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Inari Ōkami
One of the principal kami of Shinto / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Inari Ōkami (Japanese: 稲荷大神), also called Ō-Inari (大稲荷), is the Japanese kami of foxes, fertility, rice, tea and sake, agriculture and industry, and general prosperity and worldly success,[1] and is one of the principal kami of Shinto. The name Inari can be literally translated into "rice-bearer".[2] In earlier Japan, Inari was also the patron of swordsmiths and merchants. Alternatingly-represented as male and/or female, Inari is sometimes seen as a collective of three or five individual kami. Inari appears to have been worshipped since the founding of a shrine at Inari Mountain in 711 CE, although some scholars believe that worship started in the late 5th century.
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By the 16th century, Inari had become the patron of blacksmiths and the protector of warriors, and worship of Inari spread across Japan in the Edo period. Inari is a popular figure in both Shinto and Buddhist beliefs in Japan. More than one-third (40.000) of the Shinto shrines in Japan are dedicated to Inari.[3][4] Modern corporations, such as cosmetic company Shiseido, continue to revere Inari as a patron kami, with shrines atop their corporate headquarters.[5]
Inari's foxes, or kitsune, are pure white and act as their messengers but it is more likely that in ancient times the fox itself was revered as the kami of rice.[6]
According to myth, Inari, as a megami (female Kami), was said to have come to Japan at the time of its creation amidst a harsh famine that struck the land. "She [Inari] descended from Heaven riding on a white fox, and in her hand she carried sheaves of cereal or grain. Ine, the word now used for rice, is the name for this cereal. What she carried was not rice but some cereal that grows in swamps. According to legend, in the ancient times Japan was water and swamp land."[7]
Foxes running wild in rice-fields might have inspired the idea of Inari as they seemed to inspect the crops. To show their gratitude the farmers offered the fox red rice and fried bean curd to foxes.[6]