O-Inari-San

NAME: Inari, Ukanomitama no Kami, O-Inari-San, Kodomo-no-Inari, Uka no Mitama no Kami (August Spirit of Food),

SYMBOLS: Rice, Mountain, Foxes, Fox Statues, Deep Red Temples, Torii (gateways found outside of temples) & hoshu-no-tama, a pear shaped emblem surmounted by flame like symbols.

USUAL IMAGE: As a goddess Inari is often depicted as a woman with long flowing hair carrying two sheaves of rice, or as a long haired woman riding a white fox. At other times Inari is shown as an old man with a long beard.

HOLY DAYS: In the early days of Spring as the rice crop is planted.

PLACE OF WORSHIP: Temples, of which there are many. The most famous one was founded around 700 AD in Kyoto.

RELATIVES: Father (Susanoo, the impetuous storm god?)

SYNODEITIES: Ogetsu-no-hime (Japanese food Goddess), Lakshmi (India), Dewi Sri (Java), Ceres (Roman), Corn Maidens (Lakota), Yumil Kzxob (Mayan.)

DETAILS: Inari is one of the most mysterious deities of the Shinto religion. So I will not presume to even try to explain her. This is just a bit of what I have been able to uncover.

First of all Inari seems at times to be a Goddess at other times a God. However this may be in part to the influence of Buddhism on the ordinal Shinto Goddess.

What ever the case, Inari is a Kami of which there are said to be anywhere from 800 to 8 million. In Shinto all things, including inanimate objects, forces of nature, and grouping of things have a soul. Sort of like the Manito of Native American Indians.

The Kami, that is the `riceness' of life giving rice, was said to start out the year as a mountain kami, in spring she would become a rice paddy field kami and stay as such during the growing season. Following the fall harvest the deity would return once again to the mountain.

All this took place at the same time that the foxes appeared each season. As such the fox became known as the messenger of Inari and no shrine to O-Inari-san ether as a Goddess or a God is found without fox statues.

And yet there are also myths that tell tales of Inari, and sometimes Inari's wife. Others say how he is also the God of swordsmiths and merchants. So to pen things down and say this IS Inari would not be a wise thing for me to try.

Another thing to consider are the tales of the kitsume. These are the legendary shape-shifting Fox Spirits of Japan. While seemingly foxes in their natural form, though with notable for having more than one tail, the kitsume (both female & male) are notorious for taking the forms of beautiful women and playing trick on unwary humans.

However Inari is not a fox, they are just her messengers so the antics of the kitsume cannot be blamed on her, even if they both seem to regard gender as something that does not have to remain set.

It can be said that instead of regarding Inari in the image of a Goddess it is perhaps best to think of her as the Inari temple itself or, as I have also been told, the dish known as sushi (which, by the way is NOT raw fish) a rice ball in a bag of fried tofu.

Inari is in the end a mystifying and complex diety of the power of abundance and food.

Oh... As a last note. It's an interesting coincidence that the Cherokee word inari means `gray fox' Hmmm?