is the head

shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of respect, wherein they ...

of the ''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'' Inari, located in Fushimi-ku,

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...

, Kyoto Prefecture,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari which is above sea level, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines which span and take approximately 2 hours to walk up. Inari was originally and remains primarily the ''kami'' of rice and agriculture, but merchants and manufacturers also worship Inari as the patron of business. Each of Fushimi Inari-taisha's roughly thousand torii was donated by a Japanese business. Owing to the popularity of Inari's division and re-enshrinement, this shrine is said to have as many as 32,000 sub-shrines (分社 ''bunsha'') throughout Japan.

History

The shrine became the object of imperial patronage during the early

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japan ...

. In 965,

Emperor Murakami was the 62nd emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 村上天皇 (62)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Murakami's reign spanned the years from 946 to his death in 967. Biography Before he ascended to ...

decreed that messengers carry written accounts of important events to the guardian ''kami'' of Japan. These ''heihaku'' were initially presented to 16 shrines, including the Inari Shrine. From 1871 through 1946, Fushimi Inari-taisha was officially designated one of the , meaning that it stood in the first rank of government supported shrines.

Structures

The earliest structures were built in 711 on the Inariyama hill in southwestern Kyoto, but the shrine was re-located in 816 on the request of the monk

Kūkai Kūkai (; 27 July 774 – 22 April 835Kūkai was born in 774, the 5th year of the Hōki era; his exact date of birth was designated as the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the Japanese lunar calendar, some 400 years later, by the Shingon se ...

. The main shrine structure was built in 1499.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric ''et al.'' (1998)
''Japan encyclopedia,'' p. 224.
/ref> At the bottom of the hill are the and the . Behind them, in the middle of the mountain, the is reachable by a path lined with thousands of ''torii''. To the top of the mountain are tens of thousands of for private worship.

Senbon Torii

The highlight of the shrine is the rows of

torii A is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred. The presence of a ''torii'' at the entrance is usually the simple ...

gates, known as The custom to donate a torii began spreading from the Edo period (1603–1868) to have a wish come true or in gratitude for a wish that came true, with successive gates being added up to the present day by donors out of gratitude. Along the main path there are around 1,000 ''

'' gates.

Fox

Foxes (''

kitsune In Japanese folklore, , are foxes that possess paranormal abilities that increase as they get older and wiser. According to '' yōkai'' folklore, all foxes have the ability to shapeshift into human form. While some folktales speak of employing ...

''), regarded as the messengers, are often found in Inari shrines. One attribute is a key (for the rice granary) in their mouths. Unlike most Shinto shrines, Fushimi Inari-taisha, in keeping with typical Inari shrines, has an open view of the main object of worship (a mirror). A drawing in Kiyoshi Nozaki's ''Kitsune: Japan's Fox of Mystery, Romance and Humor'' in 1786 depicting the shrine says that its two-story entry gate was built by

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

. The shrine draws several million worshipers over the

Japanese New Year The is an annual festival with its own customs. Since 1873, the official Japanese New Year has been celebrated according to the Gregorian calendar, on January 1 of each year, . However, some traditional events of the Japanese New Year are par ...

, 2.69 million for 3 days in 2006 reported by the police, the most in western Japan. Image:Inari-kitsune fox in front of an Inari shrine with a key in its mouth.jpg, Fox holding a key in its mouth, at the main gate of the Fushimi Inari shrine File:The image of the fox that example mouth the jewel.jpg, Fox holding a jewel in its mouth at the main gate of the Fushimi Inari shrine File:Inari sculpture.jpg, Fox sculpture in Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine File:Inari fountain.jpg, Fox fountain in Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine File:Fox Fountain - Fushimi Inari 2010.jpg, Another view of the fox fountain File:20181110 Fushimi Inari shrine 9.jpg, Fox altar in Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine

Access

The shrine is just outside the

Inari Station is a railway station on the Nara Line in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The station number is JR-D03. It is the closest station to Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine. Layout The station has two side platfo ...

on the

Nara Line The is a commuter rail line in the Osaka–Kobe–Kyoto metropolitan area, operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West). Its official termini are Kizu Station in Kizugawa and Kyōto Station in Kyoto, within Kyoto Prefecture; howe ...

of the

West Japan Railway Company , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and ...

(JR), a five-minute ride from

Kyoto Station Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...

. It is a short walk from Fushimi-Inari Station on the Main Line of the Keihan Electric Railway.Fushimi Inari Shrine
How to get there The shrine is open 24 hours with both the approach to the shrine and the itself illuminated all night. There is no entrance fee.

Environs

In the approach to the shrine are a number of sweet shops selling , a form of

fortune cookie A fortune cookie is a crisp and sugary cookie wafer usually made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and sesame seed oil with a piece of paper inside, a "fortune", usually an aphorism, or a vague prophecy. The message inside may also include a Chine ...

dating at least to the 19th century, and which are believed by some to be the origin of the American fortune cookie. Lee, Jennifer 8. (January 16, 2008).
Solving a Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside a Cookie
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. Retrieved on January 16, 2008.

In popular culture

*''

Memoirs of a Geisha ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' is a historical fiction novel by American author Arthur Golden, published in 1997. The novel, told in first person perspective, tells the story of Nitta Sayuri and the many trials she faces on the path to becoming and w ...

'' (2005) *'' Aria the Natural ep. 5'' (2006) *''

Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha , also known as for short, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Morohe Yoshida, which were serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's ''Young Ace'' magazine from August 2010 to May 2015. An anime television adaptation by Production IMS ...

'' (2010) *''

Rurouni Kenshin is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story begins during the 11th year of the Meiji period in Japan (1878) and follows a former assassin from the Bakumatsu, known as Hitokiri Battosai. After his wor ...

'', site of

Makoto Shishio , known in the English anime in Western order as Makoto Shishio, is a fictional character from the ''Rurouni Kenshin'' manga series created by Nobuhiro Watsuki and the main antagonist of the ''Kyoto Arc'', the second arc of the series. Shishio ...

's base *''

Kamen Rider Fourze is a Japanese tokusatsu drama in Toei Company's Kamen Rider Series, being the thirteenth series in the Heisei period run and the twenty-second overall. It began airing on September 4, 2011, the week following the conclusion of ''Kamen Rider OOO'' ...

ep. 33'' (2012) *'' Samsara (2011 film)'' (2011) *''High School Inari Tamamo-chan' ', where the main character a fox spirit came from along with her siblings. A part of the Noh play '' Kokaji'' takes place in ''Fushimi Inari-taisha''.

Image gallery

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Breen, John and Mark Teeuwen. (2000)
''Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami.''
Honolulu:

University of Hawaii Press A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

. * Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (1998)
''Japan encyclopedia.''
Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

. * Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1962).
''Studies in Shinto and Shrines.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 399449
* Ponsonby-Fane, Richard (1959)
''The Imperial House of Japan.''
Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society
OCLC 194887
* Smyers, Karen A. (1997)
Inari pilgrimage: Following one’s path on the mountain
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 24 (3–4), 427–452

External links

Official Site

Official Site

Accessibility information
* {{Authority control Important Cultural Properties of Japan Inari shrines Shinto shrines in Kyoto Kanpei-taisha