AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Horen Inari Shrine (法蓮稲荷大明神, Horen Inari Dai Myojin) is a small, moss-grown Inari shrine hidden on the wooded hill behind Nara High School, sharing its quiet precinct with the better-known Hitachi Shrine. Reached up a flight of stone steps past a row of vermilion torii, it enshrines Toyouke no Okami, the kami of food, agriculture and livelihood, long honoured by local residents for prosperity, good fortune and protection from fire.↗↗↗
The shrine's charm lies partly in its unusual history: venerated here since antiquity, it was moved to this spot in 1883 when its original hilltop site was declared the imperial tomb of a crown prince of Emperor Shomu, leaving its vermilion torii and stone guardian figures nestled among the trees beside Hitachi's own grounds.↗↗
A Hillside Inari with an Imperial-Tomb Origin
The story behind Horen Inari begins on a different hill. In olden times the Inari deity was worshipped at a place called Okuga-shiba in the Horen area, where stone cairns known locally as the 'Hayato Stone' and the 'Seven Foxes' tied the site closely to fox and Inari beliefs, and a shrine to Inari Dai Myojin grew up there, devoutly revered by the surrounding villagers.
