, also called , is the
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
ese ''
kami
are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...
'' of
foxes
Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush").
Twelve species ...
,
fertility
Fertility in colloquial terms refers the ability to have offspring. In demographic contexts, fertility refers to the actual production of offspring, rather than the physical capability to reproduce, which is termed fecundity. The fertility rate ...
,
rice
Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...
,
tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...
,
sake
Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...
,
agriculture
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
and
industry
Industry may refer to:
Economics
* Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity
* Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery
* The wider industrial sector ...
, and general prosperity and worldly success, and is one of the principal kami of
Shinto
, also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...
. The name Inari can be literally translated into "rice-bearer". In earlier Japan, Inari was also the patron of
swordsmiths and
merchant
A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...
s.
Alternatingly-represented as male
Male (Planet symbols, symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or Egg cell, ovum, in the process of fertilisation. A male organism cannot sexual repro ...
and/or
female
An organism's sex is female ( symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction.
A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and ...
, Inari is sometimes seen as a collective of three or five individual ''kami''. Inari appears to have been worshipped since the founding of a shrine at Inari Mountain in 711 CE, although some scholars believe that worship started in the late 5th century.
By the 16th century, Inari had become the patron of blacksmiths and the protector of warriors, and worship of Inari spread across Japan in the
Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
. Inari is a popular figure in both
Shinto
, also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...
and
Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
beliefs in Japan. More than one-third (40,000) of the Shinto shrines in Japan are dedicated to Inari. Modern corporations, such as cosmetic company
Shiseido
is a Japanese multinational cosmetic company founded in Tokyo, Japan in 1872. Its product categories consist of: skin care, makeup, body care, hair care, and fragrances. The company is one of the oldest cosmetic companies in the world an ...
, continue to revere Inari as a patron kami, with shrines atop their corporate headquarters.
Inari's foxes, or ''
kitsune'', are pure white and act as their messengers but it is more likely that in ancient times the fox itself was revered as the kami of rice.
[Pickens (1994): 111. ]
According to myth, Inari, as a megami (female Kami), was said to have come to Japan at the time of its creation amidst a harsh famine that struck the land. "She
naridescended from Heaven riding on a white fox, and in her hand she carried sheaves of cereal or grain. ''Ine'', the word now used for rice, is the name for this cereal. What she carried was not rice but some cereal that grows in swamps. According to legend, in the ancient times Japan was water and swamp land."
Foxes running wild in rice-fields might have inspired the idea of Inari as they seemed to inspect the crops. To show their gratitude the farmers offered red rice and fried bean curd to the foxes.
Depiction

Inari has been depicted both as female and as male. The most popular representations of Inari, according to scholar
Karen Ann Smyers, are a young female food megami and an old man carrying grains of rice. Historically, Inari started off as female until the rise of the Buddhist controlled government in Japan. At the time, many female high-power deities were changed to male, Inari included. The separation of Buddhism and Shinto began in the late 19th century under the Meiji regime as one of the early reforms. Some did not know whether to refer to Inari as male or female, so they left it up to each person. Because of her close association with ''kitsune'', Inari is often believed to be a fox; though this belief is widespread, both
Shinto
, also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...
and
Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
priests discourage it.
[Smyers, Karen Ann. The Fox and the Jewel: Shared and Private Meanings in Contemporary Japanese Inari Worship. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999. 8] Inari also appears in the form of a snake or dragon, and one
folktale has Inari appear to a wicked man in the shape of a monstrous
spider
Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...
as a way of teaching him a lesson.
Inari is sometimes identified with other mythological figures. Some scholars suggest that Inari is the figure known in classical
Japanese mythology
Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology. The history of thousands of years of contac ...
as the
Shinto
, also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...
female deity
Uka-no-Mitama (or possibly
Uke Mochi); others suggest Inari is the same figure as the
Shinto
, also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...
female deity,
Toyouke. Some take Inari to be identical to any grain ''kami''.
[Ashkenazy, Michael. ''Handbook of Japanese Mythology''. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-Clio, 2003. 67–68]
Inari's female aspect is often identified or conflated with
Dakiniten, a
Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
deity
A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...
who is a Japanese transformation of the
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
n ''
dakini
A ḍākinī (; ; ; ; alternatively 荼枳尼, ; 荼吉尼, ; or 吒枳尼, ; Japanese: 荼枳尼 / 吒枳尼 / 荼吉尼, ''dakini'') is a type of goddess in Hinduism and Buddhism.
The concept of the ḍākinī somewhat differs depending on t ...
'',
[Smyers 82–83] or with
Benzaiten
is an East Asian Buddhism, East Asian Buddhist Dharmapala, goddess who originated from the Hindu Saraswati, the patroness of speech, the arts, and learning.
Worship of Benzaiten arrived in Japan during the sixth through eighth centuries, mai ...
of the
Seven Lucky Gods.
Dakiniten is portrayed as a female or androgynous bodhisattva riding a flying white fox.
Inari's association with Buddhism may have begun in the 8th century, when
Shingon
is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asian Buddhism. It is a form of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism and is sometimes called "Tōmitsu" (東密 lit. "Esoteric uddhismof Tō- ...
Buddhist monk and founder,
Kūkai
, born posthumously called , was a Japanese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, and poet who founded the Vajrayana, esoteric Shingon Buddhism, Shingon school of Buddhism. He travelled to China, where he studied Tangmi (Chinese Vajrayana Buddhism) und ...
, took over administration of the temple of
Tōji, and chose Inari as a protector of the temple.
Thus, Inari is still closely associated with Shingon Buddhism to this day.
Inari is often venerated as a collective of three deities (''Inari sanza''); since the
Kamakura period
The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...
, this number has sometimes increased to five ''kami'' (''Inari goza''). However, the identification of these ''kami'' has varied over time. According to records of
Fushimi Inari, the oldest and perhaps most prominent Inari shrine, these ''kami'' have included
Izanagi
Izanagi (イザナギ/伊邪那岐/伊弉諾) or Izanaki (イザナキ), formally referred to with a divine honorific as
, is the creator deity (''kami'') of both creation and life in Japanese mythology. He and his sister-wife Izanami are the ...
,
Izanami
, formally referred to with the honorific , is the creator deity of both creation and death in Japanese mythology, as well as the Shinto mother goddess. She and her brother-husband Izanagi are the last of the seven generations of primordial ...
,
Ninigi, and
Wakumusubi, in addition to the food deities previously mentioned. The five ''kami'' today identified with Inari at Fushimi Inari are
Ukanomitama,
Sarutahiko,
Omiyanome, Tanaka, and Shi. However, at
Takekoma Inari, the second-oldest Inari shrine in Japan, the three enshrined deities are Ukanomitama, Ukemochi, and Wakumusubi. According to the
Nijūni shaki, the three ''kami'' are Ōmiyame no mikoto (water) Ukanomitama no mikoto (grain) and Sarutahiko no mikami (land). He is also "associated" with and/or thought to be
Ukemochi
, commonly known as , the daughter of the Shinto deities Izanagi and Izanami, is a goddess of food in the Shinto religion of Japan. In some differing interpretations, Ukemochi is referred to as both male and female. When shown in other forms, Ukemo ...
.
He is also sometimes thought to be the son of
Susanoo named Uka no Mitama no Kami.
The fox,
magical gems,
scrolls with divine writings,
and the wish-fulfilling jewel are prominent symbols of Inari. Other common elements in depictions of Inari, and sometimes of their ''kitsune'', include a sickle, a sheaf or sack of rice, and a sword. Another belonging was their whip—although they were hardly known to use it, it was a powerful weapon that was used to burn people's crops of rice.
Inari is also associated with the numbers
2 and
3, numbers with either one at the beginning, including and especially multiples of them able to be evenly divided by
powers of 10,
and multiples of 2 and 3.
They are also associated with
brothels,
entertainers,
swords
A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...
and swordsmiths, and food and meals in general besides rice.
History
Origins and Early History
The origin of Inari worship is not entirely clear. The first recorded use of the present-day ''
kanji
are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...
'' (''characters'') of Inari's name, which mean "carrying rice", (literally "rice load") was in the ''
Ruijū Kokushi'' in 892 AD. Other sets of ''kanji'' with the same phonetic readings, most of which contained a reference to rice, were in use earlier, and most scholars agree that the name ''Inari'' is derived from .
[Smyers 15]
The worship of Inari is known to have existed as of 711 AD, the official founding date of the shrine at Inari Mountain in
Fushimi, Kyoto. The first reported occurrence of Inari is also recorded 711 in the story that a rich man used rice cakes as targets for practice and made the kami of rice resentful. The kami flew towards the mountains in the shape of a white bird and perched on a cedar. The man realised he had abused a divine gift and in order to pacify the kami he built a shrine where the bird had landed.
[Picken (1994): 110. ]
Scholars such as Kazuo Higo believe worship was conducted for centuries before that date; they suggest that the
Hata clan began the formal worship of Inari as an agriculture ''kami'' in the late fifth century.
[Higo, Kazuo. "Inari Shinkō no Hajime". ''Inari Shinkō'' (ed. Hiroji Naoe). Tokyo: Yūzankaku Shuppan, 1983.] The descendants of the Hata-clan were conduction Inari-worship to protect their crops and let their commerce and trade flourish, showing that even at the early stages of Inari-worship the ''kami'' was already associated with rice and commerce. The name Inari does not appear in classical
Japanese mythology
Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology. The history of thousands of years of contac ...
.
Other possible origins could come from the
Ainu who have ceremony for the harvest of crops. In this ceremony the older men receive cereal cakes and offer their prayers. This is reminiscent of the idea of kami being food and would explain the close relationship inari has with food, especially rice. Other practices in witchcraft and divination of the Ainu include the use of a fox skull, showcasing other similarities to Inari.
Heian Period
By the
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 Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...
, Inari worship began to spread. In 823 AD, after
Emperor Saga
was the 52nd emperor of Japan, Emperor Saga, Saganoyamanoe Imperial Mausoleum, Imperial Household Agency according to the traditional order of succession. Saga's reign lasted from 809 to 823.
Traditional narrative
Saga was the second son of ...
presented the
Tō-ji
, also known as is a Shingon Buddhist temple in the Minami-ku, Kyoto, Minami-ku ward of Kyoto, Japan.
Founded in 796, Tō-ji Temple was one of the only three Buddhist temples allowed in the city at the time it became the capital of Japan. As s ...
temple to
Kūkai
, born posthumously called , was a Japanese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, and poet who founded the Vajrayana, esoteric Shingon Buddhism, Shingon school of Buddhism. He travelled to China, where he studied Tangmi (Chinese Vajrayana Buddhism) und ...
, the founder of the
Shingon
is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asian Buddhism. It is a form of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism and is sometimes called "Tōmitsu" (東密 lit. "Esoteric uddhismof Tō- ...
Buddhist sect, the latter designated Inari as its resident protector ''kami''.
In 827, the court granted Inari the lower fifth rank, which further increased the deity's popularity in the capital. Inari's rank was subsequently increased, and by 942,
Emperor Suzaku
was the 61st emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 朱雀天皇 (61)/ref> according to the traditional List of emperors of Japan, order of succession.
Suzaku's reign spanned the years from Heian period, 930 through 946.
B ...
granted Inari the top rank in thanks for overcoming rebellions. At this time, the
Fushimi Inari-taisha
is the head shrine of the ''kami'' Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. 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 shrin ...
shrine was among the twenty-two shrines chosen by the court to receive imperial patronage, a high honor. The second Inari shrine, Takekoma Inari, was established in the late ninth century.
Inari's popularity continued to grow. The Fushimi shrine, already a popular pilgrimage site, gained wide renown when it became an imperial pilgrimage site in 1072. By 1338, the shrine's festival was said to rival the
Gion Festival in splendor.
[Smyers 18]
Medieval Period (1185-1600)
In 1468, during the
Ōnin War
The , also known as the Upheaval of Ōnin and Ōnin-Bunmei war, was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. ''Ōnin'' refers to the Japanese era name, Japanese era during which the war started; the war ende ...
, the entire Fushimi shrine complex was burned. Rebuilding took about thirty years; the new building was consecrated in 1499. While the old complex had enshrined three ''kami'' in separate buildings, the new one enshrined five ''kami'' in a single building. The new shrine also included a Buddhist temple building for the first time, and the hereditary priesthood was expanded to include the
Kada clan.
Edo Period

During the
Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, Inari worship spread across Japan; it became especially prominent in
Edo
Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo.
Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...
.
[Smyers 20] Smyers attributes this spread to the movement of ''
daimyō
were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...
s'' (feudal lords). Inari had by the sixteenth century become the patron of blacksmiths and the protector of warriors—for this reason, many castle compounds in Japan contain Inari shrines—and the ''daimyōs'' took their belief in their protector ''kami'' with them when they relocated to a new domain.
Inari's divine role continued to expand; on the coast, they became a protector of fishermen; in Edo, they were invoked to prevent fires. They became the patron of actors and of prostitutes, since their shrines were often found near the pleasure quarters where these individuals lived. They began to be worshipped as the ''Desire-Fulfilling Inari'', a deity of luck and prosperity; a common saying in
Osaka
is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
was ''Byō Kōbō, yoku Inari'' (''For sickness
ray to Kōbō, for desires
ray toInari''). Inari also began to be petitioned for good health; they are credited with curing such diverse afflictions as coughs, toothaches, broken bones, and syphilis. Women prayed to Inari to grant them children.
After a government decree mandated the separation of Buddhist and Shinto beliefs, many Inari shrines underwent changes. At Fushimi Inari, for instance, structures that were obviously Buddhist were torn down. Among the populace, however, the blended form of worship continued. Some Buddhist temples, such as
Toyokawa Inari, maintained Inari worship by arguing that they had always been devoted to a Buddhist deity (often Dakiniten), which the common folk had mistaken as Inari.
In the
Tokugawa period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, when money replaced rice as the measure of wealth in Japan, Inari's role as a ''kami'' of worldly prosperity was expanded to include all aspects of finance, business, and industry. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, followers of Inari at the
Ginza
Ginza ( ; ) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, Tokyo, Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi. It is a popular upscale shopping area of Tokyo ...
mint struck coins meant for offerings to Inari, which featured pictures of two foxes and a jewel or the characters for ''long life'' and ''good luck''.
Shrines and offerings
Inari is a popular deity with shrines and temples located throughout most of
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
. According to a 1985 survey by the National Association of Shinto Shrines, 32,000 shrines—more than one-third of Shinto shrines in Japan—are dedicated to Inari. This number includes only Shinto shrines with full-time resident priests; if small roadside or field shrines, shrines kept in a home or corporate office, smaller shrines without full-time resident priests, and Buddhist temples were included, the number would increase by at least an order of magnitude.
The entrance to an Inari shrine is usually marked by one or more
vermilion
Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color family and pigment most often used between antiquity and the 19th century from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide). It is synonymous with red orange, which often takes a moder ...
torii
A is a traditional culture of Japan, 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, and a spot where kami are welcomed and thought to ...
and some statues of ''kitsune'', which are often adorned with red ''yodarekake'' (''votive bibs'') by worshippers out of respect. This red color has come to be identified with Inari, because of the prevalence of its use among Inari shrines and their torii. The main shrine is the
Fushimi Inari Shrine on mount Inari (稲荷⼭ ''Inariyama'') in
Fushimi,
Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
, Japan, where the paths up the shrine hill are marked in this fashion. The ''kitsune'' statues are at times taken for a form of Inari, and they typically come in pairs, representing a male and a female.
[Smyers 93] These fox statues hold a symbolic item in their mouths or beneath a front paw—most often a jewel and a key, but a sheaf of rice, a scroll, or a fox cub are all common. Almost all Inari shrines, no matter how small, will feature at least a pair of these statues, usually flanking or on the altar or in front of the main sanctuary.
The statues are rarely realistic; they are typically stylized, portraying a seated animal with its tail in the air looking forward. Despite these common characteristics, the statues are highly individual in nature; no two are quite the same.
Offerings of
rice
Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...
,
sake
Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...
, and other food are given at the shrine to appease and please these ''kitsune'' messengers, who are then expected to plead with Inari on the worshipper's behalf.
Inari-zushi, a Japanese sushi roll of packaged fried
tofu
or bean curd is a food prepared by Coagulation (milk), coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness: ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', and ''extra (or super) firm''. It originated in Chin ...
, is another popular offering. Fried tofu is believed to be a favorite food of Japanese foxes, and in some regions an Inari-zushi roll has pointed corners that resemble fox ears, thus reinforcing the association. Priests do not normally offer these foods to the deity, but it is common for shops that line the approach to an Inari shrine to sell fried tofu for devotees to offer. Fox statues are often offered to Inari shrines by worshippers, and on occasion a stuffed and mounted fox is presented to a temple. At one time, some temples were home to live foxes that were venerated, but this is not current practice.
File:Toyokawa Inari Betsuin.jpg, Hundreds of Inari can be found at Toyokawa Inari Betsuin in Akasaka.
File:FushimiInariTorii.jpg, Red torii along a path at the Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
.
File:Ojiyama-inari,王子山稲荷,篠山市1021722.JPG, Torii of Ojiyama-Inari
File:KakigaraInari shrine.JPG, Kakigara-Inari at Hase-dera (Kamakura)
Personalization
According to Inari scholar Karen A. Smyers, the "most striking feature of Inari worship is the high degree of diversification and even personalization of this kami. Devotees do not simply worship 'Inari,' but a separate form of Inari with its own name. Various Inari shrines and temples worship entirely different kami ''as'' Inari; traditions and symbols have a multiplicity of meanings." This is exemplified by the various kami Inari is identified with such as Uganomitama no Okami, Ukanomitama no kami, Ukemochi no kami, Wakumusubi no kami, and many more. In fact, except for ancestor worship, Inari worship is the most personalized of all Japanese religiosity.
Smyers also describes the concept of "personal Inari" or "''watashi no O-Inari-sama''" in Japanese. "One Shinto priest argued that the impulse to worship 'my own Inari' arose during the late Edo period and accounted for the great spread of Inari shrines at that time." Furthermore, "If there are one hundred believers, they will have a hundred different ideas about Inari." Smyers notes that Inari has been re-enshrined and divided with "far greater ease and frequency than other Shinto kami, and this may in part account for its great diversity."
This personalization is not restricted to Shinto practitioners, but also has ties with Buddhism. Inari is often described as being the "closest deity to humans" according to a Toyokawa priest in Smyers's article. "'It
nariis like your own mother, it grants your wishes. In times of illness when even a doctor cannot cure you, you have no alternative but to ask Inari. Buddhas have various ranks; Dakiniten
ne of Inari's many other namesis at the ''ten'' (deva) level, the level closest to that of humans. So Inari has very close relations to people.'"
[“‘My Own Inari’: Personalization of the Deity in Inari Worship.” ''Japanese Journal of Religious Studies'' 23, no. 1/2 (1996): 99.]
Inari's personalization also extends to Inari's messengers, the kitsune. In fact, Smyers attests that the fox is "the symbol most often equated with Inari."
Smyers's analysis is essentially thus: "Inari seems to have struck a fortuitous balance: famous and powerful enough to make people feel confident that he can help them, but lacking the sort of clear historical narrative that would prevent his personalization to fit particular needs."
Inari is thought to have both good and evil attributes.
Inari pilgrimage
Like many other places of spiritual prominence, many practitioners of Shinto, especially Inari worship, take pilgrimage to Inari Mountain at the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. Unlike other religions however, pilgrimage to and around the Fushimi Inari Shrine is the only standardized pilgrimage despite having some 40,000 shrines across Japan. This is in part due to the personalization Inari practitioners tend to have towards Inari as described above. "They have little reason to worship some other form in another place, which may even be seen as someone else's Inari," says Karen A. Smyers.
The pilgrimage begins starting "at the foot of the mountain, in the midst of elegant red buildings house the five kami of Fushimi Inari Shrine and a number of other deities." Visitors need to first rinse their mouths and wash their hands, a means to symbolically purify one's self before becoming near the kami. The many red torii that Fushimi is known for is the main gateway to convey that one is entering a sacred space. Along the way through these torii and up the mountain, one will find various rock altars, tea houses, waterfalls, and many cedar trees, which symbolizes Inari's "manifestation in the grandeur of nature." Upon reaching the peak, one "passes the place associated with the miraculous assistance of Inari in forging the emperor's sword." Then the pilgrim has a steady descent down the mountain and returns to the regular world outside of the sacred space. Despite this pathway, there is actually "no fixed route one must take through the thousands of sacred sites on the mountain, and pilgrims and groups tend to develop their own sacred histories, worshipping at the sites that are invested with particular meaning to them." Furthermore, "each version of the pilgrimage is a kind of musical improvisation on the theme of Inari."
Many traditions are also associated with Inari pilgrimage:
* Omo-karu ishi
** A type of rock divination in which one may be granted an answer to a yes or no question.
* Neagari no matsu
** This is a tree in which pilgrims in search of better business pray to.
* Echo Pond
** If someone has lost someone, the pilgrim claps loudly and if they hear an echo, it signifies that the person they lost shall return.
* Oseki-San
** One of the many forms of Inari that is said to be able to cure coughs, and many letters are sent to this rock altar from all across Japan. Priests of Fushimi personally deliver these letters to the mailbox next to the altar.
* Ninaigi
** Another tree upon the shrine grounds that is "fallen over at an angle." Pilgrims who have "stiff shoulders from carrying things come and rub them under this inclined tree, which is polished smooth as a result."
* Other traditions include "tying votive bibs on the fox (and other) statues, offering food, dedicating larger or small torii, lighting candles, making segyo offerings (sometimes to the foxes) during the coldest season, and offering nobori banners in the kami's name. Offering small banners (konobori) in large numbers was also practiced; each small prayer flag made of paper had the name of the kami (i.e., Suehiro okami), the name and age of the petitioner, and the request (e.g., complete recovery from sickness)."
[Smyers, Karen A. “Inari Pilgrimage: Following One’s Path on the Mountain.” ''Japanese Journal of Religious Studies'' 24, no. 3/4 (1997): 433.]
Festival
Inari's traditional festival day was the first horse day (the sixth day) of the second month (''nigatsu no hatsuuma'') of the
lunisolar calendar
A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, that combines monthly lunar cycles with the solar year. As with all calendars which divide the year into months, there is an additional requirement that the year have a whole number of mont ...
.
In some parts of
Kyūshū
is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa and the other Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regio ...
, a festival or praying period begins five days before the full moon in November; occasionally it is extended to a full week. This is accompanied by bringing offerings of rice products to a shrine to Inari each day and receiving ''
o-mamori'' (''
protection charms'').
Family tree
See also
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Sukunabikona, also a Japanese ''Kami'' of
sake
Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...
brewing
*
Loki
Loki is a Æsir, god in Norse mythology. He is the son of Fárbauti (a jötunn) and Laufey (mythology), Laufey (a goddess), and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. Loki is married to the goddess Sigyn and they have two sons, Narfi (son of Lo ...
- Norse god of mischief.
Notes
References
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* Keller, Matthew Paul (2022): ''The Appeal of the Fox: The Cult of Inari and Premodern Japan.'' University of Southern California.
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* Picken, Stuart (1994): Essentials of Shinto: An Analytical Guide to Principle Teachings. Green Wood Press, Westport.
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External links
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