Inari Temple, Kyoto

Inari Temple was a fox shrine founded in the 9th century. Farmers believed the fox was the messenger of the harvest god.

Map of the temple

The buildings at the entrance. I actually saw these last because I approached the temple from the surrounding neighborhood and arrived in the middle.

What characterizes Inari Temple is tunnel-like paths with hundreds of bright-red torii. A torii is a bird pirch typically found in Japanese Shinto shrines, but also in Buddhist temples. Typically people who have been successful in business donate a torii to the temple in gratitude. At Inari there are hundreds of them.

A statue of the fox.

A small temple in the middle of the paths.

Looking up at one torii.

Going through the paths was mesmerizing. There is a lot of repetition in these pictures, but this was the order in which I experienced the paths.