Toyokawa Inari

Overview

Toyokawa Inari (豊川稲荷, とよかわいなり, Toyokawa Inari) is a Sōtō Zen Buddhist temple in the city of Toyokawa, in eastern Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Its formal temple name is Myōgon-ji (妙厳寺, みょうごんじ, Myōgon-ji). The temple was founded on 3 January 1442, in the second year of the Kakitsu era (嘉吉, かきつ, Kakitsu), during the Muromachi period (1336–1573).

The temple's principal image is the thousand-armed form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, known in Japanese as Senju Kannon (千手観音, せんじゅかんのん, Thousand-Armed Kannon). It is better known, however, for its guardian deity, Toyokawa Dakini Shinten (豊川吒枳尼真天, とよかわだきにしんてん, Toyokawa Dakini Shinten), a syncretic goddess who took on characteristics of Inari (稲荷, いなり, Inari), the Shinto kami of fertility, rice, agriculture, industry and worldly success.

The temple sits at coordinates 34.8245167, 137.3920111, in the district of Toyokawa-chō. It belongs to three pilgrimage circuits: the Mikawa New Shikoku Eighty-Eight Sacred Sites (三河新四国八十八ヶ所霊場), the Tōkai Thirty-Six Fudō Sacred Sites (東海三十六不動尊霊場), and the Tōkai Hundred Kannon (東海百観音).

History

Myōgon-ji was established on 3 January 1442, the second year of Kakitsu, placing its foundation in the middle of the Muromachi period. The Muromachi period takes its name from the Muromachi district of Kyoto, where the Ashikaga shoguns had their seat of government from 1336 to 1573. It was an era of warrior rule, of Zen monasteries patronised by the shogunate, and of a religious culture in which Buddhist institutions and native kami worship were deeply intertwined.

That intertwining is central to Toyokawa Inari's identity. The temple's guardian deity, Toyokawa Dakini Shinten, is a syncretic figure: a goddess of Buddhist origin who absorbed the characteristics of Inari, the Shinto kami associated with fertility, rice, agriculture, industry and worldly success. The result is a Buddhist temple whose most famous deity carries a name and a following more commonly associated with Shinto.

The temple's formal name, Myōgon-ji, belongs to the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism. Sōtō is one of the two major Zen lineages in Japan, alongside Rinzai, and traces its Japanese transmission to the monk Dōgen (道元, どうげん, Dōgen), who brought the tradition from China in the thirteenth century. By the time Myōgon-ji was founded in 1442, Sōtō Zen had established a strong presence across the Japanese countryside, particularly in the eastern provinces where Toyokawa is located.

What Stands There Today

The most immediately striking feature of Toyokawa Inari is a torii gate (鳥居, とりい, torii) at its entrance. A torii is the gate normally associated with Shinto shrines, marking the boundary between ordinary space and sacred ground. Its presence at a Buddhist temple is a relic of the amalgamation of Buddhism and native beliefs that prevailed in Japan before the early modern period, when the two traditions were formally separated by government order.

Despite the torii, the institution is a Buddhist temple and has no overt association with the Shinto religion. The temple's main image remains the thousand-armed Senju Kannon, even as the guardian deity Toyokawa Dakini Shinten draws the larger share of popular attention. The temple is located in Toyokawa-chō, in the city of Toyokawa, Aichi Prefecture, and is registered as part of three separate pilgrimage routes: the Mikawa New Shikoku Eighty-Eight Sacred Sites, the Tōkai Thirty-Six Fudō Sacred Sites, and the Tōkai Hundred Kannon.

The Name in Japanese

The name 豊川稲荷 is read とよかわいなり in kana, and rendered in romaji as Toyokawa Inari. It breaks down into four kanji.

豊 — read とよ (toyo) in this word. It means "abundant," "rich," or "bountiful." It is the same character used in the name Toyotomi Hideyoshi and in the word 豊作 (ほうさく, hōsaku), a bountiful harvest.

川 — read かわ (kawa) in this word. It means "river." When it appears as the second element of a place name, it often shifts in pronunciation; here it follows とよ to form 豊川, Toyokawa, the name of both the city and the river that runs through it.

稲 — read いな (ina) in this word. It means "rice plant," specifically the growing plant in the paddy, as opposed to 米 (こめ, kome), husked rice for eating. It is the first element of 稲荷, Inari.

荷 — read り (ri) in this word, a sound that reflects the Chinese-derived reading に (ni) shifted by the compounding. It means "load," "burden," or "to carry." Together, 稲荷 (いなり, Inari) originally suggested "rice-bearing" or "carrying rice," an etymology that fits Inari's role as a deity of the rice harvest.

The full name therefore reads as "Toyokawa Inari": the Inari of Toyokawa. Note that the temple's formal Buddhist name, Myōgon-ji (妙厳寺), is written with entirely different characters — 妙 (みょう, myō, "wondrous"), 厳 (ごん, gon, "strict" or "solemn"), and 寺 (じ, ji, "temple"). Visitors looking for the site on a map may find it listed under either name.

Visiting and Context

Toyokawa Inari is located in Toyokawa, Aichi Prefecture, in central Honshu on the coast of Mikawa Bay. The city lies east of Nagoya, and the temple's position within the district of Toyokawa-chō places it close to the centre of the modern city that grew up around it.

For students of Japanese, the temple is a useful case study in how Japanese religious vocabulary works. The word 寺 (てら, tera) means a Buddhist temple; 神社 (じんじゃ, jinja) means a Shinto shrine; and 鳥居 (とりい, torii) is the gate that marks a shrine. Toyokawa Inari combines all three categories in a single site: a Buddhist temple with a Shinto-style gate and a guardian deity who is both Buddhist and Shinto in character. The name 稲荷, meanwhile, appears on thousands of small roadside shrines across Japan, usually in the form of 稲荷神社 (いなりじんじゃ, Inari Jinja), where the deity is worshipped as a Shinto kami.

The temple is one of three pilgrimage circuits registered in its name, which means it functions as a stopping point for walkers following those routes. The Mikawa New Shikoku circuit, the Tōkai Thirty-Six Fudō circuit, and the Tōkai Hundred Kannon circuit each connect a network of temples across the region, and Toyokawa Inari's inclusion in all three reflects its standing among the religious sites of eastern Aichi.