Tuesday 15 April 2008

Day 6 Part 5 - Kamakura (鎌倉) Sasuke Inari Shrine (佐助稲荷神社)

We were making our way back to Kamakura Station when we saw signs pointing to the Sasuke Inari Shrine (佐助稲荷神社), so we decided to follow them.

At first I was a bit disappointed, this building (which is the lower shrine) looks rather disappointing:



I was just about to turn back when I noticed this mysterious path, outlined by a red Torii and lots of red flags:



After climbing it, I reached the upper shrine:



Some information about the shrine:

Inari shrine typically feature little statues of foxes, because the Inari is a God/Goddess (depending on your point of view) of foxes, as well as rice, agriculture, industry and fertility (hmm, a useful deity to worship!).

I was staggered by the amount of moss covered fox statues here, very pretty and photogenic:

Incidentally, the red bibs are often put by worshippers:
















Sake is also a common offering for Inari:



A lot of Inari statues tend to come in pairs, representing one male and one female fox




















One the way back to Kamakura station, we encountered another tunnel:

Kamakura train station:

We saw a corgi waiting for its master nearby:

An interesting clock at the town square:

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