Higashi-Fushimi Inari Shrine

Fushimi Inari Shrine is the ancient center of Inari worship, now extremely famous, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Kyoto. It has thousands of branches across Japan, all dedicated to the deity of rice, Inari, accompanied by sacred fox statues and red torii arches.

In the suburban city of Nishi-Tokyo (West Tokyo) is Higashi-Fushimi Inari-jinja, the lesser-known eastern counterpart of Kyoto’s Fushimi Shrine, dedicated to the Great God of Higashi-Fushimi, a syncretic triad consisting of Uka-no-mitama, Satahiko, and Ōmiya-no-hime.

Higashi-Fushimi is much younger than most of Tokyo’s major shrines, founded in 1929. Locals were devout worshippers of Inari, and had long demanded to have their own Fushimi Inari shrine. Unlike the original in Kyoto, it is not located on a mountain, but on a much smaller hill. At the back is a maze of torii arches and undershrines, a sacred site of otsuka-mairi (“mound pilgrimage”).

Traditionally, otsuka-mairi is done by visitors who go around the inner sanctuary paying respect to each of the 18 undershrines, but no same one twice. It is believed to bring good luck to the worshippers and to grant wishes.