and give off your good fragrance, ume flowers! Your owner is not here, but do not forget the spring.
 (A personal translation)

This is a waka poem which Michizane made, while watching his beloved ume tree at his residence, when he left Kyoto to be exiled in Dazaifu. Michizane, hailing from a less noble family, became known as an eminent scholar and joined the top echelon of the Emperor's government.
The precincts of the shrine are also occupied by big camphor trees, some of them 1,000 or so years old.
These trees might have been seen by Michizane when they were saplings. One of the trees fell after a typhoon hit the area about 20 years ago, but about 50 tall camphor trees still exist, spreading a solemn atmosphere within the shrine, a clerk at an information office said.
Students and other worshipers can buy a variety of lucky items at the information office, incluidng white "hachimaki" headbands reading "Praying for passing an exam." Following the aging of Japan's population, the number of young people has been decreasing in recent years. This is basically expected to make entrance examinations less harsher than ever, but students have to be faced with tough days more toward exams because competition for entry into famous universities and high schools, seen to pave good career paths, remains hard amid uncertainties surrounding today's Japan.