According to one theory, around the closing days of the Tokugawa shogunate, Shungaku MATSUDAIRA, the feudal lord of Fukui Domain, who was devoted to education, suggested to his people to put up a Tenjin-ga (painting of Tenjin), and this was proliferated by the drug sellers of Toyama.
これは幕末の頃に教育に熱心であった福井藩藩主松平春嶽が領民に天神画を飾るよう推奨し、それを富山の薬売りが広めたという説がある。