| Inari Okami | |
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Other Names |
Inari Okami, Ō-Inari, Uganomitama no Okami, Ukanomitama no kami, Ukemochi no kami, Wakumusubi no kami, and many more |
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First Appearance |
Japanese Myth |
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Created by |
Japanese Myth |
Origin[]
Inari and their fox spirits help the blacksmith Munechika forge the blade kogitsune-maru (Little Fox) in the late 10th century.
Inari Ōkami, also called Ō-Inari, is the Japanese kami of foxes, fertility, rice, tea and sake, agriculture and industry, and general prosperity and worldly success, and is one of the principal kami of Shinto. In earlier Japan, Inari was also the patron of swordsmiths and merchants.
Alternatingly-represented as male &/or female, Inari is sometimes seen as a collective of three or five individual kami. Inari appears to have been worshipped since the founding of a shrine at Inari Mountain in 711 AD, although some scholars believe that worship started in the late 5th century.
Inari also appears in the form of a snake or dragon, and one folktale has Inari appear to a wicked man in the shape of a monstrous spider as a way of teaching him a lesson.
By the 16th century, Inari had become the patron of blacksmiths and the protector of warriors, and worship of Inari spread across Japan in the Edo period. Inari is a popular figure in both Shinto and Buddhist beliefs in Japan. More than one-third (32,000) of the Shinto shrines in Japan are dedicated to Inari.
Inari's foxes, or Kitsune, are pure white and act as their messengers.
According to myth, Inari, as a megami (female Kami), was said to have come to Japan at the time of its creation amidst a harsh famine that struck the land. "She descended from Heaven riding on a white fox, and in her hand she carried sheaves of cereal or grain. Ine, the word now used for rice, is the name for this cereal. What she carried was not rice but some cereal that grows in swamps. According to legend, in the ancient times Japan was water and swamp land."
The fox, magical gems, scrolls with divine writings, and the wish-fulfilling jewel are prominent symbols of Inari. Other common elements in depictions of Inari, and sometimes of their kitsune, include a sickle, a sheaf or sack of rice, and a sword. Another belonging was their whip—although they were hardly known to use it, it was a powerful weapon that was used to burn people's crops of rice.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
All published appearances of Inari Okami before Januaray 1, 1929 are publci domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
- Ruijū Kokushi