The god of thriving business known all over Japan
Toyokawa Inari is a Soto Sect temple known officially as Toyokawa-kaku Myogon-ji. With the name Inari, the place has been thought of as a shrine which enshrined the fox but what it has actually enshrined is a Buddhist goddess named Dakinishinten who originated from an Indian folk belief. Somehow she became identified with the progress of the ancient Japanese Inari and is now regarded as being the same as the Inari god. Toyokawa Inari was established 600 years ago during the Muromachi Era. Literary people and warriors such as Yoshimoto Imagawa, Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Tadasuke Ooka and Kazan Watanabe have worshiped at the temple. Furthermore in the Edo Era, worship spread throughout the country among the common people as a god of thriving business, household safety and prosperity.
Head for the power spot that is said to raise one’s luck with money
When you come to the honden main building, by all means head over to the back. Once you proceed on the narrow path lined with white flags on either side, you will come face to face with countless numbers of fox statues. Numbering over a thousand, the foxes have various expressions which never grow tiring when seeing them. The area is also well-known for being a power spot to increase one’s wealth. Right by Reika-zuka, you will see a rock where many people gather. In a crevice in the rock, there is a space where visitors have placed coins, and it is said that if a person can take them out effectively by means such as a tree branch, then he will become rich. Those coins are kept as charms and if any profit is made after a year, it is a custom for a multiple amount of that money to be hidden in the crevice in the form of bills.
After visiting Toyokawa Inari, savor some Inari cuisine
Along with Tokyo and Nagoya, Toyokawa City is another place that originated inari sushi. On the sando path toward Toyokawa Inari, there are a number of shops selling the dish. It’s fun to compare tastes among the different shops which produce their own brand of inari sushi. Also, there is a lot of comfort food using aburaage (deep-fried tofu) among which is the popular Okitsune Burger which uses aburaage as the buns. In between the smoky deep-fried thick buns, there is crisp lettuce, crunchy onions and a juicy slab of tonkatsu pork. It is big enough to make for a light snack so it’s perfect to eat while walking.