The Inari Festival (Inari sai) at Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Shrine finished today with the return of its five mikoshi from their ‘otabisho‘, or resting place, where they have been since April 20. (The Shinko Festival held that day is when the mikoshi leave the Fushimi shrine).
The return home is known as the Kanko Festival, which consists of welcoming back the festooned trucks carrying the mikoshi, then transferring the ‘goshintai’ (sacred body of the kami) from the mikoshi and back into their respective shrines. Crowds are milling around during the event, though guards are on hand to keep people out of sacred areas.
The weather had been cloudy shortly before the event began at 4 o’clock, but it soon brightened up into one of those glorious May afternoons when you couldn’t imagine a more sparkling occasion. With the parishioners and shrine personnel decked out in their finest apparel, it was a truly joyous occasion and one that combined pageantry with a sense of tradition and spirituality.
Trucks bearing mikoshi containing the spirit-bodies of the five kami of Fushimi Inari parade around the southern part of Kyoto
The trucks bearing the mikoshi enter through the Fushimi Inari torii and are officially welcomed back
Miko prepare water for purification of those returning
Priests parade into the shrine compound and up to the main building
... followed by miko san, some with a pine hairpiece, and some with aoi (hollyhock) leaves
All under the watchful eye of the guardian fox (kitsune)
A screen is erected to shield the 'spirit-body' (goshintai) from the gaze of onlookers
The goshintai is moved under a protective covering from the mikoshi into the shrine's sanctuary
Now the mikoshi has served its purpose....
... it's time for men in white gloves to dismantle the trappings
... and take down the screen...
... Time too for a final goodbye to the rice guardian, bearing the key to the granary in its mouth
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