Japanese Name: 今益稲荷神社
Romanized Reading: Imamasu Inari Jinja
English Translation: Present Gains Inari Shrine
Size: Small side shrine of Keigo Jinja
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: ~41
First Visit: 25-Oct-2018
Location: Fukuoka-Tenjin
Address: 2 Chome-2-20 Tenjin, Chūō-ku, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka-ken 810-0001
Coordinates: 33.58756,130.40013
Website: https://kegojinja.or.jp/imamasu/
A very foxy side shrine of Keigo Jinja (警固神社 "Watchmen Shrine"), featuring a pair of life-sized stern-looking stone foxes outside to ward off evil and another pair of smiling black foxes further in to welcome visitors, plus another three dozen small-to-tiny ones inside. These are notably not of some standard design, but rather of a make that I haven't seen anywhere else so far. Notably, a few of the foxes also feature black-tipped tails.
Notably, the shrine also holds a legend, the legend of the smiling fox:
Briefly summarized, it is about a tofu salesman who always prayed on the shrine on his rounds. One day, he encountered a shy fox and fed him a piece of Aburaage (Fried Tofu). The fox ade it happily, then smiled, bowed and left. At that time, a samurai who had a shy daughter that never smiled was watching, and wondered if he could also get his daughter to smile like this if he brought her home some of that delicious tofu. And so the rumor spread that the tofu sold by the salesman would put a smile on everyone's face, and the tofu salesmen never had to worry about sales again.
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