5th day of our Kamakura trip we were exhausted about the biking trip the day before and also the good luck about the weather seemed to run out, because the weather forecast promised rain after midday. Our holiday was during the rainy season, so actually we were plenty of lucky not to have rain during any other day. But there was still one more shrine I wanted to definetly see and due the forecast, I took off early at the morning in order to see that one more shrine before down pour of the rain. (Seriously I don't understand people who can say that they were able to see everything in Kamakura in two days... those people have not seen the real Kamakura ^^)
The thing about shrines (Shinto) and temples (Buddhist) in Japan is, that what comes to the shrines, you basically never pay an entrance fee, but the shrines are also very much less adverstised than temples. Temples take entrance fees and tourists are always well-informed where the temples are (temple locations are always in the free maps, fliers and also travelling books). Coincidence? I don't think so... For example when you watch a basic free map about Kamakura, you can count around 20-30 temples marked in the map, but when it comes to shinto shrines, you can only see about 5 locations. The thing is, there is plenty of more than that five out there.
Sasuke Inari shrine is one of those shrines that are most of the times left out from the free maps and fliers. But I like to think that person who haven't seen Sasuke Inari, can't really say that they have seen the prettiest sightseeings in Kamakura. Sasuke Inari is one of the 30 000 Inari (fox/wolf god of sake and rice) shrines that are scattered around Japan. The main shrine is well known (thousands of red gates) Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto, but also other Inari shrines have the traditon about having the red torii-gate alley. So does Sasuke Inari, though it is very much smaller, about 100 meters long. Shrine it self is build within the forest (and hiking route) which gives it a quite magical atmosphere to begin with. Like the mother shrine, also Sasuke Inari has some new torii gates as well as those older ones where the red paint has already almost faded away. The shrine itself holds a great history, after all Sasuke Inari shrine was founded 1195.
Within small shrine area, every single surrounding of a small shrine statue and available rock is covered with small white fox statues, always placed in pairs. The story goes, that if you place two foxes facing each other at the shrine area and write a pray on a wooden plate, it will come true, whatever you wished for. I like to imagine how at the night time, all the foxes would wake up from the statue forms and dance around the shrine and forest, having a huge bon odori dance party all the night long, feasting the sake and rice that humans who visit the shrine are leaving behind. And then within the night one by one the foxes would carry the prays to the other world to be fulfilled. During the first rays of the morning, they would go back being statues and spend the next day listening people doing their wishes before new night.
I left the shrine just couple of minutes before the rain started, but didn't get wet becouse I decided to try out a small cafe on the same street with the shrine. And for those who pay a visit for Sasuke Inari, I really recommend eating at Lilas, a small restaurant-cafe run by a single elderly Japanese lady. Everyhting is home-made and delicious (best pasta you can have probably in whole Japan) and if you speak some Japanese, you can hear some very intresting stories about her trips to Europe and Japan decades ago.
