Takayama Inari Shrine

Takayama Inari Shrine (Takayama Inari-jinja) stands in Ushigatamura, Tsugaru City, Aomori Prefecture, on the western Tsugaru Peninsula overlooking the Sea of Japan. The main enshrined deity is Uka-no-Mitama-no-Kami, recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE) as the offspring of Susanoo-no-Mikoto and venerated nationwide as the Inari grain and harvest deity. The shrine is widely recognized for its Senbon Torii promenade descending through the precincts, a landscape derived from the Fushimi Inari devotional pattern diffused across Japan during the Edo period. According to shrine tradition, it was founded as a local Inari shrine in the Edo period to protect maritime trade and agriculture along the Tsugaru coast, and was integrated into the Inari network whose head shrine is Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto. It was designated a village shrine in the Meiji era and continues as a Jinja Honcho registered shrine.