Taikodani Inari-jinja Shrine - Kanoashi District

Easy walk upto the top to reach the shrine with hundreds of torii gates showing the way.

Beautiful shrine we visited after new years. There is also a steam train that goes through town. Fun downtown area with cute shopping. I would like to come back here during sakura season.

Loved the hike up. Get water and use the bathroom before you begin the hike!

Beautiful Shinto shirne which is one of the five most important inari shrines in Japan. It takes 10 minutes walking through several red Torii gates (red wood gates) from the bottom of the mountain to a shirne. You can park your car beside a shirne without walking.

One of the best Shrine that I have ever visited. And it is accessable by car, so no need to walk to go there.

The shrine is the highlight of Tsuwano town especially if you know where to find the rear entrance. Taikodani Inari-jinja shrine has a big impact on the town of Tsuwano. One of the roads down into the town has an impressive big red gate as if the hole town is part of the shrine precinct. You can see the shrine from most place in the town overlooking the valley. It was built to protect the castle that no longer stands. The shrine has resulted in the popularity of deep fried tofu skin noodles and the same stuffed with rice, which are likewise named after the fox, inari, that is said to like to eat them. There is a car park directly in front of the shrine allowing visitors to go to pray or purchase omamori talismen after having only climbed a short stair case, but above all, I recommend the rear entrance so that you can go through the "1000" scarlet gates, climbing 263 steps. I think that the red gates symbolise something very important. By going through 1000 of them one may perhaps attain a little more purity at the shrine at the top. The rear entrance, with all the red gates, an be accessed along the river bank near to Yasaka Jinja Shrine which is also marked on Google Maps. Unfortunately there is no car park so the designated driver will have to use the main entrance, or walk, or take a taxi from the station to Yasaka Jinja. Taikodani Inari-jinja shrine itself is very well pretty, if a little gaudy, and the views down onto the town are very pleasant. The shrine sells Hello Kitty, and fox depicting omamori amulets as well as more traditional omamori (good luck charm) variations. The fox is the messenger of the Esoteric Buddhism related god herein enshrined but offerings are often made to the fox. One can purchase the deep friend tofu skin to make as an offering at the shrine for that reason. The fox is associated with esoteric Buddhism and with sex. The fox is sometimes depicted as having a phallic tail. The shrine, and the town of Tsuwano, is 1 hour by car or steam locomotive (March to November) and two and a half hours by road bicycle along route nine from Yamaguchi, through the scenic valley of Choumonkyo and the apple production region of Tokusa. There is, incidentally another famous, and attractive multi-red gated shrine, Moto no Sumi Inari shrine on the coast in the adjacent Yamaguchi prefecture, near the corner of Honshu, and hence perhaps the name of the shrine which means "the base of the corner fox shrine" which is I think a very appropriate name and location for one of these red-gated fox shrines.

It’s no wonder Tsuwano is known as “Little Kyoto!” This Shrine and location are absolutely gorgeous! Well worth the trip, regularly repaired and well maintained. This Inari Shrine is considered one of the top five in Japan!

(visits 1) Parking was free. No English here. This place is not really meant for foreign tourists. It's a shrine more than tourist attraction. I was here for the nearby castle and this is where the parking was. I of course went to check out the shrine. It was beautiful. The view was beautiful. But I felt rather out of place as I realized this very much more a shrine shrine rather than a tourist shrine. I quickly left to go find the castle.