Fox Statue, Fushimi Inari Shrine (Illustration)

Illustration

by James Blake Wiener
published on 22 May 2017

The Fushimi Inari Shrine near Kyoto (Heiankyo) is the largest and most important shrine dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice and prosperity. It is famous for the large number of red gates (torii) at the site. The shrine was founded in 711 CE by the Hata clan and moved from its original location on Mt. Inari to its present location near Kyoto in the 9th century CE. In Shinto mythology the fox is Inari's vehicle and guardian. Consequently, the god's shrines may have many statues of foxes, often, like this example, wearing a red bib for good luck.

About the Author

James is a writer and former Professor of History. He holds an MA in World History with a particular interest in cross-cultural exchange and world history. He is a co-founder of Ancient History Encyclopedia and its Communications Director.

License

Uploaded by James Blake Wiener, published on 22 May 2017 under the following license: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

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