During the Shōgatsu season (new-Year) I visited the Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto! Shōgatsu is an important time of the year for japanese people. As soon as the buddhist temples bells toll for the passing into the new year, thousands of people go to the shrines. Amongst one of the most popular is the Fushimi Inari Taisha as it is Continue reading «Fushimi Inari Taisha During Shōgatsu!»

Yesterday, on the 3rd day of the new year I visited the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto. While there, a shrine maiden performed the Kagura dance accompanied by an ornately painted tsuri-daiko, a Yamagoto and a Yokobue flute. Kagura is the ancient Shinto ritual dance of shamanic origin. The word “kagura” is thought to be a contracted form of kami no Continue reading «Shrine maiden performing a Kagura Dance, at the Fushimi Inara Taisha in Kyoto!»

Fushimi Inari Taisha: (伏見稲荷大社) is the head shrine of Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto. The shrine is said to have 32,000 sub-shrines – bunsha – throughout Japan. We went to Fushimi Inari a day before Setsubun when it was sunny and there weren’t too many people – a perfect day for temple-seeing. There are two ways to get into the Continue reading «Fushimi Inari-taisha in Kyoto, Japan»