95 GOLDEN ~ Takozousu Inari

 

Japanese Name:  澤蔵司稲荷
Romanized Reading: Takozousu Inari
English Translation: Marsh Storehouse Office Inari
Size: Big
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 9
First Visit: 19-Apr-2018
Location: Tokyo-Bunkyo
Address: 3 Chome-17-12 Koishikawa, Bunkyō-ku, Tōkyō-to 112-0002

The second golden fox place that I should find during my travels, right in the hard of Tokyo's Bunkyo ward, not far from the botanical garden. Much like Anamori Inari Jinja, this one features a "normal" amount of foxes on its main building, but has a considerable amount of foxy side shrines that make it stand out from the other fox places that I encountered thus far. 

One thing that separates this from the other places I've been to before is that this is a Buddhist Temple instead of a Shinto Shrine. You can tell them apart because it does not have a Torii and features a gong instead of the typical round bells at the altar. Also, there's plenty of Buddha statues all around the grounds. And yet, it still worships Inari, features foxes and has many side shrines, thus demonstrating how interwoven the two faiths are in Japan. But the rites performed here are definitely Buddhist. 

Oh, and also please do note that the Swastika is an ancient Buddhist symbol that typically denotes Buddhist temples on Japanese maps, and is in no way related to a certain evil power who appropriated and changed that ancient holy symbol for its own devious purposes.

Unlike Anamori Inari Jinja, a number of those side shrines are not directly adjunct to the main building, but rather behind it in a natural glade area, which makes it easy to forget that you're actually in the heart of one of the biggest metropolises on the planet. So, once again get comfortable, because we're gonna be busy with the many vulpine side shrines of this one for a while.

Incidentally, here one of the foxes to the left features a kit, thus bringing the vixen side count to 5:19. Also, this place is one of the few featuring fox frescoes.

This place also features its own website, so feel free to check it out (it's in Japanese though): https://takuzousuinari.com. 

Maybe more interestingly, the following sub-page features a lot of photos with pictures of the inner section where all the fox side shrines are at the very bottom: https://takuzousuinari.com/kedai/