Vivid Vermillion

Fushimi Inari Taisha enshrined at the western foot of the Mt. Inari at the southern tip of Kyoto's Higashiyama Sanju-Roppo is the head shrine of the 30,000 Inari-sha shrines nationwide. It has been a place of worship for the guardian of abundant crops, business, prosperity and family safety since Inari Okami (god of harvest) was housed on Mt. Inari in the 4th year of Hatsu-uma in February during the Wado era. This is also the top most visited tourist spot in Kyoto.

As a reminder, it is much easier to go to Kyoto's tourist spots in buses not cars, it is also cheaper. From my experience, finding a parking space in a city like Kyoto is a burden, time consuming and expensive, and there's also a possibility of getting lost when it's your first time. It would be prudent to use the public transport.

From ancient times, the color vermillion has been considered to symbolize the life force and counteract spells.  As the color that expresses the power of Inari Okami (god of harvest) many of the shrined buildings and toriis on the grounds are vividly painted vermillion.

On our way to the shrine. We were lucky we got to ride the express, so it only took us 6 minutes from Kyoto station.

The weather was scorching hot when we went here. Oh well, it's summer! What can we expect, right? So we opted to have kakigori (flavores shaved ice) to cool us down. 

Starting point. The bigger the torii gate, the bigger the contribution.

Torii gate at the entrance 

There are twelve iron lanterns hanging around this structure representing the twelve zodiac signs.

A spirit fox that has been believed to carry our wishes to Inari Okami. They are the servants of the gods. 

The entire map 

Emadou, a shrine where wooden votive plaques are hanged. These plaques are called gankake ema where you can write your wishes. 

The main shrine

I hope the gods will hear us my little man.

Family in Kyoto

All photos are mine.