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A pair of foxes at an Inari shrine. A variant of the komainu theme is the fox, acting as guardian of shrines dedicated to the Inari deity. [7] There are about 30 thousand Inari shrines in Japan, and the entrance of each is guarded by a pair of fox statues. [19]
It appears on glass-like materials. The name was originally applied to the bodyguards of the Emperor of Japan. Statues of Zuijin are now often placed flanking shrine gates, similar to the Niō and Gozu and Mezu. The Zuijin are also associated with Dosojin, protector of crossroads and other boundary areas.
An ujigami (氏神, lit. "clan deity/divinity/spirit") is a guardian kami of a particular place in the Shinto religion of Japan. The ujigami was prayed to for a number of reasons, including protection from sickness, success in endeavors, and good harvests. [1]
The main Inari shrine is the Fushimi Inari-taisha in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, where the path to the shrine is marked by around a thousand torii. [8] Inari shrines typically possess guardian figures in the form of foxes or kitsune. These guardian figures are messengers of Inari but are commonly thought of as the deity itself. [11]
The Ujigami Shrine (宇治上神社, Ujigami-jinja) is a Shinto shrine in the city of Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The shrine was built as a guardian shrine for the nearby Byōdō-in, and is adjacent to the Uji Shrine. In 1994, it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto".
Hachiman (八幡神) is the god of war and the divine protector of Japan and its people. Originally an agricultural deity, he later became the guardian of the Minamoto clan. His symbolic animal and messenger is the dove. Inari Ōkami (稲荷大神) The god or goddess of rice and fertility. Their messengers and symbolic animal are foxes.
Chinjugami (鎮守神, lit. guardian deity) is a kami that is worshipped in order to gain its protections for a specific building or region. In modern times, it is often conflated with ujigami and ubusunagami. [1] A shrine enshrining a chinjugami is called a chinjusha. [2] [3] [4]
Sumiyoshi taisha is also regarded as the ancestor shrine of Hachiman, the god of war, as the shrine enshrines Empress Jingū, who was the mother of Emperor Ōjin, who was deified as Hachiman. Therefore, the shrine is guardian of the Kawachi bloodline of the Minamoto clan. Also, Hachiman is the god of war on land, and the Sumiyoshi gods are the ...