An Inari shrine (稲荷神社 Inari Jinja) is a shinto shrine to worship the god Inari. There are many Inari shrines in Japan. The deity is worshiped also in some Buddhist temples. Inari is a popular deity with shrines and temples located throughout most of Japan.
Inari Ōkami (稲荷大神, also Oinari) is the Japanese kami of fertility, rice, agriculture, foxes, industry, and worldly success and one of the principal kami of Shinto. Represented as male, female, or androgynous, 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 AD, although some scholars believe that worship
started in the late 5th century.
Worship of Inari spread across Japan in the Edo period,
and by the 16th century Inari had become the patron of blacksmiths and
the protector of warriors. Inari is a popular figure in both Shinto and Buddhist
beliefs in Japan. More than one-third (32,000) of the Shinto shrines in
Japan are dedicated to Inari. Modern corporations, such as cosmetic
company Shiseido, continue to revere Inari as a patron kami, with shrines atop their corporate headquarters.[1]
Inari's foxes, or kitsune, are pure white and act as his/her messengers.
The most popular representations of Inari, according to scholar Karen
Ann Smyers, are a young female food goddess, an old man carrying rice,
and an androgynous bodhisattva.[2] No one view is correct; the preferred gender of depiction varies according to regional traditions and individual beliefs.[2] Because of his/her close association with kitsune, Inari is often believed to be a fox; though this belief is widespread, both Shinto and Buddhist priests discourage it.[2] 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 as a way of teaching him a lesson.
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