24 ~ Daiichii Mizumori Inari Daimyoujin

 

Japanese Name:  正一位水守稲荷大明神
English Reading: Daiichii Mizumori Inari Daimyoujin
English Translation: Highest-Ranking Water Protector Inari Great Radiant Deity
Size: Tiny
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 2
First Visit: 18-Mar-2018
Location: Tokyo-Minato
Address: 4 Chome-4-10 Shiba, Minato-ku, Tōkyō-to 105-0014

Tiny though this shrine may be, it is special in so many ways. For starters, this one is literally surrounded by buildings on all sides except the front, because it is standing in the porch of a big building, so there's even a building above it. Then, the name of it is full of grandeur. The "Daiichii" (read: Dai-Ichi-I) is a prefix found in many shrines, and "Daimyoujin" is something that sometimes replaces the more common "Jinja" in the Shrine names, ironically mostly for small and tiny shrines such as this one.
 

23 ~ Yukihisa Inari Jinja

 

Japanese Name:  幸久稲荷神社
English Reading: Yukihisa Inari Jinja?
English Translation: Long Time Fortune Inari Shrine
Size: Small
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 2
First Visit: 18-Mar-2018
Location: Tokyo-Minato
Address: 4 Chome-6-20 Shiba, Minato-ku, Tōkyō-to 105-0014

A small Inari shrine on an empty lot of land next to an unusual garage. That garage is not for a car, but rather for the "divine palanquin" of the nearby Miho Jinja (御穂神社"Honorable Ear Shrine"). These portable shrines are often carried through the streets during Matsuri (祭り "Festival"). In between, they are sometimes stored visibly in houses on the shrine grounds, and sometimes in humble garages like this one. Anyway, back to the fox shrine at paw. This one features two little foxes inside if you look closely. I think it's also permissible to open the outer doors of small shrines like this in order to make offerings, but I'd recommend asking a local first, just to be sure.

22 ~ Fukutoku Inari

 

Japanese Name:  福徳稲荷
English Reading: Fukutoku Inari
English Translation: Happiness and Prosperity Inari
Size: Side Shrine
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 2
First Visit: 18-Mar-2018
Location: Tokyo-Minato
Address: 2 Chome-13-9 Mita, Minato-ku, Tōkyō-to 108-0073

The second foxy side shrine of Mita Kasuga Jinja, which I suppose makes that the first Shrine to feature more than one side shrine with foxes. It should not be the last, however. This one has a pair of less common, but still mass-produced fox statues. Those are made of stone and are thus both heavier and more expensive than their porcelain counterparts. The right of the foxes holds a Hoshi-no-Tama (星の玉 "Star Ball"), which is something that foxes are often depicted with. I have no idea what the square symbol is that the left fox is holding, though.
 

21 ~ Akabane Inari

Japanese Name:  赤羽稲荷
English Reading: Akabane Inari
English Translation: Red Feathers Inari
Size: Side Shrine
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 5
First Visit: 18-Mar-2018
Location: Tokyo-Minato
Address: 2 Chome-13-9 Mita, Minato-ku, Tōkyō-to 108-0073

One of the two foxy side shrines of Mita Kasuga Jinja (三田春日神社 "Three Fields Spring Day Shrine"). Normally, these fox shrines always feature an even number of foxes, unless one of them is a mother with a kit. This one is an exception, in that it has one extra fox on the right side. By the way, the Japanese name for Side Shrines is Massha (末社 "Close Shrine").

20 ~ Toyokawa Inari Jinja

Japanese Name: 豊川稲荷神社
English Reading: Toyokawa Inari Jinja
English Translation: Bountiful River Inari Shrine
Size: Tiny
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 9
First Visit: 18-Mar-2018
Location: Tokyo-Minato
Coordinates: 35.6438928,139.7401347

After crossing over Rainbow Bridge, it takes me some time until I clear the rather Shrine-free reclaimed land of Minato-Ku (港区 "Harbor Ward"). After I do, I run into this little fox shrine at the end of a driveway, the foxes at which have clearly seen better days. So I leave a generous donation. Note that this is another Toyokawa branch shrine. Also note that this one has a vixen with kit on the left, bringing the vixen side count to 1:5.

19 ~ Aqua City Odaiba Jinja

 

Japanese Name: アクアシティお台場神社
English Reading: Aqua City Odaiba Jinja
English Translation: Aqua City Pedestal Place Shrine
Size: Tiny
Deity: Amaterasu?
Fox Count: 3
First Visit: 18-Mar-2018
Location: Tokyo-Koto
Coordinates: 35.6279686,139.7737794

This is an unusual shrine. Wanna buy something?

By this time, I had adopted the practice of googling Shrines in advance and then go looking for them. Yet despite having marked this one down on my map, it should take me quite some time to find it. The reason for this is simple: Unlike all the Shrines I visited before, this one is not by the roadside, but on the rooftop of the Odaiba Aqua City shopping mall. You get there by escalator, and pass through a Torii before going up the final escalator. This is actually kinda cool and nicely depicts how well-integrated Japanese religion is with its modern society.

If I read the plaque next to the shrine correctly, this one is dedicated to Amaterasu, the sun goddess, which makes this the first fox shrine that is definitely probably not an Inari Shrine. Also, we have another vixen to the right (again, the pictures above are left-right swapped for better visual effect), bringing the the vixen side count to 0:5. I see a certain trend emerging here.

18 ~ Akagi Shusse Inari Jinja

 

Japanese Name: 赤城出世稲荷神社
English Reading: Akagi Shusse Inari Jinja
English Translation: Red Castle Success-in-Life Inari Shrine
Size: Side Shrine
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 3
First Visit: 14-Mar-2018
Location: Tokyo-Shinjuku
Coordinates: 35.7050243,139.7359534

A side shrine of the big Akagi Jinja, not far from the Kagurazaka Station (神楽坂駅 "Dance-for-the -Gods Hill Station") in Shinuku, and the final fox shrine I should find on my stray today. Apparently, I was so taken by the foxes here that I completely forgot to take a picture of the shrine itself. But I assure you it's there. They don't have fox statues standing around without them being at least loosely associated with a shrine (or rarely a temple) in Japan. Apparently that's a rule.

This one has a vixen nursing her kit on the right side, which brings the vixen side count to 0:4.
 

17 ~ Ryuumonji Inari Jinja

Japanese Name: 龍門寺稲荷神社
English Reading: Ryuumonji Inari Jinja
English Translation: Dragon Gate Temple Inari Shrine
Size: Side Shrine
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 2
First Visit: 14-Mar-2018
Location: Tokyo-Shinjuku
Coordinates: 35.7025631,139.7361398

A tiny side shrine of a Buddhist temple. Westerners might find it strange to find a Shinto shrine at a Buddhist temple, but here in Japan, this is actually quite normal. Religions are not seen as exclusively over here, and particularly Shintoism and Buddhism, being the two traditional religions of Japan, have long since co-existed and augmented one another. 

Specifically, Shintoism generally deals more with affairs of this world, while Buddhism is more about spiritual affairs and the next world. One good example of this is that weddings are traditionally held at Shinto shrines while funerals are held at Buddhist temples. 

Also, with Shintoism being the older and more traditional of the two religions, many Buddhist temples were founded at the site of Shinto shrines, but instead of replacing the Shinto shrines, the Buddhist temples have kept and maintained them as part of their grounds, which is why many Buddhist temples today feature one or multiple smaller Shinto shrines as part of their grounds.

Finally, take note that once again this Shrine has no official name plaque. In Google it is referred again simply as Inari Jinja, and since we just had one of those I added the name of the temple as a qualifier.

16 ~ Inari Jinja

 

Japanese Name: 稲荷神社
English Reading: Inari Jinja
English Translation: Inari Shrine
Size: Tiny
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 2
First Visit: 14-Mar-2018
Location: Tokyo-Shinjuku
Coordinates: 35.7038659,139.7421011

A nameless Inari Shrine next to a motorbike parking lot. Placed under a sheltering roof, this tiny shrine features a pair of black stone foxes. Technically, I don't even know for sure that it's called "Inari Jinja" or is an Inari Shrine, since this shrine does not feature a name plaque whatsoever, but the foxes are always a strong indicator for that. Also, it is called like that on Google, which I assume means that it is known by the locals as such.

15 ~ Kiryu Inari Jinja

 

Japanese Name: 桐生稲荷神社
English Reading: Kiryu Inari Jinja
English Translation: Paulownia Life Inari Shrine
Size: Tiny
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 2
First Visit: 14-Mar-2018
Location: Tokyo-Chiyoda
Address: 2 Chome-3-7 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, Tōkyō-to 102-0071

With the final exam of my Japanese course coming up, I've been pretty busy these last few weeks. Immediately after the exam is over, however, I embark on a stray on which I should find a number of new fox shrines. 

This one is the first of them, and it features the biggest of the "standard" fox statues that I've ever seen. Those white fox statues with gold accents sitting on an orange dais are the most common ones in Japan by a wide margin, and you can actually purchase them in many larger Inari shrines to offer them to whichever Shrine you want. This is typically done if you have a particularly important prayer to make, or maybe to express gratitude for something good that happened.

Anyway, those standard fox statues always come in pairs (you literally can't just buy one) and in many different sizes. However, the typical sizes are small enough that you can either carry both in one hand, or one in each hand. These two here are clearly the XXL-variant, requiring both hands and a bit of effort to lift just one (but since they're made of hollow porcelain, it should still be manageable, as opposed to the more varied solid stone statues found as gatekeepers on other Shrines). And normally the white standard foxes also don't serve as gatekeepers, but are placed right in the center of the Shrine. Worshipers typically place them on the steps of a Shrine as offerings, and the caretakers of the Shrine will then arrange them neatly.

14 ~ Fushimi Sanpou Inari Jinja

 

Japanese Name: 伏見三寳稲荷神社
English Reading: Fushimi Sanpou Inari Jinja
English Translation: Prostrated Hopes Three Treasures Inari Shrine
Size: Small
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 2
First Visit: 2-Mar-2018
Location: Tokyo-Minato
Coordinates: 35.6542572,139.7452799

The sole fox shrine that I should visit on my first stray in March. Like the Toyokawa Inari shrine earlier, this one is a branch shrine of a much, much larger shrine that I should yet visit in many month's time, so you can look forward to seeing quite a few more fox shrines named Fushimi along the way there. Also, in case you were wondering who maintains these shrines, apparently guys like this do. In fact, according to Google, the Shrine looks quite a bit different by now. It still features the two elegant and slender foxes, though.

13 ~ Touyou Hanshusse Inari Jinja

 

Japanese Name: 東陽繁出世稲荷神社 
English Reading: Touyou Hanshusse Inari Jinja
English Translation: Eastern Sunshine Luxuriant Success in Life Inari Shrine
Size: Tiny
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 3
First Visit: 25-Feb-2018
Location: Tokyo-Koto
Address: 3 Chome-9-10 Tōyō, Kōtō-ku, Tōkyō-to 135-0016

A tiny Inari shrine that I randomly ran in on my way back from a coin laundry near the dormitory I stayed in during my first few weeks in Japan. You might already have noticed that there's a lot of small and tiny shrines around, and that's just plasmic with me. Since that means the effort to build a shrine is low, that means that they can be found all over the place. And since this part of Tokyo is only medium-densely populated, this shrine is not sandwiched between skyscrapers, but rather between normal-sized residential buildings. Also, the name of this shrine is a bit complex, and there isn't an explanatory plaque, so both the reading and translation are my best guess attempt.

12 ~ Goshuku Inari Jinja

 

Japanese Name: 御宿稲荷神社
English Reading: Goshuku Inari Jinja
English Translation: Honorable Dwelling Inari Shrine
Size: Small
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 3
First Visit: 24-Feb-2018
Location: Tokyo-Chiyoda
Coordinates: 35.6899414,139.766469

The last fox shrine that I should find on this day. By now, I have strayed far enough south that I crossed over into the Chiyoda district of Tokyo. Like the other downtown-shrines before this one, too, is sandwiched on three sides by tall buildings. This one features another fox with a kit, which I am reasonably sure identifies it as a vixen. I take this from other shrines that I should visit later, which should visibly identify the other fox of the pair as a male. Incidentally, up to this point, all the shrines that featured a vixen explicitly identified as such had the vixen on the right side (I switched the sides of the foxes on the compound picture above to make it visually more appealing, with the foxes both facing inwards). However, this should not be the case for all shrines. But just our of curiosity, I'll start keeping track of the vixen-side count from now on. For all shrines up to this one, the vixen side count is now 0:3.

11 ~ Yanagi Inari Jinja

 

Japanese Name: 家内喜稲荷神社
English Reading: Yanagi Inari Jinja
English Translation: Willow Inari Shrine
Size: Tiny
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 2
First Visit: 24-Feb-2018
Location: Tokyo-Chuuou
Coordinates: 35.6897473,139.772227

Another tiny urban Inari Shrine sandwiched on three sides by tall buildings. The red scarfs worn by the foxes are signs of good luck, by the way. Or more precisely, it is popular belief that giving such a scarf or bib to a fox statue is supposed to bring good luck. Scarfs like these are actually quite rare, by the way. Bibs are seen much more commonly. As for the color, red and white are considered lucky colors in Japan, so with the foxes being white, that nicely completes that equation.

10 ~ Toyokawa Inari

Japanese Name: 豊川稲荷
English Reading: Toyokawa Inari
English Translation: Bountiful River Inari
Size: Small
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 2
First Visit: 24-Feb-2018
Location: Tokyo-Chuuou
Coordinates: 35.6908645,139.7726817

This Shrine is special and meaningful, though at the time when I visited it, I had no idea. For starters, it does not have the typical "Jinja" (神社 "Shrine") in its name that all Shrines up until now featured, and there's a reason for that too. However, I should not actually realize as much until by sheer happenstance (or maybe Inari's guiding hand) I came across the actual Toyokawa Inari almost a full year later. I'll tell you more about it when I get to that. And until then, let it just be said that this is a small "Branch Shrine" of a Shrine that is much, much bigger.

9 ~ Ryousha Inari Jinja

 

Japanese Name: 両社稲荷神社
English Reading: Ryousha Inari Jinja
English Translation: Both Companies Inari Shrine
Size: Tiny
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 4
First Visit: 24-Feb-2018
Location: Tokyo-Chuuou
Coordinates: 35.6903455,139.7734732

With both work and Japanese lessons keeping me busy around this time, it was over a week before I could go out and search for shrines again. When I did, the first fox shrine I came across was this tiny shrine standing between two tall buildings in the heart of Tokyo. I wonder if these two buildings contain (or contained) the two companies after which it is named. There's a plaque nearby explaining its history, but even today my Japanese is still not good enough that I could translate it in a timely fashion. But if you Japanese is better than mine, then here's a link to a high-res image of the plaque.

8 ~ Takao Inari Jinja

 

Japanese Name: 高尾稲荷神社
English Reading: Takao Inari Jinja
English Translation: Hightail Inari Shrine
Size: Small
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 4
First Visit: 17-Feb-2018
Location: Tokyo-Chuuou
Address: 〒103-0015 Tōkyō-to, Chūō-ku, Nihonbashihakozakichō, 10−7, 103 0015

A small shrine next to a small building, at least that's what it used to be back when I found it in 2018. If Google is to be believed, the small building has since been replaced by a block of flats. However the Shrine appears to be still there, only it has been modernized. I suppose that only goes to show how much the Japanese people still respect Shinto faith even today. Here's what it apparently looks like nowadays:

7 ~ Shusse Inari jinja

Japanese Name: 出世稲荷神社
English Reading: Shusse Inari Jinja
English Translation: Success in Life Inari Shrine
Size: Small
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 6
First Visit: 17-Feb-2018
Location: Tokyo-Koto
Address: 2 Chome-26-7 Eitai, Koto City, Tokyo 135-0034

 

 

A small Inari shrine standing sandwiched between two buildings on a little side road not far away from the old waterfront. Two foxes stand watch outside, and four more are sitting safely inside. Interestingly, the two outer foxes are caged, which is something that I have seen mostly in Tokyo. I'm reasonably certain this is to protect the fox statues from something, but is it birds, or is it humans?
 

6 ~ Hanei Inari Jinja

 

Japanese Name: 繁榮稲荷神社
English Reading: Hanei Inari Jinja
English Translation: Luxuriant Prosperity Inari Shrine
Size: Medium
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 2
First Visit: 17-Feb-2018
Location: Tokyo-Koto
Address: 2 Chome-18-12 Kiba, Koto City, Tokyo 135-0042

The first of three Inari Shrines I should visit on a stray from Koto (where my dorm was located) to central Tokyo. This one is located almost directly beneath one of Tokyo's highways, towering 3-5 stories above ground. This is also where I took the following vulpine selfie with one of the shrine guardians.

5 ~ Oomatsu Inari Jinja

 

Japanese Name: 大松稲荷神社
English Reading: Oomatsu Inari Jinja
English Translation: Great Pine Inari Shrine
Size: Small
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 2
First Visit: 14-Feb-2018
Location: Tokyo-Minato
Address: 5 Chome-1-7 Minamiaoyama, Minato, Tokyo 107-0062

Another small Inari Shrine in the neighborhood of Aoyama that I found following the aforementioned job interview. This one displays another common feature of many Shinto shrines: The stone fence engraved with Kanji. And although I am not 100% certain,  think that the Kanji engraved on the fence are the names of the ones who donated to help finance the fence. At least the Kanji on the fences all read like names to me. By the way, that would also explain why the fences on different shrines have different spacing in between the pillars, with some so close that there's barely any gaps in between: More people donating means more posts and thus less gaps.