Shinto shrine dedicated to the deity Tenjin. Despite its small size, Nishiki Tenmangū sees a lot of foot traffic from the many people who come to sample the local cuisine and shopping in Nishiki Market, and it is considered one of the preeminent Tenjin shrines. Easily spotted by the many softly glowing lanterns hung at the entrance, Nishiki Tenmangū's cozy grounds contain a natural spring, some nostalgic fortune-telling, a statue of Tenjin’s divine messenger, and a sanctuary dedicated to Tenjin himself. 

Nishiki Tenmangū was founded in 1003, but it was originally located at Sugawara-in, the birthplace of Sugawara no Michizane, the mortal man who was deified as the kami Tenjin. (See more on this story here.) After Sugawara no Michizane’s death, the Sugawara-in was renamed Kanki-ji (Temple of Great Joy) and moved to Rokujō Kawara-in, the former villa of Minamoto no Tōru (822 –895), a son of Emperor Saga said to possibly be the model for the Tale of Genji’s eponymous hero.  

After three hundred years the grounds were given over to the Yahata Zendō-ji Jishū sect Buddhist temple for a training hall and renamed to Kankikō-ji, while the shrine served as a chinju-sha, shrines used to worship the tutelary deity that protects the temple precincts. 

During the Momoyama period (1583 – 1600), warlord and de factor leader of Japan Toyotomi Hideyoshi implemented a large-scale renovation of Kyoto according to certain urban planning ideas, aligning streets in a grid and shuffling the location of key shrines and temples. During this rebuilding the shrine was moved to one of the temple’s training dōjō on Shijō street. 

In 1872, the forced separation of Buddhist and Shinto religious sites made Tenmangū independent from the temple, which was moved to the east. In this manner, 400 years after it moved to its current location, it was consecrated under the name Nishiki Tenmangū.