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Inari Ōkami (Japanese: 稲荷大神), also called Ō-Inari (大稲荷), is the Japanese kami of foxes, fertility, rice, tea, 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]
While some folktales speak of kitsune employing this ability to trick others, as foxes in folklore often do, other stories portray them as faithful guardians, friends, and lovers. Foxes and humans lived close together in ancient Japan ; [ 2 ] [ 3 ] this companionship gave rise to legends about the creatures.
Japanese folklore contains several stories that suggest explanations for the connection, mainly involving Fushimi Inari-taisha on Mount Inari near Kyoto. On this mountain are a vast number of shrines , most of which are devoted to Inari, but some are also devoted to other deities, including a fox deity named Myōbu .
Each fox has a kitsunebi floating close to their face. Kitsune no Gyoretsu(Ōji 2010) Kitsune no Gyoretsu(Ōji 2010) Ōji Inari of Ōji, Kita, Tokyo, is known to be the head of Inari Ōkami, it is also a famous place for kitsunebi. [15] Formerly, the area around Ōji was all a rural zone, and on the roadside there was a big enoki tree.
Inari is a popular deity associated with foxes, rice, household wellbeing, business prosperity, and general prosperity. Inari shrines are typically constructed of white stucco walls with red-lacquered woodwork, and their entrances are marked by vermilion torii. Both Buddhist and Shinto Inari shrines are located throughout Japan.
Stories of Tamamo-no-Mae being a legendary kitsune fox spirit appear during the Muromachi period as otogizōshi (prose narratives), and were also mentioned by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Hyakki Shūi. Edo period folklore then conflated the legend with similar foreign stories about fox spirits corrupting rulers, causing chaos in their territories.
There are also stories of weddings not just between foxes, but also between a human male and a female fox, and as a representative work, which also became a ningyō jōruri, there is the story about the birth of the Heian period onmyoji, Abe no Seimei in Kuzunoha. [24]
Fox spirits and nine-tailed foxes appear frequently in Chinese folklore, literature, and mythology. Depending on the story, the fox spirit's presence may be a good or a bad omen. [2] The motif of nine-tailed foxes from Chinese culture was eventually transmitted and introduced to Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese cultures. [3]