Japan Day 5, Part 3: Fushimi-Inari, Mountain of Orange Gates

The shrine complex of Fushimi-Inari was once dedicated to the gods of rice and sake, which is why the fox statue at its base holds the key to a granary in its mouth.

The shrine at the bottom of the small mountain of Inari is the largest of series of shrines, and the fox imagery was interesting.

However, the most striking feature of the hillside is the enormous number of orange gates that line the paths between the shrines.

Two paths diverged in an orange wood, and I chose one at random.

More stone and metal foxes stood at various points along the paths. 

The gods of rice and sake have been altered to be gods of good business, and I suppose that in modern Japan it is unsurprising to see such shrines quite active. 

The five shrines on the mountain have a fair amount of space between them, which makes the sheer number of orange gates impressive. Some were quite old, some newly painted, but they came at fairly regular and close intervals in either case. 

Some of the shrines also had graveyards.

I eventually found myself heading downhill along the loop path.

I was successful at avoiding backtracking, but my path down the mountain soon lost track of the orange gates. I found myself on a plain forested path, which eventually opened up on small farms. It was interesting to see the far less tourist covered part of the mountain, though part of me wished I had simply taken the short route down. Once at the bottom, I had to find a way through narrow crooked alleys that often dead ended in the hillside as I circled back to where I'd left my bicycle.