Kyoto (Fushimi Inari Taisha 伏見稲荷大社)

Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社) is the head shrine of Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines. "Taisha" means "Big shrine"

I realise the video is quite long - but the journey around the area took hours, and I wanted to help those who have an interest in it see what was there and feel like they have truly visited it. It has HD video footage and HD photographs; meshed to encapsulate the essence of the location.

Since early Japan,Inari was seen as the patron of business - each of the Torii is donated by a Japanese business. First and foremost though, Inari is the god of rice.

Merchants and manufacturers worship Inari for financial success and profit. Donated torii lining footpaths are part of the scenic view.

Now, my rant. I like the word "donated" in that sentence above. "Donated by a Japanese business". Thats slightly innacurate. Donated implies the place is poor and the business gives the gate to them to assist. Its charitable. This is not the case.
It should read "Each Torri is purchased by a Japanese business for a fairly generous and pre-determined sum of money."

Personally, I see many major organised religions to be profiteering rackets and nothing more. The Catholic church for example is one of the wealthiest organisations in the world. Japanese SHinto Buddhism is no different. This "Shrine of business" in itself is innocent enough, however lets bear in mind that the basic idea is that businesses "purchase" gates for a substantial fee. Then you have your name engraved on it and its added to the chain of gates that cover the path. On their website, you can see prayer pricings - smallest being over US $30 dollars, largest being over US $1000. This buys you a piece of wood or a small box with the prayer written on it. At the shrine itself, you can buy a small red gate about the width of a cd case for $5 to place near the shrine itself.

While I do believe in spirituality being an important part of many peoples lives, I frown on organised religions. The very idea that a group of people has decided to turn spirituality into a franchise is proposterous. Spiritual beings such as the God or Gods that you either believe in or are raised to believe in do not require donations, tips or bribes to listen to believers. There is no financial clause to a gods forgiveness. There is no such thing as a spiritual middleman, and the very idea that deities have assigned right-hand men that require your money to pass on your requests is so bizarre that I wonder why people fall for it. I heard that Catholics can pay money to buy some kind of document to be forgiven by the Pope. The shrine in Japan is very old and very cool to visit, but I often get a weird feeling knowing that hopeful businessmen are paying money to this establishment to secure financial security and stability from Buddhist gods. Lets not also forget that Shinto Buddhist priests are celibate, non-smoking, non-drinking priests - from 9am to 5pm. Thats right folks, after 5pm they return home to their wives and families, drink, smoke, do whatever they want. And the homes they return to are very large. They have massive influence locally, they pay no taxes on their incomes or properties and have fortunes in their banks. More power to them - Ive met many and they are very nice as far as wealthy people go, but looking at the homeless in major cities does make me wonder if they truly have the peoples interests at heart.

The shrine was a very interesting place to visit however, if you ignore the hipocracy. I felt the same in Rome. Theres no unemployment benefit or support in Italy, which is why there are many professional theives and pickpockets. And there the chapel stands - rich and powerful, with all the money in the world to help, but doesnt. God needs that money for other things.

Anyway, politcal stances aside, I hope you enjoy the video.

Видео Kyoto (Fushimi Inari Taisha 伏見稲荷大社) канала Will Bloodfarm