Snake 1 ~ Iwaya

 

Japanese Name:  岩屋
Romanized Reading: Iwaya
English Translation: Cavern
Size: Small Side Shrine (of Ejima Sugiyama Jinja)
Deity: Inari
Snake Count: Many
First Visit: 12-Apr-2018
Location: Tokyo-Sumida
Address: 1 Chome-8-2 Chitose, Sumida-ku, Tōkyō-to 130-0025

Just next to the previous fox shrine, there's a path leading to a little grotto. Inari's emblem decorates the curtains of the little shrine inside, but instead of foxes, there are a whole bunch of little snake statues around. That is because, like foxes, snakes also eat rodents and thus keep the rice fields free of vermin. As a consequence, the snakes are also holy animals of the rice deity Inari, though you don't see them nearly as often at those shrines as foxes.