STORYWALK
Fushimi Inari, the Mountain of the Senbon Torii
A vermilion tunnel: a queue of 10,000 wishes
Hear each place’s story in English — about a minute per chapter, right where it happened. An iPhone app.
Before you climb the mountain.
There is a mountain where vermilion torii gates stand in rows like a tunnel. Fushimi Inari, in Kyoto. It is probably the most photographed sight in Japan.
But the thousand in Senbon Torii, the Thousand Gates, is not a count. Along the paths of Mount Inari there are some 10,000 gates, and few people notice that every pillar is carved with the name and the date of the person who gave it. This story asks one question: why is this one mountain buried in 10,000 gates?
The Inari deity is said to have settled on this mountain in the year 711. Ever since, it has been an unusual sacred place, because what is worshipped here is not a hall but the mountain itself. At the foot of the mountain you meet a great gate, said to have been raised in 1589, in the Azuchi-Momoyama period, by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the warlord who ruled Japan. Yet Hideyoshi too came here as one more person with something to ask: he prayed for his mother's illness to be healed. Nameless merchants and Hideyoshi stood in the same queue.
The answer is laid out along the way — the inner shrine beyond the gates, Yotsutsuji where travellers looked out over Kyoto, and the summit where a stone is said to tell you the weight of your wish. From the station to the 233-metre summit is about two hours of stone steps. Once you take the first step, this vermilion path should start to look like a queue of 10,000 wishes.
From the station to the summit.
Start at JR Inari Station and walk the chapters in order.
Walk in the order of the numbers. On the day, the app guides you to each next chapter.
5 chapters
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01 ・ 2 min walk from the stationRomon, the Great Gate of Fushimi Inari
Azuchi-Momoyama — even Hideyoshi came here to prayHideyoshi raised this gate in thanks for a prayer for his mother's life.
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02 ・ 5 min walk from the last chapterSenbon Torii, the Thousand Gates
Edo period — a queue of thank-yous for wishes that came trueEvery gate in this vermilion tunnel is somebody's wish that was granted.
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03 ・ 3 min walk from the last chapterOkusha Hohaisho & the Omokaru Stone
711 — the god is the mountain, not a hallWhat you worship here is not the hall, but the mountain rising behind it.
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04 ・ 45 min walk from the last chapterYotsutsuji Crossing
Late Edo — the same view the travelers of the day hadThe tunnel of gates opens without warning, and Kyoto lies at your feet.
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05 ・ 20 min walk from the last chapter
Ichinomine, the Summit & Suehiro Okami
Meiji era — a summit filled with 10,000 prayersAt the very top, no great hall was waiting.
Stand there, and you’ll hear it.
Look up. This gate is three bays wide with a single doorway, and it carries a great hip-and-gable roof of cypress bark. This is among the largest two-storey gates at any shrine in Japan. It was built in 1589 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was then bringing all Japan under his rule — but not as a conqueror. A written plea for his mother's life survives: if the illness of the woman later known as Omandokoro were healed, he would offer ten thousand koku of rice. The wish was granted.
The rest is in the app. Chapter one is free.
People in this story
Time, fees and getting there
- Start
- JR Inari Station, Nara Line (about 5 min from Kyoto Station)
- Time
- About 5km on foot · 2.5 hours (mountain walk)
- Admission
- Free admission
- Getting there
- About 5 min from Kyoto Station on the JR Nara Line to Inari — the approach is right outside the station
SourcesNon-fiction, based on official sources.
Fushimi Inari Taisha (official site, Japanese and English) ／ Kyoto Prefecture Tourism Federation ／ Collaborative Reference Database (National Diet Library) ／ To-ji (official site) ／ Nishimura-tei teahouse ／ JR Central — Souda Kyoto, Ikou
Hear this story where it happened.
iPhone app — coming soon. Chapter one is free.