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Nearest station

Anamori-Inari

        Keikyu Airport Line

Tōkyō-to, Ōta-ku,  Haneda  5-2-7

東京都大田区羽田5-2-7

稲荷神社 穴守

  Anamori Inari Jinja 

February 6, 2018

History

The Anamori Jinja was established in circumstances similar to the Namiyoke Inari Jinja.  Around 1804 the local inhabitants were bringing under cultivation as rice paddies land which is now part of Haneda Airport. Their headman was a certain Suzuki Yagoemon (鈴木弥五右衛門). As with Namiyoke Inari, the levees which had been built to keep out the sea were continually being breached. In desperation the villagers built a shrine dedicated to Inari Ōkami on top of the levee, and thereafter there was little wave damage and the rice paddies flourished. This shrine is now known as Anamori Jinja. Anamori literally means “hole protection,” the waves were seen to open holes in the levees, and it seems that during the Edo Period the shrine become popular among local ladies of the night as offering protection against venereal disease.

In 1884 the shrine was as good as destroyed by severe rain storms. Permission to rebuild was quickly obtained and so successful was the rebuilding that in 1886 the name of the shrine was officially changed from Anamori Inari Sha to Anamori Inari Jinja. After this the area flourished and a railway line was built to connect it with central  Tōkyō. The shrine's homepage quotes a now defunct magazine as saying that the railway line was built specifically to transport people to the shrine. Following Japan's defeat in WWII GHQ decided to expand Haneda Airport and in September 1945 decreed that all people living in the areahad to leave within 48 hours. 3,000 people were affected

Enshrined Kami:  

Main

(Note: numbers in parentheses after kami names

refer to position in How Many Kami table)

Toyōuke-hime-no-mikoto    豊宇気毘売尊

 

From Merged Shrines

None

In-ground Shrines:

Hisshō Inari                必勝稲荷

Kaiun Inari                          開運稲荷

Shusse Inari                        出世稲荷

Hanei Inari                          繁栄稲荷

Oku-no-Miya                      奥之宮

Tsukiyama Inari                 築山稲荷

Fukutoku Inari                   福徳稲荷

Saiwai Inari                         幸稲荷

Suehiro Inari                   末廣稲荷

Ontake Jinja                        御獄神社

 

Earliest mention of:  1804

Annual Festival:    

Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku

by this order, as was the shrine, and the latter was temporarily merged into the then Haneda Jinja. Subsequently shrine parishioners were able to donate 700 tsubo of land in what is now the shrine's location and temporary buildings were erected. In 1965 the shrine's current buildings were erected.

Description

Where to start? What better place than the station which bears the shrine’s name, Anamori Inari Station? Turning left out of the station’s only exit takes one into a short stepping street at the end of which is a torii, from where the entrance to the shrine is about 300 meters away.

The most memorable aspect of this shrine for me is the pair of kitsune standing where the koma-inu would usually be in front of the prayer hall.  Weather-beaten, faces very expressive, they look much older than the 54 years they have been standing there since the first Tōkyō Olympics. There are many other kitsune scattered around the nine subordinate Inari Jinja and some of these are very interesting. The Oku-no-Miya is fascinating. Also interesting are the nine Inari Jinja in the grounds, and their appurtenances, including torii tunnels.

This shrine is the core of the Haneda Seven Fuku Inari Jinja, which, as the name suggests, is a group of seven Inari Jina in the Haneda area.

(Click on images to expand them)

Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
Anamori Jinja, Tōkyō, Ōta-ku
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