普通の外にいくつかの著名な品質を持っている、と畏敬の念を起こさせるあるいかなるビーイングは、カミと呼ばれています。
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純子稲荷神社
Tōkyō-to, Chūō-ku, Nihonbashi Kayabacho 3-13-6 東京都中央区茅場町3-13-6
Junko Inari Jinja
Nearest station: Kayabacho Lines: Hibiya (H13), Tozai (T11)
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Enshrined Kami:
Main
Junko Ōkami 純子大神
Others
Sata-hiko-Ōkami 佐田彦大神
Ōmiya-no-me-Kami 大宮能売大神
Tanaka-Ōkami 田中大神
Shino Ōkami 四之大神
Annual Festival: February 11
Divine Favours (御利益 Goriyaku)
Success in scholarship (学業成就, Gakugyo Joju)
Family well-being (家内安全, Kanai Anzen)
Business prosperity (商売繁盛, Shobai Kanjo)
Sound health (無病息災, Mubyo Sokusai)
Good harvests (五穀豊穣, Gokoku Hojo)
Junko is a relatively common first name among Japanese females. As It is the name of one of my charming neighbourhood friends, readers can probably imagine how piqued my interest was when I came across a shrine bearing her name after visiting Shinkawa Oiwa Inari Tamiya Jinja.
Junko Inari Jinja's origins are traced back to the Chiyoda Inari Jinja which was built in the northern grounds of Edo Castle in 1457 when the latter was being built under the guidance of Ota Dokan. Its enshrined deity was Fushimi Inari of the shrine of that name in Kyoto. Just after Tokugawa Ieyasu occupied Edo Castle in 1590 the shrine was moved into the grounds of what is now the Imperial Palace. The year before the formal inauguration of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603 work on extending Edo Castle resulted in the shrine being moved yet again, this time to Chiyoda Village in Toshiman-gun (now Tokiwa-bashi in Nihonbashi). Despite being moved away from the Castle the shrine was still highly regarded as the tutelary kami of the new Shogunate and as a place to pray for the security of Edo.
Almost one century and seven Shoguns later, in 1721, Chiyoda Inari Jinja was once again moved, this time to what is now Kodenmacho 2-chome in Nihonbashi. This was at the suggestion of the eighth Tokugawa Shogun, Yoshimune 吉宗. Later, however, it was moved back to the Edo Castle grounds, and this caused the local shogunate administrator and other people to request that an Inari Jinja be built in what is now Kayabacho. The request was granted, and in 1737 the shrine which became Junko Inari Jinja was built in its current location. The kami of Fushima Inari Jinja in Kyoto was enshrined through the bunrei process.
The name Junko Inari was basically decided by Shosuke Kuki Shikibu 九鬼式部少輔, the town magistrate of what is now Kabutocho and a member of the Kamejima family which controlled the local sake bottle making industry. He was asked by local inhabitants to find a name “capable of passing on a pure spirit to our children and grandchildren” (“純心な精神を子々孫々に伝え遺すにふさわしく”) and selected the first and seventh of these characters 純 (Jun) and 子 (ko) as the name.
The shrine thereafter flourished but it was burnt down in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. It was rebuilt in 1929 but again reduced to ashes in the firebombings of 1945. Reconstruction was not considered as long as the US occupation continued, and it was not until 1973 that the shrine was rebuilt and the kami of Fushimi Inari Taisha again enshrined via the bunrei process.
Note on the Kami: The kami I have listed under “Others” are listed on the shrine’s home page as 御霊神, literally Honourable Spirit God, sometimes translated as miraculous or wonder-working god and are the five main kami of Fushimi Inari Taisha.
