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For one example of hundreds, a person having a Fire-nature must not marry one having a Water-nature. Hence the proverbial saying about two who cannot agree 'They are like Fire and Water. 2 Usually an Inari temple. Such things are never done at the great Shinto shrines.
It is more than doubtful whether the popular notions about different classes of foxes, and about the distinction between the fox of Inari and the fox of possession, were ever much more clearly established than they are now, except in the books of old literati.
For example, there stands in a very obscure street of Matsue one of those streets no stranger is likely to enter unless he loses his way a temple called Jigyoba-no-Inari, and also Kodomo-no-Inari, or 'the Children's Inari. It is very small, but very famous; and it has been recently presented with a pair of new stone foxes, very large, which have gilded teeth and a peculiarly playful expression of countenance.
For the possessing fox, by whomsoever sent, usually confesses himself the servant of a certain Inari though sometimes even calling himself the god. As soon as the possessed has been freed from the possessor, he falls down senseless, and remains for a long time prostrate.
It stands in the same court with a temple of Benten, and is more than usually large for a shrine of Inari. You approach it through a succession of torii one behind the other: they are of different heights, diminishing in size as they are placed nearer to the temple, and planted more and more closely in proportion to their smallness.
Inari is often worshipped as a healer; and still more frequently as a deity having power to give wealth. And from being the deity who gives wealth, Inari has also become in some localities the special divinity of the joro class. There is, for example, an Inari temple worth visiting in the neighbourhood of the Yoshiwara at Yokohama.
Wherever there is a spot shadier and pleasanter to look upon than the rest, there may be seen the red portal of a shrine which the simple piety of the country folk has raised to Inari Sama, the patron god of farming, or to some other tutelary deity of the place. At the eastern outlet of the valley a strip of blue sea bounds the horizon; westward are the distant mountains.
Inari the name by which the Fox-God is generally known, signifies 'Load- of-Rice. But the antique name of the Deity is the August-Spirit-of- Food: he is the Uka-no-mi-tama-no-mikoto of the Kojiki. In much more recent times only has he borne the name that indicates his connection with the fox-cult, Miketsu-no-Kami, or the Three-Fox-God.
"That is a little temple," explained her cousin, "for Inari Sama." At the top of the flight of steps Asako distinguished two stone foxes. Their expression was hungry and malign. They reminded her of what? She remembered the little temple outside the Yoshiwara on the day she had gone to see the procession. "Do you say prayers there?" she asked her companion.
Such candle-offerings are always accompanied by secret prayers for good- fortune. But this Inari is worshipped by many besides members of the joro class. The pieces of coloured cloth about the necks of the foxes are also votive offerings.
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