Romanized Reading: Toyokawa Inari Tokyo Betsuin
English Translation: Bountiful River Inari Tokyo Branch Temple
Size: Big
Deity: Inari
Fox Count: 2 (outside) + several more inside
First Visit: 31-Jan-2019
Location: Tokyo-Minato
Address: 1 Chome-4-7 Motoakasaka, Minato City, Tokyo 107-0051
Coordinates: 35.67644,139.73292
The main temple only has a pair of large bronze fox statues flanking the approach, but there are many, many more scattered all over the shrine grounds, as you will soon see.
This is also where I participated in a ceremony to ask for blessings on my life's work, The Chronicles of Ceal. These ceremonies are open to everyone for a fee, which goes towards supporting the temple. As a result, I got to enter the innermost sanctuary and a Buddhist ceremony. Sadly, recordings were not allowed, but here's an account. Below is a graphic showing the layout which I drew from memory. Also, thanks again for Asa, a local friend I met during my travels, who organized the whole experience for me. On my own, I would have been way too scared to ask.
The area we are entering is completely devoid of anything but a red carpet, so we hesitate for a moment, before I sit down kneeling in front of the left of the two foxes at the front of the segment, and the other supplicants follow suit, spreading around the floor and finding comfortable positions to sit in. As soon as we are all seated, the monk to the right rings the big gong, and as its clear note dissipates, the head monk begins chanting the prayer, and the other monks soon join in. Now, when I say "chant prayer", what probably comes to your mind is a slow and solemn chant, but this one is quite different. Instead, it is a fast-paced and determined chant, more akin to an invocation, which I suppose is exactly what this ceremony is about. It starts getting more intense as the monk to the left begins hitting the drum with fervent passion, producing intense and loud beats that pierce marrow and bone, reverberating all the way into the soul. And then, in an amazing display, the monks begin to flare up their Sutras, throwing the volumes of paper from left to right and back again, exposing the entirety of their texts for the briefest of moments, faster than any eye could follow.
A Sutra, that is a collection of teachings and writings unique to each particular sect and temple. Here in Japan, it traditionally takes the form of a "book" in which the pages are folded in a continuous zig-zag pattern and capped off with a cover page on either end. With sufficient skill – such as the monks clearly demonstrate – it is possible to throw all the pages from one side to the other in a continuous fluid motion, which Asa should later explain to me counts as a full reading of the entire Sutra.
Following the fervent invocation which lasts for at least 15 minutes
(though keeping track of time in this state of spiritual ecstasy is sort
of difficult), the head monk takes the lead and recites the sutra in a
festive and intense parlando, and once he has finished, he proceeds
without pause to address the wishes and request from us the supplicants.
Imploring the goddess Inari, he introduces each of us by name and
residence, followed by the wishes we submitted earlier on.
Interestingly, my entry seems to come as a bit of a surprise for him,
for there is a slight but definitely noticeable pause before he proceeds
to make the humble request on behalf of a little fox by the name of
Kira Resari from Myunhen, Doitsu (ミュンヘン, ドイツ "Munich, Germany").
After all the wishes have been put forth, the monks resume their fervent
chant while we the supplicants are asked by an attendant to follow him
out of the main hall to the left side, only to be led along a corridor
past the third part of the main hall and into the fourth part – the
innermost sanctuary – located in front of the monks, where the innermost
Shrines and altars are located. Here, we silently put forth our prayers
again at each of the Shrines and altars, and since I've yet again run
out of loose change at the Shrines outside, Asa is kind enough to
provide me with a few coins that I can put forth to the gods as a sign
of respect. In fact, she should do so without my asking after noticing
that I had stopped producing coins from my wallet, which I suppose just
goes to show what an integral part of the prayer ceremony the monetary
offering is.
I don't exactly remember how many more foxes were on the inside, but it was quite a bunch in various sizes. There were two that were at least life-sized sitting with the priests, and several more smaller ones at the little shrines in the back (and yes, those definitely looked like shrines, even though they are located in a Buddhist temple - religion is a lot less exclusive in Japan).
