Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Later this day (after my early morning visits to ShorenIn and ChoinIn temples), we went to Fushimi Inari. This time, stopped with my Taxi culture and took the train using Keihan main line. One you get down, just have to follow the queue but there are enough signboards.
After passing the railway tracks (crossing), and few roads, bright red Kumanosha Torri gate announces the start of Fushima Inari.
People usually spend little time with the main temples here (Gehaiden, Main shrine, Juyosho) and walk towards the Mt Inari hill. We parked our stroller at the base (actually if we can carry it for roughly 100 steps, then its worth all the way up. We learned it hard way but Akshinn was jumping with joy and started walking – I was relieved. After a short walk which wasn’t even tough, we started seeing Senbon Tori (1000 gates). Its as beautiful as in the pictures – but you know what spoils it. The crowd. We couldn’t avoid the crowd anywhere but may be for solo travelers who do the off peak hours it could be different. We walked up to Shin-ike pond as planned and headed back.
The Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine enshrined at the western foot of Mt Inari at the southern tip of Kyoto’s Higashiyama Sanju Roppo (36 mountain range) is the head sharing of the 30000 Inari-sha shrines nationwide. It has been a place of wide worship for the guardian god of abundant crops, businesses, prosperity, and family safety since the Inari Okami (God of Harvest) was housed on Mt Inari in the 4th year (711) of Hatsu-uma (the first day of the horse) in February during the Wado era.
The symbol is a fox is the servant of Inari Okami. A fox that doesn’t live in the fields but is a spirit fox that has been believed to convey our wishes to Inari Okami. The Vermilion building and tori – from ancient times, vermilion colour considered to symbolize the life force and counteract spells. As the color expresses the power of Inari Okami, many of the shrine buildings and toriis on the grounds are painted with vermilion.
The approximate 10000 toriis that stand on the grounds have been offered by worshipers nationwide as a testament of their prayers and gratitude. They have started to be offered as gates to shrines from the time immemorial. Toriis are infused with the meaning of “wishes will come through/came through“.
Later we came back to Kawaramachi for lunch and then went back to Arashimaya.
0 Comments