Fushimi Inari Taisha

Fushimi Inari Taisha is the head shrine of Inari, the kami of rice and agriculture, standing in Yamashiro Province south of Kyoto at the foot of Mount Inari. Founded in 711 by the immigrant Hata clan, it grew from their tutelary shrine into the centre of the nationwide Inari cult.

In 816 the shrine was moved to its present site at the request of the monk Kūkai, and in 965 Emperor Murakami numbered it among the shrines receiving imperial offerings.

The main hall dates from 1499, and the two-storey tower gate was donated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. From the Edo period onward merchants and guilds dedicated thousands of vermilion torii gates to Inari, increasingly honoured as the patron of trade; the rows called the Senbon Torii climb the mountain behind the shrine, while branch Inari shrines multiplied across Japan.