This is also the location of Mitsurugiaya (三剱家 "Three Swords House"), which is the 13th of what I assume are shops and/or resting spots around Inariyama.
Even so, I don't have that many pictures of this cluster. Most of them are from the new year's night, and I don't use a flash when photographing shrines out of respect. So the images are just a teeny tiny bit dark there.
Anyway, this is a pretty small cluster. I think it has only 3 or 4 shrines to it, so it doesn't even have that many foxes. But it's still part of the show.
I'm now also back at the Torii road, which actually goes from the foot of the mountain all the way to the top, and then back another way to a crossroads, forming a noose of sorts. And there's also a store up here that sells these little popup Torii that you can place at your favorite shrine. I can actually watch people doing that right there and then.
Anyway, this is a pretty small fox shrine cluster with not all that many foxes around. By local standards, at least. It still has way more foxes than most other shrines.
I used to think there couldn't be such a thing as too much fox shrines. However, that is clearly not true for my camera's battery, which died only three hours into this fox shrine orgy.
So, what now? I'm barely half around the mountain, and there's surely still thousands of fox shrines to find. I still have my phone, but the battery life of that is also limited. And even if it wasn't, I'm reasonably sure that I don't have enough space for all the pictures I would take on there.
Thus, I shift approaches from here on out. Instead of taking pictures of individual shrines, I instead just take one or a few pictures for each cluster, in the understanding that each of them likely contains dozens of fox shrines.
So, from here on out, our pace is going to accelerate a bit (but we're still gonna stay in Kyoto for the rest of the year).
The 117th vulpine side shrine of Fushimi Inari Taisha, and the third one within the Mitsurugi-no-Taki cluster. As usual, it is watched over by a pair of life-sized stone foxes, with the left one holding a scroll, and the right one holding an orb.
This one is located directly to the right of the previous one, and it looks very old, with moss covering it all over.
The puzzle of its name might be related to that. It's not that I can't make out the first character. It's that no such kanji exists (anymore). It's a 里 with a 亠 on top, kinda like in 裏, but without the lower part. As if it is the missing link between them. If it was 里男, then it would read "Satoo" and mean "Village Man". I consider that to be its most likely name, but I really can't be sure. Have a close-up look here if you like:
The 116th vulpine side shrine of Fushimi Inari Taisha, and the second one within the Mitsurugi-no-Taki cluster. As usual, it is watched over by a pair of life-sized stone foxes, with the left one holding a scroll, and the right one holding an orb.
This shrine is dedicated to Ebisu, god of fishing, and one of the Shijifukujin.
It also has more names. I wasn't able to decipher them, but if you want to try, here you go! You can also click on the very top image to enlarge it, because some of the names are better legible on that one (still can't figure out what Kanji those are supposed to be though...)
Japanese Names: 御劔大神, 三芳大神, 藤芳大神
Romanized Readings: Mitsurugi Ookami, Mitsuyoshi Ookami, Fujiyoshi Ookami
English Translations: Honorable Sword Great Deity, Three Perfumes Great Deity, Wisteria Perfume Great Deity
Size: Tiny
Deity: ?
Fox Count: 2
First Visit: 25-Dec-2018
Location: Kyoto-Fushimi, inside Mitsurugi-no-Taki
Address: 44 Fukakusa Gokurakuji Yamacho, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, 612-0813
Coordinates: 34.9654,135.7877
The 114th vulpine side shrine of Fushimi Inari Taisha, and the ninth and last one within the Happyakuman Ookami cluster. As usual, it is watched over by a pair of life-sized stone foxes. I assume that the left one is holding a scroll, and the right one an orb, but I only have the one picture of this shrine, and I can't see the foxes' heads on it, so I can't be sure.
The 113th vulpine side shrine of Fushimi Inari Taisha, and the eight within the Happyakuman Ookami cluster. As usual, it is watched over by a pair of life-sized stone foxes, with the left one holding a scroll, and the right one holding an orb.
It has two more names, and while this time around I can see the lines engraved into the Iwakura clearly, I still can't figure out which Kanji they belong to. They are the names on the left and right Iwakura respectively. You can click on the image at the top for a close up, if you want to try to decipher them.
The 112th vulpine side shrine of Fushimi Inari Taisha, and the seventh within the Happyakuman Ookami cluster. As usual, it is watched over by a pair of life-sized stone foxes, with the left one holding a scroll, and the right one holding an orb.
The 111th vulpine side shrine of Fushimi Inari Taisha, and the sixth within the Happyakuman Ookami cluster. As usual, it is watched over by a pair of life-sized stone foxes, with the left one holding a scroll, and the right one holding an orb.
The 110th vulpine side shrine of Fushimi Inari Taisha, and the fifth within the Happyakuman Ookami cluster. This one is located directly to the right of the previous one, and is in fact inside of the "outer gate" with the two slender foxes. It has its own pair of life-sized stone foxes, with the left one holding a scroll, and the right one holding an orb.
The 109th vulpine side shrine of Fushimi Inari Taisha, and the fourth within the Happyakuman Ookami cluster. Two pairs of life-sized stone foxes watch over this one, which makes this the first shrine with more than two foxes in a while. The outer pair is more sleek and slender, with almost dragon-like necks, while the inner pair has more normal proportions. In both pairs, the left fox holds a scroll, and the right one holds an orb.
The 108th vulpine side shrine of Fushimi Inari Taisha, and the third within the Happyakuman Ookami cluster. The usual pair of life-sized stone foxes watch over this one, with the left one holding a scroll, and the right one holding an orb.
This one has more names still, but I wasn't able to decipher all of them. However, I am at the very least able to discern one peculiar curiosity: All but one of them start with 白 (Shiro = "White"). If you want to try and decipher them, here's a closeup.
Japanese Name : 玉姫大神 Romanized Reading : Gyokuki Ookami English Translation : Jewel Princess Great Deity Cluster Size : Tiny Deity : ? Fir...
