Fushimi Inari Shrine Kyoto

This is the entrance to the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto.  It is here at this shrine that the old white foxes and their five kits swore their service to Inari.

Inari has a few different hats.  Chiefly he is known as the god of rice which in Japan makes him a very important deity.  He is also the god of business and success in worldly affairs. 

A brief digression; not only does Inari wear multiple hats, Inari can be referred to as he and also as she.  God and goddess in one.  Inari is not only found in the native religion of Japan Shintoism but also in Buddhism.

Each of these orange and black gates has been donated by a family or a business.  This tradition of donating a torii goes back to Edo times.  There is said to be a thousand torii gates.

So what is a torii?  A torii is a wooden structure that acts to mark the gateway to a temple.  A single torii is supposed to ward that temple, thus making what is inside a sacred place.

From the JR Kyoto train station this is the main torii gate to the Fushimi Inari Shrine.