TANUKI 3 ~ Saifukuji

 

Japanese Name: 西福寺
Romanized Reading: Saifukuji
English Translation: West Fortune Temple
Size: Medium
Tanuki Count: 9
First Visit: 11-Sep-2023  
Location: Nara
Address: 2403 Narazakacho, Nara, 630-8104
Coordinates: 34.70418,135.83439

A Buddhist temple that features a lot of Tanuki statues to serve as its guardians, including a rare female Tanuki with pronounced breasts and a clover covering her crotch at the left side of the gate. The others are all very visibly male.

608 ~ Shirotatsu Ookami, Asahi Ookami, Yakuo Daimyoujin, Okane Daimyoujin, Matsuno Ookami, Matsumizu Daimyoujin (and more)

 

Japanese Names: 白瀧大神, 朝日大神, 薬王大明神, お金大明神, 松野大神, 松水大明神++
Romanized Readings: Shirotatsu Ookami, Asahi Ookami, Yakuo Daimyoujin, Okane Daimyoujin, Matsuno Ookami, Matsumizu Daimyoujin++
English Translations: White Dragon Great Deity, Morning Sun Great Deity, Medicine King Great Radiant Deity, Money Great Radiant Deity, Pine Field Great Deity, Pine Water Great Radiant Deity++
Size: Tiny Side Shrine of Kurokamiyama Inari Jinja
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 2
First Visit: 11-Sep-2023  
Location: Nara
Address: Narazakacho, Nara, 630-8104
Coordinates: 34.7017,135.8258

A tiny side shrine of Kurokamiyama Inari Jinja, featuring lots of Iwakura. And not just kinda-a-lot but a LOT-lot. This shrine is dedicated to at least two dozen different deities! Some of the names are hard to decipher, since they use Kanji that I can't recognize, but I still could have added more to the list of names. But I'll draw the line at half a dozen unless someone specifically commissions me to record them all.

Watching over all these are a pair of life-sized stone foxes. The one on the left holds a scroll, while the one on the right holds and orb. There's also a little white porcelain twin-snake here.
 

607 ~ Kurokamiyama Inari Jinja

Japanese Name: 黒髪山稲荷神社
Romanized Reading: Kurokamiyama Inari Jinja
English Translation: Black Hair Mountain Inari Shrine
Size: Small
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 12
First Visit: 11-Sep-2023  
Location: Nara
Address: Narazakacho, Nara, 630-8104
Coordinates: 34.70177,135.82589

Located at the outskirts of Nara, this find is the result of my friends and me taking a bit more adventurous path, that would later take us across the nearby Kurokami Bridge. 

A pair of life sized stone foxes reside within, the left one of which has a kit, thus bringing the vixen side count to 21:44. They are attended by nine small-to-tiny porcelain foxes .

606 ~ Ota Daimyojin

 

Japanese Name: 太田大明神
Romanized Reading: Ota Daimyojin
English Translation: Thick Field Great Radiant Deity
Size: Small
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 18
First Visit: 11-Sep-2023  
Location: Nara
Address: 11-46 Shibatsujicho, Nara, 630-8114
Coordinates: 34.68653,135.82161

The first fox shrine that I should find after my return to Japan in 2023. It's a rainy day, but that doesn't stop me from dragging my friends to whom I'm playing tour guide this time around on a hunt for fox shrines and geocaches alike.

This one features a pair of life-sized caged stone foxes, along with (at least) 16 tiny porcelain foxes. A good start into my second round of fox shrine finding!

Also, starting with this post, I'm uploading the full-sized photos, so feel free to click on them for more detail! 

The End... or is it?

With this, my first visit to Japan draws to a close. I've visited a total of 2508 shrines and temples in this land, 603 of which had foxes. And if you look at where most of those were located, there's a clear bias.

Does this mean that the Fox Shrine Blog will end here? No. I have visited Japan a second time (see the Travelling Fox Blog Book V ~ Chapter 21 ~ Charms of Changi ~ Nights of Nara and following), and during that time have naturally sought out and found more fox shrines.

However, that number is limited, and my next trip to Japan is not yet planned. As such, from here on out I am going to reduce the rate at which I publish new posts on this blog. In fact, you've probably noticed that I've been gradually slowing down my publication rate these last two months already.

I'll take a bit of a break now since I'm going to the Thalhäusl again (see the Travelling Fox Blog Book V ~ Chapter 18 ~ Thalhäusl the Third for example). Then, starting sometime next month, I'm aiming at making two updates per week - probably on Wednesday and Saturday. Hopefully, that will let me stretch out my backlog of shrines long to make it to my next Japan trip, because I can hear the land of foxes calling out to me again...

Anyway, long story made short: There'll be a bit of a break now, and then new shrine posts will be coming at a slower rate.

So stay tuned, and be of great cheer! =^,^= 

605 ~ Tabigitsune Inari Jinja (Home Shrine)

 

Japanese Name: 旅狐稲荷神社
Romanized Reading: Tabigitsune Inari Jinja
English Translation: Travelling Fox Inari Shrine
Size: Tiny
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 11
First Visit: 29-Mar-2019  
Location: Munich, Germany
Address: Hitlstr. 3, 80997 Munich
Coordinates: 48.18081,11.48088

My first visit to Japan is over, but I've brought a piece of Japan back home with me: Sufficient materials in order to build my own little fox shrine back home. 

This includes:

• ten tiny porcelain foxes
• one even tinier plastic fox I got out of a capsule machine
• two equally tiny plastic shrines out of the same capsule machine
• one tiny porcelain Tanuki to keep the foxes company
• three Ofuda from Anamori Inari and Toyokawa Inari respectively (two wooden, one paper)
• a paper scroll depicting Inari riding a fox down from the heavens
• a little diorama shrine
• and two paper lamps from Fushimi Inari, adorned with foxes.

The two dolls flanking the shrine are souvenirs that my grandmother brought with her from Japan a long time ago. As far as I know, she was also the only other member of my family to ever have visited Japan.

With this, I'll always have a little connection to the land I travelled for a year and its many fox shrines. Its name reflects that. As for its reading, I was gonna go for "Ryoko", but every Japanese who saw the Kanji 旅狐 on my business card read it as "Tabigitsune", so I'll go with that instead. 

604 ~ Ooshima Inari Ookami

 

Japanese Name: 大島稲荷大神
Romanized Reading: Ooshima Inari Ookami
English Translation: Great Island Inari Great Deity
Size: Small Side Shrine of Ooshima Hachiman Jinja
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 10
First Visit: 3-Feb-2019  
Location: Kawasaki
Address: 3 Chome-4-8 Ōshima, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken 210-0834
Coordinates: 35.52076,139.71686

The final fox shrine that I should find on my first visit to Japan. This one is a side shrine of Ooshima Hachiman Jinja (大島八幡神社 "Ooshima Hachiman Shrine"). It's a good ending, with two caged life-sized stone foxes in front, and eight small-to-tiny porcelain foxes inside the shrine.

Fitting for an ending, this is also the southernmost fox shrine that I visited in the Radiant Metropolis (though I'm sure there are many more just waiting to be found).