Inari

The Deity of Rice and Fortune

Domain: Rice, Prosperity & Commerce
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Earth
Relics of Power: Key of the Rice Granary

Speak with Inari

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Japanese

Region

Japanese archipelago

Period

c. 500 BC – present

The kami of Shinto have been worshipped in Japan since time immemorial, in thousands of shrines across the archipelago. The imperial family claims direct descent from the sun goddess Amaterasu, and the cult coexists with Buddhism brought from the mainland. Festivals (matsuri) and purification rites keep these beliefs alive to this day.

Matsuri fill the streets with processions of portable shrines (mikoshi), drums, and dances. The great shrine of Ise, dedicated to Amaterasu, is rebuilt every twenty years, and at hatsumode millions visit the shrines at New Year to ask for blessings.

At a glance

Inari (Inari-no-Kami, venerated with the sacred characters 稲荷神 and theologically identified with Ukanomitama-no-Mikoto and Toyouke-hime) is the Shinto kami of rice cultivation, agricultural fertility, commerce, blacksmithing, and general worldly prosperity in Japan. One of the most ubiquitous and multifaceted deities in the Japanese spiritual landscape, Inari is worshipped across various forms: as a venerable elderly man bearing sheaves of ripe golden rice, as a graceful female provider of seeds and fertility, or as an ungendered transcendent principle. The sacred messengers (tsukawashime) of Inari are white spirit foxes (byakko), who flank shrine approaches bearing wish-fulfilling jewels (hōju) and granary keys in their jaws or tails. Historically established in 711 CE by the immigrant Hata clan upon Mount Inari, the head sanctuary Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto serves as the spiritual fountainhead for over thirty thousand affiliated shrines throughout Japan, celebrated worldwide for its winding arcades of thousands of bright vermilion torii gates (Senbon Torii) donated by farmers, craft guilds, and modern corporations in gratitude for bountiful harvests and business prosperity.

8 min read · Reviewed on September 29, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

Kitsune fox, the rice sheaves, the red torii gates and the wish-fulfilling jewel

Family

Parents

Susanoo-no-Mikoto (in classical identification as Ukanomitama in Kojiki)Kamuoichihime (ancestral goddess of market plains)

Siblings

Otoshi-no-Kami (protective deity of the annual harvest)

Inari

Genealogy according to Yamashiro no Kuni Fudoki (fragmento em Shaku Nihongi); Kojiki, Livro 1 (seção 7); Nihon Shoki, Livro 1; Engishiki (Livro 8 e Jinmyocho)

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Kadobe no Omi (comp.) / Michiko Y. Aoki (trans.), Yamashiro no Kuni Fudoki (in Records of Wind and Earth: A Translation of Fudoki). translation: Michiko Yamaguchi Aoki, Association for Asian Studies, Ann Arbor, 1997. read
O no Yasumaro (comp.) / Basil Hall Chamberlain (trans.), The Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters (Book 1, Section 7: Genealogy of Ukanomitama). translation: Basil Hall Chamberlain, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Tokyo, 1919. read
Príncipe Toneri (comp.) / William George Aston (trans.), Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 (Book 1). translation: William George Aston, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., London, 1896. read
Imperial Court of Heian / Donald L. Philippi (trans.), Norito: A Translation of the Ancient Japanese Ritual Prayers (Engishiki, Book 8). translation: Donald L. Philippi, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1990. read

Studies

William George Aston, Shinto: The Way of the Gods. Longmans, Green, and Co., London, 1905. open
Daniel Clarence Holtom, The National Faith of Japan: A Study in Modern Shinto. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London, 1938. open
Carmen Blacker, The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan. George Allen & Unwin, London, 1975. open
Helen Hardacre, Shinto: A History. Oxford University Press, New York, 2017. open

Name and epithets

The divine name Inari (稲荷) is traditionally derived from an ancient contraction of 'ine-nari' (稲生り, the sprouting or growing of rice) or 'ine-o-ou' (稲を負う, carrying rice upon one's back).

In the ancient sources

Yamashiro no Kuni Fudoki (山城国風土記, itsubun), C. 713 CE. Contains the foundation legend of Inari's cult in 711 CE by Hata no Irogu, recounting how an arrow shot into a rice cake caused it to turn into a white swan that fl…

The myths

The Stricken Rice Cake and the Flight of the White Swan. According to the ancient foundation chronicle recorded in the Yamashiro no Kuni Fudoki (preserved within Shaku Nihongi), a wealthy chieftain named Hata no Irogu,…

Worship and archaeology

The worship of Inari constitutes the most widespread and culturally adaptable religious tradition in Japan, seamlessly uniting prehistoric agrarian fertility rites, merchant capitalism, and esoteric magic.

How the god was depicted

Inari iconography embraces multiple classical expressions codified across Japanese religious history. In classical Shinto painting, the deity often appears as Inari Okina: a benevolent, white-bearded elder dressed in si…

What scholars debate

. Within modern religious studies and Japanese historiography (notably the scholarship of Helen Hardacre, Daniel Clarence Holtom, and Carmen Blacker), Inari has been thoroughly studied as a prime example of religious ad…

After antiquity

The imagery of Inari and the magical fox has deeply permeated Japanese literature, performing arts, and global popular media.

Did you know?

Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto boasts over ten thousand vermilion torii gates winding across the mountain paths; each individual gate was purchased and dedicated by a private citizen, local merchant, or multinational ent…

Codex relic

Key of the Rice Granary. A sacred key kept by the kitsune foxes, a symbol of abundance and prosperity.

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