Just like on Sado (see No Fox Shrines on Sado?), the Islands of Okinawa don't seem to have any fox shrines either. At the very least, I didn't find any. Not only that, but I didn't find a single Inari shrine either. In fact, there aren't that many shrines and temples in the first place, but during my month in Okinawa, I still found 51 in total. None without foxes though.
The reason for that is probably the same as with Sado: Foxes can't swim, and the sea level did not drop low enough during the last ice age for foxes to make it any further south than Kyushu.
That is not to say that there aren't any, but at the very least, the southernmost Inari Shrine I was able to spot on Google maps is on the island of Amami, which is definitely one of the southern islands, but technically doesn't belong to Okinawa. And even if it did, it doesn't look like there are any foxes there either.
The southernmost shrine with confirmed foxes that I was able to locate on Google maps is Hayama Inari Jinja (早馬稲荷神社 "Fast Horse Inari Shrine"), located in the town of Kanoya (鹿屋 "Deer House") at the address 2260 Yokoyamacho, Kanoya, Kagoshima 893-0046, Japan, and the coordinates 31.34900, 130.83247. You can also check it on Google Maps.
If you know of any fox shrine further to the south than this one, please be sure to let me know.
No comments:
Post a Comment