🏮🦊FOXLIGHT🦊🏮
Typically on the first Sunday (or national holiday) after 'doyō ushi-no-hi' (土用丑の日 'midsummer day of the ox'), Fushimi Inari (伏見稲荷大社) celebrates its biggest festival. Over 8000 lanterns are illuminated on the eve of 'Motomiya-sai' (本宮祭).
At its heart Motomiya-sai (本宮祭) celebrates the spread of the Inari faith.
Inari Ōkami (稲荷大神), god of agriculture, industry, prosperity, worldly success, rice, fertility, tea, saké and foxes, is said to have been enshrined in over 100,000 'shrines' across Japan & the world.
In 1194 Emperor Go-Toba (後鳥羽天皇) decreed that Fushimi Inari had the right to 'divide' and re-enshrine the spirit of Inari Ōkami, allowing for new shrines to be created and a hierarchy established.
The god, held in a sacred object, is moved to a new home via paulownia box.
#Inari #FushimiInari #Japan
For Motomiya-sai (本宮祭) it's customary for worshippers to give thanks to Inari Ōkami.
Most of the 8000 lanterns hung for the festival are paid for by parishioners.
All sorts of performances, from dance to drumming, are put on to entertain visitors, so it's a lively affair.
🦊THE FOX FAMILIARS🌾
A Heian period tale tells of how foxes (kitsune '狐') became familiars to the 'rice god'.
📖A wise family of foxes from Funaoka-yama (船岡山 - just north of the palace) visited the shrine around 810 & asked Inari Ōkami if they might become his/her servants🙇♂️
The foxes pleaded that their wisdom could benefit the world, but that in their animal form their time was fleeting.
Inari Ōkami quickly saw their value and made them his/her familiars. The father 'Osusuki' (小薄) served the upper shrine and the mother 'Akomachi' (阿古町) the lower.
The familiars were called 'Tsugegitsune' (告狐 'Announcing Foxes'), a reference to their role as intermediary for the god(s).
It is said the foxes would lead the 'rice god' down from the mountain (on horseback) to the fields in spring, and back again when the harvest was done.
In the reign of Emperor Ichijō (一条天皇 986-1011) a down-on-her-luck lady of the court went on prayer retreat to Fushimi Inari.
When she returned to the palace her career took off, and in thanks she gifted her prestigious courtly rank 'myōbu' (命婦) on Akomachi and the other foxes.
Camellia Tea Ceremony