In addition to national standardized testing, Japanese college admissions are marked by individual entrance exams for many schools. As such, hordes of senior high schoolers will descend upon a given college to take their exam. In hopes of aid in such ordeals, students also customarily visit Tenmangū shrines, dedicated to the patron kami (spirit) of learning, Tenjin. Tenjin was originally the exiled 9th-century scholar Sugawara no Michizane, deified after his death as it was believed he was causing misfortune for Kyoto. The Tenmangū at Yushima in Tokyo is actually even older, dating back…
