fushimi inari taisha

is somewhere i’ve been meaning to visit for the longest time, and i finally went there last weekend! if you’ve watched memoirs of a geisha, it’s the place with all the red tori gates that zhang ziyi (yuck) ran through in the movie. it’s a gorgeous place, and i’ll definitely recommend it to anyone who’s in kyoto.

the main shrine itself is rather normal, and you can see me on the right. haha.

the guardian spirit here seems to be the fox – there were many of them flanking shrines and main entrances.

looking out through the main entrance:

the sky was beautiful that day..

the many many tori gates began from here:

 

it might be a bit disappointing to see that some of the gates arent as brightly painted as the others, but still the sheer number of them there was somewhat awe-inspiring. it’s in a fairly quiet part of town too, so it was peaceful there. i like kyoto a lot when it’s not crowded and full of tourists.

 

if you’re wondering what these gates are for, they’re actually sponsored by companies and perhaps individuals.

 

so one side of the gate has the name of the contributor, and the other side has the date and year. i’m not sure why companies do this, but this occurs in many other shrines too. they dont always contribute tori gates though – there’s one famous shrine in nara where they contribute to erecting stone lanterns.

so the duller gates are those that have been there for a longer time. and i guess they’re there for a certain span of time only, cos there’s this:

empty spaces where tori gates once stood!

the first section wasnt the most impressive. things got really nice when we came to this junction:

there were some children running down through the gates, and they were so cute. it was really nice too, seeing them grow in size

looking back when we emerged:

we came out from that into some sub-shrines. this i think was the next biggest and spacious area. there were many cute fox-shaped wooden tablets on which people are to write their wishes and prayers:

this one was particularly impressive:

there were also some smaller shrines where many small tori gates were stacked. i think these gates are offerings to the deceased.. i suspect they’re ‘private’ shrines cos there were many more of these further on, and we saw quite a few families making offerings:

and you know, there were so so SO many tori gates at this place:

see the two ovals at the lower right corner, that was where we were, and we had the entire mountain left to climb and make a round trip back down!

saw some japanese ladies taking cutesy pics, and we thought to give it a try:

it was amazing, looking down at the rows of tightly placed gates:

the further up we got, the more peaceful it became.. i really liked it

there was also a motorcycle, though we’re not sure how it got there cos we’d passed steps along the way:

 

most of the companies leave their name in kanji form, and it looks pretty when made large and painted on the gates. however, we spotted a gate that spoilt everything with its big, bold katana font:

 

 

after this restful place, was section after section of gates, with a rest-stop marking the end of a section and the beginning of another one. by then, i’d thought that we’ve reached the end, but no…. there was more to go! the final ascent, in fact.

was so tired that i had to take a rest. the rest stop sold really old-school drinks:

at 200yen each, they werent cheap at all. the view of kyoto was beautiful though:

after this rest began the steep ascent. there were two ways up the mountain, and somehow i just veered off to the right, so rightwards we went:

so steep!! and drinks cost more the further up we were:

that’s a full 100yen more than elsewhere! but it’s understandable, cos i cant imagine how anyone transports all those drinks up the steep, stepped slope.

i was too tired to take any pictures when i reached the summit, but on the way down we realised that we were really lucky, because the way down was windy AND steeper too:

now, imagine if we were climbing UP this way.. it would have been awful. while climbing down i felt that there should have been a sign at the rest stop warning people that going left would mean a very steep and long climb.

i thought this was very cute:

and there was a taoist shrine too, the first i’ve seen in japan so far:

so yeah…fushimi inari taisha is a really nice place and a must see. just dont take the JR back if you can, as it’s very expensive! in general, you should never take JR unless you have no choice.. the keihan was way way cheaper!