Cult of Gods

Inari Ōkami

Japanese (Shinto) tradition. See the whole pantheon.

Domains
rice, prosperity, foxes as messengers
Symbols and attributes
Fox; Fushimi Inari Taisha, Kyoto
Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 'Sangoku ken', a 19th-century woodblock print.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 'Sangoku ken', a 19th-century woodblock print.

Key myth

Inari shrines are among the most numerous in Japan, with the head shrine at Fushimi, Kyoto. Inari is not named in the Kojiki; the deity is often identified with Ukanomitama, a food kami, and foxes serve as messengers.

Where sources differ or caution applies. Which kami Inari is varies by shrine: Ukanomitama, Toyouke and others appear in different traditions.

Primary sources

  • Engishiki
  • Fushimi Inari Taisha tradition

All sources for the Japanese (Shinto) pantheon

Place in the family graph

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

IzanagiIzanamiAmaterasu ŌmikamiTsukuyomiSusanooKagutsuchiŌwatatsumiTakemikazuchiAme-no-UzumeŌkuninushiNinigiInari Ōkami

More traditions

Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.NorsePapyrus of Ani, British Museum (New Kingdom), a Book of the Dead.EgyptianA chaos monster and a sun god, drawn by L. Gruner for A. H. Layard's Monuments of Nineveh.MesopotamianVishvarupa Vishnu, Kashmir or Himachal, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection.Hindu

Elsewhere in the world

Deities in other traditions who share a theme with Inari Ōkami: earth, harvest and fertility. This is overlap in one area only.

Norse

Sif

golden hair, grain (by later reading)

Norse

Freyr

peace, fertility, sunshine

Egyptian

Geb

earth

Egyptian

Osiris

afterlife, resurrection, fertility of the flood

Egyptian

Sobek

Nile, fertility, kingship

Mesopotamian

Ninlil

grain, wind (as Enlil's wife)

Compare across cultures