Fushimi Inari Shrine [Kyoto Pt. 3] (Travels in Japan Pt. 22)

A girl working at a bar recommended that I go to this shrine, and I was very pleased with the results. I hope you will be as well. Enjoy!

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VIDEO GAME (When Imaginary)

Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社, Fushimi Inari Taisha) is an important Shinto shrine in southern Kyoto. It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of trails behind its main buildings. The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari, which stands at 233 meters and belongs to the shrine grounds.

Fushimi Inari is the most important of several thousands of shrines dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. Foxes are thought to be Inari’s messengers, resulting in many fox statues across the shrine grounds. Fushimi Inari Shrine has ancient origins, predating the capital’s move to Kyoto in 794.

Kyoto (京都 Kyōto, /kiˈoʊtoʊ/;[4] Japanese: [kʲoːꜜto] (About this soundlisten)), officially Kyoto City (京都市 Kyōto-shi, Japanese: [kʲoːtoꜜɕi] (About this soundlisten)), is the capital of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. As of 2018, the city has a population of 1.47 million.

In 794, Kyoto (then known as Heian-kyō) was chosen as the new seat of Japan’s imperial court. The Emperors of Japan would rule from Kyoto in the following eleven centuries until 1869, when the court relocated to Tokyo. The city was devastated during the Ōnin War in the 15th century and went into an extended period of decline, but gradually revived under the Tokugawa shogunate (1600–1868) and flourished as a major city in Japan. The modern municipality of Kyoto was established in 1889. The city was spared from large-scale destruction during World War II and as a result, its prewar cultural heritage has mostly been preserved.

Kyoto is considered the cultural capital of Japan and a major tourist destination. It is home to numerous Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, palaces and gardens, many of which are listed collectively by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Prominent landmarks include the Kyoto Imperial Palace, Kiyomizu-dera, Kinkaku-ji, Ginkaku-ji and the Katsura Imperial Villa. Kyoto is also a center of higher learning, with Kyoto University being an institution of international renown.

In Japanese, Kyoto was previously called Kyō (京), Miyako (都), or Kyō no Miyako (京の都). In the 11th century, the city was renamed “Kyōto” (京都, “capital city”), from the Middle Chinese kiang-tuo (cf. Mandarin jīngdū).[5] After the city of Edo was renamed “Tōkyō” (東京, meaning “Eastern Capital”) in 1868 and the seat of the Emperor was moved there, Kyoto was for a short time known as “Saikyō” (西京, meaning “Western Capital”). Kyoto is also sometimes called the thousand-year capital (千年の都).

The National Diet never officially passed any law designating a capital.[6] Foreign spellings for the city’s name have included Kioto, Miaco and Meaco, utilised mainly by Dutch cartographers. Another term commonly used to refer to the city in the pre-modern period was Keishi (京師), meaning “urba” or “capital”.[7]

Ample archaeological evidence suggests human settlement in the area of Kyoto began as early as the Paleolithic period,[8] although not much published material is retained about human activity in the region before the 6th century, around which time the Shimogamo Shrine is believed to have been established.

Heian-kyō
Main article: Heian-kyō
During the 8th century, when powerful Buddhist clergy became involved in the affairs of the Imperial government, Emperor Kanmu chose to relocate the capital in order to distance it from the clerical establishment in Nara. His last choice for the site was the village of Uda, in the Kadono district of Yamashiro Province.[9]

The new city, Heian-kyō (平安京, “tranquility and peace capital”), a scaled replica of the then Chinese Tang dynasty capital Chang’an,[10] became the seat of Japan’s imperial court in 794, beginning the Heian period of Japanese history. Although military rulers established their governments either in Kyoto (Muromachi shogunate) or in other cities such as Kamakura (Kamakura shogunate) and Edo (Tokugawa shogunate), Kyoto remained Japan’s capital until the transfer of the imperial court to Tokyo in 1869 at the time of the Imperial Restoration.