普通の外にいくつかの著名な品質を持っている、と畏敬の念を起こさせるあるいかなるビーイングは、カミと呼ばれています。
Nearest station
Maita
Yokohama Subway BlueLine
Kanagawa-ken, Yokohama-shi, Minami-ku, Maita-chō 105
神奈川県横浜市南区蒔田町105
西森稲荷神社
Nishimori Inari Jinja
Home page: None
November 30, 2017
I visited the Nishimori Inari Jinja not knowing what to expect as I had done no research on it: if I had had any expectations the reality would have far exceeded them. There is little information available on the web, why this should be so is a mystery to me because in its own quiet, incoherent way it is fascinating. So fascinating in fact that I was moved to poetry (of a sort)
multitudinous kitsune
choate and inchoate
Inari Ōkami
incarnate and idiosyncratic
figurines galore
torii tiny and tall
History
Until Edo times the Nishimori Inari Jinja was known as either Maita Inari or Ōhara Inari and the enshrined deity was Toyouke Ōkami, (another name for Uka-no-mitama-kami (75)) goddess of food and the five grains. During the Edo Period the area where the shrine was located was exempted from taxes. In the Meiji Period it was merged with the nearby Sugiyama Jinja pursuant to the Shrine Merger Order of December 1906. Resistance to the merger from parishioners, however, was strong, particularly
Enshrined Kami:
Main
(Note: numbers in parentheses after kami names
refer to position in How Many Kami table)
Uka-no-mitama-kami (75) 宇迦之御魂神
From Merged Shrines
None
In-ground Shrine Deities:
Ōhara Inari Ōkami 大原稲荷大神
Mikasayama Ōkami 三笠山大神
Tanohara Daikokuten 田ノ原大黒天
Hakkaisan Ōkami 八海山大神
Toyokawa Inari Ōkami 豊川稲荷大神
Sarutahiko Ōkami 猿田彦大神
Osazuke Inari Ōkami お授け稲荷大神
Nishimori Inari Ōkami 西森稲荷大神
Tsuyuki-hime-funadama Ōkami 露木姫船玉大神
Earliest mention of: ?
Annual Festival: ?
after they all experienced a divinely inspired dream telling them that even though it was disappointing that the shrine should be moved away from where it had been for several hundred years and merged out of existence, the divine spirit would nevertheless stay in the area and ensure its tranquillity. Spurred on by this, volunteers from Maita-chō approached the appropriate government authorities and succeeded in receiving a permit to keep Nishimori Inari Jinja where it was, although it remained subordinate to the Sugiyama Jinja. Note that the shrine is now a kenmusha of the Kotohiraōwashi Jinja in Maganechō, Minami-ku. In a further sign of divine grace the shrine emerged unscathed from the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, even though over 80% of the areas around the Ōoka and Nakamura Rivers, between which the shrine is situated, was destroyed. On another occasion the priest of the shrine woke up on hearing the voice of a kitsune emissary from the kami warning him that the shrine on top of the hill was under threat from fire and was able to pre-empt the disaster.
Description
Situated on a small hill 6-7 minutes on foot from Maita Station. On approaching the shrine the first thing the visitor sees is the main hall framed in the vermilion torii, picturesque, but not unusually so. Ascend the stone stairway to the right of the main hall to an jumble of small shrines and kami and kitsune and figurines and carvings. Enjoy the 50 photos below, which if the old adage is correct should be equivalent to 50,000 words.
(Click on images to expand them)
Mikasayama Ōkami 三笠山大神
Hakkaisan Ōkami 八海山大神
Ōhara Inari Ōkami 大原稲荷大神
Nishimori Inari Ōkami 西森稲荷大神
Tanohara Daikokuten 田ノ原大黒天
Tsuyuki-hime-funadama Ōkami 露木姫船玉大神
Toyokawa Inari Ōkami 豊川稲荷大神
Sarutahiko Ōkami 猿田彦大神
Osazuke Inari お授け稲荷大神