ExperienceTokyo.Net - Pink In February? Plum Blossoms At Yushima Tenjin Shrine

Yushima Tenjin : Beautiful Plum Blossoms, Trivia, unknown stories and other Tokyo subculture narratives

Still the month of February and longing for spring in Tokyo? Visit the many gardens and shrines in Tokyo sporting the Plum blossoms, called “Ume” in Japanese. One of my favorites is Yushima Tenman-gu Shrine, also known as Yushima Tenjin, not far from Ueno Station. It is a Shinto shrine dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane, the famous scholar and courtier who is worshipped as Tenjin, the kami of learning. And if you happen to be in Tokyo during the examination season, you will quickly understand why this shrine is so popular with students. The walls around the shrine can almost disappear behind thousands of ema, wooden prayer plaques asking for success in entrance examinations.

The shrine has been known as a place to enjoy ume since the Edo period, and today around 300 plum trees bloom in the grounds, with roughly 80 percent being white plum.

First and foremost, the location of Yushima Tenjin Shrine

The access to garden is from The Chiyoda Subway Line to Yushima Station (C 13) (Exit 3), and then walk 2 min. or the Ginza Subway Line to Ueno-hirokoji Station (G 15), and then walk 5 min.

Yushima Tenjin Shrine : The Entrance

Once you reach there, the first is the heavy stone pedestal at Yushima Tenjin serves as both a structural base for the komainu and a tribute to the shrine’s devotion to Sugawara no Michizane. Carved from rough-hewn granite, the upper section features the umebachi, which is the classic five-petaled plum crest associated with Michizane, the deity of learning who famously adored plum blossoms. Below it, the central panel showcases a detailed bas-relief of gnarled plum branches in full bloom, echoing the legendary tobiume (flying plum tree) tradition. Together with the guardian above, this carved stonework reflects the Edo-period custom of local merchant guilds (ko) donating custom masonry to showcase both piety and craftsmanship.

The Flying Plum or 飛梅

There is a lovely legend behind the connection between Tenjin and plum blossoms. When Sugawara no Michizane was exiled from Kyoto to Dazaifu, he is said to have looked back at the plum tree in his garden and composed a poem asking it to bloom even after he was gone. The story goes that the tree missed its master so much that it flew through the night from Kyoto to Dazaifu to be with him, becoming the famous Tobi-ume, or “Flying Plum.”

Nade-Ushi : Reclining Stone Ox

Here is one of those little details that you may miss if you simply come for the flowers. Look for the Nade-ushi, the reclining stone ox. You will see people rubbing its horns, nose, head or legs and then touching the corresponding part of their own bodies. The connection between Tenjin and the ox goes back to stories surrounding Michizane's birth and death, both associated with the day of the ox, as well as the tradition that an ox pulled his remains and eventually stopped at the place where he was to be buried. So yes, that shiny stone cow has a lot more going on than just being something for visitors to photograph.

Bonsai at Yushima Tenjin

And then there are the bonsai. If the 300 or so plum trees around Yushima Tenjin make you think, “That is a lot of ume,” wait until you get close to some of the miniature versions. Bonsai has this slightly ridiculous ability to make you stare at a tree that is smaller than your suitcase and wonder how it can possibly have more personality than some full-sized trees. The plum bonsai are particularly fitting here because ume is so closely tied to Tenjin and Sugawara no Michizane. In Japanese bonsai culture, the point is not simply to make a small tree. The branches, trunk, roots and even the direction of the branches are carefully shaped to suggest the character of a much older tree growing in nature. In other words, it is not really “a small tree.” It is a tree with a very carefully managed ego.

A Place for lottery?

Yushima Tenjin also has a surprisingly lively past. During the Edo period it wasn't just a quiet shrine for scholars and students. Its regular festival days attracted crowds, with performances, plant markets and travelling religious exhibitions. There were even archery attractions and, remarkably, a sumo tournament was held here in 1824. The shrine was also one of Edo's officially permitted lottery venues, known as one of the Edo San-Tomi, the three famous lottery sites of Edo. So the quiet plum garden you see today once attracted crowds hoping to strike it rich

University Of Tokyo, Yushima Tenjin and Ema Wooden tablets

The shrine is close to the University of Tokyo so many students come to the shrine to wish good results in examinations or pray to get jobs post graduation.Reading them is also some activity I love to do… quite interesting notes I have spotted on them…See this one where the person has written “Wish me luck in getting a job at a company which is of my liking” !!!! Whether the candidate himself/herself is of any company’s liking, well we don’t know.. We wish best of luck anyways…

Shidare Ume (枝垂れ梅)? Weeping Plum blossoms?

I knew only Shidare-Zakura or Weeping Sakura. Among the plum trees at Yushima Tenjin, the shidare-ume, or weeping plum, is probably the one that makes you stop and reach for the camera first. Instead of growing upwards like a conventional plum tree, its branches cascade downwards, creating something that looks almost like a curtain of flowers. There is a nice little bit of Japanese gardening philosophy in this too: the drooping branches are not simply allowed to grow wild; they are carefully trained and pruned to create the shape. And here is the fun part: when the flowers are fully open, it can be surprisingly difficult to see where the branches end and the blossoms begin. Stand underneath one on a slightly windy February day and you get a rather beautiful shower of pink or white ume without getting wet. Tokyo's version of snow, perhaps.

Night time Yume Blossom lightup

The evening view is worth staying for. During the Ume Matsuri, Yushima transforms with the plum trees illuminated after sunset and the grounds taking on a completely different mood. The lights are deliberately gentle rather than theatrical, so the white and pink blossoms seem to float against the dark. The evening illumination continues until around 8 p.m., and honestly, this is one of those occasions when the same tree you photographed an hour earlier suddenly looks like it has changed personality.

Yushima Nights : July 26 full moon

There is also something fitting about enjoying Yushima at night because this shrine has long been a place for Tokyoites to come for more than just worship. During the Edo period, its regular festival days turned the grounds into a lively entertainment district, with plant markets, performances and travelling religious exhibitions. The shrine was also famous for moon viewing in summer, when people gathered here on July 26 to enjoy the full moon. In other words, Yushima has been doing seasonal entertainment for Tokyo long before we invented Instagram.

Chocolate Dipped Banana and Sprinkles

And, of course, no visit to the Ume Matsuri is complete without eating something slightly unnecessary but absolutely worth it. We picked up one of those chocolate-covered bananas, generously coated with colorful sprinkles. It was sweet, messy, and probably had very little to do with plum blossoms, but somehow it felt exactly right for a Japanese festival. There is something about eating a banana dipped in chocolate while walking around a shrine surrounded by blooming ume that makes you stop pretending you came here only for the photography. Sometimes, you just need the festival banana.