Overview
Inari is the deity of rice and, by extension, of commerce, which is why each gate carries the name and date of the company that paid for it on the back. The shrine dates from 711 and the practice of donating gates began in the Edo period; a small torii costs a few hundred thousand yen and a large one several million. The fox statues along the way are Inari’s messengers, usually holding a key to a granary in their mouths.
Highlights
The famous dense tunnels are in the first fifteen minutes; beyond the Yotsutsuji junction, halfway up, the crowd thins to almost nothing and the shrine becomes a mountain walk. Yotsutsuji itself has the best view back over Kyoto. The shrine is open all night and never closes, so a visit at ten in the evening is possible and completely different.