Page 190 - WDT INTERACTIVE

Beneath the Vermilion Gates

Story & Photography by Michael Burge

Hiking Through Fushimi Inari’s Torii Gates is an Unforgettable Experience

ne of Japan’s most popular sites is peak and back, but sightseers can go as high they
southern Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Shrine, want and turn around.
Owhich consists of thousands of The effect of passing from gate to gate as
vermilion torii gates ascending Mount Inari. Torii sunlight filters through the bright orange posts is
gates signify an entrance to a Shinto shrine, and dreamlike. Dappled orange light drips through the
the gates at Inari are striking for their size, beauty spans. Periodically along the trail stone foxes in red
and number. The torii gates span two parallel trails garb peer out of small Shinto shrines.
that ascend the wooded mountain, and visitors The foxes, messengers for the rice god Inari,
pass beneath them as they climb. It can take two to often hold objects in their mouths, such as a key
three hours to hike to the top of the 760-foot-high or sheaf of rice. The gates are a rich vermilion color

190 WDT MAGAZINE WINTER 2018