Walk Through Ten Thousand Vermilion Gates on Mount Inari
You step off the train at Inari Station and the shrine is already in front of you — the tower gate rising at the end of the approach, fox statues flanking the way, and behind it all the wooded slope of Mount Inari. Fushimi Inari-taisha is the head shrine of Inari, the kami of rice and agriculture whom merchants also worship as the patron of business, and it sits at the base of the mountain that shares its name. The grounds belong to the shrine, and the trails up the mountain lead past many smaller shrines. What draws you here is the torii: roughly 10,000 of them across the mountain, each donated by a Japanese business, about 800 of them set in a row to form the Senbon Torii — the tunnel of gates you have seen in photographs and will now walk through yourself. The shrine was formally founded in 711 CE by the Hata clan, an immigrant group from the Korean Peninsula whose expertise in irrigation, sericulture and sake brewing helped Inari grow from a private clan deity into a national protector of the harvest.
Pass Under Gates Inscribed With Donors' Names
The custom of donating a torii began spreading in the Edo period, to have a wish come true or in gratitude for one that did, and successive gates have been added up to the present day. Turn and look at the back of any gate and you will find the donor's name and the date of donation inscribed there. Beyond the main grounds, the path to the inner shrine (okumiya) climbs through the torii, and along the way you pass tens of thousands of rock altars (otsuka) for private worship — personalised Inari set up by citizens, most engraved with individual names. Foxes (kitsune) are Inari's messengers and appear throughout the grounds; look for the key to the rice granary held in their mouths. At the bottom of the hill stand the main gate and the main shrine, its present structure built in 1499; unlike most Shinto shrines, this one keeps an open view of the main object of worship, a mirror. The earliest structures were built on Inariyama in 711, and the shrine was relocated in 816 at the request of the monk Kūkai.
Climb to the Yotsutsuji Intersection and Look Back Over Kyoto
The shrine is open around the clock, with the approach and the main hall illuminated all night, and there is no entrance fee. Come in the evening or early morning and you can have stretches of the torii tunnel in near silence and lamplight; come at New Year and you join several million worshippers, the crowds heaviest in western Japan. The full circuit of the mountain takes about two to three hours, and you can turn back at any point. After a 30- to 45-minute ascent, with the gates gradually thinning, you reach the Yotsutsuji intersection roughly halfway up, where the trail splits into a circular route to the summit. The view over Kyoto from here is the reward most walkers take, and many go no further, since the trails vary little beyond and the gates keep thinning. If you do continue, a souvenir shop and tea stand near the midpoint sells snacks, drinks and ice cream. Allow at least a few hours to walk the tunnel and circle the mountain, and plan your walk for late morning to mid-afternoon with a light lunch along the hike.
Eat Fortune Senbei, Inari Sushi and Kitsune Udon
On the approach to the shrine, sweet shops sell tsujiura senbei, a form of fortune cookie dating at least to the 19th century and believed by some to be the origin of the American fortune cookie. Vendors near the shrine sell inari sushi — fried tofu pouches filled with rice — and kitsune udon, wheat noodle soup with fried tofu. Both feature aburaage, which foxes are said to favour, and a few restaurants along the mountain trail serve the same local dishes when you need a rest between gates.
Step Out from Inari Station and Walk Onward
The shrine is just outside JR Inari Station on the Nara Line, a five-minute ride from Kyoto Station, and a short walk from Fushimi-Inari Station on the Keihan Main Line. From there, Kyoto's eastern sights are an easy onward leg: Kiyomizu-dera, one of the city's World Heritage sites, and the Insho-Domoto museum of fine arts. Closer in, you can seek out Aizen temple (愛染寺), the village shrine 霊光殿天満宮, the textile collection at Orinasu-kan, and FUREAIKAN ART & CRAFTS 日図デザイン博物館.
Set aside an afternoon — or a full evening if you want the gates lit and quiet — and let the mountain set the pace. The shrine never closes, the trail is yours to leave whenever you like, and the first gate is a five-minute train ride from Kyoto Station. Start with the Senbon Torii, climb as far as your legs and your curiosity agree, and let the walk back down be the last thing you do before dinner.