---
node: spot_kyoto_fushimi_inari_taisha
type: spot
slug: fushimi_inari_taisha
destination: dest_kyoto
title: "Fushimi Inari-taisha"
lead: "Fushimi Inari is the head shrine of some thirty thousand Inari shrines across Japan, and its paths up Mount Inari pass through thousands of vermilion torii donated by businesses. The full circuit takes two to three hours."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_kyoto_fushimi_inari_taisha.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20100714_Kyoto_Fushimi_Inari_1655.jpg"
image_author: "Jakub Hałun"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## 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.