Fushimi-Inari 2021 - Going all the way up to Mount Inari
Monday February 22, 2021. We decided to walk all the way up to Mount Inari and pass all the gates. It was a beautiful and sunny day, there was more people this time than when we went in September 2020. You need to prepare yourself for climbing a lot of steps all the way to the top... and then more steps to come down.
All along the way there are many places for prayers and worship... people in Japan are used to pray in a certain way, they put their hand in a Namaste style, they clap them and bow... making a wish not adressed to a particular God but to existence itself. For new year, Fushimi-inari is packed with people coming to make wishes for the new year... to get married, to find the right boy or girlfriend, to get pregnant, to get a boy or a girl, to have luck, to be successful, to get a job, to make money, etc...
Some souvenir and tea shops and resting places are also found on the way as well as vending machines for drinks.
2 hours round trip summarized in a 5 minutes video.
Special Thanks to Parijat for giving us the permission to use his music (Return to the Mountain) with the video. See his music at www.parijatmusic.com
Fushimi Inari-taisha (伏見稲荷大社) is the head shrine of the kami Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari which is 233 metres (764 ft) above sea level, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines which span 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) and take approximately 2 hours to walk up.
Inari was originally and remains primarily the kami of rice and agriculture, but merchants and manufacturers also worship Inari as the patron of business. Each of Fushimi Inari-taisha's roughly thousand torii was donated by a Japanese business.
Senbon Torii
The highlight of the shrine is the rows of torii gates, known as Senbon Torii. The custom to donate a torii began spreading from the Edo period (1603 – 1868) to have a wish come true or in gratitude for a wish that came true. Along the main path there are around 1,000 torii gates.
Source Wikipedia
See also our article on Fushimi-Inari in September 2020
© PHOTOS BY JC DUMONT
