Carve peace in the heart,
Throbbing crowds trudge up mountain
Red tori gates rise.
My little haiku to set your heart and mind in calmness, at Japan’s famous Shinto shrine and pilgrimage gentle hike along Mount Inari.
10,000 Tori Gates Through Old Mountain Forest
You might need to cultivate that precious corner of peace. We joined thousands of other happy visitors pouring through Fushimi-Inari’s 10,000 vermillion orange tori gates up Mount Inari.
Though the gate-graced hike winds through old shady forest, it was still hot at 28-30 degrees C and humid on an early summer day. Some people rested on a step during the hike, but still determined to restart a few more steps up. There were different junctions to shorten your hike and turn around.
God of Rice and Prosperity Evolves in Meaning -Over Centuries
The first record on establishment of Fushimi-Inari shrine, was in 711 after an imperial order from Empress Genmei. Since then, priests have had spring and fall festivals in honour of Inari, god of rice, agricultural and later, business prosperity, safety of households and safety in traffic. Apparently, there is even a coming of age annual ceremony in early winter, for Japanese nationals who turn 20 years old.
Fushimi-Inari is the head shrine, but not necessarily the biggest in Japan.
The tori gates are red-orange and can be found in Japan at other Inari shrine sites, big and small. There are 30,000 Inari shrine gates all over Japan. The colour is to protect from evil…an interpretation, found in other architectural colours (and not related to Shintoism) elsewhere in Asia for also luck, happiness and prosperity.
Gate as Passing Prayers to Inari
A tori gate evolved to signify an offering as “passing” of prayers to the deity, in Edo period (1603-1888). At Fushimi-Inari, there are not only the large gates you walk through, but also mini tori gates where money is paid to buy a tori gate for mini-shrines, created on natural rock ledges and wedged in corners. It is a happy clutter of prayer wishes at certain points along the hike. Or a pile of stacked prayer offerings, with fox statutes overlooking the shrines. Businesses and individuals buy a prayer gate offering for a healthy price.
Foxes are symbolic messengers of Inari, god of rice. It has nothing to do with real existence of foxes. Foxes are twilight-oriented creatures and hover on the edges of woodland –suitable symbols as mystical messengers. A fox may have a key to the rice bin in its mouth, or a sheaf of wheat, a scroll.
Along the hike, we occasionally saw some mountain small streams trickling through some rocks. There are bamboo trees growing among some pine and other trees we didn’t stop to recognize. Apparently there are many stray cats hiding or wandering in the area at night.
The higher you ascend, the less people there are. Near the bottom of the path, we settled for a refreshing matcha tea ice cream cone on the back balcony overlooking a lovely cultivated garden.
At Fushimi-Inari, the day was more about finding moments of stillness, yet embracing enthusiasm of crowds, happy silliness of people posing with finger peace signs for selfies, because most of us knew we would be there only once in our lifetime. My wish:
Walk climb, step-up down
Breathing life, happy and still
Under red gates’ glow.
Great post! 🙂 Thank you for this insight into a culture I know so little about – way too little. And thanks for the great words at the end:
Walk climb, step-up down
Breathing life, happy and still
Under red gates’ glow.
Have a wonderful Sunday,
Pit
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We can’t go everywhere in the world. However we can find images and words to hold close in our heart and mind to sustain. My wishes for a beautiful autumn this year at your end of the continent.
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Thanks, and a wonderful autumn to you, too.
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Being unfamiliar with Japanese culture and customs I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post and viewing the amazing photos.
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One can learn even from some photos. Glad you enjoyed this post. 🙂
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Jean I felt as though I was walking with you. Often I have seen a single photo of this famous shrine but with your narrative and accompanying photos I felt as though I had a bit of the experience of hiking along. Thank you.
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You would enjoy Japan, Sue…it’s a perfect blend of Western modernity and heritage preserved sites and cultural activities. Lots of visual learning.
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Great post Jean. It took me right back there. And I love your photos! You got some beauties. I hiked up a way, but not to the top. I was trying to cram too much into the day.
Alison
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I know, the temptation to do lots in a foreign country is great. Like you, I’m so glad I went there!
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I always thought fox was an evil spirit! That’s interesting!
And the pictures are beautiful 🙂
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Perhaps we naturally tend to associate fox with a sneaky, clever animal. You would enjoy Japan, Paulina, if you haven’t been there yet. I chose not to go to Shanghai while my partner did for 3.5 days. I went back to work in Canada.
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I would never choose Shanghai over Japan – I could meet Momzilla’s family, not risking that! Lucky enough I went to three different places in Japan and I loved it! Wouldn’t be able to live there I think, I feel more relax in HK (as crazy at it sounds, I don’t feel like I’m offending anyone in HK while in Japan I always worry if I do something ‘inappropriate’) 🙂
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I agree that Chinese culture can be abit looser… A Chinese-Canadian friend lived and worked in Japan for a year. She found it a little annoying that the Japanese were always continuously polite to point one didn’t really know what their real opinion was at times. Of course, I think the Chinese culture goes into the other direction to the extreme at times.
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Nice shooting
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Thanks for the tour up such an iconic Japanese landmark. One day, yes, I sound like a broken record. One day!
My hear though goes out to Japan as they’ve seen so many incredibly devastating natural disasters this year. I suppose you must look back and count your lucky stars. Here’s hoping for a quieter rest of the year for the Land of the Rising Sun.
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I agree. We went to Kyoto just a few days after Osaka had their earthquake. Then a few days after we left for Seoul, the Kyoto prefecture had some major landslides/flooding.
And now, that earthquake in northern part, in Hokkaido. 😮
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Such craziness.
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Fascinating culture! And as one of your readers says we know so little about it. Love the photos and the scenery. What a trip!
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Hi Evelyn…something most definitely not seen much in North America, meaning Shinto shrines. Special when there are 10,000 tori gates.
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This post is fascinating on many levels. I loved reading it a lot. So unusual.
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