Inari Ōkami, also called Ō-Inari, is the Japanese kami of foxes, fertility, rice, tea, sake, agriculture and industry, and general prosperity and worldly success, and is one of the principal kami of Shinto. The name Inari can be literally translated into “rice-bearer”. 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. 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. 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.” Inari has been depicted both as female and as male. The most popular representations of Inari, according to scholar Karen Ann Smyers, are a young female food megami and an old man carrying grains of rice.
Appearance List Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine foundation (711); Ruijū Kokushi (類聚国史, 892). See 342 Color Paintings Of Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
Sample Read 342 Color Paintings Of Utagawa Kuniyoshi [Internet Archive]
Description Inari Ōkami, also called Ō-Inari, is the Japanese kami of foxes, fertility, rice, tea, sake, agriculture and industry, and general prosperity and worldly success, and is one of the principal kami of Shinto. The name Inari can be literally translated into “rice-bearer”. 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. 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. 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.” Inari has been depicted both as female and as male. The most popular representations of Inari, according to scholar Karen Ann Smyers, are a young female food megami and an old man carrying grains of rice.
