Being surrounded by hundreds of foxes is a nightmare for some people but for others it is pure joy. The reality of being amidst all those real foxes at Zao Fox Village in Miyagi prefecture is one that can probably never be topped. Fox mound at Toyokawa Inari Shrine in Aichi prefecture is pretty hard to beat for kitsune (fox) statues and this particular one is packed full of unique looking foxes.

Admittedly, Keihin Fushimi Inari Shrine is somewhere I’d never heard of until late last year when someone commented on one of my previous ‘On The Fox Trail…’ posts on social media asking if I’d heard of this place. I hadn’t and was immediately amazed to discover that it was actually located quite close to Tokyo. In fact, it is only just over the border, and is in a quiet residential neighbourhood just a short walk from Shin Maruko station in Kawasaki City.

Online searches about this place have proved difficult as most of the review sites seem to be full of plonkers who have mistaken it for the far more famous one in Kyoto. Whilst this one is pretty cool and a far cheaper and easier alternative to those who can’t get over to Kyoto, it has to be said that it doesn’t even compare to the main Fushimi Inari Shrine. Thankfully, for those who can’t read Japanese there are a couple of boards at this shrine displaying information in English about the history of the shrine and so on.

By usual shrine standards, this one actually has a fairly short history as it was only built in 1951 on the back of WWII ending in the hope of bringing back livelihood to the area. There are two entrance points for the shrine and if you take the back one you’ll soon encounter a mound made from the lava of Mount Fuji which in the Edo Period (1603 – 1867) was considered to be lucky. The vivid colours used are very rare for a shrine but this place is a little different as shown by the bright coloured foxes on display.

Here is a 60 second video I filmed at the shrine…

There are 108 of those foxes to mark the number of earthly desires of humans in the Buddhist religion. Colours range from standard yellow to shades of green, pink, grey or white.

Look closely at the fox photos and you’ll notice that all of their poses seem to be different whether they be standing, lying, sitting, crouching, curled up, hiding in a burrow, drinking water and so on.

I actually went here during a break at work on a cover day nearby. The ‘On The Fox Trail…’ contract stipulates that I can only be photographed if I’m in some kind of foxes-related garb so a quick change was necessary, and by chance I had the infamous 1983-85 Leicester City away shirt in my bag!

Click on the links below to read previous ‘On The Fox Trail……’ posts…

Zao Fox Village (Miyagi)   Fushimi-Inari Shrine (Kyoto)   Oji (Tokyo)   Saijo-Inari Shrine (Okayama)   Toyokawa Inari Tokyo Betsuin (Tokyo)   Osaka   Toyokawa Inari (Aichi)   Kasama Inari Shrine (Ibaraki)   Haneda (Tokyo)   Motonosumi Inari Shrine (Yamaguchi)   The Tokyo Fox Global Operations Centre   The Oji Fox Parade (Tokyo)