Visit to the Fushimi Inari Shrine and hike all the way to the summit of Mount Inari

22 November 2016

The Fushimi Inari Shrine is one of Kyoto’s popular attraction and is located within the vicinity of the Tofuku-ji Temple. It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates that lined the hiking trail behind the main buildings leading up to the summit of Mount Inari. We had previously visited Fushimi Inari Shrine in June 2016 (see post)  but did not hike all the way to the top. This time we aimed to hike to the top of Mount Inari.

After admiring the autumn leaves and gardens of the Tofuku-ji Temple, we took a walk southwards to Fushimi Inari Shrine.  As we approached the shrine, the area became more touristy with more souvenir, craft and food stores lining the streets.

Beautiful handkerchief on sale in a store near Fushimi Inari Shrine.

Just outside the shrine, there a street with many food vendors hawking local delights. The walk from Tofuku-ji to Fushimi Inari Shrine had taken us about 20 minutes. After sampling some beef skewers and sweets, we went into the shrine.

Rows of street food vendors near Fushimi Inari Shrine.

Although it is autumn, the leaves of the trees at the shrine was still mostly green. Anyway, this shrine is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates that lined the hiking trail behind the main buildings leading up to the summit of Mount Inari and not for the autumn leaves.

A pair of fierce looking foxes or kitsune guarding a torii gate. 

 

Inari is the Shinto god of rice or grain. In Japanese culture, rice or grain translates to wealth and hence Inari can be considered as a Shinto god of wealth. The foxes were supposed to be Inari’s messengers. Hence there were many fox statues across the shrine grounds.

I managed to get a better picture of the kitsune holding a scroll in its mouth compared to my previous visit.

As this was our second visit to this place, we headed straight for the trail leading up Mount Inari, about 233 m high.

We reached the place where we had turned back on our previous visit. The place looked different in the light of the mid day sun.  This was not even the mid-point of the trail.

Along the way to the summit of Mount Inari.

There was a rest area at the Yotsutsuji intersection, roughly half way up the mountain. There were a few paths leading out from here. We took a flight of steps up a path but it led to an area with many tomb stones and we had to U-turn and made our way back down.

View of Kyoto city at the Yotsutsuji intersection.

 

This path led to a dead end. 

Quiet area with tombstones, mini torii gates and foxes. Some nice autumn leaves here.

Two other paths at the Yotsutsuji intersection are the starting point of a circular route to the summit.

The trail snaking its way up Mount Inari.

Up and up till we reached the summit.

After some sweat, we made it to the summit. The hike was not strenuous and took us about one hour to walk up. My only regret was that I was not in the right attire for hiking since the decision to hike up Mount Inari was an impromptu one. There was no views from the summit.

Sign confirming that we had made it to the summit at 233 m above sea level.

A prayer area on a circular mound on the summit.

Walking around the prayer area, we saw many little torii gates.

Row of torii gates without the crowd, on our way down.The individual torii were donated by individuals and companies hoping to remain wealthy and get ahead in business. The gates were painted bright vermilion colour with black kanji lettering on each torii indicating the name of the donating individual or company.

 

We took a different path down Mount Inari and arrived back at the main hall of the Fushimi Inari Shrine at about 2 PM. Overall the hike up to the summit and back down took about 2 hours.

We took a train from the Fushimi Inari Station to the Gion Shijo Station using the private rail operated by Keihan Electric Railway. Our hotel in Kyoto for the next 3 days was the APA Hotel Kyoto Gion Excellent. This hotel is located in the heart of Gion, within walking distance to Gion Shijo Station, and many recommended autumn foliage viewing sites in the Higashiyama District.